The term "mid-major" was coined in 1977 by Jack Kvancz, the head coach of men's basketball team at Catholic University of America.
[b] ESPN's Kevin Connors currently defines men's basketball mid-majors as "programs outside the top 7 conferences (Power Five, Big East, AAC) and Gonzaga".
Since the establishment of the Bowl Alliance (and its successors the Bowl Championship Series and College Football Playoff), no mid-major team had ever been selected for the championship game or tournament until the 2021 Cincinnati Bearcats of The American were selected after an unbeaten regular season, becoming the only mid-major team to play in the CFP during its four-team era.
Before the 2023 departure of Cincinnati, Houston, and UCF for the Big 12, The American was widely considered the best football conference that is not in the Power 5.
USF, UCF, Houston, Navy, Cincinnati, SMU, and Memphis, all either current or former American Conference teams, are very successful programs in FBS play.
Initiated by Clark Campbell, the poll has been used to provide attention to teams that were often targeted for elimination ostensibly for Title IX or budgetary reasons.
On the other hand, the NCAA classifies swimming as an "equivalency" sport, meaning that scholarships can be divided among a number of student-athletes.
Following the breakup of the Big East and end of the BCS era, the remaining five are the primary members of the College Football Playoff (CFP) structure that began in the 2014 season.
In every year since the split, the "new" Big East has been ranked a top five basketball conference by leading analysts such as Ken Pomeroy.
In the 2013–14 season, the first after the split, American member UConn won national titles in both men's and women's basketball.
[17] UConn eventually left The American in 2020 to reunite with many of its historic rivals in the current Big East, and has since won men's national championships in 2023 and 2024.
Given the rankings of these two leagues, as well as their prestige, performance, recent post-season results, national perception, exposure, attendance, and many other factors, most observers have trouble considering certain non-CFP conferences as "mid-majors".
Note that some of these conferences, including the Mountain West and the Atlantic 10, may be considered a "high-major" as opposed to a mid-major depending on whom one asks.
Members of these conferences were also generally ineligible for CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament, and remain so for that event's effective successor, The Basketball Classic.
In 2006, Florida State was left out of the tournament field in large part because[citation needed] its out-of-conference schedule was rated #316 out of 333 Division I teams.
However, the relative weakness of the West Coast Conference (WCC) hurts Gonzaga's strength of schedule, which in turn lowers the Bulldogs' Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) (an important numerical criterion in tournament selection).
Gonzaga's challenges were similar to those faced by Nevada-Las Vegas under Jerry Tarkanian, whose Running Rebels dominated a relatively weak Big West Conference (formerly the Pacific Coast Athletic Association) from 1974 to 1992.
Saint Bonaventure University, one of the smallest colleges in Division I, has regularly played games at Blue Cross Arena in Rochester and KeyBank Center in Buffalo.
A number of teams from mid-major conferences had unprecedented success in the non-conference portions of their schedule, and were therefore ranked highly in the RPI throughout the season.
In spite of a new precedent being set by the committee by leaving the highest ranked RPI team ever, #21 Missouri State of the Missouri Valley Conference, out of the tournament field, some mid-majors with strong RPI's received at-large bids over lower-ranked BCS conference teams.
[33] This prompted harsh criticism from sports writers and coaches of BCS conference teams that did not receive bids.
This criticism flew in the face of the fact that the six BCS conferences still received more bids (32) from the committee than in most past years.
In both the 2008 and 2009 NCAA tournaments, mid-major Siena had a strong showing, advancing to the second round with wins over Vanderbilt and Ohio State respectively.
On April 3, they beat Michigan State of the Big Ten Conference to become the second mid-major to reach the national championship game since 1998.
The Virginia Commonwealth University Rams of the Colonial Athletic Association advanced to their first Final Four appearance after winning the Southwest Regional in San Antonio as a #11 seed.
VCU tied LSU in 1986 and fellow CAA team, George Mason, in 2006 as the highest seed to reach the Final Four (#11).
The previous time two mid-majors advanced to the same Final Four was the 1979 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, when Indiana State of the Missouri Valley and Penn of the Ivy League qualified.
VCU has since joined the Atlantic 10, where it has consistently been among the top teams, even following the departure of coach Shaka Smart for Texas in 2015, and his successor, Will Wade, for LSU in 2017.
Mid-major basketball teams also face significant disadvantages when it comes to resources to spend on recruiting, marketing, and operations, including coaches' salaries.
An example of this is Saint Bonaventure, one of the smallest universities in Division I; the Bonnies have been a member of the Atlantic 10 Conference (in which it has been a consistent contender under current coach Mark Schmidt).