We now roughly have 20-25% of the season in the books. It’s still a little noisy and some of these mid-majors have padded their records with non D1’s or cupcakes. Still, after Feast Week, there were a lot of games played, and a picture is emerging of what teams stand out across basketball. I think it’s a good time to have our first in-season mid-major top 25 now that we have some actual resumes to judge.
Before we continue, here at The Hoops Resource, we define a mid-major and eligibility in these rankings as anyone, not in a top 10 Major Conference. There have been pretty distinct tiers in recent years developed both in money and average finish.
Power 6: Big 12, SEC, ACC, Big East, Big 10, Pac 12
Major: AAC, WCC, Atlantic 10, MWC
Mid Major: led by CUSA, MVC, CAA, WAC, MAAC, Big West, Sun Belt, SoCon, Horizon, MAC
There is a Low Major tier, but for our purposes, they will be included in these rankings.
Top 25
Nov 27
1
UAB
CUSA
5-1
2
Drake
MVC
6-0
3
North Texas
CUSA
5-1
4
College of Charleston
CAA
6-1
5
Towson
CAA
6-1
6
FAU
CUSA
5-1
7
Furman
SoCon
4-2
8
Kent State
MAC
5-2
9
UCSB
Big West
4-1
10
Samford
Socon
6-1
11
Louisiana
Sun Belt
5-1
12
Byrant
American East
5-1
13
UC Irvine
Big West
6-1
14
Sam Houston St
WAC
6-0
15
Oral Roberts
Summit
3-3
16
Western Kentucky
CUSA
6-1
17
Hofstra
CAA
5-2
18
Toledo
MAC
4-2
19
Liberty
ASun
4-3
20
Iona
MAAC
2-2
21
Grand Canyon
WAC
5-2
22
Indiana State
MVC
6-1
23
Youngstown State
Horizon
5-2
24
Bradley
MVC
4-3
25
Southern Illinois
MVC
4-2
JMU
Sun Belt
6-2
La Tech
CUSA
5-2
Yale
Ivy
6-0
MTSU
CUSA
5-2
Most of these teams appeared in our preseason mid-major rankings and previews.
The only two that didn’t are UC Irvine, and Sam Houston State. These two are a bit of a surprise to us. UC Irvine has beaten Oregon, New Mexico State both teams we thought were top 100 in the preseason. Their only loss is to Pepperdine. Sam Houston State has beaten both Oklahoma and Utah and remains undefeated.
The biggest riser since the preseason rankings is College of Charleston we started at 17th. They have multiple strong wins over Virginia Tech, Richmond, Kent State, Davidson, Colorado State, and Chattanooga, with a competitive loss to UNC being the only blemish. I think they have had the best season of any mid-major so far, but we aren’t totally going to scrap our preseason expectations just yet.