Mid-major conferences

[Charleston Pony]

It certainly appears the WAC will have only one representative in the NCAA Tourney this year, and might be lucky to get one bid into the NIT. Fresno's ineligibility really hurts the WAC.

A local writer here in Charleston, commenting on the plight of the mid-majors, suggested the SoCon (local mid-major conference with App State, C of C, UT-Chatanooga, Davidson, etc...) really needed C of C to win their Tourney and automatic bid...because they had the best chance of actually winning a game in the NCAA Tourney. That opinion was based on the C of C's winning the Great Alaska Shootout by having beaten Wyoming, Okla St & Villanova. His story was about the fact that until a mid-major conference starts winning games in the NCAA Tourney, they are destined to get only one bid.

Tulsa was the odds on favorite to win the WAC this year and was supposed to be a top 25 program. They might be the WAC's best hope for a 1st round win this year, now that Fresno is out. I expect the WAC's representative to have a 11-12-13 seed, so basically will have to beat a top 25 team to get a win. Bottom line is that the WAC really needs a tourney win and also needs another team to win a couple of NIT games in order to gain any credibility. WAC teams have done very little this year in terms of good non-conference wins.