The pressure is on in college basketball. While some discuss whether or not court-storming should continue, it’s make or break for almost all of the mid-major conference teams. To call some of those conferences “mid-major” doesn’t feel right, however. Some conferences are more like “high-major” conferences, others would be better suited as “low-major” conferences.
There is a great disparity in the quality of competition in the mid-major ranks, so it may be time to divvy the conferences up. Through assessing the performance of each conference this season, this is how the major conferences should be divided and ranked: high-major, mid-major, and low-major. This article will cover the “low-major” conferences, the bottom of the food chain.
26. Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC)
This conference is not very good. Southern University is the only one of the twelve teams in the conference not in the bottom 100 of the KenPom rankings. Of the conferences with a Top 25 win, the SWAC suffered the most top 25 losses (16). This conference did produce one of the best feel-good moments of the year: Mississippi Valley State finally winning a game on their senior day. Regardless, the SWAC is the worst mid-major conference right now.
25. Northeast Conference (NEC)
Given Chicago State was able to beat a Top 25 team this season, they might have a good shot at winning the conference next year. That was something nobody in the NEC could do this year. Yes, the NEC had Fairleigh Dickinson shock the world by beating Purdue last year. Since head coach Tobin Anderson left to coach at Iona, Fairleigh Dickinson has sunk to 14-16 and 326th in KenPom. Seven of the nine teams in the NEC are in the bottom 100.
24. Patriot League
Colgate’s reign of terror continues. The Raiders have won five of the last six regular season titles in the Patriot League. One big reason is the competition around them has failed to keep pace. The Patriot League has nine teams in the bottom 100 by KenPom standards, second-worst only to the SWAC. That isn’t to take away from what Colgate’s accomplished, but the Raiders are the only bright spot in an otherwise weak conference.
23. Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC)
Only two of the eight teams in this conference have a winning record. The six other teams are all in the bottom 100. If conference-best Norfolk State wins out, it will be the third time in four seasons they are the only team to lose fewer than ten times. Should they lose at any point, it will mark back-to-back seasons in which the MEAC failed to produce a team with fewer than ten losses. The last time a team not named Norfolk State ended the year with fewer than ten losses? North Carolina Central finished the 2016-17 season at 25-9. The MEAC is not going to be a huge threat any time soon.
22. Ohio Valley Conference (OVC)
Not long ago, this conference was respectable as a mid-major, but it lands as a low-major now. The OVC can thank Belmont and Murray State leaving in 2022 for that. While the Bruins and Racers are hanging tough in the Missouri Valley (stay tuned), the OVC is floundering. Like the NEC, the OVC has seven teams in the bottom 100. Though league-best Morehead State and programs like UT Martin and Little Rock can surprise good teams down the line, the OVC for now is a rebuilding low-major conference.
The next edition will cover the true mid-major conferences, and there are a lot of them. These conferences are not to be taken lightly and can pick off a really good team on a given day.
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