Mid Major Top 25 (12/11/23)
Bracket Buster's Mid Major Top 25 week of 12/11/23.
All rankings below are updated as of 12/11/23.
Florida Atlantic and Colorado St. both took some losses this week, but let’s be honest, they are still two of the best teams in the country. Florida Atlantic took a loss to #20 Illinois, while Colorado St. took a loss to Saint Mary’s. Both losses are to very respectable teams and shouldn’t deter them from the fact that their teams are both going to make runs in March.
We probably are going to have Grand Canyon higher on mid-major rankings then others, but after beating Liberty & #25 San Diego State, I don’t know how they are withheld from the AP top 25 much longer. They are now 9-1 with massive wins on their resume. Bryce Drew has something special cooking with the Lopes.
Indiana State is one to watch on this list. The Sycamores continue to roll as they blew out Northern Illinois by 23 and Southern Indiana by 44. The Trees have scored 90+ in 6/10 wins. They are absolutely destroying every opponent they play in recent games. Their success is going to be a massive ticket for the Missouri Valley to secure multiple bids on Selection Sunday.
Drake may have secured the Missouri Valley’s largest win this season in a 19 point victory over Nevada. Tucker DeVries did Tucker DeVries things with 25/7/5 in the game. As mentioned above, the Missouri Valley should absolutely be a multi-bid league this year. Denying a combination of these top MVC teams would be criminal.
Saint Joseph’s just handed the Princeton Tigers their first loss of the season after a 4 point victory on Sunday afternoon. The Hawk’s only loss of the season came from #16 Kentucky and they have now beat Villanova and Princeton. With Iona and Charleston coming up, they’ve got a chance to finish off their non-conference play on fire.
There are probably some surprises on this list that you might not know about. McNeese is one of those schools. The Cowboys are legitimate power threat with TCU transfer Shahada Wells leading the way. Their only two losses came to Western Carolina and Louisiana Tech who is also on the list. They’ve got a chance to be sitting at 11-3 going into conference.
San Francisco is 2-1 in their last three games with wins over Minnesota and Vanderbilt. Now, Vanderbilt is a team that’s also lost to Presbyterian, but still a SEC and Big 10 win are still exceptionally impressive. They’ve also got a game coming up next weekend against an excellent Utah State team. Jonathan Mogbo is a force, posting an average of 15.2/10.3/3.3.
Louisiana Tech is 8-2 with their only losses being to now #13 ranked Colorado St and New Mexico. They’ve knocked off some of the better mid-majors in the country in McNeese, SF Austin, and an underrated Louisiana team.
Vermont is one of the most consistent mid-majors in college basketball every year. They’ve only lost to Liberty, a Bradley team that was undefeated at the time, and Colgate. They’ve beat Charleston, Saint Louis, Dartmouth, and Yale. If they beat Virginia Tech and Toledo in their next two games, their rankings are going to soar in mid-major polls. The Catamounts have four players averaging 10 or more points a game. They are a well rounded team and are so fun to watch.
Our last fun pick is Winthrop. The Eagles are 8-3 with some massive blow-out wins. Their three loses came from Clemson, Georgia by 9, and Drexel by 2. They have five players averaging 10 points or more a game, showing that game in and out they are sharing the ball well and anyone can help lead them to a win. They have three massive games coming up that can really set them apart from other mid-majors against Xavier, South Carolina, and Florida State. Win 2 out of those 3 and they will be put on watchlists.