Mid Major Top 25 Week 19
Bracket Buster's Mid Major Top 25 Week 19 on 03/11/24.
All rankings below are updated as of 03/11/24.
We are officially in the final week of the regular season for college basketball. Most conference tournaments have gotten started, while the remaining will be starting either today or tomorrow. In fact, four teams have already punched their ticket this past weekend to the big dance. If you want to hear more about these teams, check out our latest podcast episode here:
Four Teams Have Punched Tickets, Indiana State At-Large Bid?
Four teams have punched their ticket. Drake knocked off Indiana State, can we see a two-bid Missouri Valley Conference? Ohio Valley Conference - Morehead State Big South - Longwood Atlantic Sun - Stetson Missouri Valley Conference - Drake Listen to our breakdown on our latest podcast episode.
As the regular season winds down, movement decreases in our Mid-Major Top 25 rankings. We saw Drake move up into the Top 10 after securing their second MVC Arch Madness Championship in a row. Utah State moved back up into the #1 spot, as Nevada slides into #2 after peaking at the right time in conference play. South Florida fell back down #12 after taking a loss to Tulsa. Loyola Chicago continues to play well as they climbed up to #18.
Appalachian State had the most disappointing loss of the week as they were eliminated in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament by Arkansas State on a buzzer beat. Unfortunately for Appalachian State, they will not be receiving an at-large bid, but hopefully there is still a chance for the NIT. However, with the NIT rules changing where the conference champions in the regular season no longer get an auto-bid, there is no guarantee.
Looking ahead, the Mountain West and A10 conference tournaments are going to be absolute dog fights this week. The Mountain West just continues to prove why it’s a top four conference this year as now UNLV has climbed towards the top of the rankings in conference. Richmond, Loyola Chicago, and Dayton are all going to be vying for that auto-bid in the A10 Tournament. Dayton has an at-large resume, however, for the other two teams, it’ll probably require a tournament win to make it to the big dance.
The American tournament will also be firing up where Florida Atlantic and Memphis will surely be looking to make up ground as South Florida has to win the whole tournament in order to make the NCAA Tournament.
In progress, McNeese, James Madison, Princeton, Charleston, Vermont, Saint Mary’s, San Francisco, and Samford will all be looking to finish out their conference tournaments as the lone winners.