Mid-Majors! Know Them!!

What exactly is a "mid-major"?

According to Wikipedia, a mid-major is:

"a term used in NCAA Division I college sports, especially men's basketball, to refer to athletic conferences that are not among the major five conferences (the ACC, Big 10, Big 12, Pac-12, and SEC)."

There are 32 conferences in NCAA Division I and over 340 schools. Of these, only 5 conferences and their 65 schools are considered "major." The remaining 27 conferences and their well-over 250 schools are the mid-majors that make up the bulk of Division I.

These mid-majors can't catch a break.

Case in point: my alma mater, the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC). It is a Division I school, formerly a member of the Summit League (which was still called the Mid-Continent Conference when I was a UMKC student from 2001-2003) and now finishing its first year as a member of the Western Athletic Conference (WAC). Not only is UMKC treated by the Kansas City media as at best a sixth fiddle behind the Chiefs, Royals, KU, K-State, MU and recently Sporting KC, they get no love from the average Kansas Citian who, unless they attended UMKC, likely believe that we're a Division II school. So, what's a mid-major alumnus to do? Start a sports podcast (Winning Side Coaches) and do a subseries of segments called "Know Your Mid-Majors."

As of this posting, we've done segments on 12 of the 27 mid-major conferences. We go over the history of the conferences, the schools that make up those conferences, interesting facts about the schools, and some of the schools' famous alumni. Examples of interesting facts we've dug up so far:

• There are seven colleges - all Division I - that have a law school and can claim a US President and a US Supreme Court Justice among its alumni. UMKC is one of them (Harry S. Truman and Charles Evans Whitaker). Others include mid-majors Cincinnati (one guy - William Howard Taft, who was President and later Chief Justice), William & Mary, Harvard, Yale and Columbia. Only one major school - Virginia - is on the list.

• We touched on the Philadelphia Big 5 - all of which are mid-majors - and will touch on Boston's Beanpot - 3 of those 4 schools are mid-majors (the other one is Boston College).

• Murray State University was once home to the National Scouting Museum, which I visited once as a Cub Scout.

• Pepperdine University was named for the school's founder - who made his fortune with Western Auto, which was based in Kansas City in a building that's been repurposed as lofts but the big sign over the building still shines every night.

• If the school's name contains the word "Loyola," it is almost certainly a Jesuit school.

• My favorite NFL team, the St. Louis Rams, were named for the mascot at Fordham University.

• The Southland Conference is home to both my alma mater's historic archrivals (Oral Roberts, who are returning to the Summit League this summer) and my parents' alma mater (Lamar).

• Kansas has 1 mid-major school (Wichita State) while Missouri has 4 (UMKC, Missouri State, St. Louis University and Southeast Missouri State).

• There is a Hilton hotel on the campus of the University of Houston.

• George Washington University is the most expensive college in the nation (according to Mr. Tony) and graduated a lot of famous alumni - too many to name in one podcast.

• Brigham Young University (named, of course, for the Mormon Prophet who brought the Mormons to Utah) also boasts a lot of famous alumni.

• The newest school in Division I (in terms of founding date): Florida Gulf Coast University, founded in 1991. I was starting middle school when that school started!

• Lastly: Duquesne University is (a) located in Pittsburgh, (b) is the alma mater of distant relatives of mine, including an uncle by marriage, and (c) pronounced "doo-CANE."