This weekend promises to be historic.
For just the fifth time since UCLA completed its run of dominance in the 1970s, we will have a mid-major program playing for the national championship. And based on the torrid play of VCU and Butler, there’s no reason to think the Rams or Bulldogs can’t knock off Connecticut or Kentucky to claim the first title for a non-power conference team since UNLV demolished Duke in 1990.
For a quick history lesson, here’s a rundown of championship game participants from conferences not named the ACC, Big 12, Big East, Big Ten, Pac-10 or SEC since 1975.
- 1977: Marquette, Independent. Beat North Carolina.
- 1979: Indiana State, Missouri Valley Conference. Lost to Michigan State.
- 1980: Louisville, Metro Conference. Beat UCLA.
- 1983: Houston, Southwest Conference. Lost to North Carolina State.
- 1984: Houston, Southwest Conference. Lost to Georgetown.
- 1986: Louisville, Metro Conference. Beat Duke.
- 1990: UNLV, Big West Conference. Beat Duke.
- 1998: Utah, Western Athletic Conference. Lost to Kentucky.
- 2008: Memphis, Conference USA. Lost to Kansas.
- 2010: Butler, Horizon League. Lost to Duke.
- 2011: ???
Yes, that’s more than five teams. However, some of those teams were part of now-defunct conferences that ran with the big boys during their heyday. Louisville, which no one would confuse with a mid-major program, represented the Metro Conference in 1980 and 1986. That conference evolved into Conference USA, and the Cardinals upgraded to the Big East. Fellow Big East member Marquette played as an independent when coach Al McGuire guided the Warriors, as they were known for 40 years until 1994, to the 1977 championship.
Houston would likely qualify as a mid-major program today, but in the 1980s, the Cougars played alongside Texas, Arkansas and the rest of the Southwest Conference, one of basketball’s premier conferences at the time. The Cougars are now part of Conference USA, which contains some programs that feel like mid-majors and others that don’t. The latter category includes Memphis circa 2008, when John Calipari led the Tigers to a thrilling overtime loss against Kansas. Any team coached by Calipari and receiving the top recruits in the country on an annual basis just isn’t a mid-major.
That leaves us with Indiana State (1979), UNLV (1990), Utah (1998) and Butler (2010) as the four true mid-majors that have advanced to the national championship game. The list of outstanding players from those teams is impressive: Larry Bird, Larry Johnson, Greg Anthony, Stacey Augmon, Andre Miller, Michael Doleac and Gordon Hayward. Those teams’ ability to attract NBA-caliber talent helped give them a shot at the title. But only Jerry Tarkanian’s Runnin’ Rebels completed the task, with a dominant win against Duke in 1990 that drew the wrath of coaches across the country because they felt Tarkanian built a team of trouble-makers and cast-offs who percolated through the junior college circuit. But you can’t argue with the wins and the national championship banner in Vegas.
With such a small history of mid-majors in the championship game, this weekend must be considered historic. We have not one but two mid-major programs in the Final Four, and one of them is guaranteed to have the right to play for a national championship.
Although we’ve already seen a bunch of thrilling upsets, the most indelible one would be Monday night. Kentucky might be a No. 4 seed and Connecticut a No. 3 seed, but those two teams represent historically great, power conference programs. Butler or VCU would stand alongside UNLV as one of only two mid-majors in the past 40-plus years to shake off all comers and wrest the championship from the grips of the major conferences.
