So you really think the NCAA is kinder to mid-majors these days?

We're taking the kids down to Keeneland and the Kentucky Horse Park next month. Maybe hit a cave further west too.

I loves me some Kentucky. I loves me some Lexington, though I REALLY loves me some Louisville.

 

Old Sun Belt used to rock in the 80s. UAB was a force in men's hoops back then, too.

 

Yes. Them, VCU, Old Dominion, UAB, Western Kentucky when they were fairly strong, South Florida, South Alabama and Jacksonville. You wouldn't call them a major, but they were probably in the MWC/Mo Valley in-between area.

 

Don't forget the Metro which has been swept to the four winds of the ACC, Big East, SEC and Conference USA.

There were also viable independents back in '85 -- lots of them.

 

I used to throw ice cubes at Bernie from the CF bleachers in the old tin ballpark.

 

80's Metro (Louisville, Cincinnati, Va. Tech, FSU, Memphis, South Carolina, Southern Miss, Tulane) was undeniably a major. 90's Metro (Cincy, Memphis, South Carolina, FSU out -- VCU, UNC-Charlotte, South Florida in) was sort of equivalent to today's MWC (ditto the Great Midwest that spawned from it and eventually recombined with it).

 

The Metro was strong in the 80s, but Cincy really wasn't. The Bearcats didn't get their revival going until Bob Huggins and the Great Midwest came along.

 

I wonder how dramatically the landscape would look today if the Metro offered football back then.

 

Southern Miss would have become the power it deserved to be, but I'm not sure Louisville would have done much.

Schnellenberger was attracted to the job not only because it was his hometown but because Louisville was an independent. That allowed him the ability to schedule the tough teams, which led to his ability to recruit better players, which eventually led to the construction of Papa John's and the invitation to the Big East.

 

Schnellenberger blueprinted the Louisville football success we're still seeing today, I remember UL football being a dismal joke in the 80s before he got there. Schnellenberger was also the guy who in the early 80's first turned the anonymous losing Miami football program into the notorious ass-kicking canes of the last 24 years. He's an uderappreciated character.

 

How about OU and Miami in the same bracket? Rick Chryst would combust if that happened now. Man, I wish I could hear ol' Charlie Coles breaking down his team at "media day" this week...

 

hope I didn't repeat this elsewhere: What are your thoughts on expanding the field to 128/adding one round to the tournament? I suppose the NIT would go down the pooper, but it'd only be 31 more teams total after accounting for the 32 NIT teams that would make the NCAA tourney. Akron and a third MAC team would rightly get into the tournament, along with, what, 10-12 more mid-majors, and then the power conferences could quality a bigger portion of their greedy hands.

What's your thoughts?