The little guys are getting some big respect in the NCAA tournament.
The selection committee handed out 11 at-large bids to teams from outside what are often called the power conferences. Some worried when the tournament expanded to 68 teams that it would just mean a few more mediocre teams from those leagues – in football, they’re the BCS conferences – would get chosen over smaller schools that did not win their conference tournaments.
But 22 of those small school teams have made it over the last two years now.
The budding trend was most noticeable with the last four teams chosen for the field on Sunday. The committee chose La Salle, Boise State, St. Mary’s and Middle Tennessee State over the likes of Tennessee, Kentucky and Iowa, all 20-win teams from bigger conferences.
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