Hopes of a Small NCAA Basketball School

The hopes of small division one schools are high around this time of the year. As we head towards the basketball conference tournaments every fan has hopes. I have found that no matter how terrible a team is playing each kid in school still has the hope that there school will pull off the miracle of winning their conference and getting the automatic bid.

Unfortunately, for all of you that fall into the category of optimistic over your school's chances and a die hard fan most of you will be heartbroken. It is even worse for those of the mid-major. Teams that lose out in their conference finals but, are on the bubble.

The teams that could be headed to this destiny are many Atlantic-10 teams with Rhode Island, Xavier, Richmond, Charlotte, and Temple headed towards either success and possible Cinderella status or failure and heartbreak.
Conference USA, Missouri Valley, Mountain West, West Coast, and Colonial Athletic are the other successful conferences that hope to send multiple teams to the big show.

This year it seems that the Horizon League will at least send Butler to the Dance. Mountain West has a similar situation with Gonzaga seemingly guaranteed a spot in the 64. The only two Non-Big Six conferences that are locks for multi bids are the Mountain West and Atlantic 10 the who look to be sending 2 and 3 teams respectively.

I send out advice for those of you that are depressed when your team falls short. There will always be other small conference teams that can act the part of Cinderella. Take up their flag it is okay to jump on the bandwagon for the NCAA Tournament. That's what makes the tournament fun after all. Nobody really wants all the top teams to march all the way through. We all want the little guy to get his shot at winning the title. I wish you all the luck as we head down the stretch.