re: Tom Izzo says ncaa should get rid of automatic bids for mid majors. Do you agree?

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How would you describe the teams not in the power conferences?

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I wouldn't, because basketball doesn't have "power conferences." At least, there's no agreed-upon list.

Mid-major originally meant "D1 basketball teams without a I-A football team." At some point, so many teams moved up to I-A football that people decided that wasn't a good criterion. After that point, which I'd put around 2000, there was no longer any agreed-upon definition of "mid-major" and it should have gone away.

Some people use the term to refer to schools with P5 football teams, but that's football, the "P5" distinction is itself breaking down, and that criterion is just bad. It excludes teams from conferences like the Big East, A10, etc.

I've seen people throw the AAC into the "major" category, but have you seen ECU's gym? North Texas is "major" now?

At the same time, I don't really think that Memphis team that came out of CUSA and got to the tournament finals (where they took an obvious dive) was "mid-major," and yet Memphis is in the AAC. So is the AAC "major?" Was CUSA when Memphis was in it? How about Louisville? Tulane, ECU, and Southern Miss were in that conference, too.

My point is that "mid major" once had a meaning, but it's turned into meaning "team that I [whoever the frick I may be] didn't think was good at basketball." There are better ways to say that.