Life as a Mid-Major Basketball Program

Photo by Bree Fabbie

In the rapidly evolving world of college basketball, mid-major programs — programs outside the Power Five, the five largest conferences in collegiate athletics— must reassess their strategies for rebuilding their teams." 

“Your strategy has to change as a smaller school,” said a current director of recruiting at a mid-major. “If you're late to the party, then you're a dinosaur in this whole thing.”  

Coaches always found ways to replenish rosters as players graduated, left for the NBA Draft or decided to enter the transfer portal. 

Now, with the rise of name, image and likeness and the NCAA eliminating the rule that stated players had to sit a year after transferring schools, mid-major coaches might be forced to replace whole starting lineups. 

During the 2024 offseason, over 2,000 players entered the transfer portal while three basketball teams — The University of Louisville, DePaul University and the University of Southern California — signed at least 11 transfers. 

The formula is simple. A star player breaks out at a smaller school, proving to be a bona fide superstar.  

Now, he has schools in the prestigious Southeastern Conference offering him money beyond his wildest dreams and the opportunity for greater exposure that his current school could only hope to offer.  

“If you go and play for Kentucky, that's going to definitely boost your chances of getting a professional contract,” University of Arkansas beat reporter Anthony Kristensen said. “But with those schools, obviously the bigger ones have a bigger donor base and more access to NIL funds.” 

With Power Five schools poaching players from mid-majors, it has relegated the mid-major programs to a lesser status, Western Kentucky University Senior Associate Athletic Director Scott Swegan said.  

“You'll see a lot of what we’ll call roster poaching when the best players do get targeted by a bigger school,” Swegan said. “From that standpoint, it becomes a second-tier training ground for bigger schools, almost like the minor leagues.” 

One of the schools most affected by the transfer portal this season was Belmont University, which lost Cade Tyson, Ja’Kobi Gillespie and Malik Dia, a trio of talented sophomores. 

Instead of sticking together and possibly winning the Missouri Valley Conference next season, all three entered the portal. 

Gillespie committed to Maryland, taking the point guard position for a team in the loaded Big 10 Conference.  

Dia committed to Ole Miss, returning to the Southeastern Conference and its bright lights. 

Tyson returned to his home state of North Carolina, choosing to don the University of North Carolina’s baby blue.  

For Belmont head coach Casey Alexander, he knew his team had to rebuild. 

“We were losing experience and talent, so it’d be foolish to say we were just going to pick up the pieces and come back better than ever,” Alexander said.  

Even with three talented freshmen coming into the program, Alexander said the portal was how Belmont needed to replenish its roster. 

“You can't replace experience with freshmen every year and get where you want to be,” Alexander said. “For the spots that we had available, we had to get experienced and accomplished transfers.” 

Belmont landed five transfers ranging from Power Five programs, such as the University of Memphis and Texas Christian University, to mid-major programs, such as Furman University and Liberty University, replenishing a team looking to win its first MVC Championship. 

For other programs, the answer isn’t as simple.  

First, high school players are no longer a tantalizing option for many teams, the director of recruiting said. 

“NIL makes you not want to recruit high school kids because if you spent all that time recruiting a high school kid and he's a stud, he's probably going to leave for a bigger school next year,” he said. 

Instead, the focus is on junior college athletes, who he said are more likely to stay. 

“We don't waste as much time recruiting the kid. We know if we get him, he's more likely to stay if he's from JUCO because they're not going to want money. Most of the time, they're just looking for an opportunity,” he said. 

Secondly, the director of recruiting said the strategy revolves around analytics looking for the diamonds in the rough. 

“You have to get really creative and find portal talent guys who slip under the cracks, the undervalued talents. We have a third-party analytics guy that helps us that kind of projects players to see what their impact would be on our league at the next level,” he said. 

Even if he identifies that perfect player for his team, the end selection comes down to NIL, the director of recruiting said.  

“At the end of the day, if you're competing with three or four other schools for a kid, and those three or four schools have more money to offer, it's going to be very difficult to get that kid,” he said.  

Even if the player decides to attend the school with the highest NIL deal, there’s always a question that looms in the back of everyone’s mind. 

So what if that undervalued player becomes a star and decides to leave after a season?  

Well, the team has to find other ways to replace him, creating this revolving door of players.  

Every player must be considered to fill those gaps, the director of recruiting said. 

“You have to cast a wide net and look at Division III and NAIA. You have to consider guys that maybe don't fit your athletic profile that you're looking for but have other attributes that translate. You have to look past maybe some deficiencies at this point because you're not going to be able to get the perfect player,” he said. 

Kristensen said another answer to the problem could be mid-majors becoming places for reclamation projects, players from Power Five schools who want to prove they have talent. 

“You're seeing some other schools become landing spots for guys who need another chance. These guys were highly rated out of high school but didn't play a ton in their first or second year at a power-conference school,” Kristensen said. “The teams take a look at him and think they can really develop him into the player he can be.”  

Kristensen said he points to Brandin Podziemski’s story as an example of this method working. 

Podziemski transferred to Santa Clara after never getting playing time at Illinois.  

Now, he’s a key contributor on the NBA’s Golden State Warriors after breaking out at Santa Clara.  

From an administrative perspective, Swegan worked at both the Power Five and mid-major level, getting the full experience.  

He said NIL and the transfer portal led to a drastic difference that separates these levels. 

“I really personally like being at a mid-major. I certainly like being in the Power Five, but it's just different. I think that mid-majors probably maintain a little bit of the true student-athlete experience, whereas the Power Five has become big business,” Swegan said.  

Even with that big-business feel, Swegan said that it isn’t necessarily a bad outcome with college athletics. 

“I got into college athletics to see student athletes succeed. If every student athlete on our NCAA Tournament team had a chance to go play Power Five and make a couple $100,000 next year, I would be thrilled for them because they did what they came to Western Kentucky to do.” 

It seems that NIL and the transfer portal will remain integral in college basketball in some shape or form as the NCAA attempts to create rules to regulate them.  

For Swegan, that means only one conclusion: either change or get out of the industry. 

“It's just you accepting the changing reality of college sport right now. There's different stories, different legislation, different votes and different court cases nearly every day,” Swegan said. “I feel like if I wasn't willing to adapt, I probably don't want to be in college athletics because if you're not willing to adapt and accept it, I think it's going to be a really hard industry for you in the future.” 

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This article was written by Ty Wellemeyer