A little love from Dickie V

[pinstripers]

Took him, accompanied him, accepted him, phrasing, phrasing, phrasing.

[GOSHOX1]

Hadn't Bowles singed an loi?

[DUShock]

When Turgeon left, we all felt like jilted lovers. He brought us back from despair to the dance and our sweet 16. After the dance MT had many suitors, but he turned them down to stay with us. The next year, when it looked like we were destined to have a long relationship and lots of dances, he allowed the team to implode and bolted. Many players left with him and it was like splitting up friends after a divorce. Then, as we morn, grow and mature, you start to look back at the "at this level" comments and you realize that he never wanted us. He was just using WSU to get the attention of the sweetheart BCS.

Such is life.

Back to the thread topic: DV didn't have to mention WSU as a possible deep run team this year. He inserted us as an alternative to the common knowledge teams! That says a lot about where we reside with Dickie! Glad to see it!

Spot on for the most part but I never thought MT would spend a decade with us.

Go Shocks!

[DUShock]

And there lies the problem at it's ethos. It doesn't matter how much financial support, fan support, high level of play, record, or a number of other factors that classify a team a mid-major. It all depends on the conference they play in. That is why the term mid-major is so offensive to schools like ours. If they want to classify teams and put a title on it, it needs to be "non-bcs conference" not "mid-major."

The elephant not in the room...football...

[shox1989]

If we are a mid major than so is nebraska, iowa state, clemson and a host of other bs teams. There is no difference between our program and theirs...with the exception that ours is better.
The mid major term is only used to imply that our program doesn't measure up with major programs when in fact our program more than measures up in most cases.

THIS!

[Aargh]

I hate to be the one to break this to you, but you can only be a high major if the TV cameras can follow you from August to March. If you're not on the East Coast (where even the also-rans can pick up 10 million viewers) and don't have football - you're a mid-major.

It has nothing to do with budget, facilities, coaching staff salaries, quality of team (unless you put together Gonzaga or Butler performances), or anything else. If you don't have football and aren't on the East Coast and aren't consistently in the top 25 or consistently making runs in the NCAA's, you're a mid-major.

It's a brand name recognition thing. Schools with 8 months of TV and media coverage are going to have more recognizable "brands" than schools with 5 months of coverage. Let me use a barbecue sauce analogy. Curly's barbecue sauce (made in Hutchinson) is easily the best I've ever found in a grocery store. That's the "mid-major" of barbecue sauces. Kraft and KC Masterpiece aren't nearly as good but they're the high majors. In public opinion, the perception of the quality of the product on the shelf or on the floor always trumps the actual quality of the product.

[DUShock]

I love Curleys! We ship it to my brother in law in NYC. Good analogy Aargh

[WstateU]

I hate to be the one to break this to you, but you can only be a high major if the TV cameras can follow you from August to March. If you're not on the East Coast (where even the also-rans can pick up 10 million viewers) and don't have football - you're a mid-major.

It has nothing to do with budget, facilities, coaching staff salaries, quality of team (unless you put together Gonzaga or Butler performances), or anything else. If you don't have football and aren't on the East Coast and aren't consistently in the top 25 or consistently making runs in the NCAA's, you're a mid-major.

It's a brand name recognition thing. Schools with 8 months of TV and media coverage are going to have more recognizable "brands" than schools with 5 months of coverage. Let me use a barbecue sauce analogy. Curly's barbecue sauce (made in Hutchinson) is easily the best I've ever found in a grocery store. That's the "mid-major" of barbecue sauces. Kraft and KC Masterpiece aren't nearly as good but they're the high majors. In public opinion, the perception of the quality of the product on the shelf or on the floor always trumps the actual quality of the product.

[MoValley John]

You could call KC Masterpiece a high major, but Kraft? Kraft is mid major at best, even with the biased, Kansas City, Memphis and Texas barbecue media pundits. While your analogy started on high ground, including Kraft killed all credibility. I don't much follow college baseball, but I do know that the B1G is not considered a high major in baseball. While Kraft is high major in most of what it does, like the B1G in baseball, Kraft is mid major at best in the barbecue world.

As for KC Masterpiece, it's not my favorite, but it is on the higher end of quality and consistency, so yes, it is a high major, or BCS barbecue sauce if you will, Kraft is consistent, but consistently mediocre. Kraft is the Wake Forest of barbecue sauces. Everyone knows that Wake is in a group of very good products, but everyone also knows that they suck.

Sorry to call you out, Aargh, but I love barbecue and I couldn't let this one go.

[ShockTalk]

You could call KC Masterpiece a high major, but Kraft? Kraft is mid major at best, even with the biased, Kansas City, Memphis and Texas barbecue media pundits. While your analogy started on high ground, including Kraft killed all credibility. I don't much follow college baseball, but I do know that the B1G is not considered a high major in baseball. While Kraft is high major in most of what it does, like the B1G in baseball, Kraft is mid major at best in the barbecue world.

As for KC Masterpiece, it's not my favorite, but it is on the higher end of quality and consistency, so yes, it is a high major, or BCS barbecue sauce if you will, Kraft is consistent, but consistently mediocre. Kraft is the Wake Forest of barbecue sauces. Everyone knows that Wake is in a group of very good products, but everyone also knows that they suck.

Sorry to call you out, Aargh, but I love barbecue and I couldn't let this one go.

So you admit Wake Forest / Kraft is BCS? We are talking the general public perception here.

[Kung Wu]

While Kraft is high major in most of what it does, like the B1G in baseball, Kraft is mid major at best in the barbecue world.

Almost had to throw in a strong disagreement on behalf of my three year old who will only eat Kraft macaroni, until you got to this line and saved your bacon (my three year old is brutal). Definitely high major macaroni and cheese in his eyes.

I don't think you can put Kraft BBQ sauce in the mid-major category at all. I might even consider it DII.

[Aargh]

My analogy is actually getting better and better with the conversation denigrating Kraft BBQ sauce so severely. Let me start with MVJ's comparison of Kraft to Wake Forest. That precisely fits the point I was trying to make. Let's take two stores - one in LA and one in NYC. One shopper in each store and only two varieties of BBQ sauce on the shelf - Curley's (mid-major) and Kraft (BCS).

The deciding factor in the purchase is probably determined by the shopper's product experience (basketball knowledge).

The shopper with no product experience (basketball knowledge) is likely to pick the Kraft product because of their familiarity with Kraft - perhaps their familiarity with Mac-n-Cheese (Wake Forest football). People generally have higher confidence in a "name" brand than in an unknown brand.

The shopper with prior experience with Kraft BBQ sauce (Wake Forest basketball) is likely to pick Curley's. Not because they are familiar with Curley's (the unknown mid-major), but because they ARE familiar with Kraft BBQ sauce(the known high major, Wake Forest).

If not many people have heard of you or follow your program, you're a mid major. Purchasing is analogous to recruiting. Shoppers (recruits) are more likely to pick the known brand over the unknown brand, unless they are familiar with the specific product (Wake Forest = Kraft BBQ sauce).

In sports casting terminology, which has LOTS of jargon, "not many people have heard of this group of schools" is cumbersome. "Mid-major" rolls off the tongue nicely and fits easily into sound bites, so it stuck. The term doesn't have a precise definition, but that's sports casting. Nationally, more people have heard of Wake Forset than WSU. Wake Forest, even though they're bad, is a high major. WSU, even though they're good, is a mid-major.

[_kai_]

I love this place so much haha

[MoValley John]

But Wake Forest football? The world knows Wake Forest sucks at football and basketball. Kraft doesn't such at both Mac and cheese and barbecue sauce. Just barbecue sauce. So while the media may have a blind bias for Kraft barbecue sauce there is no bias for Wake Forest.

[Awesome Sauce Malone]

Im hungry