If there are Mid-Major football teams....

[NWLB]

Since the media now reffers to the MAC as Mid-Major football, are there non-mid-major 1A football teams?

If so, whom are they?

[Schadenfreude]

No offense, but I think your poll reflects a misunderstanding of the term "mid major."

Think of it in basketball terms. In basketball terms:

1. The Big Six plus Conference USA and (perhaps) the Atlantic Ten are high majors.
2. The WAC, Mountain West, Sun Belt, Horizon, MAC, West Coast and perhaps a couple others are mid-majors.
3. Everyone else is just happy to be in Division I, essentially a low major.

That's the way I've always looked at the term "mid-major."

So, in my way of thinking, in football, all Division I-A programs outside of the Big Six not named "Notre Dame" are mid-majors.

The MAC, WAC, Mountain West, etc. are major conferences... just not high major.

That's how I look at it.

And, while I'd love to for Bowling Green to be as powerful as any member of the Big Six (perhaps soon to be Five) conferences, I'm not insulted by the term "mid-major."

[NWLB]

I always took "mid-major" to be a term whose meaning came about in basketball, to describe conferences like the MAC, or MVC that were clearly better than the lower-run conferences. The term wasn't really used in describing football until recently.

I recall the days when the MAC was described as the "last outpost of 1A." The term Mid-Major was/is intended as respectful of the programs or conferences in question, without trying to directly compare them to an Ohio State or the Big Ten. As the term is being used by folks on ESPN, Mid-Major means the MAC collectively.

I can see "major" as meaning D1A. However mid-major then means we are middle of the pack, which at the moment BGSU is not. Yet we are also not a true high-major team if you look beyond the first string and get into budgets, stadiums, etc.

I haven't set my mind as to how I'd describe it. Tis why I opened the debate as such.

[Schadenfreude]

I would submit that any Division I conference is a major conference.

This is how Ap has traditionally looked at it, I think.

When the AP sends scores, they tend to send them in two batches: One for all schools broken by geography (EAST, MIDWEST, SOUTH, SOUTHWEST, FAR WEST...) and a smaller set of scores for "major" colleges.

Unless things have changed, I think AP includes the I-AA schools and scores in the "major" category.

That's the way I tend to look at it, too.

In fact, a case could be made, in my mind, for calling the Big Sky or Gateway a "mid major." These leagues are among the best in I-AA, thus toward the middle of Division I.