Winning 26 games has been a guarantee to make the NCAA women's basketball tournament if you're from a BCS conference. Outside one of the power conferences, selection Monday has always been nerve-racking - in the past decade, 10 mid-major teams reached 26 victories and still were left out.
This season, however, mid majors are finally getting their due.
A record number of teams (7) from mid major conferences got at-large bids to the NCAA tournament on Monday. The Horizon, America East, and Sun Belt each earned just as many bids as the Pac-10.
Matt Bollant and his Wisconsin-Green Bay Phoenix went 27-4 and won the Horizon League's regular season title, but they couldn't let out a shout Monday until they were given an at-large 12-seed. They play Virginia in the opening round.
It was a nervous wait. The Phoenix won 26 games in 2008 but still got snubbed.
``It was such a rough feeling two years ago and this year ESPN didn't mention us as a possibility to get in,'' Bollant said. ``This year there was definitely a sense of nervousness when we weren't shown early on, but such joy when we finally got in.''
Bollant will be pulling for his fellow mid majors to play well in the tournament.
``We got a break, and now we have to represent the mid majors well,'' he said. ``It's really good for women's basketball having these mid majors get rewarded for what they've done over the course of the season.''
Like the Phoenix, Arkansas-Little Rock was on the bubble. The Trojans won 26 games and the Sun Belt regular season title before falling to Middle Tennessee State in overtime of the conference tournament championship game. The Trojans didn't have as long a wait on Monday night - they showed up in the field early on.
``This is one of the best experiences that you can ever have,'' said coach Joe Foley. ``This is what they have worked for. This is what it is all about right here.''
The NCAA selection committee was impressed with some of the mid major resumes.
``These two particular ones, as they were being evaluated, took care of their conference business,'' NCAA selection committee chair Jane Meyer said. ``And then as they scheduled out of conference, they had some very good wins.''
Wisconsin-Green Bay had quality wins over Wisconsin, DePaul, and Marquette. Arkansas-Little Rock hadn't lost since Dec. 16, 2009, before falling in the Horizon League title game.
It's not just the number of mid majors getting into the tournament. It's also their seeds. Princeton, riding a 21-game winning streak, earned the Ivy league's highest seed ever with an 11. The Tigers' only two losses this year came against UCLA and Rutgers.
Hartford earned the program's first-ever at-large bid, and the first from the America East since Maine received one in 2000. The Hawks are a No. 10 seed - matching the school's best ever. Coach Jen Rizzotti wasn't as nervous as other coaches on selection Monday, having spent a few days this past summer in Indianapolis at a mock bracket seminar put on by the NCAA.
Rizzotti learned a lot about the selection process and what her team would need to do to get selected to the field. That calmed her down.
``They made it clear where they needed to see wins,'' Rizzotti said. ``It wasn't as much about record as opposed to not having bad losses and having enough good wins.''
Losing in the America East title game to Vermont actually helped Rizzotti reach one of her goals as a coach.
``It was a goal of mine to be an NCAA tournament team without needing the automatic bid and you never know if that's the case,'' she said. ``Now we've done it.''
The mid majors may have benefited from a relatively weak year for at-large teams from the major conferences.
``There weren't as many bubble teams out of the power conferences,'' ESPN analyst Deb Antonelli said. ``It let them take a chance on some of these mid major teams.''
