Last March, Bucknell, seeded No. 14 , was in the process of upsetting Kansas, seeded No. 3, in the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament.
My friends and I got into a debate over whether or not we should root for Bucknell. Some people were rooting for Kansas because they saw Bucknell as a Patriot League rival and didn't want to see a rival of AU win in the NCAA Tournament. The people who were rooting for Bucknell, which included me, were arguing that a Bucknell win would be great for the PL and give the league a higher profile.
Bucknell went on to pull off the stunning upset, but lost to Wisconsin in the second round. The Bison gave the PL its first win ever in the NCAA Tournament. And this season they're raising the league's profile higher then ever.
Bucknell came into the season with all five starters from last year's squad and decided to take on the big boys. When a PL team plays a team in a major conference, you usually can expect blowout. Bucknell helped change that view.
In this season alone, Bucknell has faced four major conference teams - three in the top 25 - and has faced two tough mid-major teams. It will face one more top 25 team in Northern Iowa.
Bucknell has been taking on tough teams the hard way, which means playing on the road. It started off the year upsetting Syracuse at Syracuse. They have also defeated Saint Joseph's at home and DePaul in Chicago. Their only losses have been to top five teams Villanova and Duke (at Cameron Indoor Stadium) and at tough mid-major Santa Clara. Despite getting blown out by Villanova and Duke, Bucknell has proven it can compete with good teams in major conferences.
The hierarchy of college basketball is broken down into three type of conferences: major, mid-major and one-bid. There are six major conferences in the NCAA: the Big East, ACC, Big Ten, Southeastern, Big 12 and Pac-10. You can always count on these conferences to have at the very least three teams in the NCAA Tournament and to have at least one Final Four contender.
The mid-major conferences are those that have proved the ability more than once to send more than the conference champ to the tournament. Good examples include the Atlantic 10, Conference USA, Missouri Valley and West Coast.
Then there are one bid conferences with teams that have no hope to make the tournament unless they win their conference tournament or, in the case of the Ivy League, the regular season. Right now the PL is a one-bid conference.
One of the best scenarios for the PL would be if Bucknell makes the tournament and makes a run to the Sweet Sixteen. There's a good chance the Bison will at least make it to March, as they're steamrolling the league right now at at 9-0 and are 18-3 overall.
The absolute best scenario is if Bucknell doesn't win the PL title, gets an at-large bid and makes a run in the tournament. An at-large bid would means two teams from the PL would get into the tournament and help lead the conference to possible mid-major status.
Bucknell this year and Holy Cross three years ago have shown they can compete and even beat tough teams in the major conferences. Their models have been similar to most mid-major teams that have made runs in the tournament: Return four or five starters from the year before, have two or three players who can shoots 3's very well, and don't get thoroughly outrebounded.
Hopefully this is a model AU and other PL schools can build on in the future, making this conference more than a one-bid conference.
