You’ll hear this phrase “Mid-major” thrown around a lot, especially when it comes to the NCAA at large bids. Mid-major is a term used to describe a conference that meets two criteria: 1) the conference doesn’t have a strong contender to win the national championship, and 2) the conference’s 4th place team is not very strong. I think it’s a term that the big conferences invented to try and make the smaller conferences feel less important – a little like the Star Bellied Sneetches.

We all know about the Colonial Athletic Association being a strong mid-major conference. The CAA has some very tough teams, but usually the talent level and success drops off pretty quickly when you enter the middle of the pack in the conference standings. Saturday’s opponent for the Hoyas is the Drexel Dragons of the CAA. Last year the Dragons had a 5-13 conference record which was tied for dead last. This year, they are 1-0 with a dramatic home win against Penn on Wednesday morning.

I don’t really believe in conference loyalty. As a Hoya fan, I hope that Georgetown rivals like Syracuse, Villanova, and Connecticut lose every game, and I would expect the fans of those teams to feel the same way about the Hoyas. But I also think that a good conference make the lower teams in the conference better. That’s why you find so many Big East teams going deep in to the NIT. After a season of battling with top flight talent, even losses can prove to be valuable.

There is no CAA team as good as Connecticut or Louisville this season, but the top CAA teams can surely compete with those giants. So, when Drexel comes to Verizon Center on Saturday, remember that there are some very good teams in the CAA, and Drexel has been playing against the likes of Old Dominion, George Mason, and VCU. Nobody would underestimate those squads, and Drexel is battle tested against them.