Dribble Handoff: Five Mid-Major teams that will jump in the basketball season 2025-26

Few would see it coming last season when Robert Morris turned the door to the NCAA tournament just a year after the end of 10-22. The settlers turned their fortunes into a hurry when they won the regular season and tournament titles from Horizon League and earned a no. 15 seed in the big dance.

In their first March madness The appearance since 2015, Robert Morris no. 2 Seed Alabama lets in the second half before the Crimson Tide escaped with a stressful victory. Although it did not win a match in the tournament, Robert Morris was definitely an example of a Middle Major program that appeared.

As the 2025-26 season gets closer, we are looking for mid-major teams that can do the same this season. To match the account of a Middle Major team that ‘pops’, you do not necessarily have to increase your victory total by 16. But we are looking for teams from outside the Hoog Major Empire with SAP to be dangerous and/or considerably better than in recent years.

As with most of our dribbling transfers, our writers are free to massage the criteria, but they see it necessary. But bonus points will certainly be awarded if someone chooses a Middle Major Team that continues by pulling a turning point such as what Robert Morris did last season.

Here are our choices for the Mid Major Teams that will jump in 2025-26.

Boise State has been consistently good under Leon Rice – evidence is three trips to the NCAA tournament in the past four seasons And Three top-two Finishes in the Mountain West Conference in the past four seasons. So I hesitate to place the Mid-Major Label on the Broncos.

But boise state not In a power conference. And BOise State has never Actually won a competition in the NCAA tournament. So, according to the definition of most people, the Mid Major Label fits. And, if so, the Broncos on paper should be one of the best mid-majors in college basketball this coming season. They return three of the top five scorers from last season team who won 26 games and added UCLA Transfer Dylan Andrews and Georgetown Transfer Drew Fielder. That is a solid core that the Broncos should have among the favorites in the MWC – and possibly the favorite. – Gary Parrish

It has never been more difficult to predict which teams of single-bid competitions will make a doll. That in mind, I am going with a program that has hired a coach who has previously been to the school and comes from a national championship. Kevin Hovde has been an assistant under Todd Golden in Florida in recent years.

Years ago he was participating in staff under Kyle Smith in Columbia. Now he is the coach of the Lions, a team that has left every season .500 since Smith left in 2016. But thanks to the return of a major part of his selection and with the infusion of any size in the portal, I will say that Columbia immediately shifts in year 1 under HOVDE. Mark me for 18-plus victories and a trip to the Ivy League title competition. – Matt Norlander

George Washington is ready to build on a 21-win season and to produce his best campaign in at least a decade under fourth-year coach Chris Caputo. The old assistant under Jim Larranaga in George Mason and Miami has four players who started at least 15 games last season and a transfer lesson from the shelter. The Portal Haul comprises four players who last season have on average double-digits at other mid-major schools and former Northwest Big Luke Hunger, who played in 56 games with 10 starts for the wildcats in the past two seasons.

This combination of recurring production and transfer stable actually places GW on the same footing with some lower high-major programs in terms of schedules. It is a sign that the revolutionaries, who are not bogged down due to the financial requirements of a football schedule, are serious to become good in basketball again. Other teams in the Atlantic 10 are seriously about hoops and also well equipped to succeed in this era. But after a rough decade, GW fits into the account of a team that can “pop”. The revolutionaries made three consecutive NCAA tournaments of 2005-07 and five in a seven-season span between 1993 and 1999. The program 2025-26 of the program is able to bring the good times back to the capital of the nation. – David Cobb

The state of San Diego has been the model of consistency for Mid-Majors for the past five years. The Aztecs have reached the NCAA tournament in each of the previous five years and would probably have been in the mix for a number 1 seed in 2020 when the NCAA tournament was canceled because of COVID-19. In that period, SDSU reached Sweet 16 twice and appeared in the national title game in 2023.

I love the schedule that SDSU brings back, which is led by two potential picks in the first round: Miles Byrd and Magoon Gwath. The prospects of the SDSU season could have been drastically different if they had left one of them. Byrd was deep in the NBA -Concept Process and Gwath entered the transfer portal before he withdrew and returned to school. Brian Dutcher is a fantastic coach who gets the most out of his players. After an embarrassing loss of eruption to North Carolina in the first four, look for SDSU to bounce back in a large way during the 2025-26 campaign. Nonconference matches against Michigan (November 24) and Arizona (December 20) are the ones to keep an eye on. – Cameron Salerno

Noord -Iowa is quietly planned to return more than 72% of its minutes from a team (Per torvik) That ended with a 14-6 record in the valley. While the state of Illinois has earned some well -deserved Buzz for keeping its two best players, Northern Iowa also did the work of Yeoman and kept the portal vultures away from three experienced starters: point guard Trey Campbell, shooting guard Max Weisbrod and Vooruit Ben Schwieger. That trio of seniors offers a strong core, but Ben Jacobson was also able to hold three rotation players, including Leon Bond III. That is a secret BIG deal. If he is healthy, Bond can be a two -way hard time and one of the best players in the Missouri Valley. Bond and Campbell give Uni a 1-2 punch that can go with everyone in this competition band-by-band.

If this Front Court can settle for a new look, Noordiowa can absolutely dance for the first time since 2016. You already know what can happen if Jacobsen sniffs the sidelines in March Madness. High-Majors watch out. – Isaac Trotter