The Fall of Inner-State Hierarchies

The first eight weeks of the college basketball season have shown that no result or team is for certain, despite early ravings about teams such as Florida, who had the fortune of returning all five starters from a national championship squad. There have been over ten teams who have been slotted in the Top 5 of the polls; none of these teams have been there all year. More surprisingly though, are the changing tides on a state level. The usual powerhouses have seen their egos crushed at the hands of inner-state rivals and smaller programs.

Take for example the states of Indiana, Iowa, and California. Probably the greatest instance of long-term hierarchies crumbling at the hands of less prestigious schools takes place in the Hoosier State, where the Indiana Hoosiers are no longer the top team. It would be likely to assume that the Hoosiers were finally dethroned by a rival such as Notre Dame or Purdue, but that’s not the case. Actually, Notre Dame and Purdue witnessed first hand what the Hoosiers did; all three were beaten by the Bulldogs of Butler.

A similar trend was seen in fellow Midwest state, Iowa. Both The University of Iowa and Iowa State lost to Northern Iowa during non-conference play. Such defeats of major conference teams at the hands of "lesser teams" just furthers the claim of mid-majors come March.

The case in California seems to be over-shadowed by the fact that UCLA is undefeated. The Bruins success does not defeat the fact that one of the most historic programs, Stanford, and fellow Pac-10 mate, California, both lost to other California schools. Stanford underestimated Santa Clara when the Broncos made the thirty minute trip to play the Cardinals, a trip that resulted in a major win. Likewise, California realized they should stay away from southern California when the Golden Bears fell to San Diego and San Diego State.

This year of NCAA hoops has also seen another peculiar and more common occurrence; major programs are being ranked behind smaller programs from the same state. Until recent troubles, Wichita State was looking down on the big dog Kansas and even currently, Southern Illinois is ranked higher then the school which their former coach ran off to, Illinois, who just two years ago nearly ran the table.