The two leagues that resulted from the 2013 split of the original Big East Conference — the football-sponsoring American Athletic Conference and non-football Big East Conference — are often considered to be major basketball conferences as well . When the original league split along football lines , the seven non-FBS schools , plus Creighton , Butler , and Xavier , founded the current Big East while the three remaining FBS schools , Cincinnati , UConn , and Temple , became The American . In every year since the split , the " new " Big East has been ranked a top five basketball conference by leading analysts such as Ken Pomeroy . Villanova won the men 's basketball national championship in the 2015-2016 and 2017-2018 seasons . The American has also found success , consistently ranking a top ten league . In the 2013 – 14 season , the first after the split , American member Connecticut won national titles in both men 's and women 's basketball . The American also includes several other historically major men 's programs such as Cincinnati , Memphis , and Temple . The term " mid-major " is sometimes used to describe all of the other 25 basketball-playing conferences not receiving automatic tie-ins to either the BCS or CFP . However , most of the time the term is specifically applied only to the non-CFP conferences that consistently produce quality NCAA Tournament teams ( distinguishing them from the " low-major " conferences ) . Often the definition of a " mid-major " is a conference that garners only one bid to the NCAA tournament ( its automatic bid , won by its conference tournament winner ) and no at large bids , all the while not garnering the attention and television dollars of a major conference . Until the last decade , the Atlantic 10 , Conference USA , the Mountain West Conference , and the Western Athletic Conference were widely considered to be above the level of the other " mid-major " conferences , but still generally below the level of the five major conferences . However , due to recent changes in membership in some conferences , as well as the sustained success of some " mid-major " conferences , most no longer consider the Atlantic 10 and Mountain West to be below the level of the CFP conferences in college basketball . One reason why is the 2012 &ndash; 2013 RPI ( a rating used by the tournament selection committee ) , which in 2012 &ndash; 13 ranked the Mountain West as the third best conference in Division I ( ahead of the ACC , Big 12 , Pac-12 , and SEC ) and the Atlantic 10 seventh ( ahead of the SEC ) . The strength of these two non-CFP conferences in men 's college basketball in 2012 &ndash; 13 was not an aberration , given that in 2011 &ndash; 12 the Mountain West finished the year ranked fifth , and the Atlantic 10 ranked seventh , both ahead of the Pac-12 . Given the rankings of these two leagues , as well as their prestige , performance , recent post-season results , national perception , exposure , attendance , and many other factors , most observers have trouble considering certain non-CFP conferences as " mid-majors "
original Big East Conference
Big East Conference (1979–2013)
Mid-major