Definitions of the term " mid-major " in the context of college basketball vary widely . For purposes of both the Henson All-America Team and Henson Award , ''CollegeInsider.com '' has established its own definition of the term , which includes members of the following conferences , as well as any basketball independents ( there have been none since NJIT joined the Atlantic Sun Conference in 2015 ) : The list of eligible conferences has always excluded all conferences that sponsor FBS football except for the MAC and the Sun Belt . The Atlantic 10 Conference , which has not sponsored football at all since 2006 , has also been excluded throughout the award 's history . Following major conference realignment that peaked in 2013 , the WAC , which dropped football after the 2012 season , was added to the eligible list , while both offshoots of the original Big East Conference — the FBS American Athletic Conference and the current non-football Big East — were excluded from eligibility
original Big East Conference
Big East Conference (1979–2013)
Lou Henson Award