March Madness is missing Cinderella this year — and she may never come back

In 2010, the Butler Bulldogs gave Duke the fight of its life in the national championship game, losing only after Gordon Heyward’s halfcourt heave bounced off the rim as time expired

In 2010, the Butler Bulldogs gave Duke the fight of its life in the national championship game, losing only after Gordon Heyward’s halfcourt heave bounced off the rim as time expired.

In 2013 and 2014, the Wichita State Shockers looked like a new men’s basketball powerhouse, following up a Final Four appearance by securing a No. 1 seed in the tournament.

Then as recently as 2023, the Florida Atlantic Owls made a miracle run to the Final Four in only the school’s second tournament appearance.

What Butler, Wichita State, Florida Atlantic and many other schools have in common is they belong to mid-major conferences. That is, schools who don’t belong to the NCAA’s Power Four of the Big Ten, SEC, ACC and Big 12.

For most of this century, one of the most exciting aspects of watching the men’s tournament is seeing a smaller school, that seemingly nobody could find on a map, make a deep run in March. The “Madness” moniker, arguably, is inspired by teams like Florida Gulf Coast, remembered as “Dunk City,” which became the first No. 15 seed to reach the Sweet 16 in 2013.