Mid-Major Madness React Results: Maui is the best MTE location

It’s no surprise. Maui was voted as the best MTE location by Mid-Major Madness fans.

The Maui Invitational received 49% of the votes. Going to the polar opposite, the Great Alaska Shootout finished second with 38%, while the Crossover Classic in Sioux Falls, S.D., tabbed the remaining 13%.

So, why was Maui so popular?

Well, it’s a tropical destination. It has history. And it usually has big names. Plus, the court design is awesome. Nothing says Thanksgiving week quite like seeing that Hawaiian-inspired design.

Maui has just about everything.

Duke, Kentucky, Kansas, North Carolina and UConn have all won the crown in Hawaii. But we’re not here to talk about those blue bloods.

First off, Division-II Chaminade, who is the “host” of the tournament, has participated nearly every year.

We celebrate the Silverswords’ run to the title game in the inaugural Maui Invitational in 1984, losing to Providence by just a single bucket, 60-58.

The best Maui tournament for mid-majors was 2003. The only time two mid-majors met in the championship game as Dayton beat Hawaii.

But there have been many other occasions in which mid-majors made the final.

New Mexico reached the final in 1986. BYU, who was in the WAC at the time, was the only mid-major to make the championship in the 1990s when the Cougars lost to Duke in ’92. Similarly, Ball State fell in the 2001 final to the Blue Devils.

Mid-majors advancing to the championship has increased in frequency over the last decade and a half.

Butler, in its one year in the A-10, lost to Illinois in the final in 2012. San Diego State came in second to Arizona by a bucket in 2014. An even slimmer margin was Wichita State’s defeat in 2017 when the Shockers lost to Notre Dame by a single point.

Two years later, Dayton was back in the title game. The Flyers took Kansas to overtime but ultimately fell. Saint Mary’s came runner-up to Wisconsin in 2021. Finally, Memphis notched a second-place finish to Auburn, who went on to be the overall No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, in the 2024 edition of the Maui Invitational.

It should be fun this year when VCU and Colorado State hit the court in Maui Nov. 23-25. Who knows … maybe one of them will be our first mid-major Maui champ in 23 years.

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