ODAC Men's Basketball: Toughest in the Nation?

Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) men's basketball has a long history of being a very competitive conference. Since 1976, 50 appearances have been made by one or more ODAC teams in the NCAA Tournament.

The most recent showing was last year, 2006, by Virginia Wesleyan who won the National Championship. Currently, Virginia Wesleyan is ranked fourth in the nation, Randolph-Macon is ranked sixteenth, and Hampden Sydney is receiving votes, but sits just outside the Top 25, according to D3hoops.com. The ODAC for men's basketball is arguably one of the toughest NCAA III conferences in the nation from top to bottom.

Washington & Lee (preseason #9 in the ODAC) gave Randolph-Macon (16th in the nation) all they could handle earlier in the season, but fell short of the upset by only 5 points. However, just on Wednesday night, Lynchburg who is picked to finish last in the conference, defeated the Yellow Jackets of Randolph-Macon by 8 points.

Eastern Mennonite's head coach Kirby Dean attributes the ODAC's cutthroat competition to a number of things. First, the ODAC is so tough because basketball is an easy way to promote the college or university. Coach Dean explains, "In many cases the men's basketball team is the most visible part of the university. These schools take advantage and turn this exposure into ‘positive' exposure by putting into the program what is necessary to allow the program to be successful. If you check I think you will find that Virginia Wesleyan's applications probably skyrocketed this year after winning the national championship last year. Also, I know for a fact that George Mason's applications when through the roof after their run to the final four. It is hard to place a dollar value on that kind of exposure."

Another reason is that the schools in the ODAC are very academically solid. So, to a student who doesn't want to go to a huge university or isn't quite good enough to make Division I basketball, the ODAC is very appealing for two reasons. It has good academics and competitive basketball.

Third, Coach Dean states, "The coaches (in the ODAC) are all extremely talented and extremely competitive. You could take most of the ODAC coaches and put them in the ACC (Atlantic Coast Conference which is a Division I athletic conference) and they would do just fine."

Another draw to the ODAC is the fact that the schools have large endowment funds, which permits the schools to put a lot of money toward financial aid. This in turn allows the students to afford tuition more easily and so schools can recruit top players.

The men's next game is home on Saturday, December 9 at 7:00 against Randolph-Macon who are currently ranked in the top 20 in the country.