When Utah Tech’s season ended in the WAC Vegas semifinal on March 13, 2026, the story ran in St. George News and a handful of conference and local outlets. The same night, Power Five conference tournaments were driving national headlines and prime-time slots. The imbalance is not an accident; it is how sports media is built.
WAC and Similar Conferences Get Minimal Narrative Coverage While Power Five Dominates the Feed
California Baptist defeated Utah Tech 86-72 in the Western Athletic Conference men’s basketball tournament semifinal at Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, as St. George News reported. Ethan Potter led the Trailblazers with 25 points; Dominique Daniels Jr., the WAC Player of the Year, scored 41 for the Lancers. Utah Tech had led 36-35 at halftime before a 7-0 Cal Baptist run and Potter’s fourth foul swung the game. The Trailblazers finished 19-15 and will move to the Big Sky Conference next year. For a league playing its final season under the WAC name before rebranding to the United Athletic Conference, the semifinal was a high-stakes exit for one of its best stories. Outside the conference footprint, it received one headline. Mid-major tournament pressure is well documented: for one-bid leagues, the conference tournament is the only route to the NCAA Tournament, yet the same games get a fraction of the coverage that Power Five quarterfinals receive.
ESPN and Major Broadcasters Prioritise Big 12 and SEC and Leave Everyone Else in the Shadows
Championship Week coverage is starkly uneven. Last Word on Sports reported that ESPN has prioritised the Big 12 and SEC for a second straight year, leaving even the ACC in the shadows despite holding exclusive rights to the ACC tournament. College GameDay made its first visit to the Big 12 Championship Game since 2006 in 2026. Mid-major conferences do not get that treatment. A 2021-era figure cited by Washingtonian found that mid-majors received about 12% of ESPN airtime despite competitive programmes. The WAC’s media deal generates marginal rights fees and limited linear exposure; Redshirt Sports and similar analyses note that smaller conferences sometimes air only a handful of games per season on ESPN platforms. The financial gap is structural: Power Five football conferences command massive deals, while the WAC depends on NCAA Tournament unit revenue and exit fees to sustain itself.
Selection and Scheduling Systems Reinforce the Narrative Gap
Mid-Major Basketball and other dedicated outlets have documented how the NCAA Tournament selection process and NET rankings disadvantage mid-major teams. Quad 1 and Quad 2 designations favour power-conference opponents; when mid-majors are classified as low-value foes, top programmes avoid scheduling them. A Freedom of Information Act request uncovered that top-50 NET programmes including Wisconsin, Michigan State, Ohio State, UCLA, Kansas and Florida declined to play a mid-major opponent. When Miami (Ohio) athletic director David Sayler called out a TNT analyst for dismissing the undefeated RedHawks and claiming they would finish last in the Big East, he was pushing back against the same narrative hierarchy: Power Five names get the benefit of the doubt; mid-major exits get one headline and then the feed moves on. The pattern repeats every March across every small conference.
What This Actually Means
The WAC Vegas semifinal was a real game with real stakes: the loser’s season ended, the winner advanced to play for an automatic NCAA bid. Utah Tech had been picked sixth in the preseason and finished third in the conference; their exit deserved more than a single local story. The imbalance is the story. Mid-major tournament exits get one headline while Power Five tournaments get wall-to-wall coverage, bracketology segments and studio shows. That disparity is underreported because the outlets that could report it are the ones allocating airtime and headlines by the same logic. Until the business model changes, WAC and similar conferences will keep getting one headline while the rest of the feed belongs to the power leagues.
What Is the WAC and Why Does Coverage Matter?
The Western Athletic Conference is an NCAA Division I conference founded in 1962. It is operating under the WAC name for the last time in 2025-26 before rebranding to the United Athletic Conference in July 2026. The 2026 men’s basketball tournament at Orleans Arena in Las Vegas was the conference’s final such event under the WAC brand. Seven teams competed; the winner receives an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. For programmes like Utah Tech and California Baptist, the tournament is the primary path to national visibility. When that path yields only minimal national coverage, the story of the game and the season is left to local and conference outlets. Coverage matters because it shapes recruiting, revenue and the way fans and committees perceive programmes; the imbalance between one headline and Power Five saturation is the real story.
Sources
St. George News, Last Word on Sports, Mid-Major Basketball, Sports Illustrated