This Low-Major Team is Stunning the College Basketball World

We know about mid-majors in college basketball, but there is one low-major team that could shock the NCAA world this March.

Dec 9, 2023; Wichita, Kansas, USA; Practice balls sit on the rack prior to the game between the Wichita State Shockers and the South Dakota State Jackrabbits at INTRUST Bank Arena. Mandatory Credit: William Purnell-Imagn Images / William Purnell-Imagn Images

The NCAA Tournament is right around the corner, and with the calendar now officially flipped to March, the madness has commenced.

You'll have many of your usual suspects in the Big Dance, and most brackets will feature similar teams. But as always, there will be some significant surprises this month. That includes who gets into the tournament.

Generally, mid-major teams rarely secure at-large bids. Those spots typically go to teams from power conferences. So if mid-major teams usually have to win their respective conferences to get into the dance, imagine how difficult it is for low-major squads.

And yet, there is one team from the little Big West that may ultimately land a bid regardless of whether or not it wins its conference tournamenet: the UC San Diego Tritons.

UC San Diego sits at 26-4 with just two regular-season games and is riding an 11-game winning streak, and even though the Tritons don't really have any incredibly impressive wins on their resume, their dominance may speak for itself.

As a matter of fact, ESPN's Neil Payne thinks UC San Diego should be in, giving the Tritons a 70 percent chance of making the tournament.

"The Tritons warrant a special note as the rare team outside the power conferences or mid-majors with a decent chance to make the NCAA tourney as an at-large entry in the ESPN Analytics model -- even if they don't win their conference," Payne wrote.

The qualifier: Payne feels that if UC San Diego does not win its conference tourney, its odds dip to 25 to 30 percent, but that's still hefty for a low-major team.

"The Tritons' NET ranking is in the top 40 nationally, which helps their résumé even though their BPI hovers around the mid-50s and they have a poor SOS (outside the top 250)," Payne added. "... Regardless, UCSD ought to win out from here, and it will be interesting to see if the Tritons need to make an at-large case after the Big West tourney."

There is no question that UC San Diego is one of the most interesting teams in the country with Selection Sunday on the horizon.