Sun Belt’s Stepladder Format Is Producing Some March Chaos

The upset isn’t quite dead in college basketball—at least if Georgia Southern has anything to say about it. 

While men’s college basketball overall is getting chalkier than ever, highlighted in part by four No. 1 seeds in last year’s Final Four, the Sun Belt school is looking to continue its improbable March run. 

The Eagles, the No. 10 seed in the conference tournament, have won five games in the last five days to advance to the Sun Belt title game Monday night against top-seeded Troy. Georgia Southern’s advance through the event is part of a stepladder format implemented last season, and is increasingly gaining favor with other mid-major and small conferences. 

The winner of the Georgia Southern-Troy game will get the Sun Belt’s automatic bid in March Madness. Georgia Southern has not been in the national tournament since 1992.

Georgia Southern’s rise—including beating the No. 11, 7, 6, 3, and 2 seeds in the conference tournament—isn’t quite the #StairwayToSeven hashtag that went viral at the start of the competition last week, as the team had a bye for the first day. The Eagles, however, are just the third Division I team to win five games in five consecutive days—matching N.C. State two years ago and UConn in 2011. 

No DI team has won six games in six days, giving Georgia Southern a chance at history. Troy, conversely, has played just one game in the Sun Belt tournament, having received a bye straight to the semifinals. 

“We don’t shy away from goals. This is what we wanted,” said Georgia Southern head coach Charlie Henry. “Having a destination in mind of where you ultimately want to be rallies the team and motivates everyone. We lost belief a little bit [before], but these guys never separated and we always stayed together.”

Georgia Southern’s entire athletics department had an annual operating budget of nearly $37 million, according to the most recent financial disclosures. The sum is slightly below average within the Sun Belt, and a mere fraction of athletics budgets among power-conference schools that routinely extend into nine figures.