A term invented by American sports-writers, used within college sports.
"
Mid-Major" was originally used because no one had a good term to describe a college or conference less powerful than the BCS college/conferences, but more powerful than the next level down. The Division I-A non-BCS conferences, as of 2007, are the Mountain West,
Conference USA, MAC, WAC and
Sun Belt.
Sports writers and fans alike often express distase for the term, but no one has been able to come up with anything better yet.