'Bruins and Tigers and Bears, oh my!' List of Mountain West transfer destinations is elite

The fear of the current model of college basketball is that mid-major schools are feeder programs for high-majors. And nothing that's happened to the Mountain West this offseason has disproved that. That conference, coming off its fourth straight season with at least four NCAA Tournament teams, has been ravaged once again by the high majors.

As our headline points out — "Badgers and Tigers and Bears, oh my!" — we're one MW player signing with Penn State (the Nittany Lions) away from being able to use the classic "Wizard of Oz" phrase. The MW has lost two players to the Tigers (of Clemson and LSU) and one to the Bears (of Baylor). Players from the league also have joined elite programs North Carolina, UCLA and Wisconsin, not to mention Miami, Nebraska and Xavier. Each of those schools reside in college basketball's power-conference level (the Big Ten, Big 12, ACC, SEC and Big East).

Thus far, 68 MW players have entered the portal with 18 landing with new schools (two more opted to stay with their current schools). Of those 18 players who have picked new colleges, 11 are bound for power conferences and likely lots of NIL money (New Mexico's Donovan Dent is reportedly getting $3 million to play his senior season at UCLA). Here's our full transfer-portal tracker with a list of the 11 players headed to power-conference schools below.

MW transfers to power conferences

PG Donovan Dent (New Mexico to UCLA)

PG Kyan Evans (Colorado State to North Carolina)

PG Dedan Thomas Jr. (UNLV to LSU)

PG Nick Boyd (SDSU to Wisconsin)

SG Obi Agbim (Wyoming to Baylor)

SG Tru Washington (New Mexico to Miami)

SF Will Cooper (Air Force to Nebraska)

SF Filip Borovianin (New Mexico to Xavier)

PF Nick Davidson (Nevada to Clemson)

PF Jovan Milicevic (New Mexico to Xavier)

C Pape N’Diaye (UNLV to Xavier)

That's an elite 11-player team, especially in the backcourt with four excellent point guards and two high-level shooting guards. The MW could place a few more players on power-conference rosters, including Colorado State's Jaylen Crocker-Johnson; Nevada's Justin McBride; San Jose State's Will McClendon, Latrell Davis or Robert Vaihola; UNLV's Rob Whaley, Jr.; Utah State's Deyton Albury; and Wyoming's Dontaie Allen all having at least an outside chance of going to that level.

While I believe players should get fair-market value for their talent and hard work, which usually means leveling up from a mid-major to a power-conference school, this constant turnover is hard to stomach for fans. In this most recently completed season, some of the NCAA's top players were former MW players who moved on to other schools, including J.T. Toppin (Texas Tech), Darrion Williams (Texas Tech), John Tonje (Wisconsin), Lamont Butler (Kentucky), Keshon Gilbert (Iowa State), Steven Ashworth (Creighton), Chad Baker-Mazara (Auburn) and Graham Ike (Gonzaga). That trend's end doesn't appear anywhere in sight.

Columnist Chris Murray provides insight on Northern Nevada sports. Contact him at crmurray@sbgtv.com or follow him on Twitter @ByChrisMurray.