Maryland Eastern Shore head coach Jason Crafton already knew the significance of his program's major 86-78 road victory over Temple in December, long before noted college basketball pundit Jon Rothstein tweeted about it.
 
"That's likely the biggest win in school history and our guys earned it on both ends of the floor," Crafton said. "We are extremely pleased with this incredible team win. That's a really good Temple team that beat Villanova this year. So many guys contributed, it was a one effort to make this happen."
 
Several Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) coaches can make the same claim, as a number of the league's programs have notched strong non-conference victories this season. The MEAC programs haven't discriminated against conferences, either, knocking off the first-place team (as of Jan. 19) from the Southern Conference (Samford), Big South (UNC Asheville) and Western Athletic Conference (Utah Valley).
 
In addition, two-time defending MEAC champion Norfolk State is 4-0 against schools from the Colonial Athletic Association. South Carolina State's victory over East Carolina (American Athletic) was the perfect complement to its one-point triumph over Samford (SoCon). Coppin State outlasted James Madison of the Sun Belt in a double-overtime thriller before Christmas.
 
Howard claimed a huge road victory against a Harvard (Ivy League) squad currently sporting a winning record. The Bison also defeated a Buffalo (MAC) program that competed in the NCAA Tournament in 2018 and a Florida International squad that competes in Conference USA.
 
Norfolk State also added a MAC program (Bowling Green) and SWAC squad (Alabama A&M) to its list of impressive non-conference triumphs. Temple wasn't the only nice non-conference win for Maryland Eastern Shore, either; the Hawks also had wins over Columbia (Ivy) and Lehigh (Patriot League).  
 
North Carolina Central notched a pair of wins over Big South programs in Gardner-Webb and UNC Asheville. The Eagles also took a bite out of The Citadel, another SoCon member.
 
Two of Coppin State's victories were major ones against local programs: Navy, Mount St. Mary's and Loyola. Navy and Loyola are members of the Patriot League, while Mount St. Mary's is in the Northeast Conference (NEC).
 
Head coach Juan Dixon's team also went on the road and clipped Tennessee Tech out of the Ohio Valley Conference.
 
Including wins over non-Division I programs, the MEAC has 48 non-conference victories this season, its most in five years. Two years ago, during the pandemic-ravaged season, the MEAC had 22 non-conference wins, and the league boasted 40 such wins last season.
 
"It's a great thing for our conference to see everybody have a lot of success," Norfolk State head coach Robert Jones said. "You have your vested interest in your program, of course, but being objective, the strong body of work makes everybody better and hopefully come March, we won't be stuck as a No. 16 seed or have to play in the First Four. There's a lot of good teams in the conference and it's the best I've seen as a whole. There's been great teams, but this year, out of eight teams, I believe there are six legit title contenders. It's something I haven't experienced here at Norfolk State."
 
The strong non-conference success has fueled an intense start to conference competition.
 
Heading into the third weekend of conference competition, everybody except Morgan State has at least one conference setback. Five of the eight programs have .500 or better records: Norfolk State (12-6), Morgan State (10-8), UMES (9-8), North Carolina Central (9-8) and Howard (10-10).
 
There's also a four-way tie for second place right now between Howard, Maryland Eastern Shore, Norfolk State and North Carolina Central.
 
The easiest reason for the non-conference success is simple.
 
The MEAC has outstanding head coaches, solid programs and lots of talented players. That combination, along with the fact that many schools can schedule strategically by arranging home-and-home games against other mid-major programs in different conferences.
 
The talent has manifested itself among the NCAA's national leaders.
 
Sam Sessoms (Coppin State) is seventh in the country in scoring at 21.7 points per game. Kris Bankston (Norfolk State) is fourth in nation in field goal percentage. He's making an astounding 72.1 percent of his shots. Eric Boone (North Carolina Central) is 20th in steals per game at 2.31.
 
Morgan State's Malik Miller and Isaiah Burke are an amazing opponent-wilting duo. Burke is seventh in the country in 3-pointers made per game (3.53) and 13th in 3-point field goal percentage (45.8). Meanwhile, Miller is 14th in rebounding (10.1) and tied for seventh with 10 double-doubles.
 
"Perception isn't always about reality," Jones said. "I told my team some of the MEAC schools are better than some of the schools in the other conferences. Don't let them think that we're not. A definite credit to all of the coaches in this conference for elevating talent level. With the number of programs who have at least a .500 record, it shows the strength of our conference. The MEAC is very strong this year."
 
It's something that many other conferences learned during a memorable non-conference slate for the MEAC.
 
 
Rob Knox is an award-winning professional. A member of the Lincoln (Pa.) Hall of Fame, Knox currently serves as the Senior Director of Strategic Communications for the Thurgood Marshall College Fund. Knox enjoyed a distinguished career as an athletics communicator for Lincoln, Kutztown, Coppin State, Towson and UNC Greensboro. He also worked at ESPN and for the Delaware County Daily Times. Recently, Knox was honored by the NCAA with its Champion of Diversity award. Knox is a graduate of Lincoln University and a past president of the College Sports Communicators (CSC).