For the second time in less than five years, the Butler Bulldogs are looking for  a new head basketball coach. But I guess that’s the price you pay for success.

All over college basketball programs like Creighton, Virginia Commonwealth, Southern Illinois, Winthrop and Nevada are shaking in their boots as any number of coaching vacancies at big-time programs come open.

Earlier in the week, Todd Lickliter from Butler defected from Indy to Iowa City to become Iowa’s head basketball coach and Creighton head coach Dana Altman was expected to take the Arkansas head coaching job when he announced today that he was staying in Omaha to coach the Blue Jays.

As mid-major success in the NCAA tournament grows abundant, those programs will have to pony up the bucks and upgrade their facilities, not if they want to recruit blue-chip talent but to keep their coaches.

So far, the only coach in college basketball to resist the call of big-time college basketball has been Mark Few at Gonzaga and I think Few’s got it figured it out. He plays a murderous non-conference schedule, gets a few quality wins early in the season, plays a super soft conference scheduled in the WCC and then coasts into the NCAA tournament. But here’s the thing, if the Bulldogs get bounced early from the tourney, is anyone in Spokane yelling for his head? Not likely. And therein lies his genius. Mid-major jobs, while they may be low in prestige, are also low pressure.

But that won’t stop mid-major coaches  from chasing the big money and bright lights of major programs in major conferences. And therein lies the conflict. Programs like Southern Illinois and Butler have been a Big Ten feeding ground in recent years (Bruce Weber, Matt Painter, Thad Matt, Todd Lickliter) and if the mid-major programs and their boosters don’t pony up the bucks to keep their up and coming coaches — they’re not going to have them for very long.