I'm curious if anyone thinks HD will realign conferences or enlarge them beyond 10 teams to match real world changes that have taken place.  It might be fun in my opinion.  There are also some DII schools that have jumped up to DI in recent years.

Only if an 11th world is created (which will probably be never).  You can't really do it with one of the active worlds without upsetting everything in the process.  The 12 team conferences are good for business as it virtually makes everything fair/equal for the participating users.

I think they need to merge worlds and do the realignment at the same time. I'd get rid of two worlds.

Heres a google drive doc of what current D3 basketball looks like HERE 

the biggest thing is that they're more conferences and most conferences are not 12 teams most are either 8, 10 teams, it also looks like they're more D3 teams now.

but yeah I agree with colonels it won't happen unless a new world is created or a new version like HD2 is created also very unlikely.

Posted by zorzii on 1/25/2015 1:23:00 PM (view original):
I think they need to merge worlds and do the realignment at the same time. I'd get rid of two worlds.

how do you merge worlds though, each world is in a different season, has different histrroy, teams are different prestiges, some teams would have 2 coaches.

Some sort of draft... I don't know but I am for more owners in each worlds. You'd want around 150 owners a world and that would be perfect.

I understand why they don't want to tackle a big project like this... It would be a lot of work and would likely create a lot of complaining from unhappy owners.

But from a marketing point of view, I think they should consider it. Imagine you're a first-time player trying to decide if this is something you want to spend money on - and the first thing you see are conferences that are a decade old. It gives the impression that this is a game that hasn't been updated since 2002 (which sadly isn't as far from the truth as it should be.)

Just my two cents....

I sent in a ticket last year asking about realignment, and they responded that there are no plans to change the current conferences and their makeup.

I believe some minor realignment could be done, with the conferences remaining at 12 teams each. It still wouldn't be the same as reality, but we will never have that in this game anyways.

For example: ACC remains as is, Pac-10 ditches Hawaii and Fresno St. for Utah and Colorado, Big 10 ditches Notre Dame for Nebraska, SEC remains as is, Big 12 adds West Virginia and TCU to make up for losing Colorado and Nebraska, and the Big East adds Notre Dame to make up for losing West Virginia. I could go on, but you get the idea.

As a fun project, I tried realigning the conferences a few years ago. It's nearly impossible to avoid some weird groupings if you stay with 12 teams. I started with the most traditional 12 teams in each conference.

Other coaches have tried this as well. Some of ppk700's ideas are sound but you can't leave the SEC as it is. It has 14 teams since adding Missouri and Texas A&M. With Notre Dame, the ACC has 15 teams.

I put together this realignment scenario for Div-1 back in October...

http://www.whatifsports.com/forums/Posts.aspx?TopicID=480434&TopicsTimeframe=365&TopicsPage=19

this realignment would:
- increase number of Div-1 conferences by 2, from 27 to 29.
- only negatively impact 2 teams, where Rutgers would downgrade from the Big East to the Atlantic-10; and Notre Dame would fall back to the Horizon.
- of the top 10 HD conferences here (120 teams), only 8 or 9 teams would not be in their real life conference... this includes Syracuse and Pitt remaining in the Big East and Louisville in the new "American", so it there is some historical basis for the difference.

I just looked it over, and noticed that i have Creighton listed twice, in both the Big East and Missouri Valley.
So i would just add UT-Pan American to the SWAC, put Oral Roberts in the Valley, and keep Creighton in the Big East.
That would leave only NJIT and UMass-Lowell without a home.

Here are some bullet points from that original thread:

The key I think is because conferences have to stay at 12, just put:
(this was the order they were placed)
Maryland back in the ACC,
Rutgers back to its A-10 roots,
Louisville stays in the American,
Mizzou and aTm return to the Big-12,
Syracuse and Pitt return to the Big East.
Notre Dame goes way back to the Horizon.
The WCC gets Seattle and Denver, which will probably happen anyway.
New Mexico State to the Mountain West,
Then it was basically filling in empty spaces, like the Valley gets Chicago and KC schools...
Those are the main ones

I agree with Ojinga. If you are looking for new blood, it would be beneficial to make the game look as real life as possible. Realignment is a necessary change to make the game current. I remember when they added UC San Diego a few years back which was a small change but added to the reality of the game. If they realigned maybe they could ask users whose programs would change divisions if they wanted to move with the team, if they were qualified, or if they wanted to change programs to stay at the current division. Conference realignment should not be an issue because even in real life conferences change and rivalries will change. It is definitely something that should be looked into.

Posted by carter40 on 1/27/2015 11:32:00 AM (view original):
I agree with Ojinga. If you are looking for new blood, it would be beneficial to make the game look as real life as possible. Realignment is a necessary change to make the game current. I remember when they added UC San Diego a few years back which was a small change but added to the reality of the game. If they realigned maybe they could ask users whose programs would change divisions if they wanted to move with the team, if they were qualified, or if they wanted to change programs to stay at the current division. Conference realignment should not be an issue because even in real life conferences change and rivalries will change. It is definitely something that should be looked into.

Hey Carter, how did they add UC San Diego?
Did they replace a team?

In this proposed realignment below:
There would be 29 Div-1 conferences (up from 27 HD conferences currently).
There would be 348 Div-1 teams (up from 324 HD teams currently).
308 teams would be in their correct real life conference.
40 teams would NOT be in their current, real life conference, though many have historic ties to them (Syracuse and Pitt in Big East, Rutgers in A-10, Notre Dame in the Horizon, Seattle in WCC, Maryland in the ACC, etc)... these teams are shown in CAPS.

1 team would be eliminated from HD Div-1 (Morris Brown).
25 new teams would be added to HD Div-1 (this includes St Mary’s (of the WCC), which wasn't included in the original HD, as well as a number of Div-2 schools that moved up to Div-1 in real life (Incarnate Word, Bryant, etc).
So a net gain of 24 schools in Div-1.

NJIT and UMass-Lowell are not accounted for.
There may be other things that have been overlooked.

- - -

1 AMERICAN
Cincinnati
Connecticut
Temple
East Carolina
South Florida
LOUISVILLE

Houston
Memphis
SMU
Central Florida
Tulane
Tulsa

- - -

2 ACC
Duke
UNC
NC State
Wake Forest
Virginia
Virginia Tech

Boston College
Clemson
Florida State
Georgia Tech
Miami Fla
MARYLAND


- - -

3 ATLANTIC SUN
Fla Gulf Coast
Jacksonville
Lipscomb
North Florida
USC Upstate
Stetson

Northern Kentucky
Kennesaw State
NEBRASKA OMAHA
NORTH DAKOTA STATE
SOUTH DAKOTA
SOUTH DAKOTA STATE

- - -


4 - A-10
Rhode Island
Massachusetts
St Bonaventure
St Joseph’s
La Salle
RUTGERS

Vcu
Dayton
Saint Louis
George Washington
Richmond
Davidson

- - -


5 BIG EAST
Providence
St John’s
Seton Hall
Villanova
Georgetown
SYRACUSE

Creighton
Marquette
DePaul
Butler
Xavier
PITTSBURGH


- - -


6 BIG SKY
Eastern Washington
Portland State
Idaho
Idaho State
Montana
Montana State

North Dakota
Northern Colorado
Northern Arizona
Weber State
Southern Utah
Sacramento State


- - -

7 BIG SOUTH
UNC Asheville
Gardner Webb
High Point
Longwood
Liberty
Radford

Charleston Southern
Coastal Carolina
Presbyterian
Winthrop
Campbell
SAVANNAH STATE


- - -

8 BIG TEN
Minnesota
Nebraska
Iowa
Wisconsin
Northwestern
Illinois

Michigan
Michigan State
Purdue
Indiana
Ohio State
Penn State

- - -


9 - BIG 12
Iowa State
West Virginia
Oklahoma
Oklahoma State
Kansas
Kansas State

Texas
Texas Tech
Texas Christian
Baylor
TEXAS A&M
MISSOURI

- - -


10 BIG WEST
UC Santa Barbara
Long Beach State
CS Northridge
CS Fullerton
UC Riverside
UC Irvine

Hawaii
UC Davis
Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
CS BAKERSFIELD
GRAND CANYON
UTAH VALLEY

- - -

11 COLONIAL
Northeastern
Hofstra
Towson
Delaware
Drexel
GEORGE MASON

Elon
College of Charleston
William and Mary
Unc Wilmington
James Madison
OLD DOMINION

- - -


12 C-USA
Marshall
UAB
Western Kentucky
Charlotte
Fla Atlantic
Fla International

Lousiana Tech
Middle Tennessee
North Texas
Utep
Rice
Southern Miss

- - -

13 HORIZON
Cleveland State
Wright State
Youngstown State
Oakland
IP FORT WAYNE
IUPUI

Milwaukee
Green Bay
Valpo
Detroit Mercy
Illinois Chicago
NOTRE DAME

- - -


14 IVY LEAGUE
Brown
Dartmouth
Harvard
Yale
MAINE
NEW HAMPSHIRE

Penn
Princeton
Columbia
Cornell
VERMONT
BINGHAMTON


- - -

15 METRO ATLANTIC
Quinnipiac
Fairfield
Canisius
Siena
Niagara
ALBANY

St Peter’s
Iona
Manhattan
Monmouth
Rider
Marist


- - -

16 MAC
Buffalo
Akron
Ohio U
Miami Ohio
Kent State
Toledo

Bowling Green
Western Michigan
Central Michigan
Eastern Michigan
Northern Illinois
Ball State

- - -


17 MEAC
Howard
Md Eastern Shore
Coppin State
Norfolk State
Delaware State
Morgan State

NC Central
Hampton
Florida A&M
So Carolina State
NC A&T
Bethune Cookman


- - -


18 MISSOURI VALLEY
Wichita State
Missouri State
Drake
Northern Iowa
UM-KANSAS CITY
ORAL ROBERTS

Indiana State
Southern Illinois
Bradley
Evansville
Loyola Chicago
CHICAGO STATE


- - -


19 MOUNTAIN WEST
Colorado State
Air Force
Wyoming
Boise State
New Mexico
NEW MEXICO STATE

San Diego State
Fresno State
Unlv
San Jose State
Nevada
Utah State


- - -

20 NORTHEAST
Bryant
Central Conn State
Sacred Heart
Liu Brooklyn
HARTFORD
STONY BROOK

St Francis NY
St Francis PA
Fairleigh Dickinson
Mt St Mary’s
Wagner
Robert Morris

- - -


21 OHIO VALLEY
Austin Peay
Tenn Martin
Tenn State
Tenn Tech
Jacksonville State
SE Missouri State

Belmont
Eastern Kentucky
Morehead State
Murray State
Eastern Illinois
Siu Edwardsville


- - -


22 PAC-12
Washington
Washington State
Oregon
Oregon State
Cal
Stanford

Ucla
Southern Cal
Arizona
Arizona State
Utah
Colorado

- - -


23 PATRIOT
American
Loyola Md
Navy
Army
Lafayette
Lehigh

Holy Cross
Boston U
Colgate
Bucknell
DUQUESNE
FORDHAM

- - -


24 SEC
Kentucky
Arkansas
Tennessee
Ole Miss
Mississippi State
Lsu

Florida
Georgia
South Carolina
Auburn
Alabama
Vanderbilt

- - -

25 SOUTHERN
Chattanooga
The Citadel
Furman
Unc Greensboro
Western Carolina
NEW ORLEANS

Wofford
Samford
Vmi
Mercer
East Tenn State
UMBC

- - -

26 SOUTHLAND
Abilene Christian
Central Arkansas
Houston Baptist
Incarnate Word
Lamar
McNeese State

Texas a&m Corpus Christi
Nicholls State
Northwestern State
Sam Houston State
Southeastern La
Stephen F Austin

- - -

27 SWAC
Southern
Alabama State
Alabama A&M
Grambling State
Alcorn State
WESTERN ILLINOIS

Texas Southern
Ark Pine Bluff
Prairie View
Mississippi Valley State
Jackson State
UT-PAN AMERICAN

- - -

28 SUNBELT
Texas State
Ut Arlington
UL Lafayette
UL Monroe
South Alabama
UT SAN ANTONIO

Troy
Georgia State
Georgia Southern
Appalachian State
UA Little Rock
Arkansas State

- - -

29 WEST COAST
St Mary’s
Santa Clara
San Francisco
Pacific
Loyola Marymount
Pepperdine

Brigham Young
San Diego
Gonzaga
Portland
DENVER
SEATTLE