My vote goes to DIII USA South and DII Heartland.

I've thought about trying to make the North American athletic conference into a juggernaut. Obviously the Alaska schools would be tough jobs but otherwise the conference is so spread out that you wouldn't have to battle conference mates often. Is it a good conference in any world?

Posted by therewas47 on 3/21/2016 9:19:00 AM (view original):
I've thought about trying to make the North American athletic conference into a juggernaut. Obviously the Alaska schools would be tough jobs but otherwise the conference is so spread out that you wouldn't have to battle conference mates often. Is it a good conference in any world?

I joined the NAAA with Alaska, Anchorage around 30 seasons ago in Knight. At the time, there were two teams with title contenders (W. Chester and W. Oregon) and a couple other good coaches (jtt8355 at WV Wesleyan, garmansouth at S New Hampshire). I think it could've turned into something really good, but everybody started feeling the D1 itch in my 3rd or 4th season there, and it never really materialized. I ended up with a Final Four run from Anchorage but never consistently got past Sweet Sixteen quality. Recruiting to Alaska was a lot of work, and when the conference emptied out, I ended up following them to D1. So who knows what could've been. Not sure how it's done in other worlds.

In tark, w/in 200 miles, there are 22 D3 recruits, none are recruitable; and 18 recruits at d2. w/in 360 miles (e.g., including the 200 mile recruits), there are 28 D3 recruits, and 29 D2 recruits. Sunshine State has 6 human coaches, though 1 is in Puerto Rico. There is a D2 school approx. 40 miles away coached by a human.

this is not to say that there aren't advantages to recruiting in PBA (i won't reiterate my previous post). however, they're quite overblown when you put it into perspective. FWIW, before i landed at PBA, in 92 seasons, the school had only made the E8 once and S16 twice. In Naismith, PBA didn't get past the 2nd round of the NT until season 80; mind you, they only made the NT 3 times until reaching that feat.