Over the next couple of days, I'll be looking at how one could (hypothetically, of course, I know WiS will never implement this) realign the conferences to best match up with:

a) reality
b) the current situation
and c) common sense.

Let's see what I can do.

OK, right away, there are four problem schools:

• Morris Brown, which might not exist anymore
• Birmingham-Southern (now DIII)
• Centenary (now DIII)
• New Orleans (now DIII)

We also have six conferences that WiS doesn't recognize:

• Atlantic Sun (9 schools)
• America East (9 schools: 2 to Metro, 5 to Patriot, BU to Ivy, Stony Brook to NEC)
• Great West (5 schools: 3 that WiS doesn't recognize, 1 in DII, and Chicago St in the Summit)
• SWAC (10 schools scattered around, most to the Big Sky or Big South)
• WAC (8 schools scattered, most to Big West)
• and of course the independents (3 schools, all in WiS's DII)

There's also 4 schools that I couldn't find in real life.

I'm going to sleep right now, but I might mess around with this more in the future.

Basically, though, what we're looking at is 62 HD schools that aren't in the same conference in HD as they are in real life.

If we keep all the divisions the same, my one suggestion would be: rebrand Fisk (DIII in HD but dead in RL) as either Centenary, New Orleans, or Birmingham-Southern (DI in HD but DIII in RL).  Then rebrand that DI school as St. Mary's of CA - that's a relatively prominent school that just doesn't exist in HD.

Beats me what to do with Morris Brown, though.

Ended up staying up to get this right, but I'll post results tomorrow.  The only real weird choices: Notre Dame in the Mizzou Valley; IUPUI and IUPFW in the Big Sky; and S. Florida in the Big 12.  But if you'll forgive me those, I have at least a draft of a conference system.

Basically, my proposal would get 42 schools "wrong" instead of the 62 that are off in the current system.  Considering that something like 25 schools are automatically wrong (dead conferences, those extra 5 Big East teams, etc.), that's really a significant improvement.

I'll post it for discussion in the morning.  Now, I sleep.

Morris Brown was  formerly a D1 independent but I can't find any reference to athletics now.  Their 2010 Homecoming Game featured the Mini-Trotters, 4 dwarfs and a tall guy dressed as Uncle Sam.  The school is gasping for breath and actually closed for a couple of weeks  in 2008 for failing to pay a water bill. They graduated 22 students in June and is $25 million in debt.  About 10 years ago, it's president and financial aid director were found guilty of embezzeling $1.8 million by obtaining school grants for students, ex-students, and even kids who never attended the school.  Sadly, most of the money was used for payroll and other Morris Brown expenses. Very little of it benefited the two women involved in the crime.

What  4 schools can you not find? If one of them is Texas St.-San Marcos, it's now known as Texas State. They , Denver, and Texas-San Antonio are joining the WAC in 2012

According to the NCAA website, there are 347 Division I Men's Basketball schools. Now that number includes about 5 or 6 schools that officially are not DI yet such as SIU, Edwardsville but WIS only lists 324 DI teams. I did not attempt to track the differences but just in a quick scan of the list I found St Mary's (CA), N. Florida, Longwood, Houston Baptist, Utah Valley, and Texas-Pan American not listed among the WIS schools. Texas-Pan Am used to be a WIS school but they were replaced by San Diego and all records were transferred over.

As long as we are pursuing pipe dreams, how about you work out how to accommodate difference sized conferences.

Posted by Weena on 12/1/2010 7:39:00 AM (view original):
According to the NCAA website, there are 347 Division I Men's Basketball schools. Now that number includes about 5 or 6 schools that officially are not DI yet such as SIU, Edwardsville but WIS only lists 324 DI teams. I did not attempt to track the differences but just in a quick scan of the list I found St Mary's (CA), N. Florida, Longwood, Houston Baptist, Utah Valley, and Texas-Pan American not listed among the WIS schools. Texas-Pan Am used to be a WIS school but they were replaced by San Diego and all records were transferred over.

WIS has N. Florida and Longwood in DII.  N. Florida is a member of the DI Atlantic Sun (Belmont and Lipscomb are the most notable members).  Longwood is a DI independent

NCAA provisional members (DI but not yet eligible for active membership and the NCAA tournament) are:

will become active in 2011-12
Fla. Gulf Coast- Atltantic Sun Conference
USC-Upstate- Atlantic Sun
N.C. Central- Mid-Eastern ( they were a long time member, briefly dropped to DII, now returning to DI)

Will become active in 2012-13
Presbyterian- Big South Conference
Bryant-  Northeast Conf
No. Dakota- Great West, but leaving for the Big Sky in 2012
Seattle- wants to rejoin the Big West, which they were members from 1971-1980 before joining NAIA)
So. Dakota- Great West, but leaving for the Summit in 2011
So. Illinois-Edwardsville- Ohio Valley

The Great West is not yet eligible for the NCAA tournament but their champion gets an automatic bid to the CIT (Collegiateinsiders.com Inv. Tournament). Current  Great West basketball members are  No. Dakota, So. Dakota, Utah Valley, New Jersey Tech, , Chicago St., Texas-Pan American, and Houston Baptist.   I don't know why New Jersey Tech is in this far-flung group....and TCU thinks they'll have a travel budget problem with the Big East!

I doubt the Great West can survive without the automatic NCAA bid.  To be eligible, a conference has to have 1) at least seven fully fledged Div. I members, 2) have seven members that have been Div. I for at least eight years (known as "core members"), and 3) six core members who have been league mates for five years. The current membership wouldn't meet all of those guidelines until the year 2020.

The 4 I couldn't find are because there's supposed to be 346-7 DI schools and I could only find 342.  But that's OK.

A10:Charlotte, Dayton, George Washington, La Salle, Rhode Island, Richmond, St. Bonaventure, St. Joseph's (PA), St. Louis, Temple, UMass, Xavier

ACC: Boston College, Clemson, Duke, Florida St., Georgia Tech, Maryland, Miami (FL), N. Carolina St., UNC, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest

Big 10: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Michigan St., Minnesota, Northwestern, Ohio St., Penn St., Purdue, Wisconsin, Nebraska

Big 12: Baylor, Iowa St., Kansas, Kansas St., Missouri, Oklahoma, Oklahoma St., Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Texas Christian, S. Florida

Big East: Cincinnati, Connecticut, Georgetown, Louisville, Pittsburgh, Providence, Rutgers, Seton Hall, St. Johns, Syracuse, Villanova, W. Virginia

Big Sky: E. Washington, Idaho St., Montana, Montana St., N. Arizona, Portland St., Sacramento St., Weber St., Chicago St., S. Utah, IPFW, IUPUI

Big South: Birmingham-Southern, Charleston So., Coastal Carolina, High Point, Liberty, Radford, UNC, Asheville, VMI, Winthrop, Mercer, Gardner-Webb, Campbell

Big West: Cal. Poly SLO, California, Irvine, California, Riverside, California, Santa Barbara, CSU, Fullerton, CSU, Northridge, Long Beach St., Pacific, New Orleans, Centenary, Texas, San Antonio, TX State-San Marcos

CAA: Delaware, Drexel, George Mason, Georgia St., Hofstra, James Madison, Northeastern, Old Dominion, Towson, UNC, Wilmington, VCU, William and Mary

CUSA: Central Florida, E. Carolina, Houston, Marshall, Memphis, Rice, S. Mississippi, SMU, Tulane, Tulsa, UAB, UTEP

Horizon: DePaul, Marquette, Butler, Cleveland St., Detroit, Illinois-Chicago, Loyola Chicago, Wisconsin, Green Bay, Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wright St., Youngstown St., Valparaiso

Ivy: Duquesne, Fordham, Boston U., Bucknell, Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Pennsylvania, Princeton, Yale

MAC: Akron, Ball St., Bowling Green, Buffalo, C. Michigan, E. Michigan, Kent St., Miami (OH), N. Illinois, Ohio, Toledo, W. Michigan

MEAC: Bethune-Cookman, Coppin St., Delaware St., Florida A&M, Hampton, Howard, Maryland, E. Shore, Morgan St., N. Carolina A&T, Norfolk St., S. Carolina St., Jacksonville

Metro: Albany, Binghamton, Canisius, Fairfield, Iona, Loyola (MD), Manhattan, Marist, Niagara, Rider, Siena, St. Peters

MVC: Bradley, Creighton, Drake, Evansville, Illinois St., Indiana St., Missouri St., N. Iowa, S. Illinois, Wichita St., Notre Dame, W. Illinois

MWC: Air Force, Colorado St., New Mexico, San Diego St., UNLV, Wyoming, Idaho, Utah St., Fresno St., Hawaii, Boise St., Nevada

NEC: Stony Brook, C. Connecticut St., Fairleigh Dickinson, Long Island, Monmouth, Mt. St. Mary's, Quinnipiac, Robert Morris, Sacred Heart, St. Francis, St. Francis of NY, Wagner

OVC: Austin Peay, E. Illinois, E. Kentucky, Jacksonville St., Morehead St., Murray St., SE Missouri St., Tennessee St., Tennessee Tech., Tennessee, Martin, E. Tennessee St., Oakland

Pac-10 (-12): Arizona, Arizona St., Cal, Oregon, Oregon St., Stanford, UCLA, USC, Washington, Washington St., Colorado, Utah

Patriot: Hartford, Maine, New Hampshire, UMBC, Vermont, American U., Army, Colgate, Holy Cross, Lafayette, Lehigh, Navy

SEC: Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana St., Mississippi, Mississippi St., S. Carolina, Tennessee, Vanderbilt

SWAC (formerly Summit): Missouri-KC, Oral Roberts, Alcorn St., Jackson St., Prairie View A&M, Southern, Alabama A&M, Alabama St., Mississippi Valley St., Texas Southern, Arkansas, Pine Bluff, Grambling St.

Southern: Appalachian St., Charleston, Davidson, Elon, Furman, Georgia Southern, Tennessee, Chattanooga, The Citadel, UNC, Greensboro, W. Carolina, Wofford, Samford

Southland: Lamar, McNeese St., Nicholls St., Northwestern St., Sam Houston St., Southeastern Louisiana, Stephen F. Austin, Texas A&M, CC, Texas-Arlington, Belmont, Stetson, Lipscomb

Sun Belt: Louisiana Tech, Arkansas St., Arkansas, Little Rock, Florida Atlantic, Florida Int., Middle Tenn. St., S. Alabama, Troy, UL-Lafayette, Louisiana, Monroe, W. Kentucky, N. Texas

WCC: Gonzaga, Loyola Marymount, Pepperdine, Portland, San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Morris Brown/St Mary's, San Jose St., New Mexico St., Denver, BYU

I like that you have the SWAC teams back together. The league is 90 years old and WIS had them split between the Big South (3 teams);  Big Sky (4 teams); Ohio Valley (1 team); WCC (1 team);  MVC (1 team).  
It's impossible, of course, to keep all the leagues together. But you did a very good job!