I figure it's worth putting forward a proposal for a 27-conference, 12-team-per-conference structure. If everything is changing soon, now is a good time for a realignment.

My goals: Keep schools in the right conferences whenever possible; keep schools in their current HD conferences whenever possible; keep conferences logical; keep bigger programs in bigger conferences when something has to give.

Keep in DII: Bryant, Cal-Bakersfield, Cal-Davis, C. Arkansas, FGCU, Kennesaw St., Longwood, N. Colorado, Nebraska-Omaha, NJIT, NC Central, N. Florida, SIU-Edwardsville, Seattle, and the four Dakota schools have moved to DI in real life, but it's easier to just keep them in DII where HD has them.

Rebrand: Morris Brown no longer has an athletic program, so let's call it Houston Baptist. Centenary is now DIII, so let's call it S. Carolina Upstate. And Birmingham-Southern is DIII, too, so let's call it St. Mary's (CA).

Continue to Ignore: Texas Rio Grande Valley. This is the old UTPA. No one cares.

Conference name changes: I got rid of the Southland Conference and the Summit League. In their place are the American Athletic Conference and the SWAC.


THE CONFERENCES
1. Atlantic 10. Davidson, Duquesne, Fordham, GWU, La Salle, Rhode Island, Richmond, Rutgers, St. Bonaventure, St. Joseph's (PA), Temple, UMass.
Comments: The real A10 is 14 schools, so something had to give. Rutgers is getting demoted (no room in power conferences); Temple doesn't go to the AAC like in real life.

2. American Athletic Conference. Cincinnati, Connecticut, Houston, Louisville, Memphis, Pittsburgh, SMU, USF, Syracuse, Tulane, Tulsa, West Virginia
Comments: Kind of a hodge-podge here, but there's only so much you can do when the real-life ACC is 15 schools. Temple and UCF have been demoted; this is really just the most logical home for WV and the three ACC schools here.

3. ACC. BC, Clemson, Duke, FSU, GT, Miami (FL), UNC, NC St., Notre Dame, Virginia, V Tech, Wake Forest.
Comments: Everyone's real here.

4. Big 10. Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Michigan St., Minnesota, NU, OSU, Penn St., Purdue, Wisconsin.
Comments: No Nebraska, no Rutgers. Had to make the numbers work.

5. Big 12. Baylor, Iowa St., Kansas, Kansas St., Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oklahoma St., Texas, Texas A&M, TCU, Texas Tech
Comments: Nebraska, TAMU, and Mizzou can't leave if we're going to have 12-team conferences.

6. Big East. Butler, Creighton, Dayton, DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, Seton Hall, St. Johns, St. Louis, Villanova, Xavier
Comments: They're big Catholic schools.

7. Big Sky. Denver, E. Washington, Idaho, Idaho St., Montana, Montana St., N. Arizona, N. Mexico St., Portland St., S. Utah, Sacramento St., Weber St.
Comments: Geography is king here - no more of this **** where Southern (in Lousiana) is "Big Sky."

8. Big South. Charleston So., Coastal Carolina, High Point, Liberty, McNeese St., New Orleans, Nicholls St., Northwestern St., Radford, SE Louisiana, UNC-Asheville, Winthrop
Comments: This is basically the real Big South, plus the Louisianan contingent from the Southland.

9. Big West. Cal. Poly SLO, Irvine, Riverside, Santa Barbara, Fullerton, Northridge, Hawaii, Long Beach, Lamar, Sam Houston St., Stephen F. Austin, TAMU-CC
Comments: And here's the Texan bit of the Southland.

10. CAA. Delaware, Drexel, E. Carolina, Hofstra, George Mason, James Madison, Northeastern, Old Dominion, Towson, UNC-Wilmington, VCU, William and Mary
Comments: A few teams, most notably George Mason and VCU, get denied promotions.

11. CUSA. Charlotte, FAU, FIU, Louisiana Tech, Marshall, Middle Tenn. St., N. Texas, Rice, S. Miss., Texas-Arlington, UAB, UTEP
Comments: Jesus, the CUSA is a mess in real life. So here it is in HD.

12. Horizon. Cleveland St., Detroit, UIC, IPFW, IUPUI, Oakland, Valpo, Green Bay, W. Illinois, Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Wright St., Youngstown St.
Comments: some of the local Summit League teams make it in to round out the numbers. Note that Loyola are DePaul are gone.

13. Ivy League. Boston U., Brown, Bucknell, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Monmouth, Penn, Princeton, Quinnipiac, Yale
Comments: compared to the old HD Ivy, we've replaced two big Catholic schools with smaller Northeastern schools. Sure.

14. MAC. Akron Ball St., Bowling Green, Buffalo, CMU, EMU, Kent State, Miami (OH), N. Illinois, Ohio, Toledo, WMU
Comments: Yep.

15. MEAC. Bethune-Cookman, Coppin St., Delaware St., FAMU, Hampton, Howard, UMES, Morgan St., NCAT, Norfolk St., S. Carolina St., Troy
Comments: HBCUs in the Southeast. Troy isn't an HBCU, but its student body is over a quarter African-American.

16. Metro. Albany, Binghamton, Canisius, Fairfield, Iona, Manhattan, Marist, Niagara, Rider, Siena, St. Peters, Stony Brook
Comments: Three state-of-New-York schools from the real-life America East join this conference. In HD, they were in the Patriot before.

17. Missouri Valley. Bradley Drake, Evansville, Gardner-Webb, Illinois St., Indiana St., Loyola-Chicago, Missouri St., N. Iowa, S. Illinois, Western Kentucky, Wichita St.
Comments: Gardner-Webb is stupidly placed here, but I'm deferring to old HD for convenience. WKU is local-ish.

18. Mountain West. Air Force, Boise St., Colorado St., Fresno St., Nevada, New Mexico, Oral Roberts, SDSU, San Jose St., UNLV, Utah St., Wyoming
Comments: It had to go somewhere. What a stupid name for a school.

19. Northeast. CCSU, Fairleigh Dickinson, Hartford, Long Island, Maine, New Hampshire, Robert Morris, Sacred Heart, the St. Francises, Vermont, Wagner
Comments: I kept the four America East schools together - this is as reasonable a home for them as the Patriot was.

20. Ohio Valley. Austin Peay, Belmont, E. Illinois, E. Kentucky, Jacksonville St., Lipscomb, Morehead St., Murray St., Tenn. St., Tenn. Tech, Tenn-Martin
Comments: Geography.

21. PAC-12. Arizona (St.), Cal and Stanford, UCLA and USC, Oregon (St.), Washington (St.), Utah, and Colorado.
Comments: It's correct.

22. Patriot League. American, Army, Colgate, Holy Cross, Jacksonville, Lafayette, Lehigh, Loyola (MD), Mt. St. Mary's, Navy, S. Carolina Upstate, UMBC
Comments: A bit of spread here. If you guys can find more logical homes for these schools, let me know...

23. SEC. Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU, Mississippi (St.), USC-East, Tennessee, Vandy
Comments: Missing the new teams, but these are all SEC schools.

24. Southern. Charleston, Elon, ETSU, Furman, Mercer, Samford, Tenn-Chattanooga, The Citadel, UNC-Greensboro, VMI, W. Carolina, Wofford
Comments: Charleston and Elon don't get their promotions.

25. Sun Belt. Appalachian St., Arkansas St., Arkansas-LR, UCF, Georgia Southern, Georgia St., Louisiana-Monroe, S. Alabama, Stetson, UTSA, Texas State, UL-Lafayette
Comments: Stetson, a real Atlantic Sun school, joins its local-ish rivals-ish. Former A-Sun rival UCF comes with.

26. SWAC. Alabama A&M, Alabama St., Alcorn St., Ark-Pine Bluff, Campbell, Grambling St., Houston Baptist, Jackson St., MV St., PVAM, Southern, Texas Southern
Comments: I'm bringing back the SWAC because ten of these schools are SWAC in real life. Texas Southern (currently in HD's MWC) is probably the biggest jump, which would affect me negatively, but hey, it's SWAC in real life...

27. WCC. BYU, Chicago St., Gonzaga, Loyola Marymount, UMKC, Pacific, Pepperdine, Portland, San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Clara, St. Mary's (CA)
Comments: Sure, Chicago State and UMKC are weird here, but they're in the damn WAC in real life.

Let me know what you guys think - if we figure out better ideas, I'll edit the post. Right now, 53 schools aren't in their real conference. That may seem weird, but there's five oversize conferences and five we don't use at all, so it's actually not that bad.

well, you're taking a wildly outdated and erroneous system and just replacing it with another wildly erroneous system, so what's really the point? to me this is not a huge deal given the fictional limitation of 12 teams per conference, so i would propose something much more modest.

- straight swap of Utah for Fresno
- straight swap of Notre Dame for Maryland
- straight swap of San Jose St for Denver
- Colorado to PAC, TCU to Big 12, Hawaii to MWC (that last one being at least semi-accurate)

I'm sure there are a bunch more simple fixes like this in the smaller conferences as well that would help make it more accurate, but dealing with the inflated conferences is just impossible given our 12-team constraints. why try if it is just creating more inaccuracies?

Yep it's been proposed many times, it's pointless and won't be considered at best if by some magical chance you maybe get a few switches like what bathtub said, anything major won't even be worth it and has less of a chance of being changed than jobs imo, I wouldn't spend any more effort on it.

Placing South Florida in the MEAC is laughable.

Posted by gomiami1972 on 6/20/2016 3:32:00 PM (view original):
Placing South Florida in the MEAC is laughable.

Yeah, I'm just trying here - most of the other HBCUs are either ACTUALLY in the SWAC/OVC, or DII in HD terms. Ideas?

Also, I mean, the obvious answer to "why even try" is "I was bored at work."

Posted by bathtubhippo on 6/20/2016 2:31:00 PM (view original):
well, you're taking a wildly outdated and erroneous system and just replacing it with another wildly erroneous system, so what's really the point? to me this is not a huge deal given the fictional limitation of 12 teams per conference, so i would propose something much more modest.

- straight swap of Utah for Fresno
- straight swap of Notre Dame for Maryland
- straight swap of San Jose St for Denver
- Colorado to PAC, TCU to Big 12, Hawaii to MWC (that last one being at least semi-accurate)

I'm sure there are a bunch more simple fixes like this in the smaller conferences as well that would help make it more accurate, but dealing with the inflated conferences is just impossible given our 12-team constraints. why try if it is just creating more inaccuracies?

Great idea bathtubhippo.

Seble???

Posted by cornfused on 6/20/2016 3:42:00 PM (view original):

Posted by gomiami1972 on 6/20/2016 3:32:00 PM (view original):
Placing South Florida in the MEAC is laughable.

Yeah, I'm just trying here - most of the other HBCUs are either ACTUALLY in the SWAC/OVC, or DII in HD terms. Ideas?

...for full disclosure, I'm a USF alum.

South Florida was a founding member of the Sun Belt, C-USA and the AAC...which is a direct continuation for UConn, Cincy and USF from the fractured Big East. Any of the "small" schools in Florida - Stetson, Jacksonville, FAU, FIU would make sense. Hell, based on academic ranking, endowment, and most other metrics (other than perhaps athletic program success) Central Florida is behind USF. But, if you insist on UCF getting the nod for the American, I'd say C-USA or, at worst, the Sun Belt.

While there will always be schools that don't "fit", I applaud your effort Corn. I think you did a pretty nice job there.

3. ACC. Clemson, Duke, FSU, GT, Miami (FL), UNC, NC St., Notre Dame, Virginia, V Tech, Wake Forest.
Comments: Everyone's real here.

11 teams...................

Posted by mullycj on 6/20/2016 4:44:00 PM (view original):
3. ACC. Clemson, Duke, FSU, GT, Miami (FL), UNC, NC St., Notre Dame, Virginia, V Tech, Wake Forest.
Comments: Everyone's real here.

11 teams...................

That solves my problem. Move Syracuse, Pitt or Louisville to the ACC and promote my Bulls back to where they belong.

No offense to you gomiami, I don't hate USF or anything, but compared to some other schools, they haven't been in the major conferences for all that long. And if ranking by success, they have only been to the NCAA tourney once since joining the Big East (as a 12 seed if I recall). Certainly better than say Rutgers or Northwestern but I wouldn't call it laughable to say they don't have either the rep or history of a major conference team. Seriously, no offense, just saying.

Posted by Benis on 6/20/2016 5:05:00 PM (view original):
No offense to you gomiami, I don't hate USF or anything, but compared to some other schools, they haven't been in the major conferences for all that long. And if ranking by success, they have only been to the NCAA tourney once since joining the Big East (as a 12 seed if I recall). Certainly better than say Rutgers or Northwestern but I wouldn't call it laughable to say they don't have either the rep or history of a major conference team. Seriously, no offense, just saying.

No offense taken. I am painfully aware that USF is not an athletic juggernaut.

However, if somebody out of Florida gets the boot, then Stetson, FIU, FAU and UCF are more obvious candidates.

Won't argue with you there