HD REALIGNMENT FOR 2021:
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324 teams,
27 conferences.

note: Based on Oldwarrior's great ideas, i adjusted things to keep Notre Dame in the ACC, ultimately causing TCU to be placed in the Mountain West.

All the same teams remain in HD Division One, except:
- Morris Brown switches to St Mary's CA.
- Centenary is real life D3 and open for replacement... NC Central...?
- Birmingham-Southern is real life D3 and open for replacement.

New conferences:
AMERICAN.
SWAC.

Discontinued conferences:
Summit (only 4 HD Div-1 teams are real-life in the Summit).
Big South (from 1986, one of newest conferences).

(1) AMERICAN: new for HD.
Cincinnati
Central Florida
East Carolina
South Florida
Temple
Tulane
Tulsa
Houston
Memphis
Smu
Wichita State
12. LOUISVILLE.

Note: Louisville wasn't one of the first 12 in the ACC, so cannot fit there. They played in the AAC in 2014, and have longtime rivalries with Memphis and Cincinnati from the old Metro years.

(2) ATLANTIC-10:
Dayton
George Washington
Rhode Island
Richmond
Saint Louis
St Bonaventure
St Joseph's
UMass
Davidson
Duquesne
11. PITTSBURGH.
12. RUTGERS.

Note: Due to the 12 team conference restriction, Pitt can't fit into the ACC, nor the Big East. Rutgers as well, can't fit into the Big Ten. Neither makes sense to fill the 12th spot in the Big East, which I awarded to founding member Syracuse. The most intriguing solution was to place both Pitt and Rutgers back in the A-10, where they were both founding members in like 1977 or so (ECBL, EAA, Eastern-8). Duquesne here in HD likewise moves back home to their 1977 home. Of the 8 original A-10 (ECBL, EAA, E-8) schools, 5 of them (Pitt, Rutgers, GW, Duquesne, and UMass) would now be in the HD A-10 (the other 3 are unavailable: West Virginia, Penn State, and Villanova). Also of note, the A10 has 14 real-life teams... and if I was adding Pitt and Rutgers, it meant 4 current A-10'ers needed to leave. So I reached into my memory bank... I returned 2 of the most-recent additions of VCU and George Mason back to the Colonial... and i placed La Salle back in their Metro-Atlantic home where Lionel Simmons excelled... and I placed Fordham back in the Patriot where they also excelled in around 1990 or so.

(3) ACC:
Boston College
Clemson
Duke
Florida State
Georgia Tech
Miami FL
NC State
UNC
Virginia
Virginia Tech
Wake Forest
Notre Dame.

Note: Maryland wasn't one of the first 12 into the Big Ten (Nebraska grabbed that spot). In my mind, Maryland is still an ACC school in spirit. And Maryland has no other historically logical HD home. I could put Louisville here, and place Maryland in the Big Ten, and rotate Nebraska to the Big 12, and swing West Virginia back to the A-10, and then Rutgers back to the American... but that seems like a mess of daisy chains that affects too many conferences. EDIT: MARYLAND MOVED TO THE BIG TEN. NOTRE DAME MOVED TO THE ACC. NEBRASKA TO THE BIG 12. TCU TO THE MOUNTAIN WEST. CHICAGO STATE TO THE HORIZON.

(4) BIG EAST:
Georgetown
Providence
Seton Hall
St John's
Villanova
UConn
Creighton
Xavier
Butler
Marquette
DePaul
12. SYRACUSE.

Note: The real life Big East has 11 teams. The strongest candidate by far for the 12th spot is founding member Syracuse. I still want them to return home to the Big East in real-life, back with my Friars.

(5) BIG-12
Baylor
Iowa State
Kansas
Kansas State
Oklahoma
Oklahoma State
Texas
Texas Tech
West Virginia
10. NEBRASKA.
11. MISSOURI.
12. TEXAS A&M.

Note: To get to 12, and drop the SEC back to 12, the logical shift was to get recent movers Mizzou and aTm back to the Big 12, joining many of their old SWC and Big-8 rivals. EDIT: Nebraska stays in Big 12. TCU goes to Mountain West.

(6) PAC-12:
Arizona
Arizona State
California
Oregon
Oregon State
USC
UCLA
Stanford
Washington
Washington State
Utah
Colorado.

Note: Simply shifted real-life Pac-12 newbies Utah and Colorado to the Pac-12, and shifted Fresno and Hawaii elsewhere.

(7) SEC:
Alabama
Auburn
Arkansas
Florida
Georgia
Kentucky
LSU
Ole Miss
Mississippi State
South Carolina
Tennessee
Vanderbilt

Note: As noted in the Big-12 commentary, just shifted the most recent real-life SEC add-ons back to their Big-12 home.

(8) BIG TEN:
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Michigan
Michigan State
Minnesota
Northwestern
Ohio State
Penn State
Purdue
Wisconsin
Maryland

Note: EDIT: These are 12 of the 14 Big Ten members. HD Notre Dame switched out for Maryland. B1G Rutgers goes to the A-10. Nebraska stays in the Big-12.

(9) MAC:
Akron
Ball State
Bowling Green
Buffalo
Central Michigan
Eastern Michigan
Kent State
Miami OH
Northern Illinois
Ohio U
Toledo
Western Michigan.

Note: These 12 are the current members of the MAC.

(10) MISSOURI VALLEY:
Bradley
Valparaiso
Drake
Evansville
Loyola Chicago
Illinois State
Indiana State
Missouri State
Northern Iowa
Southern Illinois
11. UMKC.
12. ORAL ROBERTS.

Note: The Valley in real life has 10 schools. I filled the last two spots with geographically compatible teams. The 2 choices are open to adjustments.

(11) OHIO VALLEY:
Belmont
Austin Peay
Eastern Illinois
Eastern Kentucky
Jacksonville State
Morehead State
Murray State
SE Missouri State
Tenn Martin
Tenn State
Tenn Tech
12. LIPSCOMB.

Note: Lipscomb of Nashville is lost in the HD West Coast Conf... joining the HD OVC places them geographically in a nice spot.

(12) C-USA:
Western Kentucky
Marshall
Rice
UAB
UTEP
Southern Mississippi
Louisiana Tech
Florida Atlantic
Florida International
Middle Tennessee
Charlotte
North Texas

Note: C-USA has had a ton of membership changes thru the years (used to have Louisville, etc), and real-life they have 14 members. So two had to be left out. I looked at the most recent additions, which was in around 2014 when 4 teams joined after Houston, Memphis, etc left. Those four newbies are Charlotte and North Texas who i kept in C-USA... plus UTSA and Old Dominion who i asked to move on.

(13) COLONIAL:
Delaware
Drexel
Hofstra
James Madison
Towson State
William & Mary
Elon
UNC Wilmington
Charleston
10. GEORGE MASON.
11. VCU.
12. OLD DOMINION.

Note: The Colonial in real-life has 10 teams, so ordinarily i would stick with those 10 and add 2 logical schools. However as noted in the A-10 commentary, i needed to keep VCU and George Mason in the CAA... and I needed a home for C-USA's Old Dominion so returned them back to their Colonial roots. This put me at 13, so I decided to take Northeastern, which has been a ridiculous geographic outlier, and i placed them in the Patriot with hockey rival Boston U, plus nearby rival Holy Cross.

(14) PATRIOT:
American U
Army
Colgate
Holy Cross
Lafayette
Lehigh
Navy
Bucknell
Boston U
Loyola MD
11. NORTHEASTERN.
12. FORDHAM.

Notes: As i mentioned in the A-10 and CAA commentary... Fordham was a Patriot powerhouse in around 1990 and probably shouldn't have moved to the real-life A-10. Northeastern is a geographic outlier in the CAA, so is connecting with some locals from the ECAC-New England going back to the Jim Calhoun years.

(15) METRO-ATLANTIC (MAAC):
Siena
Iona
Marist
Saint Peter's
Canisius
Niagara
Fairfield
Manhattan
Rider
Quinnipiac
Monmouth
12. LA SALLE.

Notes: the MAAC has 11 real-life teams. As noted in the A-10 comments, La Salle will fill the 12th spot, since the Explorers were a MAAC powerhouse in the late 80s with All-America Lionel Simmons. Should make for a really cool conference.

(16) IVY LEAGUE:
Brown
Columbia
Cornell
Dartmouth
Harvard
Penn
Princeton
Yale
9. VERMONT.
10. NEW HAMPSHIRE.
11. MAINE.
12. HARTFORD.

Notes: the 8 Ivy teams stay together, and welcome 4 others from the real-life America East... 3 great state schools of northern New England, and Hartford... Hartford is an outlier academically maybe, but they were the most logical of the alternatives to group New England schools together, all else being equal.

(17) NORTHEAST:
Central Connecticut
Fairleigh Dickinson
Long Island
Mount St Mary's
Sacred Heart
Saint Francis Brooklyn
Saint Francis PA
Wagner
9. ALBANY.
10. BINGHAMTON.
11. STONY BROOK.
12. UMBC.

Notes: the NEC has 8 schools, so i had to find 4 compatible area schools. I split the 4 New England-based America Easts to the Ivy, and the other 4 America Easts to the NEC. I considered introducing the America East in place of the NEC, but that would've required 4 weird NEC schools in the Ivy League (and do you really think Harvard and Yale want to associate with Central Connecticut? I mean, c'mon, lol).

(18) HORIZON:
Detroit Mercy
Green Bay
Illinois-Chicago
Milwaukee
Wright State
Youngstown State
Cleveland State
IUPUI
IPFW
Oakland
Robert Morris
12. CHICAGO STATE.

Note: Ok, this is the most awkward and potentially controversial. The real-life Horizon has 11 teams, and needed a 12th. Notre Dame, my favorite football team, now occupies the 12th Horizon slot. The Irish couldn't fit into the ACC, couldn't fit into the Big East, and couldn't even fit into the American. So I sat and pondered. Notre Dame joined the Big East in around 1995, after a history of playing as an Independent... one of the last Indy holdouts along with rival Marquette. I considered placing the Irish in the Big East with 10 other Catholics, but it interrupted too much. Anyway, prior to joining the Big East, the Olympic sports for Notre Dame were actually in the pre-cursor to the Horizon League, the Midwest City Conference (MCC), which had 8 schools including last remaining holdout Detroit Mercy. Geographically it makes sense, so I went with it. Any other ideas are welcome. Also, late 80's to mid-90s the Irish hoops program struggled, in the late Digger Phelps years and into the John MacLeod era. EDIT: CHICAGO STATE GETS 12TH SLOT IN HORIZON. NOTRE DAME MOVES TO THE ACC.

(19) SUN BELT:
Arkansas State
Little Rock
Louisiana (UL-Lafayette)
South Alabama
Troy
UL-Monroe
Texas Arlington
Georgia Southern
Georgia State
Appy State
Coastal Carolina
Texas State (TX San Marcos).

Notes: No issues in the Sun Belt, and real-life 12 team conference.

(20) MOUNTAIN WEST:
Air Force
Colorado State
New Mexico
San Diego State
UNLV
Wyoming
Fresno State
Boise State
Nevada
San Jose State
Utah State
12. TCU.

Notes: EDIT: The MWC has 11 real life teams. The 12th team could've been Denver of the Summit and HD MWC, but I went with New Mexico State to set up an instant rivalry with the Lobos. New Mexico State has some history with the Big West in the old UNLV days, but i made the decision to place them in the Mountain West. I followed Oldwarrior's recommendation and placed TCU in the Mountsin West.

(21) WEST COAST
Gonzaga
Loyola Marymount
Pepperdine
Portland
San Diego
San Francisco
Santa Clara
BYU
Pacific
10. ST MARY'S for Morris Brown.
11. UTSA.
12. DENVER.

Notes: Big change would be to swap out St Mary's in place of Morris Brown, and get each of the 10 real-life WCC schools together. The additional 2 schools are Denver (compatible with WCC schools), and UTSA, which has no HD room in its real-life Conference-USA home. These can be changed certainly.

(22) SWAC:
Prairie View
Jackson State
Southern
Alcorn State
Alabama A&M
Alabama State
Grambling State
Texas Southern
Ark Pine Bluff
Mississippi Valley State
11. CENTENARY.
12. BIRMINGHAM SOUTHERN.

Notes: Hey, I'm very excited about introducing the real-life 10 school SWAC in place of the Big South, which only has 8 schools in HD's Division-1. I added Centenary (alma mater of Robert Parish) and Birmingham Southern for now... both schools in real-life have moved to Division-3. Actually i'd like to swap Centenary and Birm-S out for NC Central and another recently-promoted HBCU but i need to look at school options...

(23) BIG SKY:
Eastern Washington
Idaho State
Montana
Montana State
Northern Arizona
Portland State
Sacramento State
Weber State
Idaho
Southern Utah
11. HIGH POINT.
12. GARDNER-WEBB.

Notes: The Big Sky has 10 teams. I added two from the other side of country, leftovers with my breakup of the Big South. Other options are available upon request.

(24) SOUTHERN:
Chattanooga
Furman
Wofford
Western Carolina
The Citadel
East Tenn State
UNC Greensboro
Mercer
VMI
Samford
11. CAMPBELL.
12. STETSON

Notes: the Southern Conference has 10 teams in real-life. My final 2 were also holdovers from the Big South and/or Atlantic Sun.

(25) SOUTHLAND:
Lamar
McNeese State
Nicholls State
Northwestern State
Sam Houston State
SE Louisiana
Stephen F Austin
Texas A&M Corpus Christi
New Orleans
10. LIBERTY.
11. WINTHROP.
12. RADFORD.

Notes: the Southland has 13 real-life teams, but only 9 teams in HD Div-1 (HD D-2 has Incarnate Work, Abilene Christian, Houston Baptist, and Central Arkansas). I added 3 teams that have had close rivalries through the years, each probably too far east... i'm open to suggestions. This is like the current HD Div-1 having Jackson State in the Big Sky.

(26) MEAC:
Bethune-Cookman
Coppin State
Delaware State
Florida A&M
Howard
Maryland Eastern Shore
Morgan State
Norfolk State
NC A&T
South Carolina State
11. JACKSONVILLE.
12. HAMPTON.

Notes: The MEAC has 11 real-life teams, but one is HD's Div-2 NC Central. So I needed to find 2 additions. Hampton recently left the MEAC, so i'm adding them back in. Also, to bridge the long ride to Bethune Cookman in Daytona, i've added Jacksonville to the MEAC, alma mater of the great Artis Gilmore.

(27) BIG WEST:
Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
Cal State Fullerton
Cal State Northridge
Long Beach State
UC Irvine
UC Riverside
UC Santa Barbara
Hawaii
9. CHARLESTON SOUTHERN.
10. UNC ASHEVILLE.
11. WESTERN ILLINOIS.
12. NEW MEXICO STATE.

Notes: The Big West posed the biggest problems... with 11 real-life teams, but only 8 Div-1 in HD... so no UC Davis or Cal State Bakersfield or UC San Diego. And few western teams to fill in the gaps. So i added the 4 remaining schools of Charleston Southern, UNC Asheville, Western Illinois, and New Mexico State to the Big West. if someone can think of a better solution, that would be cool. New Mexico State eas part of the Big West during the old UNLV days.
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Ok, that's my quick HD Div-1 Realignment... Enjoy!!!
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