I've seen discussions that it's hard to move from D2 into the "Top 6" D1 conferences. Based on prestige I'm thinking they include the ACC, Big 10, Pac 10, SEC and Big 12 but don't know the 6th one? Any help on this and advice on good teams to take over? Thanks.

Big East is the other, but maybe the weakest of the 6 traditional “power” conferences.

The best teams to take over depends on world, and what your goals are. If having fun is your prime goal, and you don’t worry too much about instant success or getting credits, just take the school that appeals most to you, with all the warts it might have.

If success asap is your mindset, look at a couple things before moving into a big 6 conference. First of all, how many open scholarships does the team have? Recruiting top talent in the second session is very difficult, you’re basically going to be fighting for scraps. So if you want to win in the next 2-3 seasons, you’ll want a team with few open scholarships (you can also check to see if the team has already signed players in the first session). The other big thing to consider is how many humans you are coaching against, and how saturated D1 conferences are in your area. If you’re the 11th or 12th human in a conference, it can be a long haul to respectability, especially if your team is a mess. You’ll probably need to leave the region to recruit, because you’ll be at a prestige disadvantage out of the gate. That means scouting and recruiting will be more expensive for you, less bang for your buck. Conference wins are also tough to get, with few simAIs to pad your schedule.

So by these standards, a big 6 team with 0-2 open scholarships to fill, in a half-full conference is probably the fastest path to a contender.

Big East. A C to D+ big six team is attainable.

Big East

If you've never played in D1 I don't necessarily recommend grabbing a completely devestated power conference team. Tougher to rebuild and it could get really frustrating. I usually recommend coaching at a smaller school for a few years.

I was afraid it was the Big East, I was considering it. And thanks for the info and suggestions- good stuff!
How about a Big 6 conference with a C- team, do you think that team might be available? I am not jumping into a conference very full of veteran coaches but would like 3-5 veterans there I can learn from.

From what I can tell, there are two primary paths to a Big 6 job:

1. Go to a midmajor D1 school and build it up into something special (consistent Sweet Sixteen team) and then lateral into a pretty decent B6 job when it opens up.

2. Go to a struggling B6 school -- you can jump from D2 (or maybe even a super successful D3) into these jobs.

If you are thinking about the second route, I would carefully consider the potential for that job -- what is the baseline prestige and how good is the recruiting location? Sometimes a really good job will fall open for several seasons and the sim coach will run into the ground, but a good coach could revive it in a few seasons.