College Basketball Conference Makeover

Contributed by Strike Point Sports

After hearing about the Big Ten’s further inquiry into a possible expansion of its conference, it made me think about some fun I could have about changing around the nature of the conferences and interchanging teams based on locations, prestige shifts and just interesting, new match-ups. It’s full-on college basketball season, so at the risk of confusing things and arguing hoops with football, let’s just look at this from the vantage point of college basketball only.

This is purely for fun, but this would rearrange the structure so there are fewer Division I college basketball teams. I know, I know, this system is hardly fool-proof but it is something merely to create some further discussion about the topic and get my opinion on what I would do if I had my say. Some conferences have been kept intact, only adding new teams, and I have also created new, original leagues where I see fit.

Big Ten
The Big Ten wants a 12th member and has for quite some time. We’ve heard schools such as Notre Dame, Rutgers and Missouri. I feel Marquette fits perfectly location wise and could build a nice rivalry with Wisconsin whom they already schedule. Talent and quality of the program also works well here.

Michigan
Penn State
Minnesota
Ohio State
Michigan State
Indiana
Iowa
Illinois
Wisconsin
Northwestern
Purdue
Marquette

Big East
I think the Big East is too large right now. I mean, any time you have a first team all-conference made up of seven or eight guys you know it doesn’t work. I think Siena and Temple are two mid-majors that have proven enough to find a spot with some openings. BC is a natural fit from their former Big East days and Rhode Island is another program I believe can do just as well as teams like a St. John’s or Cincinnati who move elsewhere.

North        South
Syracuse    Pittsburgh
Villanova   Georgetown
UConn       Pittsburgh
St. John’s   West Virginia
Providence Seton Hall
Siena          Boston College
URI            Temple

ACC
Overall the biggest change I made was to simply split the league down the middle like the ACC football conference does. Teams can still play league games with each other, but this way is a little more concise for conference seeding purposes.

Coastal        Continental
Maryland      Duke
N.C. State    North Carolina
Miami (FL)    Wake Forest
Richmond    Charlotte
Clemson      Virginia Tech
Virginia        VCU

Mid-South (new league)
Here we show off our first new conference. We take several top programs from other leagues where they never really fit location wise. Also adding several proven mid-major programs that work and can compete right off the bat. Let us introduce the Mid-South.

Louisville
Memphis
Notre Dame
Butler
St. Louis
Missouri
UAB
Tulsa
Southern Mississippi
Marshall
Oral Roberts
Western Kentucky

Great Plains (new league)
Almost an alternative Big 12, but the subtraction of the Texas schools makes this a more regional league. We feel a combination of big schools and mid-majors would create an exciting brand of basketball and parity.

Kansas
Kansas State
Oklahoma
Oklahoma State
Nebraska
Iowa State
Wichita State
Northern Iowa
Creighton
Missouri State
Drake

Mountain Valley (new league)
The Mountain West has shown it is much more than a one-bid league come March, both for this season and in past tournaments. With our creation of the All-Californian league, as well as focus separately on the Pacific Northwest, we found a good match with the top tier of the MWC, the two Arizona schools from the former Pac-10 and several WAC schools that work well with their locations respective to the others. Presenting the Mountain Valley.

North    South
BYU    Arizona
Utah    Arizona State
Utah State    New Mexico
Colorado    UNLV
Boise State    Nevada
Wyoming    Colorado State
Denver    New Mexico State

Lone Star Conference (new league)
I know the rivalries like Texas-Kansas, Oklahoma-Kansas and others from the Big 12 is well known and respected, but there is plenty of talent in the state of Texas to come together and focus solely on its schools. Former C-USA teams like UTEP and Houston, as well as a North Texas are quite capable to play with the programs like A&M and Tech, not to mention the Longhorns of Texas. And the smaller schools like Sam Houston State and Texas-San Antonio will treat every game against the big boys like with an NCAA Tournament atmosphere.

Texas
Texas A&M
Texas Tech
Baylor
UTEP
Houston
TCU
North Texas
Rice
Sam Houston State
Texas-San Antonio

*Southland Conference has ten remaining teams after Sam Houston State and Texas-San Antonio joins the Lone Star Conference and will remain with those ten.

Golden State Conference (new league)
Another conference focusing on just one state, and again there is plenty of skill and depth to form this Cali creation. We have a good mix of teams from Southern California as well as Northern California, and balance too, not getting just majors or smaller schools in either one division. Good balance, good depth. It works.

Southern Cal    Bay Area
UCLA                California
USC                  Stanford
San Diego St.    St. Mary’s
San Diego        Fresno State
Long Beach St. San Jose State
UCSB                Pacific

Pacific Northwest (new league)
This one was a bit harder to find the number of quality teams, but I still feel this gives Gonzaga and Portland more of a platform to prove themselves on a consistent basis. Plus we add several proven Big Sky teams that are really not that far off from the bottom of the Pac-10, especially this season.

Washington
Gonzaga
Washington State
Portland
Oregon
Oregon State
Portland State
Montana
Weber State
Idaho
Eastern Washington

All-Buckeye (new league)
The MAC was taken apart, but this almost serves as the MAC 2.0. We add in several of the Ohio state schools from the Horizon and A-10, not to mention rightfully bring back Cincinnati and Xavier together so we can annually have their rivalry mean something in the standings.

East                West
Akron            Cincinnati
Kent State      Xavier
Miami (OH)    Dayton
Ohio              Bowling Green
Cleveland St.  Toledo
Youngstown   Wright State

Sun Belt
The Sun Belt stays the same for the most part. However the removal of C-USA leaves a spot for Central Florida who fits in well with FAU and FIU. Tulane also works here, both based on location and where their program is in respect to others already in the Sun Belt. Louisiana Tech never worked in the WAC for me. Located in Rustin, they can get more local games against the likes of in-state teams ULL and ULM.

East                            West
Middle Tennessee    Louisiana Tech
Troy                         Tulane
Central Florida         Arkansas State
Florida Atlantic        Louisiana Lafayette
South Alabama        Louisiana Monroe
Florida Int.              Arkansas Little Rock

*New Orleans, a former Sun Belt team, is moving down to Division III.

Empire-Garden Conference (new league)
The new EGC revolves around the MAAC but filters in other New York or New Jersey schools that have similar program prestige. Rutgers, as much as they probably enjoyed the revenue from the Big East every year, was like running up the escalator the wrong way. Now they can more properly compete alongside fellow regional schools.

Rutgers
Niagara
Buffalo
Rider
Iona
Hofstra
Albany
Manhattan
Marist
Canisius
Fordham
Binghamton
St. Peter’s

*Most of the MAAC teams have joined the new Empire-Garden Conference league. The remaining two, Fairfield and Loyola (MD), move to the America East to replace Binghamton and Albany, who also joined the EGC.

Horizon League
We add the non-Ohio MAC schools to the Horizon to fill the void left by the ones that entered the All-Buckeye. Depth and parity works up and down this league. As many as six or eight teams could probably win the league in a given year.

Wisconsin Green Bay
Valparaiso
Wisconsin Milwaukee
Detroit
Loyola (IL)
Illinois-Chicago
Ball State
Eastern Michigan
Western Michigan
Central Michigan
Northern Illinois
Oakland
IUPUI

Big West
Several of the better Big West schools joined the new Golden State Conference to better test themselves. We then tossed in some of the lower tier teams from the WCC and they fit based on location and prestige. Hawaii comes in from the WAC, and in the Big West they should find it better to their liking. They will get more beneficial travel dates, staying in California, rather than having flights to such schools as Idaho, Louisiana Tech or Nevada.

Cal State Fullerton
UC Davis
Cal Poly
Cal State Northridge
UC Riverside
UC Irvine
Hawaii
Loyola Marymount
Santa Clara
Pepperdine
San Francisco

Notes:
-    The SEC is the only major conference that stays as is. For me it works and all the teams are represented well by location and quality.
-    Conference USA has been removed. All the teams have been transferred. East Carolina goes to the CAA to replace Hofstra, who moved to the new Empire-Garden Conference.
-    With Oral Roberts to the Mid-South and Oakland and IUPUI to the Horizon, the remaining seven Great West teams will merge with the five Big Sky conference programs to form the ‘Western Sky Conference’.
-    MEAC, Atlantic Sun, Northeast, Ohio Valley, Big South, Patriot, Southern, SWAC and Ivy are the mid-major conferences that remain intact and unchanged. The remaining seven Summit League teams will become D-I Independents.
-    All apologies to schools like Bradley, Illinois State, Indiana State, Southern Illinois and Evansville. These were the leftover Missouri Valley programs, and struggled to find a spot for them. Perhaps the Horizon League, but we’ll leave them up for a silent auction for their placement into a new conference.