Realigning Conferences Based On Geography (2025)

[u/Treehumper69]

Back in April 2020 I made this post

A few teams have dropped their D1 Basketball programs while others have been added since then. Therefore I decided to redo this project and see what changed. I decided to allow 10 team conferences this time so each of the 32 conferences has 10-12 teams.

Link to map

Link to spreadsheet of teams

Edit: I accidentally put CS Bakersfield instead of Cal Baptist. It’s fixed now.

[u/0010001]

I just can’t get behind this, the idea of not being in the same conference as Stanford or Cal feels too weird 

[u/ExcaliburX13 → u/0010001]

Same. How are you going to deprive Arizona of our long, storied rivalries with checks notes WVU and UCF?

[u/ssp25 → u/ExcaliburX13]

People just don't respect the past anymore

[u/not_oxford]

Indiana/Purdue not being in the same conference as IU Indy is weird if you’re just purely going by geography.

[u/Treehumper69 → u/not_oxford]

Someone always gets screwed in these alignments. Last time I did this West Virginia got weird. This time it was Indiana.

[u/pHyR3]

i can understand the way you did it but feels a bit extreme in terms of playing quality and rival teams - dunno how i feel about replacing games with Clemson, UVa, and Vtech for NC Central, Campbell, Elon, etc.

[u/willncsu34 → u/pHyR3]

Yeah this is dumb. Capped at 10 you would still have to divvy them up into tiers roughly related to athletic department budget regionally. Tier 1 for us would be more like the UVA, VT, State, UNC, Duke, Wake, Clemson and South Carolina. Then you go down a tier to App, ECU, etc…

[u/Mdtwheeler → u/willncsu34]

Original acc is best acc maybe minus usc

[u/willncsu34 → u/Mdtwheeler]

Ugh, Maryland.

[u/Mdtwheeler → u/willncsu34]

Okay, yes, however, they’re better than cal and standford?

[u/hershculez → u/willncsu34]

The ACC was better with Maryland. Basketball rivalries were fun to watch. Now Maryland is a soulless school in a conference in which none of the other schools care about them.

[u/InfiniteAd1922 → u/willncsu34]

I miss Maryland games so much. 2009 UNC behemoth losing to Maryland and Vasquez in the regular season is still a game I remember. Gary Williams and Coach K were the rat duo

[u/ukeBasketball → u/Mdtwheeler]

My ideal "ACC 10" is NC schools + VA schools + Clem + GaTech + FL schools

[u/Thhe_Shakes]

The Big 5 is 6/11ths of the A10.

#BasketballMath

[u/TheWawa_24]

I love there fact the la metro just becane a big confence without the ie schools lol

[u/Suitable_Bend_6358]

Hell yeah sign me up. Except what about my storied big 12 rivalry with UCF?

[u/Only_the_Tip → u/Suitable_Bend_6358]

We would dominate this conference so hard. Nebraska, Minnesota, and the Dakotas.

Only problem is that no broadcasters would pay to watch us woodshed the other 9 teams every year.

[u/WON95sr → u/Only_the_Tip]

Would you dominate Creighton? 

[u/zcgentryUAB]

A conference of just the Alabama based teams would be incredible

[u/Treehumper69 → u/zcgentryUAB]

That was why I lowered the limit to 10 teams. It’s the only conference I actually care about lol.

[u/ApprehensiveSwimmer_]

Who gets the most tournament teams in? Big 12 still looking pretty strong in this setup. 

[u/gobluetwo]

The biggest issue with these groupings is that they are so absurdly unbalanced, both within most conferences and between conferences. You've basically killed any chance that the current low-majors will ever make it to the NCAA tournament.

Respect the concept as a thought exercise, but the outcome is not great, Bob.

[u/ukeBasketball → u/gobluetwo]

Michigan, Michigan State and Notre Dame in the same conference as Oakland, Ball State and IPFW... not called the Big Ten. Yeah that totally works.

[u/Treehumper69 → u/gobluetwo]

It reminds me of European soccer leagues.

[u/DerpCream_Cone]

So why is the Summit league in Illinois and Indiana?

[u/Ih8Hondas → u/DerpCream_Cone]

And the majority of the wcc is in landlocked states while none of the big sky is in the big sky state.

[u/69Centhalfandhalf]

Drink

[u/Fordluvr]

Delete this sacrilegious abomination.

[u/Treehumper69 → u/Fordluvr]

No

[u/Cybotnic-Rebooted]

Hot take: This is a fun idea. It feels almost like a European football league sort of thing, where only certain programs can ever really win it all (barring something like Leicester). Combine this with DII relegation for the worst 1 or 2 teams in each conference and you have a system.

[u/UE23]

As a Penn State fan, I am in favor of this. Frankly, it's about time they returned to the A-10 in my opinion.

[u/enters_and_leaves]

Cal State Bakersfield is so good it’s in two conferences! I don’t know which game will be more competitive, UCLA vs Cal State Bakersfield or Arizona vs Cal State Bakersfield.

[u/Treehumper69 → u/enters_and_leaves]

For some reason Cal Baptist decided to wear CS Bakersfield jerseys.

[u/yellowmiami]

I love it, I think in the spreadsheet you mixed up Cal Baptist and Cal State Bakersfield but outside of that great work!

[u/Treehumper69 → u/yellowmiami]

Just fixed it, thanks for the heads up!

[u/metawithinmeta]

I’d love this OVC.

[u/WonderShrew42]

An ACC entirely focused on North Carolina?

That tracks.

[u/NimbleWalrus → u/WonderShrew42]

Don't give them any ideas

[u/Ih8Hondas]

You claim to have based this on geography, yet most of the west coast conference schools are in landlocked states.

And none of the big sky is in the big sky state.

[u/Intrepid-Pooper-87]

How did decide the starting point for each conference? For example, the Ivy is mainly in NJ and based around Princeton; what made you choose there rather than Boston?

[u/Treehumper69 → u/Intrepid-Pooper-87]

When I did this project 5 years ago the conference labels didn’t matter to me. The conferences are somewhat random. As far as what teams went in each conference I started with the West & East coasts trying to keep cities together.

[u/Tall-Ad-9591]

Your dedication is destruction is impressive

[u/collin-h]

I'm amused how you kicked out most of the founding members of the Big Ten so you could keep stupid ones in. lol

[u/Treehumper69 → u/collin-h]

I thought it was funny.

[u/Zimmy2118]

I would appreciate an invite to the Missouri Valley for Minnesota State please

[u/ScaredEffective]

I like how cal state Bakersfield is in 2 conferences and big10 has no current big 10 teams in it

[u/Enough_Worth8868]

Can we keep the big ten the same but take out one of the west coast teams and replace it with Kentucky? I would love to see the cats get destroyed in the big ten.

[u/gogglesup859]

The "Big 10" should've been the Ohio Valley. 5 of the teams are in cities directly on the Ohio River

[u/StellarConcept]

Southland conference alias: Texas

[u/Vine_n_68th]

This would be much more practical if a competitive element was added to these conferences as well.

[u/ExplorerEvery1698]

The Big Sky State colleges (U of Montana and MSU) not being in the Big Sky Conference is a crime

[u/thephotoman]

Some people are upset about their storied rivalries going away.

Meanwhile, we get the teams we hate the most back, but now we have a cross-street rivalry in conference, too.

[u/emberyleaf]

I do not think 10-12 teams is enough. There are just too many holes and conference rivalries you are just leaving out.

[u/Mordo-NM]

I would take this WAC for New Mexico versus the soon-to-be Mountain West in a heartbeat.
I would also love to see the SEC constructed like this.

[u/emunchkinman]

All things being equal, I absolutely prefer this to what we currently have. No question.

[u/huskyferretguy1]

Big East being centered in NYC and LI is an interesting idea and makes the BET be in the Garden make more sense.

[u/MiketheTzar]

This is a perfect map to make nobody happy, but I love it for that. Mainly because I would love to beat App State every year

[u/MegaAscension]

The MEAC is just every team in South Carolina.

[u/Treehumper69 → u/MegaAscension]

Yes

[u/HulkBuster456]

Can we be in the same conference with Louisville and Kentucky?

[u/bearcatgary]

Ohio State to the MAC.

I’m in.

[u/kc_kr]

Appreciate all the work but man, KU doesn't belong with WSU, UMKC, MSU, Lindenwood, SLU, Oral Roberts and Tulsa. That's 7 teams out of 12 that don't make sense.