Ranking the D1 conferences by prestige post-realignment

[Sycamorefan96]

High Majors:
1) SEC- best football, best baseball, just added Texas and Oklahoma.
2) Big Ten- as much as I hate the Big they have a very deep history.
3) Pac 12- one of three P5's to not get poached, but location helps them.
4) ACC- Clemson and FSU would leave for SEC in a heartbeat. Maryland was poached by Big Ten.
5) Big 12- least desirable P5
6) Big East- no football, but their basketball programs are not mid major.

Mid Majors:
7) Mountain West- After the B12 poached the AAC and the MWC kept its league in tact they are now the top mid major.
8) Atlantic 10- I think Wichita State would leave the AAC for the A10 if they could.
9) American- losing Cincy and Houston hurts. The 6 schools they added drops their prestige quite a bit.
10) West Coast- Gonzaga is their top brand, but schools like St Mary's, LMU, San Fran, and Santa Clara are pretty good too.
11) MVC- Everyone in our league is capable of being good any given year and we just added Belmont and Murray State.
12) Sun Belt- the third best G5 FBS league now.
13) MAC- Football isn't great, but their basketball has been improving.
14) Southern- Football slipped with losses of App State and GA Southern; but their basketball has been very good in recent years.
15) CUSA- least desirable FBS league. Pulling in NM State was a good move.
16) Big Sky- basketball is below average, but their football gets them in the mid major category.

Low Majors:
17) Colonial- losing JMU drops them from mid major status. Most of their good football schools are FB-Only members so they don't get the same love as the Big Sky. A10 took their good basketball programs like George Mason and VCU.
18) Summit League- The Dakota schools and ORU are legit, but the other half of the league continues to be a drag.
19) Horizon League- they did the SL a favor taking on PFW and IUPUI. Butler, Valpo, Loyola, and now UIC are gone.
20) Big West- not a bad league of all CA schools and Hawaii.
21) MAAC- not a bad mix of schools.
22) ASUN- poached the OVC and Southland to start football. Has some decent Florida basketball schools.
23) WAC- started football and has decent basketball. Losing NMSU hurts.
24) America East- Vermont is always tough in basketball. Schools like NH and ME prioritize CAA football.
25) Ohio Valley- losing Murray, Belmont, Peay, JSU, and EKU killed them. Adding Little Rock, USI, and keeping Morehead will hopefully pull them back in the right direction again.
26) Southland- raided by the WAC and trying to maintain stability.
27) Patriot- football is not very good and overall their basketball is poor.
28) Big South- Football was raided by CAA. Their leftover basketball and football schools are very small.
29) Northeast- very small New England schools.
30) Ivy League- they don't care about sports.
31) SWAC- worst D1 league in my view
32) MEAC- raided by the SWAC in recent past, so that's pretty bad.

 

[BankShot]

What bothers me is the "obvious," that half of these so-called "conferences" don't even merit Div I status. The term "Low Major" is a misnomer, as most of these schools couldn't compete in the top Div II conferences. In a nutshell, they DEPRIVE mid-major's like the MVC of multiple bids. Look @ these teams, then glance @ UNI, MOFO St. and Drake, all which should get bids in a "perfect" NCAA world.

 

[Sycamorefan96]

There definitely needs to be standards for Division 1 basketball. My top 2 would be A) spend at least $2M on men's basketball annually, and B) play in an arena that seats at least 5000 people. If you can't make those two things happen then you don't belong in Division 1 basketball, plain and simple.

My guess is that most schools in the top 16 leagues on my list meet those two standards, and that most schools in my bottom 16 leagues do not.

 

[Sycamorefan96]

Here it goes. Schools with arenas of 5000 or less post realignment. (Does not include D2's that will be moving up.)

High Majors= 0 of 80
Mid Majors= 24 of 116
Low Majors= 80 of 150 (more than half)

Mid Major offenders:
AAC (2)= Tulane, UTSA
A10 (5)= Duquesne, Fordham, La Salle, St Joes, Loyola
Big Sky (4)= Idaho, N Col, PSU, Sac St
CUSA (1)= Liberty
MAC (1)= Bowling Green
SOCON (4)= Furman, Mercer, Samford, Wofford
Sun Belt (3)= C Car, GASO, GAST
WCC (4)= Pepperdine, Portland, St Mary's, Santa Clara

Number of Low Major offenders per league:
AM East= 6 of 9
Colonial= 3 of 13
ASUN= 4 of 11
B South= 8 of 10
B West= 8 of 11
Horizon= 3 of 11
Ivy League= 6 of 8
MAAC= 8 of 9
MEAC= 7 of 8
NEC= 9 of 10
OVC= 3 of 10 (includes USI and LW who both have under 5000 capacity).
Patriot= 7 of 10
Summit= 3 of 10
SWAC= 2 of 12
WAC= 5 of 10

Good news is that everyone in the Valley, including the three newbies have at least 5000 capacity. Five of the six football affiliates in the MVFC also have 5000 capacity, with North Dakota being the one that doesn't. The Hawks could realistically play in their 11000+ hockey arena though.

 

[BankShot]

USI wouldn't have any prob's boosting their new 4,800 arena seating above your 5k threshold.

 

[4Q_iu]

There definitely needs to be standards for Division 1 basketball. My top 2 would be A) spend at least $2M on men's basketball annually, and B) play in an arena that seats at least 5000 people. If you can't make those two things happen then you don't belong in Division 1 basketball, plain and simple.

My guess is that most schools in the top 16 leagues on my list meet those two standards, and that most schools in my bottom 16 leagues do not.

What led to your arbitrary $2M & 5,000 seat arenas? Perhaps schools should already possess a 5,000 seat arena and ~$4M in an escrow to prove they can operate at the Div I level before they are admitted

 

[4Q_iu]

Dumbo Sweeney pushing for 4th Division

https://www.espn.com/college-footba...-there-needs-complete-blowup-college-football

A laughable line...

"I think there's going to be a complete blowup ... especially in football, and there needs to be," Swinney told ESPN. "I think eventually there will be some type of break and another division. Right now, you got everybody in one group, and it's not feasible. Alabama has different problems than Middle Tennessee, but we're trying to make them all the same and it's just not. I think you'll have 40 or 50 teams and a commissioner and here are the rules."

Doubt Alabama has any "problems" except NOT being able to sign 185 kids b/c the "rules" say only 85 scholies

 

[Gotta Hav]

What bothers me is the "obvious," that half of these so-called "conferences" don't even merit Div I status. The term "Low Major" is a misnomer, as most of these schools couldn't compete in the top Div II conferences. In a nutshell, they DEPRIVE mid-major's like the MVC of multiple bids. Look @ these teams, then glance @ UNI, MOFO St. and Drake, all which should get bids in a "perfect" NCAA world.

I hear ya, and the aforementioned is painful but one of those schools/conferences deserved DI status this year to the NCAA tournament. Can you imagine missing out on watching a St Peters/MAAC school winning the games they did this year? And you can bet money, there will be more 13, 14, 15 and 16 seeds from the lower level DI conferences beating 1, 2, 3 and 4 seeds in the future. So there's that.

 

[Sycamorefan96]

High Majors:
1) SEC- best football, best baseball, just added Texas and Oklahoma.
2) Big Ten- as much as I hate the Big they have a very deep history.
3) Pac 12- one of three P5's to not get poached, but location helps them.
4) ACC- Clemson and FSU would leave for SEC in a heartbeat. Maryland was poached by Big Ten.
5) Big 12- least desirable P5
6) Big East- no football, but their basketball programs are not mid major.

Mid Majors:
7) Mountain West- After the B12 poached the AAC and the MWC kept its league in tact they are now the top mid major.
8) Atlantic 10- I think Wichita State would leave the AAC for the A10 if they could.
9) American- losing Cincy and Houston hurts. The 6 schools they added drops their prestige quite a bit.
10) West Coast- Gonzaga is their top brand, but schools like St Mary's, LMU, San Fran, and Santa Clara are pretty good too.
11) MVC- Everyone in our league is capable of being good any given year and we just added Belmont and Murray State.
12) Sun Belt- the third best G5 FBS league now.
13) MAC- Football isn't great, but their basketball has been improving.
14) Southern- Football slipped with losses of App State and GA Southern; but their basketball has been very good in recent years.
15) CUSA- least desirable FBS league. Pulling in NM State was a good move.
16) Big Sky- basketball is below average, but their football gets them in the mid major category.

Low Majors:
17) Colonial- losing JMU drops them from mid major status. Most of their good football schools are FB-Only members so they don't get the same love as the Big Sky. A10 took their good basketball programs like George Mason and VCU.
18) Summit League- The Dakota schools and ORU are legit, but the other half of the league continues to be a drag.
19) Horizon League- they did the SL a favor taking on PFW and IUPUI. Butler, Valpo, Loyola, and now UIC are gone.
20) Big West- not a bad league of all CA schools and Hawaii.
21) MAAC- not a bad mix of schools.
22) ASUN- poached the OVC and Southland to start football. Has some decent Florida basketball schools.
23) WAC- started football and has decent basketball. Losing NMSU hurts.
24) America East- Vermont is always tough in basketball. Schools like NH and ME prioritize CAA football.
25) Ohio Valley- losing Murray, Belmont, Peay, JSU, and EKU killed them. Adding Little Rock, USI, and keeping Morehead will hopefully pull them back in the right direction again.
26) Southland- raided by the WAC and trying to maintain stability.
27) Patriot- football is not very good and overall their basketball is poor.
28) Big South- Football was raided by CAA. Their leftover basketball and football schools are very small.
29) Northeast- very small New England schools.
30) Ivy League- they don't care about sports.
31) SWAC- worst D1 league in my view
32) MEAC- raided by the SWAC in recent past, so that's pretty bad.

Time to update the list after the latest round of realignment. I had the PAC-12 at #3 and the ACC at #4. Post USC/UCLA realignment news, the ACC is now at #3 and the PAC-12 (10) is at #4.

I also moved the Southland up one spot and the OVC down one spot (flipped them). The Southland was able to get a few of their football members back that the WAC raided, mostly because of geography, and the Southland also hired a new commissioner. In other words the SLC is now a stable football league again. The WAC is still the better overall league, particularly in basketball, but the extra travel costs just weren't worth it to a few of the Texas schools. It appears that the WAC and ASUN will be merging for football again in 2023.

All other conferences' rankings remain the same.

1 SEC
2 BIG TEN
3 ACC
4 PAC 12 (10)
5 BIG 12
6 BIG EAST

7 MOUNTAIN WEST
8 ATLANTIC 10
9 AMERICAN
10 WEST COAST
11 MISSOURI VALLEY
12 SUN BELT
13 MID AMERICAN
14 SOUTHERN
15 C-USA
16 BIG SKY

17 COLONIAL
18 SUMMIT
19 HORIZON
20 BIG WEST
21 METRO ATLANTIC
22 ATLANTIC SUN
23 WAC
24 AMERICA EAST
25 SOUTHLAND
26 OHIO VALLEY
27 PATRIOT
28 BIG SOUTH
29 NORTHEAST
30 IVY LEAGUE
31 SWAC
32 MEAC