Realignment Conferences 26 Through 24

These conferences have an average Adjusted Efficiency Margin between 6.00 and 8.00, which is roughly equivalent America East or the Big Sky or maybe even the Big South.

The Deep South Conference

This conference’s average rating is dragged down by Presbyterian, which had the second worst efficiency margin in college basketball last season. Once again there’s one awkward team, as Abilene Christian slips in. Maybe the Wildcats can switch places with Bethune-Cookman.

The Pacific Conference

This might seem like a slightly odd collection of West Coast teams, especially given that it draws from five different conferences, but it’s actually not too crazy. These schools have relatively similar academics according to U.S. News. Fresno St. seems like a real loser in this process. The Bulldogs spend nearly three times as much as Southern Utah on men’s basketball. Hawaii (not shown on the map) is obviously a square peg being fit into a round hole no matter where the Rainbow Warriors go. This is what the algorithm thought was the best fit.

The Patriot Plus Conference

This is a conference of like-minded academic schools that are mostly on the East Coast. Drake and Valparaiso are kicked into this conference because they’re midwestern mid-majors, with stronger academic profiles than what you can generally find in the Midwest, at least according to U.S. News. (Because the large public research universities are the highly rated ones in that part of the country.) Would this be a better fit for Valparaiso than the Missouri Valley? (Where it sure seems headed.) Probably not. But it’d be an interesting alternative. The Midwestern pair are a slightly awkward fit in what would otherwise be a quite logical conference stretching from Baltimore to Boston. This conference makes a lot of sense for those 12 teams on the East Coast. They’re all quite similar in academics and overall mission. This conference is also one that could potentially rise up the KenPom ratings.