What if college basketball ran conference realignment? The Athletic article
- Mens Basketball
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From The Athletic webpage....may be behind a paywall:
"What would the college basketball landscape look like if the sport were self-sufficient? I set out to reconstruct the entire layout of Division I with that hypothetical as my guiding principle. Perhaps the most important rule to fall back on is that of a truly balanced schedule. Double round-robins (in which each team plays a home-and-home with every other team in its league) are fading out of college hoops, with fewer and fewer leagues still retaining that schedule purity. Bringing back the double round-robin would enhance the meaning of the regular-season championship, so I am allowing a maximum of 11 teams in each league (which would create a 20-game double round-robin).
Included next to each conference is the members’ average Net Rating per KenPom over the last five seasons. I used Net Ratings as a loose guide to ensure each league remained somewhat competitive as I swapped members."
Nebraska drops to a minor conference:
https://www.si.com/college/nebraska...ll-big-ten-fred-hoiberg-huskers-nebrasketball
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6521319/2025/08/01/college-basketball-conference-realignment/

"What would the college basketball landscape look like if the sport were self-sufficient? I set out to reconstruct the entire layout of Division I with that hypothetical as my guiding principle. Perhaps the most important rule to fall back on is that of a truly balanced schedule. Double round-robins (in which each team plays a home-and-home with every other team in its league) are fading out of college hoops, with fewer and fewer leagues still retaining that schedule purity. Bringing back the double round-robin would enhance the meaning of the regular-season championship, so I am allowing a maximum of 11 teams in each league (which would create a 20-game double round-robin).
Included next to each conference is the members’ average Net Rating per KenPom over the last five seasons. I used Net Ratings as a loose guide to ensure each league remained somewhat competitive as I swapped members."
Nebraska drops to a minor conference:
https://www.si.com/college/nebraska...ll-big-ten-fred-hoiberg-huskers-nebrasketball
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6521319/2025/08/01/college-basketball-conference-realignment/
