Cool Conference Realignment Article

Ik it's from an enemy source but I thought this article about alternate universe conference realignment on the BC Interruption blog was wicked cool, as both a UConn and sort of as a BU fan. The article posits a bunch of very interesting (im)possible conference structures involving Newton U., but one in particular caught my eye.

"The New England Conference

All New England, all the time.

Conference Members: Boston College, Boston University, Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Providence, Massachusetts, Northeastern, Rhode Island, Holy Cross, Fairfield

Football Outlook: Poor. As BC and UConn are the only conference members that play big-time college football in this world, both programs dropped down to I-AA a long, long time ago.

Basketball Outlook: Moderate. BC, UConn, Providence, UMass, URI and Holy Cross would headline, but the quality drops off precipitously after that.

Hockey Outlook: Strong. This is Hockey East less Merrimack and Lowell and adding UConn. My guess is we won't miss Merrimack or Lowell too much."

I would be in love with this idea if basketball program quality didn't drop off so dramatically starting with us and going down to UNH, Vermont, Maine and Fairfield. (As it is I still love it but that and BC/UConn football make it virtually impossible) In my perfect world, the first three of those would be strong enough to not hold us back in hoops while strengthening our hockey rivalry by bringing it across multiple sports. I'd think of expanding into NY and PA to bring some bigger fish in to sweeten the pot while hopefully the stronger conference would be beneficial to all us current America East-ers. Here would be my dream conference as a UConn and BU fan.

1. BU
2. BC
3. UConn
4. Vermont
5. New Hampshire
6. Providence
7. UMass
8. Maine
9. NU
10. URI
11. Siena (hope they stay good now that Fran McCaffrey's gone)
    
12. 'Cuse
13. Holy Cross
14. 'Nova or St. John's (this is the Big East junkie in me talking)
    

Local rivals (with potential to develop more), nationally prominent teams. Hopefully the quality hoops school half of the conference would bring us up (as well as HC, UVM,UNH).
Of course this is all fantasy for now. Realistically, I see us moving into the MAAC (other than Siena not a very great move) or, if the upcoming Big 10 expansion falls just right, the A-10, in hopefully the next few years (hopefully NU would head that way as well now that they cut football).