There are 32 NCAA Division I Basketball Conferences, each with a varied amount of teams. I’m not going to try to pretend that I have a clue about the logic of the conferences and their structure. Some are obviously regionally structured like the American East–clearly, the schools are in the East and concentrated in the Northeastern part of the country. But then there is a conference called the Northeast so hmmmm. And then there’s the Atlantic Coast Conference…..how can Florida State University be in the same league as Boston College?

That’s a pretty far spread… And for the record, FSU is in Tallahassee, Florida, about as far from the Atlantic Coast as you can get in Florida.

“But Stiletto Sports Jen, I’ve never heard of most of these schools!”

Yeah, don’t worry, no one has. There are over 300 D1 schools and anyone who knows all of them seriously needs a life. Some people are fans of particular conferences and know even the obscure teams. If you a tourney follower, or even if this is your first year braving the Madness, you will probably wonder how a team (or even a state….) you have never heard of is suddenly in the tournament. I mean seriously, who actually knows Robert Morris or Radford?And where did Morgan State even come from? Last I checked, there were 50 states and Morgan was not one them!

So here’s the deal. There are Championship Titles for each conference. The teams battle each other to become the best in their conference and as a reward, the winning team is given an automatic ticket (a bid) to The Big Dance, the NCAA Tournament in March. Right now there are 31 automatic bids because the 32nd conference, the Great West is new. Most of the time the teams that are given the auto bids, are the Big Names, even in the lesser known conferences. But everyone once and a while a team shoots out of the back and wins the conference unexpectedly and has everyone going, “who the hell is Robert Morris?”  (For the record, the Big Known Names of Bob’s conference the Northeast were Mt St Mary’s and even Wagner).

CBS Sports has a great breakdown of all the conferences with links to the team homepages! I created a quick guide for my own reference purposes and I actually learned a lot like, Notre Dame is not Ivy League (most people did know that from their football team but for I guess I just always assumed). In the near future I will add my own Team Homepage links, or at least links to some additional info about the teams.

America East Conference

• U Albany
• Univeristy of Binghampton
• Boston University
• University of Maine
• University of Hartford
• University of New Hampshire
• Unveristy of Maryland, Baltimore County
• Stoney Brook University
• University of Vermont

Atlantic 10 Conference

• UNC Charlotte
• University of Dayton
• UMass
• Duquesne
• Fordham
• La Salle University
• George Washington
• University of Rhode Island
• University of Richmond
• St Bonaventure’s
• St Joseph’s
• St Louis
• Temple
• Xavier

Atlantic Coast Conference

• Boston College
• Clemson
• Duke
• Florida State University
• Georgia Tech
• Univeristy of Miami
• University of Maryland
• Univerisity of North Carolina (UNC)
• North Carolina State University
• University of Virginia
• Virginia Tech
• Wake Forest

Atlantic Sun Conference

• Belmont
• Campbell
• E. Tennessee State
• Florida Gulf Coast
• Jacksonville
• Kennesaw State
• Lipscomb
• Mercer
• North Florida
• South Carolina Upstate
• Stetson

* Big 12 Conference

North

• Iowa State
• Kansas State
• University of Kansas (KU)
• University of Colorado
• University of Missouri
• University of Nebraska

South

• Baylor
• Oklahoma State
• Univerisity of Oklahoma
• Texas A&M
• Texas Tech
• University of Texas

* Big East Conference

• Cinncinati
• University of Conneticut (UConn)
• DePaul
• Georgetown
• Louisville
• Marquette
• Pittsburgh
• Notre Dame
• Providence
• Rutgers
• St Johns
• Seton Hall
• University of South Florida
• Syracuse
• Villanova
• West Virginia

* Big Ten Conference

• Illinios
• Iowa
• Indiana
• Michigan
• Michigan State
• Minnesota
• Northwestern
• Ohio State
• Penn State
• Purdue
• Wisconsin

Big Sky Conference

• Eastern Washington
• Idaho State
• Montana
• Montana State
• Northern Arizona
• Northern Colorado
• Portland State
• Sacramento State
• Weber State

* Big South Conference

• Charleston Southern
• Coastal Carolina
• Gardner-Webb
• High Point
• Liberty
• NC-Asheville
• Presbyterian
• Radford
• VMI
• Winthrop

* Big West Conference

• Cal Poly
• Cal State Fullerton
• California Davis
• California Irvine
• California Riverside
• Long Beach State
• Northridge
• Pacific
• Santa Barbara

* Colonial Athletic Association

• Delaware
• Drexel
• George Mason
• Georgie State
• Hofstra
• James Madison
• Northeastern
• Old Dominion
• Towson
• UNC–Wilmington
• Virginia Commonwealth
• William & Mary

* Conference USA

• East Carolina
• Houston
• Marshall
• Memphis
• Rice
• Southern Methodist
• Southern Miss
• Texas-El Paso
• Tulane
• Tulsa
• UAB
• UCF

* Horizon League

• Butler
• Cleveland State
• Univ of Detroit–Mercy
• Univ of Wisconsin–Green Bay
• Univ of Wisconsin–Milwaukee
• Univ of Illinios–Chicago
• Loyola
• Valparasio
• Wright State
• Youngtown

* Ivy League

• Brown
• Columbia
• Cornell
• Dartmouth
• Harvard
• Princeton
• Univ of Pennsylvania
• Yale

* Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference

• Canisius
• Fairfield
• Iona
• Loyola-Maryland
• Manhattan
• Marist
• Niagara
• Rider
• Siena
• St. Peter’s

* Mid-American Conference

East

• Akron
• Bowling Green
• Buffalo
• Kent State
• Miami (Ohio)
• Ohio

West

• Ball State
• Central Michigan
• Eastern Michigan
• Northern Illinois
• Toledo
• Western Michigan

* Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference

• Bethune-Cookman
• Coppin State
• Delaware State
• Florida A&M
• Hampton
• Howard
• Maryland-Eastern Shore
• Morgan State
• Norfolk State
• North Carolina A&T
• South Carolina State
• Winston-Salem

* Missouri Valley Conference

• Bradley
• Creighton
• Drake
• Evansville
• Illinois State
• Indiana State
• Missouri State
• Northern Iowa
• Southern Illinois
• Wichita State

* Mountain West Conference

• Air Force
• Brigham Young
• Colorado State
• New Mexico
• San Diego State
• TCU
• UNLV
• Utah
• Wyoming

* Northeast Conference

• Central Connecticut State
• Fairleigh Dickinson
• LIU-Brooklyn
• Monmouth
• Mount St. Mary’s
• Quinnipiac
• Robert Morris
• Sacred Heart
• St. Francis (N.Y.)
• St. Francis (Pa.)
• Wagner

* Ohio Valley Conference

• Austin Peay
• Eastern Illinois
• Eastern Kentucky
• Jacksonville State
• Morehead State
• Murray State
• Southeast Missouri State
• Tennessee State
• Tennessee Tech
• Tennessee-Martin

* Pacific 10 Conference

• Arizona State
• Arizona
• California
• Oregon
• Oregon State
• Southern California
• Stanford
• UCLA
• Washington
• Washington State

* Patriot League

• American
• Army
• Bucknell
• Colgate
• Holy Cross
• Lafayette
• Lehigh
• Navy

* Southeastern Conference

East

• Florida
• Georgia
• Kentucky
• South Carolina
• Tennessee
• Vanderbilt

West

• Alabama
• Arkansas
• Auburn
• LSU
• Mississippi State
• Mississippi

* Southern Conference

North

• Appalachian State
• Elon
• NC-Greensboro
• Samford
• Chattanooga
• Western Carolina

South

• College of Charleston
• Davidson
• Furman
• Georgia Southern
• The Citadel
• Wofford

* Southland Conference

East

• Central Arkansas
• Lamar
• McNeese State
• Nicholls State
• Northwestern State
• Southeastern Louisiana

West

• Sam Houston State
• Stephen F. Austin
  Texas State-San Marcos
• Texas A&M-Corpus Christi
• Texas-Arlington
• Texas-San Antonio

* Southwestern Athletic Conference

• Alabama A&M
• Alabama State
• Alcorn State
• Arkansas-Pine Bluff
• Grambling
• Jackson State
• Mississippi Valley State
• Prairie View A&M
• Southern
• Texas Southern

* Sun Belt Conference

East

• Florida Atlantic
• Florida International
• Middle Tennessee
• South Alabama
• Troy
• Western Kentucky

West

• Arkansas-Little Rock
• Arkansas State
• Denver
• Louisiana-Lafayette
• Louisiana-Monroe
• New Orleans
• North Texas

* The Summit League

• Centenary
• IPFW
• IUPUI
• North Dakota State
• Oakland
• Oral Roberts
• South Dakota State
• Southern Utah
• UMKC
• Western Illinois

* West Coast Conference

• Gonzaga
• Loyola-Marymount
• Pepperdine
• Portland
• San Diego
• San Francisco
• Santa Clara
• St. Mary’s

* Western Athletic Conference

• Boise State
• Fresno State
• Hawaii
• Idaho
• Louisiana Tech
• Nevada
• New Mexico State
• San Jose State
• Utah State

Independents ** Not part of a conference at this moment but subject to change in the 2009 season

• Bryant University
• Cal State Bakersfield
• Chicago State
• Houston Baptist
• Longwood
• New Jersey Tech
• North Carolina Central
• Savannah State
• Texas-Pan American
• Utah Valley

Great West

Was formerly just a Division I Conference for only football. But that has been changed and beginning in the 2009 season, these schools will become all-sports D I and should be in basketball contention!

• Chicago State University
• Houston Baptist University
• New Jersey Institute of Technology
• University of North Dakota
• University of South Dakota
• University of Texas-Pan American
• Utah Valley University

About the author: Jennifer Taglione is the owner of this fabulous website Stiletto Sports. Despite writing well over 500 posts, she still maintains that she is not a sports writer! She is however a huge fan of Kurt Warner, Larry Fitzgerald, Mark Sanchez, the Celtics, and totally kicks butt on March Madness brackets! Connect with her by following her on Twitter @StilettoSportsJ and subscribing to her weekly newsletter. For more info check out the About the Editor page!

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