May not seem that way, but they still are. What other country aligns colleges based on the performances of athletic departments?
The UAA in D3 is the most spread out of all conferences but that is because it involves elite academic institutions, such as the University of Chicago.
Big time....D3 actually has athletes who are scholar/athletes.
Top 10 programs...the football programs, are separate from the average college student..
Byt, Hey...we could lump the Top 20 National Public Universities into a conference....have to leave out some of the Cal/s (IIrvine, Davis, etc)
UCLA, Cal, Michigan, Virginia, UNC, Florida, GT, Texas, Wisconsin, Georgia Tech, Illinois, Ohio State, Purdue, FSU, Maryland, Pitt, Penn State, Washington.....Not a bad conference