[slidshow_break]
Super Region 4 – Southwest (44 Teams)
Kansas/Western Missouri (10 teams)
Central Missouri, Emporia State, Fort Hays State, Missouri Southern, Missouri Western, Nebraska-Kearney, Northwest Missouri, Pittsburg State, Washburn, William Jewell
The placement of the three Nebraska D2 schools also proved to be a little tricky. Some of my initial models kept Chadron, UNK and Wayne State College in the same conference. But, given how those three schools aren’t exactly compactly located, I decided to put Chadron and Wayne with the North and South Dakota schools while placing Kearney, located in the southern part of the state, with the western Missouri and Kansas schools. As I said in the GLVC analysis, the Missouri schools in this league are mainly along the I-29 and I-49 corridors (though UCM is located a little east of there, but in the Kansas City metro area).
Arkansas/Eastern Oklahoma (10 teams)
Arkansas-Monticello, Arkansas Tech, East Central, Harding, Henderson State, Northeastern State, Ouachita Baptist, Southeastern Oklahoma, Southern Arkansas, Texas A&M-Commerce
Pairing the Arkansas and Oklahoma schools into a revamped GAC proved to be a little tougher than first thought. Having four schools from Oklahoma proved a little difficult in this pairing. So, instead, I thought outside the box a little and opted to add Texas A&M-Commerce (located about an hour northeast of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex), which is relatively close to Southeastern Oklahoma (located just over the Texas state line in Durant). That allowed me to set up the next league …
Texas/Central and Western Oklahoma (12 teams)
Angelo State, Central Oklahoma, Midwestern State, Northwestern Oklahoma, Oklahoma Baptist, Oklahoma Panhandle (NAIA by 2017), Southern Nazarene, Southwestern Oklahoma, Tarleton State, Texas A&M-Kingsville, Texas-Permian Basin, West Texas A&M
It’s not a perfectly designed conference, given that Texas A&M-Kingsville is at the extreme southern end of the LSC’s footprint to begin with. That said, however, placing the Oklahoma schools starting from the Oklahoma City area and working west with the Texas D2 schools (save for Commerce) made setting up this league a little easier than I first thought, considering the parameters that I’m working with.
Colorado/New Mexico/California (12 teams)
Adams State, Azusa Pacific, Colorado Mines, Colorado Mesa, Colorado State-Pueblo, Dixie State, Eastern New Mexico, Fort Lewis, Humboldt State, New Mexico Highlands, Western New Mexico, Western State Colorado
As I noted in the Great Northwest analysis, splitting the existing GNAC schools wasn’t an easy decision, but the north-south split worked out rather nicely, all things considered, as the two California schools – Azusa Pacific and Humboldt State – round out a footprint that includes all six Colorado schools, the three New Mexico schools and Dixie State in Utah.