Checking in on the neighbors: HCAC

The Heartland Conference is one of the great mysteries of D3 basketball to me.  Situated in the basketball crazy state of Indiana and yet so little tournament or national recognition.  Over the course of the last dozen plus years the HCAC has evolved from the remnants of the old ICAC with additions of independents and members of long forgotten conferences.  Most recently Earlham left the NCAC to return to its Indiana roots.  Today its 10 teams stretch from Lexington, KY through western Ohio and much of Indiana.

Like most larger conferences they spend a great deal of time beating each other up.  Over the past 8 seasons, 6 different programs have won the league championship with Transylvania the only program to capture more than one.  Six different teams have made the NCAA tournament in the last 3 seasons alone, that's over half of the conference.  Tournament success for the league has been elusive with no trips beyond the second round since 2006.  Until this past season that was also the last time an HCAC team was awarded a home game in the tournament.  This league catches few breaks in the pairings department where they have often found themselves paired with the CCIW, MIAA and NCAC Champions and mostly on the road.

Last season Transylvania kind of ran away from everyone else and won the league by 4 full games as Hanover faltered in the seasons final stretch of games.  Rose-Hulman won the tournament and along with Transylvania received NCAA bids.  Both teams lost in the first round, RH to North Central and Transylvania was upset at home by Carroll.

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Checking in on the neighbors: PAC, with special guests

Calling the Presidents Athletic Conference the neighbors of anyone in the MIAA is kind of like saying Iowa is our neighbor.  If it wasn't for Lake Michigan many D3 schools in Iowa would actually be closer.  But being that the PAC is in the Great Lakes Region requires a look at whats going on.  What's going on is the PAC has been expanding lately adding St. Vincent, Geneva for both genders and  Chatham on the women's side.  Which means the PAC is now bigger than the MIAA, 9 men's programs, 10 women's programs.

For basketball there isn't much comparison, while the MIAA's NCAA basketball success largely lies in Holland and Grand Rapids the PAC has no such programs.  Bethany has been to the dance the most in recent years, but usually the PAC's rep is bounced in the first round and usually by double-digits.  I can't recall the last PAC school to win an NCAA game.  Unfortunately the PAC archives are woefully out of date, like by 7 years. 

Bonus trivia:   Eastern Michigan (or what would become EMU) and Wayne State were once members of the President's Athletic Conference.  This makes EMU the only school that can claim they were once in the MIAA and PAC.  Feel free to break that out at cocktail parties.

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Checking in on the neighbors: OAC

Until Marietta's championship a year ago the OAC Championship had mostly been in John Carroll's hands with Capital taking a title or two along the way.  Over the last half decade and more these have been the most consistently successful programs in the league so it seems fitting they should tie for the 2012 title.  It was quite a season, one of parity and surprise upsets as neither JCU or Capital could avoid a loss to a bottom half team.  A number of teams will feel they had legitimate chances to win the league, where just 8 games separated 1st from 10th.  Parity ruled this league.

Incredibly half, yes half, of the OAC conference games this year were decided by less than 10 point margins, including 9 overtime games.  Within the conference, this was as competitive of a league as you can probably find.  The problem though is that the league really didn't do much outside the confines of its borders.  Its always felt like this league should be better, should have a bigger presence on the D3 scene but for the most part they've fallen short of that level. 


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