[Mudhead]

You’re right , I used USNWR national rankings . It also had ASU with a four year graduation rate of  52% vs  68 % for Baylor.  And no, I did t look at worldwide rankings as not many non US schools are likely. to be in an athletic conference with Stanford. 

It's actually not too difficult to filter out the non-US schools (and also the dedicated health science campuses in the US) from such lists.  Just a few days ago I did that for a few different rankings and posted the slimmed-down lists to a different thread.  Lemme copy and paste them here for anyone that's curious. I included the top 50ish schools in each case.  ASU made the cutoff sometimes.  Baylor never did.  

I’d be interested reading a post where you put together a conference based on best cultural fit. Be fun to see .

Dude! That's like my favorite thing to do. I love imagining completely unrealistic conferences for Stanford based on little more than my preferred idea of institutional compatibility. 

And really, what I want is not that different from what we just lost.  It always, always starts with a core group of Stanford-Cal-UCLA-UW.  (And fine, I'll admit it, also USC.) That's the group that's always highly ranked, in pretty much every published list, while also being in the west and interested in playing big time sports.  

From there it gets difficult.  

Either I reach for schools that are in other time zones, farther down the rankings, or that don't currently play FBS football.  

The hyperlocal option (and I'll admit my favorite to imagine) is a hybrid option with the core 5 plus the Big West UCs. That's the one that lets me dream about endless trash talk with all of my childhood buddies. And then we'd have to round off the football numbers probably by adding back Utah and the AZ schools.  

The came-to-play-school option builds with my core 5 plus Virginia-North Carolina-Duke. And probably whatever friends it would take to make that bicoastal marriage work.  

The recruiting grounds option is to start with my core 5 and add Texas and Rice.  Again, filling in with whatever friends it takes to make that work.  

But if we're talking about conferences that are likely to exist in this reality in the near future... well, there really is only one option that's chock full of institutionally similar schools.  And that's the Big Ten. It has to be the Big Ten.  Nothing anymore comes close to the Big Ten (as I think all those tallies in the lists I pasted above made clear.)  

And if we can't move heaven and earth to get invited to the Big Ten with Cal, then the next-best fit would have to be the ACC.  And after that, re-connecting with the AZ and mountain schools in the BigXII. With the emergency option being independence and a non-football conference that includes the Bay Area pair and the Big West UCs.  

Those are the options I see when my first and most-important filter is cultural fit.

Interesting and thanks. That filter gives us the same approach as my “What makes sense in this world we find ourselves”

Big 10 or B1G I guess  it is is, far and away the best answer .. at almost any short term economic price.

ACC next best but not “at almost any price” ..travel plus. It a permanent solution

BiG 12… we might have had this with all but USC and UCLA in a two division monster…but it would have left us with a lot of traditional rivals

After that, it’s pretty dismal.  I don’t   believe Independent  will work and i really don’t care if some form of Big West is there …. My own cultural bias is that I don’t  want to be thrown in with schools at the 2nd level athletically .   If we are there on our own, please don’t wake me up and tell me.l

[Mudhead]

You’re right , I used USNWR national rankings . It also had ASU with a four year graduation rate of  52% vs  68 % for Baylor.  And no, I did t look at worldwide rankings as not many non US schools are likely. to be in an athletic conference with Stanford. 

It's actually not too difficult to filter out the non-US schools (and also the dedicated health science campuses in the US) from such lists.  Just a few days ago I did that for a few different rankings and posted the slimmed-down lists to a different thread.  Lemme copy and paste them here for anyone that's curious. I included the top 50ish schools in each case.  ASU made the cutoff sometimes.  Baylor never did.  

I’d be interested reading a post where you put together a conference based on best cultural fit. Be fun to see .

Dude! That's like my favorite thing to do. I love imagining completely unrealistic conferences for Stanford based on little more than my preferred idea of institutional compatibility. 

And really, what I want is not that different from what we just lost.  It always, always starts with a core group of Stanford-Cal-UCLA-UW.  (And fine, I'll admit it, also USC.) That's the group that's always highly ranked, in pretty much every published list, while also being in the west and interested in playing big time sports.  

From there it gets difficult.  

Either I reach for schools that are in other time zones, farther down the rankings, or that don't currently play FBS football.  

The hyperlocal option (and I'll admit my favorite to imagine) is a hybrid option with the core 5 plus the Big West UCs. That's the one that lets me dream about endless trash talk with all of my childhood buddies. And then we'd have to round off the football numbers probably by adding back Utah and the AZ schools.  

The came-to-play-school option builds with my core 5 plus Virginia-North Carolina-Duke. And probably whatever friends it would take to make that bicoastal marriage work.  

The recruiting grounds option is to start with my core 5 and add Texas and Rice.  Again, filling in with whatever friends it takes to make that work.  

But if we're talking about conferences that are likely to exist in this reality in the near future... well, there really is only one option that's chock full of institutionally similar schools.  And that's the Big Ten. It has to be the Big Ten.  Nothing anymore comes close to the Big Ten (as I think all those tallies in the lists I pasted above made clear.)  

And if we can't move heaven and earth to get invited to the Big Ten with Cal, then the next-best fit would have to be the ACC.  And after that, re-connecting with the AZ and mountain schools in the BigXII. With the emergency option being independence and a non-football conference that includes the Bay Area pair and the Big West UCs.  

Those are the options I see when my first and most-important filter is cultural fit.

Interesting and thanks. That filter gives us the same approach as my “What makes sense in this world we find ourselves”

Big 10 or B1G I guess  it is is, far and away the best answer .. at almost any short term economic price.

ACC next best but not “at almost any price” ..travel plus. It a permanent solution

BiG 12… we might have had this with all but USC and UCLA in a two division monster…but it would have left us with a lot of traditional rivals

After that, it’s pretty dismal.  I don’t   believe Independent  will work and i really don’t care if some form of Big West is there …. My own cultural bias is that I don’t  want to be thrown in with schools at the 2nd level athletically .   If we are there on our own, please don’t wake me up and tell me.l