Article welcoming Emily Appleton to Vanderbilt

http://www.vucommodores.com/sports/w-tennis/spec-rel/022117aaa.html

Oakland2002 wrote:

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O thanks for the enormous amount of effort you put into the US College thread, just s suggestion and I know it involves a little bit more work (probably not much for you given your understanding of the conference structure) but do you think it would be worthwhile listing the players at div 1 colleges by conference. It would give quite a lot of useful information as to the level and as to potential all British clashes.

The most useful would be the level as within all Div 1 NCAA sport there is such a massive difference between conferences. The SEC, PAC 12 and Big 12 standout with the ACC not far behind. Top players in those conferences who dominate realistically have a shot at going pro, there aren't many that fall into this category but there is an increasing trend for some of our very good juniors particularly on the girls side to go. i.e. those in two minds.

Just a thought, it would be consistent with the way in which college sport is reported in the US.

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 I've added an extra section at the beginning of the thread tacked onto the list of men presently at college.  It lists them by conference.  Didn't take too long but no time at the moment to do the women.    If you disagree with my assessment of the strong conferences outside of the Power 5, please post your thoughts and I'll adjust the categories.

An interesting exercise, Optimist, and many thanks indeed.

For those like me, who aren't necessarily familiar with conferences, I've just added below the universities in those that Optimist listed as strong, together with current rankings (quick survey - may have missed some). There are a few places where universities showed up twice ... some were different branches, but I'm not quite sure on the University of South Carolina, so have it in twice. For what it's worth, just after I did this, I discovered the ITA press release, which (sigh) lists the top 25 by conference and notes that the Big Ten and SEC have five top 25 teams each; the ACC, Big 12 and Pac-12 have four each; the Ivy League has 2, and the American conference has one. They also list the top 25 singles and doubles, also by conference: one notable thing is that Jack Findel Hawkins and his partner are ranked 3rd despite being in what seems to be a relatively weak conference.

American Athletic: the University of Central Florida (48), the University of Cincinnati, East Carolina University, the University of Connecticut, the University of Houston, the University of Memphis (44), the U.S. Naval Academy (in football only), the University of South Florida (39), Southern Methodist University (29), Temple University, Tulane University (22) and the University of Tulsa (41)

ACC: Boston College, Georgia Tech (14), NC State (38), Virginia (1), Clemson (43), Louisville, Notre Dame, Virginia Tech, Duke (36), Miami, Pitt, Wake Forest (3), Florida State (37), North Carolina (4), Syracuse

Big 12: Baylor (11), Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma (5), Oklahoma State (8), TCU, Texas (7), Texas Tech, West Virginia

Big 10: Illinois (19), Indiana (45), Iowa, Maryland, Michigan (9), Michigan State, Minnesota (25), Nebraska, Northwestern (13), Ohio State (2), Penn State, Purdue, Rutgers, Wisconsin (31)

Conference USA: University of Alabama at Birmingham, Florida Atlantic University, Florida International University, Louisiana Tech University, Marshall University, Middle Tennessee State University, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, University of North Texas, Old Dominion University (26), Rice University (46), University of Southern Mississippi, University of Texas at El Paso, University of Texas at San Antonio, Western Kentucky University, University of New Mexico, University of South Carolina? (16)

Ivy League: Brown, Columbia (18), Cornell (24), Dartmouth, Harvard, University of Pennsylvania, Princeton, Yale

PAC 12: University of Arizona, Arizona State University, University of California (6), UCLA (15), University of Colorado - Boulder, University of Oregon (23), Oregon State University, University of Southern California (12), Stanford University (35), University of Utah, University of Washington (32), Washington State University

Southeastern (SEC): University of Alabama (50), University of Arkansas (47), Auburn, Univ of Florida, University of Georgia (17), University of Kentucky (21), Louisiana State University, University of Mississippi, Mississippi State University (20), University of Missouri, University of South Carolina (16), University of Tennessee (34), Texas A & M University, Vanderbilt University (27)

-- Edited by Spectator on Saturday 25th of February 2017 06:06:14 AM

Thank you for this, Optimist. Can I just ask: am I correct in thinking that the universities listed for the conferences are correct - you're simply noting that not all of them have men's tennis teams? If so, what I may do is just put those without tennis teams in italics ... to avoid further confusion if someone asks why university x isn't listed.

Oakie... did you feel I ought to have highlighted any other non-power conferences as nonetheless strong ones?