The G.O.D. Conference

With all of the recent NCAA conference realignments, and with schools like Brigham Young and Notre Dame deciding to go independent for some sports, I got to wondering what it would be like if those schools were in the same conference. In fact, what if there was an NCAA conference made up solely of schools with religious affiliations?

The Glorious Omnipotent Deity (G.O.D.) conference.

How about a conference slogan: “In G.O.D. we trust,” or “Heaven help us,” or “The Spirit of Sports,” . . . I’ll work on it.

It could be some pretty fierce competition. And you know that when those schools duke it out, it’s always for some major bragging rights (i.e. “God blessed the winner more than the loser!”).

There would have to be rules to determine eligibility for inclusion in the conference. And since I’m making up the conference, I suggest the following rules for inclusion: (1) only schools with a strong religious affiliation, (2) only schools with highly competitive Division I athletic programs, and (3) only one university per religious affiliation. Therefore, I would like to submit these nominations to the G.O.D. conference:

Notre Dame (Roman Catholic)

Brigham Young University (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints)

Texas Christian University (Disciples of Christ)

Southern Methodist University (United Methodist)

Upon reflection, maybe my rules are too restrictive. Only taking schools that have a strong religious affiliation would eliminate schools with historical religious ties (e.g. Duke, American). I also couldn’t find any suitable candidates with competitive Division 1 athletic programs from other religious affiliations (e.g. Jewish, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Baptist). And limiting the conference to only one university per religion excludes a lot of other potential Catholic programs (e.g., Georgetown, Villanova, Marquette, Xavier).

At least this starts the conversation and gets the ball rolling.  

Ok, maybe not. It would never happen. But I still think it would be cool.