Western Kentucky, North Texas, Florida International and South Alabama are just a few of the members of the Sun Belt Conference. The conference that the University of Denver has been a part of since 1999. A conference that features one private school, DU. In 1999 all Denver sports became Division 1. Before this all sports except gymnastics, hockey, lacrosse and skiing were in Division II. At the time there was only one main option for a conference to join and that was the SBC. The other schools in this conference are Middle Tennessee, Troy State (Alabama), Arkansas State, Arkansas-Little Rock, New Orleans and Louisiana-Lafayette. The school with the highest graduation rate for their student-athletes for the 2003 year was… you guessed it DU. Denver was at 70 percent while the closest current member of the conference was at 57 percent which is Western Kentucky. South Alabama was at 18 percent and Arkansas-Little Rock was at an astounding 13 percent. Why is a private school like Denver in a conference full of public school’s that have no similar make-up such as the school that we attend or teach at?One reason could be that at the time we just wanted to get to the Division 1 level and the Sun Belt Conference was the only option. Also the SBC could have been the only conference that was willing to accept a new school. Finally, the SBC could have been the only conference that had schools that were at similar playing levels as the Pioneers.Overall DU is in a very weird spot in the scheme of conferences. With sports like, hockey, gymnastics, skiing and lacrosse it is impossible to find a conference that will house all of them. Hockey is currently in the WCHA, gymnastics is independent, men’s lacrosse is in the Great Western Lacrosse League, women’s lacrosse is in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation which the men’s soccer team is also in. Skiing is also an independent and the rest of the sports are in the Sun Belt.So what could be a solution to put the main part of DU sports in a conference that is filled with private schools, same type of competition and make-up?One conference that comes to mind is the West Coast Conference. A conference that is made up of Santa Clara, San Francisco, Gonzaga, Pepperdine, San Diego, Portland, Saint Mary’s and Loyola Marymount. All school’s in the WCC are private and have an undergraduate population similar to that of Denver. The conference also has all the sports that DU currently has in the Sun Belt. Including tennis, basketball, volleyball, soccer and golf. One headache that joining the WCC would especially alleviate would be the traveling. In the SBC Denver has to travel to Florida, Kentucky, and other southern states for conference games.In the WCC all the schools are at most an hour and a half flight away. Also, when joining a conference most require you to have a football team which, as I am sure you are aware of, DU does not have and WCC does not have either.Another option could be the Big Sky Conference which includes schools like Northern Arizona, Eastern Washington, Montana and Sacramento State among others, all that have similar size and playing level as DU. One problem, all have football teams.If the Pioneers were to join the WCC they would probably have to re-start the baseball program which they cut in 1997. Other than that the West Coast Conference seems like the perfect fit for Denver. They have similar graduation rates, skill level and success in athletics. I am not saying that this change will happen overnight,but hopefully over the next couple years to put DU in a place that they belong.Denver will never be in the perfect conference situation, but by getting out of the Sun Belt it will definitely make more sense.But in the meantime the athletes are picking up some pretty good frequent flyer miles.