While a few of the 3A conferences are at the top, there are smaller-school conferences that are very competitive at the 2A and 1A level.
NCRunners rates conferences by looking at the Returning Team Rankings for the classification, and then assigning points for each conference according to where its teams rank (1 for first, 2 for second, etc). Points for both boys and girls rankings are added together (a minimum of 3 ranked teams for each gender are required), and those totals are used to generate the top 5 conferences. In the case of the NCISAA, there are many conferences (particularly in the smaller classifications) that don't have enough returning stats for us to rank them. For that reason, we're lumping all of the conferences into this one article, and considering the best 3 teams in each conference, regardless of their classification (there is also a high percentage of split conferences in the NCISAA). So keep in mind, the conference ratings don't mean that the teams in a smaller, highly-ranked conference could beat the teams in a larger, lower-ranked conference. Instead, each conference's rating is a measure of how competitive that conference is on the state meet level. Later this week, we will do the same for the split conferences in the NCISAA!
Top 5 NCISAA Conferences
1. CISAA: Hands down the best conference - strongest at the top, for both boys and girls, and also incredibly deep (6 of the top 13 girls 3A teams).
2. TISAC: Hosts some very strong 3A girls and boys teams, but not as deep as the CISAA.
3. TAC: A very solid collection of 2A teams of both genders.
4. CRC: Not where you would think to find a competitive conference, but rising in 2A.
5. CAA: A combination of 2A and 3A teams that adds up to a strong group of schools.