| It's not hard to believe they were 'ever good', since they're not known even now for being 'bad'. You couldn't name the relative pecking order within most of these conferences year-in, year-out. The point was, back then these programs weren't yet ghettoized. They had a chance to compete, were in some respects equals to the modern majors, and with a level playing field some of them did compete at various times. |