Let’s organize Stanford into a campus sports league, and let’s focus on all the dorms with freshmen in them—the Freshman League.

We have the Wilbur Conference, made up of J-Ro, Cedro, Arroyo, Trancos, Soto, Okada, Rinconada and Otero. This conference would be compared to the AL East of baseball, the NFC East of football. It has some top talent and some solid teams. While these teams are toward the far end of the country—so other teams have to travel decently far to play them—they are the hub of young Stanford talent.

The poster child of the Wilbur Conference is a toss-up between Otero and Rinconada. While a bitter rivalry exists between them every time the teams meet, both teams are looking for that special recognition as “the” team of the conference. While Cedro and J-Ro have made some challenges to the top spot, their efforts have largely been futile. Watch out for Soto and Trancos, though. Both have undergone large restructurings within their organizations and teams, hoping to position themselves as legitimate challengers to the Rinc/Otero duopoly. Okada is quite the enigma, but nonetheless a team to watch out for. You would be smart to relate Okada to any mid-major team in college basketball—sometimes unnoticed, sometimes underrepresented, but having solid players that go on to successful careers in the higher leagues.

We also have the Stern Conference, featuring Twain, Burbank, Casa Zapata, Larkin, Donner and Serra. The Stern Conference and Wilbur Conference are rivals themselves, kind of like the NFC and AFC North in football, or simply the Eastern and Western Conferences in basketball. Stern has perhaps the top team of them all in Donner. Donner consistently fields outstanding programs coupled with superior team management. A common knock on Donner, however, is that its players sometimes aren’t as focused on winning championships as they are on socializing and dealing with their personal lives. Many on team Donner use the team as a stepping-stone into the other league—the SAL League (formerly called the OSA League)—and especially into the Greek Conference.

But besides Donner, the Stern Conference does have some quality teams. Serra is a rising program, and Larkin has been consistently solid for many years now. In fact, some view Larkin as the top team in the Stern Conference because it has more focus than Donner. Burbank, Twain and Casa Zapata are not as strong as some others in the Stern Conference—perhaps they lack the team resources and team following—but are, nonetheless, able to hold their own. Both Burbank and Twain have been able to score some big wins over some tough competitors—namely Roble and Otero just a few weeks ago—but have also suffered some tough losses to the likes of West Lag and Naranja.

Finally, the Miscellanea Conference, featuring Roble, West Lag, Naranja and FroSoCo. The smallest conference in the Freshman League definitely has a bit of an uphill battle when faced with some teams from the Stern and Wilbur conferences. In addition, the Miscellanea Conference has been drowning in allegations of using illegal players. There is an age limit in the Freshman League and some teams—who will not be mentioned here due to privacy issues—have been found to be using players who are one or two years over the age limit. This has hindered the Miscellanea Conference teams from truly reaching their potential. Because when they do get into a groove, they almost always find themselves bogged down in another scandal.

Additionally, it is a strain on the financial resources of the Miscellanea Conference for its teams to travel to play games in the Stern and Wilbur Conference. It is nearly impossible for a team like FroSoCo to travel to J-Ro and expect a good result, given the time change, the players having to adjust and, simply, a new surrounding. However, this distance also works to the Miscellanea Conference’s advantage, as teams who travel to their home sites often struggle to adapt quickly and effectively. This is why teams in the Miscellanea Conference have been able to come away with some big wins and big upsets—further cementing the Miscellanea Conference’s right to stay in the Freshman League and not get demoted. The biggest win in Miscellanea Conference history—and perhaps the history of the Freshman League—came in 2005 when West Lag went into the Stern Conference and beat then-No. 1 Donner. West Lag was missing one of its best players and still was able to beat the Donner team, leaving Donner and the whole Freshman League stunned a la Stanford-USC, USA Hockey-USSR and Michigan-Appalachian State. It took at least a year for Donner to fully recover.

Finally, we cannot forget the failed team of the Freshman League—Branner. The story of Branner is truly one of tragedy—one of the most well-liked, well-run teams with a large roster and happy players just couldn’t cut it in the Freshman League. While some say it is due to the arrogance of the Branner players and staff, others point to the fact that there was no clear leadership within the team—everyone at Branner thought they knew what was best for the team and for its position in the league. Ultimately, Branner crumbled under itself, but its demise had been looking pretty inevitable for a while. Former Branner players have expressed their dismay at Branner’s disbanding, but some have come to terms and realized that after being removed from the team for a while, something at Branner just wasn’t right.

Danny Belch probably doesn’t remember the great Trancos dynasty of the 1950s. Give him a history lesson at [email protected].