Which Connecticut high school baseball conferences are the best?

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Athletic conferences lend themselves to both provincialism and debate. Fans will declare their local league as the best in a certain sports (whether it's true or not). Players and coaches often boast about their conference as much as their own team. The media can be the most parochial of them all when it comes to touting the local league.

Connecticut has 11 conferences, and some can make definitive claims to being the best at certain sports. The Fairfield County Interscholastic Athletic Conference rules boys and girls lacrosse. The Central Connecticut Conference is the state's hub for boys and girls soccer. The Eastern Connecticut Conference is the home office for wrestling.

There's no argument about the state's best baseball league — it's the Southern Connecticut Conference, and no one is even close.

Here's how good the SCC is at baseball — Amity, Sheehan, Cheshire and Shelton were all ranked in the top 10  prior to Monday's games in the MaxPreps Computer Rankings presented by the Army National Guard. Those four schools all play in the same division (the SCC Housatonic). See the top 10 teams in the state, and below that, we break things down by class.
1. Waterford, ECC
2. Amity Regional (Woodbridge), SCC
3. Darien, FCIAC
4. Berlin, CCC
5. Sheehan (Wallingford), SCC
6. New Britain, CCC
7. Cheshire, SCC
8. Hamden, SCC
9. Shelton, SCC
10. Oxford, Naugatuck Valley League

The FCIAC could make a claim to being a better league this season based on depth. It has more teams in the top 25, which includes Greenwich (12), Trumbull (13), Ridgefield (16), Fairfield Warde (17), Danbury (19), St. Joseph of Trumbull (20) and McMahon of Norwalk (23). Fairfield Prep (25) is the only other SCC team ranked in the top 25.

The SCC could trump any league's claim of baseball superiority by showing off its state titles. The CIAC has awarded 40 state titles over the previous 10 seasons, and the SCC owns 40 percent of them (16). That included winning Class LL (Amity), Class L (North Haven) and Class M (Sheehan) last spring.

It makes sense that an SCC team has the toughest schedule as rated by the computer (Shelton). The Gaels play their division mates twice (which also includes Lyman Hall of Wallingford) as well as two interdivision games against Hamden. Shelton also has to make up a nonconference game against neighboring Trumbull.

The season is quickly coming to a close, so here are the top five teams by state class:

CLASS LL
1. Amity, SCC
2. New Britain, CCC
3. Cheshire, SCC
4. Hamden, SCC
5. Shelton, SCC

CLASS L
1. Darien, FCIAC
2. Berlin, CCC
3. Watertown, NVL
4. Edwin O. Smith (Storrs), CCC
5. Masuk (Monroe), South-West Conference

CLASS M
1. Waterford, ECC
2. Sheehan (Wallingford), SCC
3. St. Joseph (Trumbull), FCIAC
4. Haddam-Killingworth (Higganum), Shoreline Conference
5. Stonington, ECC

CLASS S
1. Oxford, NVL
2. St. Paul Catholic (Bristol), NVL
3. Shepaug Valley (Washington), Berkshire League
4. Cromwell, Shoreline
5. Valley Regional (Deep River), Shoreline