def _find_conferences(self, year):
if not year:<EOL><INDENT>year = utils._find_year_for_season('<STR_LIT>')<EOL><DEDENT>page = self._pull_conference_page(year)<EOL>if not page:<EOL><INDENT>output = ("<STR_LIT>"<EOL>"<STR_LIT>" % (CONFERENCES_URL % year))<EOL>raise ValueError(output)<EOL><DEDENT>conferences = page('<STR_LIT>').items()<EOL>for conference in conferences:<EOL><INDENT>conference_abbreviation = self._get_conference_id(conference)<EOL>conference_name = conference('<STR_LIT>').text()<EOL>teams_dict = Conference(conference_abbreviation, year).teams<EOL>conference_dict = {<EOL>'<STR_LIT:name>': conference_name,<EOL>'<STR_LIT>': teams_dict<EOL>}<EOL>for team in teams_dict.keys():<EOL><INDENT>self._team_conference[team] = conference_abbreviation<EOL><DEDENT>self._conferences[conference_abbreviation] = conference_dict<EOL><DEDENT>
Retrieve the conferences and teams for the requested season.

Find and retrieve all conferences for a given season and parse all of
the teams that participated in the conference during that year.
Conference information includes abbreviation and full name for the
conference as well as the abbreviation and full name for each team in
the conference.

Parameters
----------
year : string
    A string of the requested year to pull conferences from.