We're converting from ColdFusion to ASP.NET 4.0 and we just don't know which route to take with setting up our classes.
In college I was taught to break everything up into separate Data Access Classes and Entity Classes that speak to the DAC. To me, that's the best option for a team that needs a lot of control over their classes and needs to reuse multiple items.
Then there is LINQ... Sure.. It's great and fast! I have no problems writing my own queries though. To me, it's not something I really need. None of us on the team need the help from LINQ actually.
I would think we should be using folders that contain our DAClasses and folders that contain our Entity Classes. Then we would have our actual .aspx presentation pages.
Any ideas on which route we should be taking?
If you're going to go through the pain of moving from an existing platform to a new one anyway, look at ASP.NET MVC.
The Model-View-Controller methodology is a potentially cleaner way of thinking about web development, and it achieves the separation of concerns your team seems worried about.
On a different note, you make it sound like LINQ and other such technologies are crutches. They are not unless you use them that way (as in, not being able to do data access without it). They are there as a tool to make your life as a developer easier and development go faster.
Knowing how it works is great, if you didn't know I would be of the mindset that you shouldn't use it. But you clearly state that you do understand it, so why not leverage it?