A circuit board is provided including a top ground plane, a bottom ground plane, and a pin field of a connector with a plurality of pins that includes a plurality of differential pin pairs, one or more ground pins, and one or more sideband pins. At least a particular one of the sideband pins is positioned within the pin field adjacent to a first pin of a first one of the differential pin pairs. One or more ground vias are provided on the circuit board positioned to correspond to the particular sideband pin.