Making The Conference, Rounds 4-5: ROCK YOU LIKE A HURRICAM

 
I'm shutting the NCAA down. - Puff Delany

This is another post in SB Nation's continuing project to redraw the boundaries of the power conferences as we know them, using a six-conference snake draft and involving as many bloggers as possible. Absolutely everything as we know it is at stake here, so this is super important, you guys. Also, I meant to post this at 8:00 instead of a couple minutes before 3:00 when I finished it, but... whoops!

Hello, friends. When you last saw us, we were showing off an athletic conference that seemed to be pretty football-heavy, boasting the trio of Florida, Penn State, and Virginia Tech. In Rounds 4 and 5, we decided to switch gears and focus on the hardwood ahahaha just kidding, we doubled down on football and got some solid programs.

In Round 3, we took a serious look at Miami before deciding that Virginia Tech was more necessary to expanding the regional footprint of a conference that already has Florida in hand, even if Miami was perhaps a better available choice. Lo and behold, however, the Hurricanes fell to us in Round 4, so that was a pretty easy choice to make.

One pick before our Round 4 pick, we decided that Auburn and Miami were the two best options on the board, and that Prop 48 would likely pick one and leave us the other; we had a second tier of three athletic programs available to choose from when we got our Round 5 pick on the rebound, so no matter who got taken by The Cult Of Les Miles, we had a candidate ready.

Well, turns out that conference took Wisconsin and Washington, neither of whom are Auburn, so we went from a situation of expecting the second choice of our two favorite remaining programs to getting them both on board. So that is very awesome. No, Auburn's not going to be running the table every year (especially not next year), and Gene Chizik was one of my five coaches whose cold seat could heat up in a hurry, but we're still talking about a reigning champion from the SEC with a high national profile, an intense local fanbase, and great regional identification in a football-crazed region. Yeah, their basketball sucks, but the SEC's basketball outside of Kentucky sucks and nobody really seems to care.

So here's the current lineup of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants:

ROUND 1, PICK 2: Florida Gators (Alligator Army)
ROUND 2, PICK 11: Penn St. Nittany Lions (Black Shoe Diaries)
ROUND 3, PICK 14: Virginia Tech Hokies (Gobbler Country)
ROUND 4, PICK 23: Miami Hurricanes (The 7th Floor)
ROUND 5, PICK 26: Auburn Tigers (Track Em Tigers)

Little spoiler alert here, but we're targeting Iowa with the 6th or 7th pick; we'll talk with the Les Mileonaires about whether Iowa's on their radar (we suspect Iowa won't be) and if not we'll go 7th, but either way, barring a dick move by another conference, Iowa will be a member of this conference soon. Yes, the basketball will be brutal, but the football will be fantastic, the geography will still make a good amount of sense, and the wrestling will be phenomenal. Iowa, PSU, and Va Tech in the same conference? That's pretty good, right?

So here are the questions going forward: Do we start bulking up on basketball? Do you prefer the cash-heavy Oklahoma State to a traditional b-ball power like Duke? Are we too east-coast already to poke around the ACC even more or the Big East for someone like Maryland or Pitt? Does TCU's impending Big East membership enhance their standing in your eyes? Should someone looking at Utah already have a rival on board or look to snag an Air Force or Utah State late (or a BYU very soon)? How important is it to you to emphasize basketball?

Other conferences' hauls are listed below.