When we last left our grand reconferencing (new word alert) experiment, the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants had a few new friends. We had welcomed Miami and Auburn into our midsts, making our southeastern coverage without compare.
Of course, once we start getting past the top 25 athletic programs, the geographic interests become increasingly less relevant; what's the point of sticking around Dixieland when all that's left is the Mississippi schools, Memphis, and all the formerly directional Louisianae (We're looking at you, -Monroe and -Lafayette)?
That's why, with our sixth pick, we went west. We also went with, inarguably, one of the biggest powerhouses in college basketball history: Kansas, bitches. The Jayhawks' basketball profile is absolutely unimpeachable, from Wilt Chamberlain to Danny Manning to Paul Pierce to Mario Chalmers and beyond. The Jayhawks won a national championship as recently as 2008, their third in program history (out of 13 Final Fours, which, yep, that's 13 Final Fours).
Yes, when Kansas football is bad, it's reeeeaaaally bad. But when it's good, it's surprisingly serviceable; the Jayhawks won 12 games as recently as 2007, and Glen Mason (YEP) led KU to 10 wins in 1995. Inbetween, the success has been fleeting, but on the whole the Jayhawks are nowhere near the abject poverty the program toiled in prior to the '90s.
We had a pick waiting shortly thereafter, and we figured the Jayhawks would need a basketball friend. Duke had been taken in the two picks between our two selections (fine if you like Duke more than KU, but seriously, how much like the ACC do you people really want the Sisterhood to be?) , and we do still care about the academic profile of the conference, so we added Illinois with the next pick.
Now, yes, Illinois football history is marked by three people: Red Grange, Simeon Rice, and Juice Williams. The Illini have put Ron Zook in the top third of tenured coaches in the conferences, and aside from that completely surreal Rose Bowl appearance, it has gone exactly how you'd expect. Hell, even "Ron Zook coaching Illinois in the Rose Bowl" went how you'd expect too.
No, we took Illinois for the basketball, and for the Bill Self connection to KU. With this, we've even got a bit of an "in" in the KC and STL media markets without taking Missouri or any other school in the state. Illinois is also the most high-profile basketball program in Chicago (fuck you, DePaul and Notre Dame), and the Illini can mine that city's HS talent with ease regardless of what conference they're in.
There were eight picks between Illinois and our next selection, including Missouri (who we thought would be a fantastic bridge between KU and the U of I), Pitt (hilarious PSU conference rival), Oklahoma State (glad spenders of T. Boone's money), and UConn (the funny thing is, if Edsall doesn't leave UConn for Maryland, this program goes 15 picks earlier).
So we went right back to the gridiron and took TCU. Please, allow me to explain.
Look, TCU b-ball is obviously a joke. But TCU football sure as shit isn't, and if you disagree, ask either A) the Big East, who just ironyfucked its own conference name into oblivion for the sole purpose of bringing in TCU's program, or B) Wisconsin, who waltzed into the Rose Bowl as the first team to face one of ESPN's "let's put the top mid-major into this game instead of a 10-win Illinois" charity cases and got swatted by TCU because of it. TCU can beat basically anybody, and it has built this stature without BCS money. It's getting that starting next year from the Big East. After that happens, good lord people, look out.
Round 9, we got a little nostalgic and grabbed Colorado. The Buffaloes are down right now, and let's not even stop to ponder what a disaster the Dan Hawkins era was. Historically, though, Colorado was usually at the top of the second tier in the Big 8, and the first half of their stint in the Big 12 was pretty successful. In other words, the current situation in Boulder is more of an anomaly than a permanent reality.
Also we totally bought some weed from our dealer Corey out there. You'll recognize Corey when you see him; he's the one with the Phish shirt. Also the academics are stellar. Also the campus is beautiful. OK look, we just wanted to get stoned out of our minds in the mountains once every year or two. That's better than spending that weekend at, like, Kansas State, n'est-ce pas?
Here's our new conference standing.
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)
ROUND 6, PICK 35: Kansas Jayhawks (Rock Chalk Talk)
ROUND 7, PICK 38: Illinois Fighting Illini (Hail To The Orange)
ROUND 8, PICK 47: TCU Horned Frogs (SBN blog coming soon)
ROUND 9, PICK 50: Colorado Buffaloes (The Ralphie Report)
ROUND 10, PICK 59: ?????
Everyone's updated picks are below, as usual.
Now, our more attentive readers probably noticed a series of question marks next to our tenth pick. That's not a weird moonman language, that is our way of saying that we do not have the pick made -- and we're up right now. Our general sense is that the top 5 schools on the board are, in alphabetical order, Indiana, Purdue, Rutgers, Texas Tech, and Villanova.
You can check out who's already been drafted below, and you'll probably agree that there isn't much else out there at this point. Our inclination here right now is Indiana; the basketball history is near-legendary, even if we're all perfectly aware that Bob Knight is gone and never coming back. Yes, the Hoosiers are still brutal on the hardwood right now, but... imagine how quickly their fortunes would turn around in a conference with Auburn, Penn State, and TCU! That's 5-6 wins a year right there!
Purdue, obviously, will not be drafted in any conference we're advising. THIS IS THE DEPTH OF OUR HATE.
Rutgers has the student body, money, and location to be tantalizing. But it just never works there for very long, does it? You can be as close to NYC as you want; it's still a pro sports town first, second, third... on down to about ninth, probably, right?
Texas Tech would be a fine conference mate for TCU, and would give us the second- and fourth-best football programs in that state. Yeah, it's the Horns' state, but building this rivalry into the conference gives us at least one game that Texans would probably want to watch, and last we checked, there's a LOT of Texans. Decent option here, but the academics are a joke, so is the basketball, and we might still be bitter about the Mike Leach firing.
Villanova is a good idea, IMO, but personally I feel like we might be able to get them on the way back in the 11th hour. High-level basketball school, football program that's destined for I-A (and a BCS spot with the Big East, no less) when the stadium logistics get themselves worked out, gives us a weird (read: weak but still there) cross-Pennsylvania rivalry with PSU, fine academics. That all said, there's no date on the football program moving up, so until then, the Wildcats are basically Georgetown with less of a foothold in their media market and a little less of a national profile.
Also, one last question... how many teams should we be looking here? Some of the conferences are probably bowing out at 12 or so, so are there going to be quality schools for the picking that late or should we cut it at 12 too? Do we pull a Big East and load up on I-AA football schools until we hit 16 or 20 or whatever? Talk to us!
Here's your poll. We're leaving it open until 2:00 CDT, at which point we'll advise the rest of the conference of our decision, and while we can't guarantee that = our pick, we do know that there'll be enough good arguments one way or another in the comments that we can come correct if the rest of the conference doesn't like the recommendation. So have at it, then!
CONFERENCE 1, WHICH REQUESTS THE NAME "THE 12-PACK"
ROUND 1, PICK 1: Texas Longhorns (Burnt Orange Nation)
ROUND 2, PICK 12: Georgia Bulldogs (Dawg Sports)
ROUND 3, PICK 13: UCLA Bruins (Bruins Nation)
ROUND 4, PICK 24: Wisconsin Badgers (Bucky's 5th Quarter)
ROUND 5, PICK 25: Washington Huskies (UW Dawg Pound)
ROUND 6, PICK 36: Duke Blue Devils (Duke Basketball Report)
ROUND 7, PICK 37: Clemson Tigers (Shakin' The Southland)
ROUND 8, PICK 48: Virginia Cavaliers (Streaking The Lawn)
ROUND 9, PICK 49: Boston College Eagles (BC Interruption)
ROUND 10, PICK 60: PENDING
CONFERENCE 2, WHICH IS US, "THE SISTERHOOD OF THE TRAVELING PANTS"
(see above, I'm not typing all that out again, YOU CAN'T MAKE ME)
CONFERENCE 3, WHICH WE SHALL NOW CALL "PROP 48"
ROUND 1, PICK 3: Alabama Crimson Tide (Roll 'Bama Roll)
ROUND 2, PICK 10: Oklahoma Sooners (Crimson And Cream Machine)
ROUND 3, PICK 15: Nebraska Cornhuskers (Corn Nation)
ROUND 4, PICK 22: Texas A&M Aggies (I Am The 12th Man)
ROUND 5, PICK 27: Arizona Wildcats (Arizona Desert Swarm)
ROUND 6, PICK 34: California Golden Bears (California Golden Blogs)
ROUND 7, PICK 39: Connecticut Huskies (The UConn Blog)
ROUND 8, PICK 46: Arizona St. Sun Devils (House of Sparky)
ROUND 9, PICK 51: Oregon St. Beavers (Building The Dam)
ROUND 10, PICK 58: South Florida Bulls (Voodoo Five)
CONFERENCE 4, WHICH REQUESTS THE NAME "CONFERENCE TMZ"
ROUND 1, PICK 4: Ohio St. Buckeyes (Along The OlenBANNED)
ROUND 2, PICK 9: Florida St. Seminoles (Tomahawk Nation)
ROUND 3, PICK 16: Louisville Cardinals (Card Chronicle)
ROUND 4, PICK 21: Michigan St. Spartans (The Only Colors)
ROUND 5, PICK 28: West Virginia Mountaineers (The Smoking Musket)
ROUND 6, PICK 33: Maryland Terrapins (Testudo Times)
ROUND 7, PICK 40: Missouri Tigers (Rock M Nation)
ROUND 8, PICK 45: Utah Utes (Block U)
ROUND 9, PICK 52: Boise St. Broncos (OBNUG)
ROUND 10, PICK 57: Cincinnati Bearcats (Down The Drive)
CONFERENCE 5, WHICH WE SHALL NOW CALL "HOUSE OF A THOUSAND SANCTIONS"
ROUND 1, PICK 5: USC Trojans (Conquest Chronicles)
ROUND 2, PICK 8: Notre Dame Fighting Irish (Rakes of Mallow)
ROUND 3, PICK 17: Oregon Ducks (Addicted To Quack)
ROUND 4, PICK 20: Tennessee Volunteers (Rocky Top Talk)
ROUND 5, PICK 29: Syracuse Orange (Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician)
ROUND 6, PICK 32: Kentucky Wildcats (A Sea Of Blue)
ROUND 7, PICK 41: Pittsburgh Panthers (Cardiac Hill)
ROUND 8, PICK 44: BYU Cougars (Vanquish The Foe)
ROUND 9, PICK 53: Vanderbilt Commodores (Anchor Of Gold)
ROUND 10, PICK 56: N.C. State Wolfpack (Backing The Pack)
CONFERENCE 6, WHICH WE SHALL NOW CALL "LES MILEONAIRES"
ROUND 1, PICK 6: LSU Tigers (And The Valley Shook)
ROUND 2, PICK 7: Michigan Wolverines (Maize N Brew)
ROUND 3, PICK 18: North Carolina Tar Heels (Carolina March)
ROUND 4, PICK 19: Stanford Cardinal (Rule Of Tree)
ROUND 5, PICK 30: Arkansas Razorbacks (Arkansas Expats)
ROUND 6, PICK 31: Iowa Hawkeyes (The BHGP)
ROUND 7, PICK 42: Oklahoma St. Cowboys (Cowboys Ride For Free)
ROUND 8, PICK 43: South Carolina Gamecocks (Garnet And Black Attack)
ROUND 9, PICK 54: Mississippi Rebels (Red Cup Rebellion)
ROUND 10, PICK 55: Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (From The Rumble Seat)
(Quick editorial note: yes, this is the first update in a long while. In our defense, there were several instances where we would have to wait nearly a week between picks. Never was the Sisterhood guilty of such an egregious dereliction of drafting etiquette. It has been incredibly annoying at times, but we decided not to put the offending parties on blast at the top, because most people actually don't give a shit and just want the draft update. So here you go, friends.)