NCAA Conference Re-Draft Project, 8th Round: BYU A Huge Steal

by Cory Williams on Jul 14, 2011 6:36 PM MST in SB Nation Conference Re-Draft Project

Honestly, I'm amazed that we were able to pick up Brigham Young in the 8th round of the SB Nation NCAA Conference Re-Draft Project. Not only are they officially the Notre Dame of the Mountain time zone, but they are the banner school of the Mormon Church, with a membership of over 14 million according to Wikipedia.

Having recently gone independent in football, BYU will soon capitalize on their own television network that will broadcast a huge amount of Cougar athletics. Their scheduling efforts have been vigorous, and they appear to be doing a good job of coming up with home-and-away series against BCS-quality competition.

Now that they are part of the House of a Thousand Sanctions, our conference has the two biggest faith-based institutions in the United States (in terms of name recognition and value, at the very least).

I'm certain that Brigham Young was the best pick of the 8th round, with only the 12-Pack (Virginia) coming even close. Sadly, ASU was drafted two picks after we selected BYU, but we had to pass on the Sun Devils as long as BYU was on the board.

The first 8 rounds, plus the initial pick in Round 9 are below (table from BCInterruption)

Comissioners and Conference names: BCI: Twelve Pack; BHGP: Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants; TSK: The Empire (working title); BECB: Conference TMZ; HoS: House of a Thousand Sanctions; RCR: The Cult Of Les Miles.

	BCI	BHGP	TSK	BECB	HoS	RCR
1	1. Texas	2. Florida	3. Alabama	4. Ohio State	5. USC	6. LSU
2	12. Georgia	11. Penn State	10. Oklahoma	9. Florida State	8. Notre Dame	7. Michigan
3	13. U.C.L.A.	14. Virginia Tech	15. Nebraska	16. Louisville	17. Oregon	18. North Carolina
4	24. Wisconsin	23. Miami (Fla.)	22. Texas A&M	21. Michigan State	20. Tennessee	19. Stanford
5	25. Washington	26. Auburn	27. Arizona	28. West Virginia	29. Syracuse	30. Arkansas
6	36. Duke	35. Kansas	34. California	33. Maryland	32. Kentucky	31. Iowa
7	37. Clemson	38. Illinois	39. UConn	40. Missouri	41. Pittsburgh	42. Oklahoma State
8	48. Virginia	47. TCU	46. Arizona State	45. Utah	44. BYU	43. South Carolina
9	49. Boston College	50. Colorado

As I mentioned, we're doing a great job of picking up value in a somewhat difficult draft position. Where should we go from here? Three schools west of the Mississippi, two in the "south", three in the vicinity of the rust belt. Is Kansas State starting to look good?

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KSU has a solid B-Ball program...

…men’s and women’s, baseball is rising, but I’m concerned over their direction in football. Don’t have Ron come beat me.

/cowers in corner

It's not what you've done but what you are doing that matters.

Maybe next year the Ice Surface at Jobing.com should be frozen with the tears of Winnipeg. - TimmyHate of FiveForHowling to a troll after it was alleged Coyote fans do not know how to ice skate.

by AlabamaJammer on Jul 14, 2011 6:57 PM MST reply actions

How about Vandy?

Awful in football but solid all around in most other sports. Plus a great academic school

Cardiac Hill contributor

by oaklandzoo12 on Jul 14, 2011 7:03 PM MST reply actions

I agree, take Vandy

Kansas State can wait…forever. Going with the conference name how about Georgia Tech? There are still some good programs out there but you could take a flier with Boise State, or better wait till next round only two picks later.

by ev on Jul 14, 2011 7:24 PM MST up reply actions

Georgia Tech is definitely a Sanction-worthy pick

House Of Sparky: An Arizona State Sun Devils blog
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by Cory Williams on Jul 14, 2011 8:50 PM MST up reply actions

Thank you for drafting BYU into The House of a Thousand Sanctions Conference

We are honored to be the first non-BCS/mid-major school selected in this re-draft project. We are only sorry that we don’t actually have any major violations to bring to the conference and support the name. (We aren’t really sorry though, every family has got to have the one “good” sibling, right?)

Long live Ninja!
Rise and shout the Cougars are out!!
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by wheatie_87 on Jul 15, 2011 1:58 AM MST reply actions

Welcome to the fold!

It’s good to have you. We need an Honor Code, after all.

House Of Sparky: An Arizona State Sun Devils blog
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by Cory Williams on Jul 15, 2011 1:24 PM MST up reply actions

UNLV

You need a site for your conf basketball tourney, can’t ever go wrong when selecting Vegas for anything!

by J in JC on Jul 15, 2011 6:14 AM MST reply actions

Ole Miss

Can’t go wrong when selecting the ladies of the Grove either. Plus Oxford isn’t far from Memphis which another attractive site during road trips.

by J in JC on Jul 15, 2011 6:17 AM MST reply actions

Texas Tech or Georgia Tech

TTU gets you some exposure in Texas, and their program is fairly strong. If you look at their level of success over the last decade, it’s higher than you’d think.

G-Tech gives you a foothold in Atlanta, and has a fairly strong brand.

Your conference needs a few more warm weather locales. Atlanta > Lubbock.

by Gopher86 on Jul 15, 2011 6:47 AM MST reply actions

I'm not sure anyone needs Lubbock

by ev on Jul 15, 2011 8:39 AM MST up reply actions

+1 haha

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by Cory Williams on Jul 15, 2011 10:32 AM MST up reply actions

everyone needs Lubbock

in their rearview mirror

by cfn_ms on Jul 15, 2011 2:07 PM MST up reply actions

Glad you picked BYU

As a BYU grad it’s good to see BYU get picked. Not sure how BYU and Notre Dame will effect the over-all conference culture. Throw the Oregon counter-culture in the mix, and it looks like this is going to be a very interesting conference with some real bizarre and fun rivalries. Is there any way to make this conference a reality? Oh and P.S., Boise State might be a good pick in the 10th or 11th round. There’s the whole Oregon vs Boise State thing, plus the national following…

by dbass on Jul 15, 2011 12:19 PM MST reply actions

Can someone explain how Utah got picked before Colorado?

Or how a conference that has Duke and Clemson in it needs UVA? I like how RCR has North Carolina and yet feels the need to add South Carolina. All while not having anyone west of Ok St to go with Stanford. Nice to see TSK lock up the state of Arizona too. I know geography wasn’t suppose to be considered but that was for travel, not in the big picture.

by ev on Jul 15, 2011 12:28 PM MST reply actions

Utah probably got picked before Colorado

because it was a reaction to BYU being picked just before. Also, Utah in the past has had a WAY better basketball program than Colorado. Utah’s biggest attraction though is the women’s gymnastics.

Long live Ninja!
Rise and shout the Cougars are out!!
Author on VanquishTheFoe.com
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by wheatie_87 on Jul 15, 2011 12:45 PM MST up reply actions

Ok I can see the reaction value but otherwise it doesn't make sense

Colorado has so much more going for it. A historically better football program, bigger athletic budget, better location, not sitting under the shadow of BYU, larger TV market, and better academics. I’m not saying Utah isn’t a good pick, just they shouldn’t have gone before Colorado.

by ev on Jul 15, 2011 1:02 PM MST up reply actions

I agree

Just pointing out the BYU reaction. Colorado football is better but Utah basketball is better so that comes out even. I don’t know the athletic budget numbers. Maybe it really was for the gymnastics team.

Long live Ninja!
Rise and shout the Cougars are out!!
Author on VanquishTheFoe.com
Follow me on Twitter: @wheatie_87

by wheatie_87 on Jul 15, 2011 1:30 PM MST up reply actions

Insovency

Colorado has had budgetary woes in the AD— I’m not so sure the department is in better shape than Utah. Their football program has gone down hill significantly since 2005 or so and their basketball hasn’t been good since the Billups years. It is a sleeping giant, but the question is— how much longer are they going to snooze? Hopefully the Pac 12 money gets them going again.

by Gopher86 on Jul 17, 2011 12:31 PM MST up reply actions

insolvency*

Spelling is hard.

by Gopher86 on Jul 17, 2011 12:33 PM MST up reply actions

The thing with Utah is they enter the Pac12 with the lowest

budget of any school, even Wazzu. While the new TV contract will help, it doesn’t close the difference completely. Keep in mind while they will get close to WSU, the Cougs themselves have a huge difference between them and the next program. On top of that, Utah will also come in with the smallest donation level of any program, a huge issue for them. One of the reasons CU decided to move to the Pac12 was to solve their budget issues. Again keeping in mind they thought TV revenue would actually go down. There are more alumni in Cali than all the other Big12 states combined. They were looking forward to the increased donations from playing in front of all their alumni, something they found from their past visits to the area. Colorado might have issues now, but they are in a better position going forward than Utah.

by ev on Jul 17, 2011 12:47 PM MST up reply actions

Baffling, really

Utah is a pretty sexy pick from a “HEY WE ARE IN THE BCS NOW” but without actually accomplishing anything yet, they are basically a slight reach.

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by Cory Williams on Jul 15, 2011 1:25 PM MST up reply actions

If Road Trips are All Important than I understand Overlooking OSU...

But really at this point in the draft, look at schools left on the board who have one 1 or more national titles in one of the major sports (or even a ‘sort of’ major sport): Basketball, football, Track and Field, and Baseball, Hockey.

OSU won 2 college world series in a row (‘07 and ’08 if I’m not mistaken) and fields a credible team each season. Yeah, Basketball blows in Corvallis (Ralph Miller really is dead and buried) but if you look at Pac 10 wins in football for the first 10 years of this century, (2000 – 2009) you’ll see USC is #1; Oregon #2 and OSU is #3.

Maybe though, there’s a school with terrific women’s sports that’s still on the board – I really wouldn’t know – but I think one has to at least seriously take a look at the Beavers at this point in the draft.

by ConfofChamps on Jul 15, 2011 5:36 PM MST reply actions

Sadly the Oregon State Beavers were taken after Colorado

we’re now on the clock… Boise State is now gone too. A couple good Pacific Northwest options are now off the table.

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by Cory Williams on Jul 15, 2011 7:49 PM MST up reply actions

Damn I talked about taking Boise!

Whatever you do, DON’T take Wazzu! Take G-Tech, or Vandy. What about USF in the next round?

by ev on Jul 15, 2011 7:54 PM MST up reply actions

Wazzu is the only team left from the PAC

Things went great for our conference.

House Of Sparky: An Arizona State Sun Devils blog
SBN Arizona: The ultimate destination for Arizona sports coverage

by Cory Williams on Jul 15, 2011 8:08 PM MST up reply actions

You're right, I didn't think about that.

Good job Pac12! How about AF in the next round? Pick after next to go along with BYU. I don’t think they will be around much longer and they are a great choice.

by ev on Jul 15, 2011 8:22 PM MST up reply actions

^^ Meant to write: 'THEN I UNDERSTAND'

Sure wish there was an edit feature…

by ConfofChamps on Jul 15, 2011 5:37 PM MST reply actions

Do we have a pick yet?

by ev on Jul 16, 2011 11:20 AM MST reply actions

we took Vanderbilt

Excellent academics, surging baseball program, huge rivalry with Tennessee…

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by Cory Williams on Jul 16, 2011 12:26 PM MST up reply actions

well, huge from Vandy's perspective. . .

Heel for school, Vol for life!

Bolts, Preds, Canes (in that order). Canes mini-STH. Southern hockey solidarity!

by Incipient_Senescence on Jul 16, 2011 12:46 PM MST up reply actions

Excellent pick

Stanford of the South. With Tennessee and Kentucky, a solid base in that part of the country.

by ev on Jul 16, 2011 12:47 PM MST up reply actions

Georgia Tech is the best on the board

and I don’t even see it as that close. Strong academics, better basketball tradition than Vandy (titles), also good at baseball, located in a good TV market, decent football (with great history).

Heel for school, Vol for life!

Bolts, Preds, Canes (in that order). Canes mini-STH. Southern hockey solidarity!

by Incipient_Senescence on Jul 16, 2011 12:23 PM MST reply actions