The sixth round picks are in and we could not be more pleased with the results.
-- The 12 Pack: Duke
-- Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants: Kansas
-- Team Speed Kills: California
-- Conference TMZ: Maryland
-- The House of a Thousand Sanctions: Kentucky
-- The Cult Of Les Miles: Iowa
Here's the updated Big Board:
| 12 Pack | SOTP | TSK | TMZ | HoTS | COLM | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1. Texas | 2. Florida | 3. Bama | 4. Ohio State | 5. USC | 6. LSU |
| 2 | 12. Georgia | 11. PSU | 10. OU | 9. FSU | 8. ND | 7. Michigan |
| 3 | 13. U.C.L.A. | 14. VT | 15. Nebraska | 16. Louisville | 17. Oregon | 18. UNC |
| 4 | 24. Wiscy | 23. Miami | 22. A&M | 21. Sparty | 20. Vols | 19. Stanford |
| 5 | 25. U Dub | 26. Auburn | 27. Arizona | 28. WVU | 29. Syracuse | 30. Arky |
| 6 | 36. Duke | 35. Kansas | 34. Cal | 33. Maryland | 32. Kentucky | 31. Iowa |
Our fearless leader summarized the sixth round selections perfectly over at BC Interruption. This last round saw a major run on hoops schools, with Kansas, Duke, and Kentucky all going off the board. And Maryland. Sorry, Iowa.
The 12 Pack selected Duke to pair with our second round pick, the UCLA Bruins. An expansion to the trophy room at 12 Pack HQ is already underway.
But it wasn't just a hardware play, the financials made sense too.
Round six was all about hoops, hawkeyes and hippies. Basketball-first schools dominated the round with the House of A Thousand Sanctions (House of Sparky) selecting Kentucky at 32, Conference TMZ (Big East Coast Bias) selecting Maryland at 33 and The Sisterhood of the Traveling Panties (Black Heart Gold Pants) selecting Kansas at 35.
But the other five commissioners let a few terrible decades of football scare them off from the real hoops prize, Duke basketball.
Duke basketball generated over $26M in revenue in 2009-10, which by itself was more revenue generated by both the revenue sports at Florida State ($24.7M) and Maryland ($22.2M). Combined with the over $16M generated from football, Duke ranks 25th nationally in revenues last year.
The Blue Devils also kill it in the non-revenue sports and are currently ranked 3rd in the Director's Cup standings (if that's your thing), behind only Stanford and Ohio State.
Plus along with U.C.L.A., Texas and Wisconsin, the addition of Duke arguably gives The Twelve Pack four of the top 10 college hoops programs in the country. Washington is no slouch either and Georgia, well, they are improving?
Duke adds a private school with deep pockets -- an endowment pushing $5 billion, yes with a B -- and a commitment to winning athletic programs (that are not football). It also gives the Twelve Pack a foothold in a growing part of the country which continues to see double-digit population growth. Plus, it's another solid road trip destination to go along with Austin, Athens, Westwood, Seattle and Madison.
The pick was either Duke or Kansas and when the Jayhawks went right before us, our decision was made. Besides, Coach K checks Duke Basketball Report before each game to see what his lineup should be. Like football in Texas, Duke basketball is a year round sport and DBR's google analytics are the envy of every idiot entrepreneur that ever tried to start his own blog.
Shit gets real in round 7, as each commissioner now has to placate the dozen or so bloggers he's picked up along the way from hallowed basements across the nation. It's a thankless job, having to satisfy fragile egos limited by regional bias, bitter distaste for lesser rivals, and general lack of awareness for what makes a conference successful: recruiting talent, dollars, academics, and TV sets. And in this re-draft: hot tang. (If that regrettable collection of blogger traits seemed directed at Big East Coast Bias or Sisterhood of the Traveling Panties, it was mere coincidence.)
With 6 of the top 15 media markets now locked up, in the next few rounds the 12 Pack plans on seeking out a directional college in eastern Missouri, perhaps an overseas Mormon NCAA affiliate, and maybe a lower tier Ivy League school with a semi-competitive Lacrosse program just to give the other conferences a chance to catch up.
Who would you like to see with the 7th round pick? We are on the clock. Cast your vote by the end of the day and we'll try to sell it to our commissioner. Brian could have Dan Beebe's job tomorrow if he wanted it and while your help isn't really needed, he's willing to look at all available data before making a perfectly calculated decision.
No, nordberg, we're not taking Baylor.
