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University of Maryland Selected in the 6th Round of SB Nation Conference Re-Draft

By Dave Tucker
Testudo and the Terps are now part of the fictional TMZ conference. Do a little dance Testudo, our long wait is finally over.
Testudo and the Terps are now part of the fictional TMZ conference. Do a little dance Testudo, our long wait is finally over.

The long, awkward wait is over. With the 33rd pick overall, the TMZ conference has selected the University of Maryland. We're joined by Ohio State (1st round, 4th overall), FSU (2nd round, 9th overall), Louisville (3rd round, 16th overall), Michigan State (4th round, 21st overall), and West Virginia (5th round, 28th overall). We'll now be included in the deliberation process for who to bring into the conference moving forward. When a new selection is announced, we'll get you the info about it.

I have to say, I love this conference so far. If we could make this a reality and I had the authority, I'd sign up in a heart beat. You've got a great football talent with Ohio State (impending sanctions notwithstanding), FSU and Michigan State, great basketball history with OSU, Maryland, Michigan State and Louisville, as well as very respectable programs from WVU.

We also get to preserve our football rivalry with WVU, theoretically playing them annually in conference. Additionally, we get some great basketball schools to go up against in OSU, Louisville, Michigan State (ugh. I'm still not over that shot. Breaks. My. Heart.) and WVU. We even get to keep one of our ACC buddies with FSU. I must say, we're up against some mega talent in football though. I'd say only Louisville and WVU are on our level when it comes to football. OSU is...well, they're one of the big programs you think of when you think about college football. We know about FSU's football tradition (unfortunately), and Michigan State is another Big Ten school with a great football history. So Edsall better be ready to bring his A-game and elevate the football program to new heights! As for basketball, I think Turgeon can get Maryland basketball back on it's feet and compete with these schools. Going against OSU, Louisville and Michigan State can't be any harder than going against Duke and UNC, right?

You can check out what Big East Coast Bias had to say about the selection of Maryland as part of their new conference, but here are some highlights (after the jump):

As promised, here are the highlights from Big East Coast Bias about selecting Maryland:
  • The Terps are a well balanced athletic department that excels in men's and women's sports across the board. They currently sit 16th in the Director's Cup standings.
  • Maryland is 39th all-time in football wins. While there certainly have been some lean years in football, like the rest of our selections, the Terps have either won their conference or played in a BCS bowl game within the past decade, reaching the Orange Bowl after the 2001 season. They boast 11 ACC Championships and the 1953 national championship.
  • The athletic department is consistently profitable and the Washington DC television market is the 9th largest in the United States. Maryland also pulls in the Baltimore market which would make it even more desired. Were we building a conference a negotiating a television deal, it would be an enormous benefit.
  • The Maryland basketball program has long been one of the nation's most consistently successful programs. Under the leadership of the now retired Gary Williams, the Terps have been a consistent postseason presence and Final Four contender, winning the national title in 2002.
Here in the breakdown of how the draft has gone thus far (NOTE - Our new conference, TMZ, is represented by "Big East Coast Bias" in this list below. And the TMZ conference name originated because of some of the scandals involved with some of the current teams that have been picked):

1-1 BC Interruption TEXAS
1-2 Black Heart Gold Pants FLORIDA
1-3 Team Speed Kills ALABAMA
1-4 Big East Coast Bias OHIO STATE
1-5 House of Sparky USC
1-6 Red Cup Rebellion LSU
2-7 Red Cup Rebellion MICHIGAN
2-8 House of Sparky NOTRE DAME
2-9 Big East Coast Bias FLORIDA STATE
2-10 Team Speed Kills OKLAHOMA
2-11 Black Heart Gold Pants PENN STATE
2-12 BC Interruption GEORGIA
3-13 BC Interruption UCLA
3-14 Black Heart Gold Pants VIRGINA TECH
3-15 Team Speed Kills NEBRASKA
3-16 Big East Coast Bias LOUISVILLE
3-17 House of Sparky OREGON
3-18 Red Cup Rebellion NORTH CAROLINA
4-19 Red Cup Rebellion STANFORD
4-20 House of Sparky TENNESSEE
4-21 Big East Coast Bias MICHIGAN STATE
4-22 Team Speed Kills TEXAS A&M
4-23 Black Heart Gold Pants MIAMI
4-24 BC Interruption WISCONSIN
5-25 BC Interruption WASHINGTON
5-26 Black Heart Gold Pants AUBURN
5-27 Team Speed Kills ARIZONA
5-28 Big East Coast Bias WEST VIRGINIA
5-29 House of Sparky SYRACUSE
5-30 Red Cup Rebellion ARKANSAS
6-31 Red Cup Rebellion IOWA
6-32 House of Sparky KENTUCKY
6-33 Big East Coast Bias MARYLAND
6-34 Team Speed Kills CALIFORNIA

I definitely think there are some head scratchers in there (cough *Virginia Tech* cough), but overall, Maryland probably went around where I expected them to go. I thought we'd maybe go a little higher and if we were able to win on a consistent basis in football I think we probably would have been, but #33 ain't bad. We were draft ahead of Duke and NC State, so we've got that going for us. We were also the 5th ACC team selected, by the way. The ACC is in 4th place in terms of teams selected from their current conferences. Not surprisingly, the SEC leads that category with eight teams selected thus far, as the redraft has seemed to have a focus on football power.

So, what do you think? Is this about where you expected Maryland to be selected? A little higher? A little lower? Are their any head scratchers you see?

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