Round four of the SB Nation conference re-draft project is now in the books and we feel as good about our fourth selection as we did with the previous three. In the fourth round we drafted Michigan State. There are a number of reasons to love the Spartans at this point in the draft, but here are some of the most prominent.
- Michigan State football is 31st all time in wins. They finished 11-1 in 2010 and were Big Ten co-champions. The Spartans have six national titles and seven outright Big Ten titles. The Spartans also played in the historic "Game of the Century" 0-0 tie with Notre Dame in 1966.
- Michigan State also boasts a proud and successful basketball tradition, most notably Magic Johnson and his national title team and Tom Izzo, who has a national title and has reached the Final Four basically every other year for the past 15 years.
- According to The Business of College Sports blog, Michigan State football is the 16th most profitable college sports program, profiting $26 million per year. Michigan State basketball is the 50th most profitable sports program profiting the school $7 million per year.
- The Spartans are currently 41st in the Director's Cup standings and are one of the nation's best college hockey programs as well.
So we like Sparty and the resources they provide for us as a conference and this was an easy selection in the fourth round. There's no one in this conference re-draft that's got better basketball without having to sacrifice football at the same time. Welcome aboard The Only Colors.