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The Skeet Reese crankbait rod is perfect. The "noodle" action is what you want for crankbaits. The only crankbait that i do not throw with it is a rattlebait. I like a stiffer rod to rip the bait through grass. Good luck it is getting harder to save money when buying fishing gear.
BPS had a big sale (early this spring) on there BPS Viper reels and XPS rods so i got a 7' MH rod. At first i thought the reel was pretty lousy so i cleaned all the excess grease out of it and the berings and it turned out to be a nice reel for $45 I was real impresed with the rod it is a very accurate casting rod and done a great job of pulling a 5 puonder out of the sticks..
Every one that has used it has nothing but good things to say about it ( I wounder who makes those rods? I do know that browning made the Viper reel for BPS..
Here is a little tip for you and it is somthing i do to all my new rods , I take and put on some kind of wight and dangle it from the end working the rod like a jig this helps soften up the rod so you dont break it on the first hook set.. How much weight depends on how stiff the rod is on my XPS rod i used about 1 puond while it was dinglling i rotate the rod.. It also help with casting ditance allowing the rod tip to load / unload better.
For the past several years I have used BPS Extreme rods exclusively ( I have about 10 including 2 cranking models) and can't complain at all. I have recently just bought a Skeet Reese Wright/ McGill rod for heavy jigs and love it( even though it's pretty ugly)...
I love my BPS crankin stick for lighter shallow to medium crankbaits. But I think their bigger ones for deeper diving crankbaits are a little to stiff. I shopped around for a couple years to find a rod I liked for strictly deep diving crankbaits (fish those all summer here). For deep divers I would get as long of a rod as you can, with a moderate to soft tip - you will lose alot less fish. I've heard great things about the vendetta's for this, and in your price range. But it is almost impossible to find one rod that will toss shallow small crankbaits, and handle a dd22 too.