diff --git a/src/Traversal.UnitTests/TraversalTests.cs b/src/Traversal.UnitTests/TraversalTests.cs
index 8214e4d3..2032f189 100644
--- a/src/Traversal.UnitTests/TraversalTests.cs
+++ b/src/Traversal.UnitTests/TraversalTests.cs
@@ -204,8 +204,15 @@ public void PropertiesAreSet(string target)
         [InlineData("RestoreProjectStyle", null, "PackageReference")]
         [InlineData("StopOnFirstFailure", "false", "false")]
         [InlineData("StopOnFirstFailure", null, "true")]
+#if NETFRAMEWORK || NET9_0 // These map how MSBuild.ProjectCreation chooses SDK versions given the TFM of the test
         [InlineData("TargetFramework", "net6.0", "net6.0")]
-        [InlineData("TargetFramework", null, "net45")]
+        [InlineData("TargetFramework", null, "net9.0")]
+#elif NET8_0
+        [InlineData("TargetFramework", "net6.0", "net6.0")]
+        [InlineData("TargetFramework", null, "net8.0")]
+#else
+#error "Update test data for the given target framework"
+#endif
         [InlineData("TraversalProjectNames", "custom.proj", "custom.proj")]
         [InlineData("TraversalProjectNames", null, "dirs.proj")]
         [InlineData("UsingMicrosoftTraversalSdk", null, "true")]
diff --git a/src/Traversal/Sdk/Traversal.targets b/src/Traversal/Sdk/Traversal.targets
index bd93f9ea..05bffcba 100644
--- a/src/Traversal/Sdk/Traversal.targets
+++ b/src/Traversal/Sdk/Traversal.targets
@@ -26,9 +26,12 @@
     <EnableDefaultItems>false</EnableDefaultItems>
 
     <!--
-      TargetFramework is required for restore and used to default to .NET Framework v4.5.  However, Traversal projects don't specify a version so it needs to be defaulted here.
+      TargetFramework is required for restore. If the user specifies a version, use that. Otherwise, use the
+      NETCoreAppMaximumVersion so that the project acts as if it were part of the SDK. If for some reason that's also
+      not set, fallback to the SDK's old default of .NET Framework v4.5.
     -->
-    <TargetFramework Condition="'$(TargetFramework)' == ''">net45</TargetFramework>
+    <TargetFramework Condition=" '$(TargetFramework)' == '' And '$(NETCoreAppMaximumVersion)' != ''">net$(NETCoreAppMaximumVersion)</TargetFramework>
+    <TargetFramework Condition=" '$(TargetFramework)' == ''">net45</TargetFramework>
   </PropertyGroup>
 
   <Import Project="Sdk.targets" Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk" />
diff --git a/src/Traversal/version.json b/src/Traversal/version.json
index 36509201..05408c3a 100644
--- a/src/Traversal/version.json
+++ b/src/Traversal/version.json
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
 {
   "inherit": true,
-  "version": "4.1"
+  "version": "5.0"
 }