Biden and Rodrig

It really isn't a big deal what Biden said about Rodrig, because he'll get to apologize in the White House Rose Garden after M wins the National Championship after the 2011 season. Or, maybe Joe will apologize to Jim Harbaugh.

Defran and RRs future

Yesterday on WTKA Defran said he's heard rumors from inside sources that UM is considereing offering up RR to the NCAA if that means they avoid probation.

This morning Sam and Ira basically threw him under the bus, all but calling him a liar.

I've made it clear that I'm no fan of Defran, but I thought the morning Maize and Blue glass wearers went to far.

Here's my e-mail chain, I assume with Ira:

----- Original MessageFollows-----From: Mike Altese To: studio@wtka.comSubject: DeFranDate: Thu, 29 Apr 2010 06:54:26-0700(PDT)>
While I've never been a DeFran fan, I don't have any problem with him reporting what"his sources" have told him. How is it any different than Sam reporting his gut feelings during the recruiting roundup? Both have gotten information from their sources and reported it. As I recall Jeff used some fudge words like"could" and"possibly" etc. Do I think he would like RR fired, probably, but either accuse him of making this story up, or quit worrying about it...
Go Blue!

From:"studio@wtka.com" To:Mike Altese Sent: Thu, April 29,2010 9:58:49AMSubject: Re:DeFran
Sam's gut feelings come right from the kid. Not a"source."

From: Mike Altese To: studio@wtk=a.comSubject: Re: DeFranDate: Thu, 29 Apr 201007:14:28 -0700 (PDT)
So call Jeff out and say he's lying. We've got a history of kids telling every Scout and Rivals rep what their school wants to hear. Sam uses his judgment to get his gut feeling. And I highly doubt he ONLY gets his gut feelings from the recruit himself.

How do you know Jeff's source isn't Brandon?

From:"studio@wtka.com" To: Mike Altese Sent: Thu, April 29,2010 11:47:15 AMSubject: Re:DeFran
Actually, Sam ONLY reports a gut feeling when he gets it straight from the kid, which is a direct source. And I do know that Jeff's source isn't Brandon

From: Mike Altese To: studio@wtka.comSubject: Re: DeFranDate: Thu, 29 Apr 2010 08:51:30 -0700 (PDT)
Well then kids sure lie to Sam a lot... Who is Jeff's source?

From: "studio@wtka.com" To: Mike Altese Sent: Thu, April 29, 2010 1:01:56 PMSubject: Re: DeFran
Kids change minds a lot. And (liek you mentioned), they tell people what they want to hear soemtimes. But they are 17 years old.

And scene...

I want Michigan to succeed, that means I want RR to succeed, but if firing him in August would alleviate any sanctions... who knows.

FBS Conference realignment

With all the talk about adding teams to the Big1T1en, I thought maybe the best thing to do would be to realign all the conferences. My criteria was create ten twelve team conferences. Based geographically. This would result in 16 team tournament with the conference champions and 6 at large teams.

Here is my first attempt at the 10 conferences:

Far West	Mountain	Plains	Rio Grande	Great Lakes
Arizona	Ore St	Iowa	Baylor	Ball St
ASU	WSU	Iowa St	Houston	CMU
Cal	Oregon	Kansas	NMSt	EMU
Fresno St	Washington	KSU	No Tex	Illinois
Hawaii	Colorado	Minnesota	Rice	Indiana
Nevada	BYU	Mizzou	SMU	Michigan
SDSU	Utah	Nebraska	TCU	MSU
SJSt	Air Force	Ok St	Texas	NIU
Stanford	Colorado St	Oklahoma	Tx A&M	Northwestern
UCLA	Boise St	Tulsa	Tx Tech	Notre D
UNLV	Idaho	Wisconsin	UNM	Purdue
USC	Utah St	Wyoming	UTEP	WMU
Ohio Valley	Gulf	South East	Mid Atlantic	NorthEast
Akron	Ark St	Alabama	Clemson	Army
BGSU	Arkansas	Auburn	Duke	BC
Cincinnati	La Tech	Fl Atl	ECU	Buffalo
Kent	LSU	Fl Int	Ga Tech	Maryland
Kentucky	Memphis	Florida	Georgia	Navy
Louisville	Miss St	FSU	NC St	Penn St
Marshall	Mississippi	Miami	So Carolina	Pitt
Miami (OH)	So Miss	MTSU	Tennessee	Rutgers
Ohio	Tulane	S. Flo	UNC	Syracuse
Ohio St	ULL	Troy	Va Tech	Temple
Toledo	ULM	UAB	Virginia	U Conn
WKU	Vandy	UCF	Wake	WVU

Sam and Ira argument on WTKA

I usually like to disagree with both of Ira and Sam from WTKA, however today I have to agree with both.
They were discussing the money going to the NCAA as part of the new basketball tournament deal. Sam is arguing that since there is no change to the labor cost (because the athletes work for free) any increase is just profit for the NCAA. He wants the basketball players to get part of the pie.
Ira is making the argument I have long made - that money goes to pay for the the majority of the sports that lose money. I do agree with Sam that the recent meteoric increase in coaching salaries probably disproves some of that. No one (except the coaches of non-revenue sports) seems to raise an eyebrow that the basketball and football coaches make substantially more than the other sports.
They just determined that the full contract would provide about $600 a year to each NCAA Division I athlete - they don't know what the divisor would be if they included all divisions.
To me the whole thing is just chasing its own tail. There is so much money to be made that the coaches (and everyone else) want more, so they expand to get more money to pay the higher costs...
Late addition - the WLA took a look at this issue as well - chitownblue wanting athletes to get some of the money with mjv arguing against much of this in the comments.

New 68 team NCAA Men's Tournament

I like the restraint the NCAA showed in limiting the expansion to 68 teams instead of 96 originally thrown around. What I don't like is putting teams that earned their way to the tournament by WINNING their conference treated like they red-headed step children in their own little mini bracket in Dayton on Tuesday.

Way not have the last 8 at large teams compete in the play-in games instead of 8 conference champs? Wouldn't there be more interest in the games if they were Virginia Tech vs. Cal instead of Arkansas Pine-Bluff vs. Winthrop? Instead of getting teams people would be interested in seeing play - more TV money and better attendance in Dayton, we settle for keeping the little guy down.

Pictures From The Spring Game...

...taken by a five-year-old who didn't care much about what was happening on the field.

Thieving Octopus

Cool video of an octopus making off with a diver's video camera:

OT- Teabag rally in Ann Arbor yesterday

The teabaggers held a rally in Ann Arbor yesterday - looks like the college Democrats outnumbered them (albeit my only evidence is from this unabashedly biased blog).

What I've Seen So Far

My opinions of spring practice and the team are limited to the snippets I see at MGoBlue.com, and the occasional MGoBlog entry that is worth reading, so I only have a few things that I've really noticed.


1)Gardner appears to have some moves. I don't know what this means in terms of his ability to play and make plays, but it definitely fits into the RR offense.
2) If you didn't already know, DLaces is fast. Really fast. And in some of the video I saw, he actually ran the spread/read (I don't know the difference) option and also made some moves that consisted of more than accelerating and outrunning. If the practice highlights are anything like what he can do against opponents, I could become a Lacehead
3) Too many running backs and wide receivers who are good. Hopefully, some of them become great.

I know I only mentioned the main skill positions. That is all I have really seen. Part of that is because the camera shots are too tight on the M website. They love their ball carriers.

One more thing. The NCAA investigating WVU. Is it normal for the NCAA to go to a prior school of the coach when they find infractions? It seems a bit presumptive if they do that. It almost seems like that must have had another reason (former players saying things were not done correctly, etc.) to actually start that investigation. I hope I'm wrong. Not that I want RR to stay around more than this year, but I really would like it to be a quiet season regarding off field events. After the season, let's talk about what to do with him

Michigan QB situation

Rodriguez: ...he’s a talented, talented guy...

Sullivan: Being fast doesn't equal being talented.

If there is really a battle for the starting QB job, M will win no more than 5 games next year. I don't believe either of these things are true.

PNC "presenting sponser" of the spring game

Not sure I like where this is headed! Brandon has the support of the "He's a Bo guy," community. I wonder how much that crosses over with the "No commercializing the big house," group.

96 team field for the NCAA tournament

It has become pretty clear that the NCAA Men's Basketball tournament is expanding to 96 teams in the near future. Here is a transcript of the press conference when the rolled out "how the theoretical structure of the 96 team tournament might go." The Q&A section gets pretty nasty. AA.com has implied that John Feinstein is the lead questioner.

It took me a while to figure out how their plan works. It looks like there would be 16 games each on Thur/Fri (the 9 seed vs 24 seed, 10 vs 23 etc.). The winners would take on the 1-8 seeds who got byes (9 vs 24 winner faces 8 etc), in 16 games each on Sat/Sun.

Then the winners would play again - 1/(16/17)winner against 8/(9/24)winner - Tue/Wed.

From here the tournament stays the same with the Sweet 16 games are Thu/Fri and Elite 8 Sat/Sun and the final four the next Sat/Mon.

Feinstein Points out there is no chance for winners will go to any class that second week. He makes a strong point of comparison on how the NCAA couldn't possibly have a football playoff because of how much school the players would miss yet there is little concern for the missed class here.

I know you're shocked, the main issue is making money!

Too Bad It's Not True

Every school should do this.