sarcasMike takes Michigan Stadium Pokemon Go Gym

College Football Hall of Fame Votes

After hearing Dr. Sap talk about Rick Leach not being in the College Football Hall of Fame on WTKA one morning, I joined the National Football Foundation so I could vote. Spoiler alert, he's still not on the ballot.

There are 75 Division I players on the ballot. I can vote for up to 12. Additionally there are 6 division I coaches (vote for 2), 95 lower division players (vote for 4) and 29 lower division coaches (vote for 2) on the ballot.

Here is my decision making process as I vote for division I players.

1. Did they play for Michigan
2. Have I seen them play in person and the level of success they had against Michigan
3. Under recognized player I saw enough on TV or heard enough about to earn my vote
4. "Star" who is likely to get enough votes from others

Criteria 1 yields 2 players, Jumbo Elliott and Mark Messner. In my opinion Elliott helped restart Michigan as an offensive lineman factory. Messner was amazing as a redshirt freshman on the 1985 defense and was dominant on the 1988 Rose Bowl Champs. That's two of my votes.

Criteria 2 adds 16 more players, so I shouldn't need to go past here to complete this part of the ballot.

• Terrell Buckley - Dominant performance in Florida State's (closer than the final score) 51-31 victory of Desmond Howard and the 1991 Wolverines.
• Keith Byars -injury plagued for most of 1985, but he did play against Messner and Elliott in the first M-OSU game I attended.
• Mark Carrier - on the roster for the 1989 Rose Bowl game  but I admit to not remembering him play.
• Kerry Collins - Losing QB in M's first trip to Happy Valley. He did lead an undefeated squad to victory in Ann Arbor in 1994, but I missed that game for a wedding.
• Tim Dwight - his punt return for a touchdown just before the half was as close to a loss for the 1997 MNC Wolverines.
• Moe Gardner - big DT for Illinois, I swear I remember jiMpossible telling me that he trashed talked Moe on the sidelines in 1988 or 1989. But now he claims to not remember this story.
• Dana Howard - Part of the Illini defense that tied M in 1992 and beat them in 1993, but I don't remember much about him.
• Raghib Ismael - I was supposed to babysit my nieces in Southfield, but was able to get out of it when I scalped tickets to the 1989 M-ND game that saw Ismael return 2 kickoffs for touchdowns.
• Matt Leinart - destroyed Michigan in the 2004 Rose Bowl
• Anthony Poindexter - defensive back for Virginia, he would have been a freshman in the 1995 season opener. I do not remember him if he did play.
• Antwaan Randle-El - Michigan has had some close victories over Indiana lately. Randle-El had a Hail Mary throw into the endzone to knock off Tom Brady's team in Bloomington in 1999.
• Simeon Rice - Another Illini defender, like Howard part of a tie and victory over M.
• Rashaan Salaam - Heisman trophy winner for the 1994 Buffaloes that came all teh way back to knock off M on the Kordell Stewart Hail Mary.
• Aaron Taylor - Notre Dame lineman was 1-1 in the 2 games I saw his team face M.
• Troy Vincent - Defensive back for the Badgers back when M dominated the Badgers
• Lorenzo White - was dominant for the Spartans in the 1987 victory (although they still needed 7 interceptions to win).

Buckley, Dwight, Ismael, Leinart, Randle-El, Salaam and White all had strong enough performances when I saw them to definitely earn my vote, 9 down 3 spots left.

Byars, Carrier, Collins, Gardner, Howard, Poindexter, Rice, Taylor and Vincent are vying for the final 3 spots. Is there anyone to add from next 3rd criteria?

• Eric Bienemy - helped start the Colorado resurgence. 
• Matt Cavanaugh - good at handing off to Tony Dorsett
• Bobby Humphrey had that epic battle with Jamie Morris the in the Hall of Fame Bowl
• Dat Nguyen - that's fun to say

I'll go with Rice - never saw M beat him. Gardner - still holding out hope that jiMpossible trash-talked him and Bobby Humphrey.

Only Spurrier gets my vote in the coaches group and I decided I'm even less qualified to vote on the lower division selections.

NCAA basketball seed records

For some reason this weekend I got to thinking about which seed numbers have faced each other in the NCAA men's basketball tournament. We know that no 16 seed has ever beaten a 1 seed so other than the 16v16 play-in games - no other seed has faced a 16. But which other match-ups have never occurred?

The tournament committee started seeding teams in 1979 and the tournament went to 64 (and beyond) starting in 1985.

I found this "betting guide" article that referenced the first two rounds prior to this years tournament. I combined this with a quick (probably multiple errors) scan of wikipedia to pull together a table of which seed numbers have faced off and what their record is.

Here's what I came up with in tabular form - read across for wins and down for losses. This also includes the old third place games played with seeds from 1979-1981.

Seed	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	total
1	22	37	20	36	40	10	5	67	67	5	3	18	4	0	0	128	462
2	3	2	34	4	1	26	66	4	2	33	13	1	0	0	120	0	309
3	13	23	1	5	2	46	9	2	2	9	35	0	0	107	1	0	255
4	22	5	3	1	50	2	2	3	2	2	0	26	102	0	0	0	220
5	8	6	2	40	1	1	0	3	1	1	0	100	12	0	0	0	175
6	5	8	39	4	1	0	4	0	0	6	96	0	0	14	0	0	177
7	1	26	5	4	0	3	0	1	0	92	0	0	0	1	2	0	135
8	17	4	0	5	2	3	1	0	80	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	114
9	7	1	0	1	2	0	0	72	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	0	85
10	0	22	4	0	0	4	60	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	5	0	96
11	3	1	14	0	0	52	3	0	0	1	1	0	0	5	0	0	80
12	0	0	0	12	49	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	8	0	0	0	70
13	0	0	0	25	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	0	0	0	0	31
14	0	0	21	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	23
15	0	8	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	9
16	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Total	101	143	143	137	151	149	151	153	154	150	149	148	128	128	128	128

So the missing match-ups are:

• 1 vs 14, 15
• 2 vs 13, 14, 16
• 3 vs 12, 13, 16
• 4 vs 11, 14, 15, 16
• 5 vs 7, 11, 14, 15, 16
• 6 vs 6, 9, 12, 13, 15, 16
• 7 vs 5, 7, 9, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16
• 8 vs 8, 10, 14, 15, 16
• 9 vs 6, 7, 9, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16
• 10 vs 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 16
• 11 vs 4, 5, 12, 13, 15, 16
• 12 vs 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16
• 13 vs 2, 3, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16
• 14 vs 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16
• 15 vs 1, 4, 5, 7, 8, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 

Are there any of the missing combos that could still happen this year?

If Gonzaga and Iowa St. win in the Midwest it would yield the first 4 vs. 11 match-up. A Gonzaga trip to the final four facing Indiana or Finals against Maryland would be the first 5 vs. 11 match-ups as well. But beyond that we've seen all these seeds face off before.

Michigan has been involved in at least 2 of the "only happened once combinations. The 1989 final vs. Seton Hall was the only contest between 3 seeds. The 2013 semifinal vs. Syracuse is the only time 2 #4 seeds have faced off.

Bowl Predictions -National Championship

One bowl to rule them all.

National Championship is tonight.
I picked Clemson, 42 points in the Altese pool and 25 in the Dehlin pool.
I'm potentially still alive in the Dehlin pool, but the Altese has been finalized.

Altese:

Name	Current score	possible score
Sue	689	731
Paul	683	684
Mike	628	670

Here - no one can catch Sue even if she is wrong tonight. She has already taken the trophy from my dad!

Dehlin:

Name	Current score	possible score
Kevin	655	668
Sandy	641	642
Norm	639	667
Mike	637	662
Dad	618	660
Tom	615	657

Kevin can potentially be caught, unless Norm, my dad, Tom and I all picked the same team he did. At kickoff I'll be able to see who everyone picked and know if I have a chance.

Go Tigers!

January Prediction for 2016 record

My 5th annual January prediction for Michigan's upcoming football season record.

2012 - predicted 9-5 - ended up 8-5
2013 - predicted 10-4 - ended up 7-6
2014 - predicted 9-4 - ended up 5-7
2015 - predicted 10-3 - ended up 10-3

What will the Harbaugh magic bring for 2016?

9/3 - Hawai'i - Win
9/10 - Central Florida - Win
9/17 - Colorado - Win
9/24 - Penn State - Win
10/1 - Wisconsin - Win
10/8 - @ Rutgers - Win
10/22 - Illinois - Win
10/29 - @ MSU - Win
11/5 - Maryland - Win
11/12 - @ Iowa - Win
11/19 - Indiana - Win
11/26 - @ OSU - Win
12/2 - B1G Championship game - Northwestern - Win
12/31 - Fiesta Bowl - Baylor - Win
1/9 National Championship Game - Alabama - Win

15-0 , why not?

jiMpossible-sarcasMike Trophy update

Amazing comeback by TCU, down 31-0 at the half, they come all the way back to win it over Oregon in triple overtime 47-41.
Full post on the trophy and its potential for next season coming soon.

Bowl predictions - day 2nd to last

Four bowls remain before the national championship, and they play them all today.
Here are my picks:
Gator Bowl: Penn State (6-Altese; 9-Dehlin)
Liberty Bowl: Arkansas (40-Altese; 42- Dehlin)
Alamo Bowl: Oregon (9-Altese; 10-Dehlin)
Cactus Bowl: West Virginia (36-Altese; 41-Dehlin)

My trophy dreams may be dying, I've gotten 7 bowls in a row correct, but I've fallen further behind.
I trail Sue by 64 points (and Paul by 46) in the Altese pool. In the Dehlin pool, I trail Kevin by 25, Sandy by 15 and am tied with Norm.
In both family pools I do have more points remaining than those above me, "so you're saying there's a chance!"