Saw that scary tidbit; looks like I won't get my first look at the 07' Wolverines until the following week against the Ducks.
It's really pretty pathetic.
Good points. The de facto professionalism of college sports (at least football and men's basketball) creates all sorts of double-talk and cant. On a related note, I wish someone (i.e., not me) would look into the NCAA's total unwillingness to effect anything resembling actual enforcement of its rules, lest it slay some of the golden geese.
Also, I looked at that article by Centor -- it's not entirely clear, but the "rant" he was referring to appears to be his own writing, not Carr's complaints.
But Brian, even when the weather's not, Appalachian's Hot Hot Hot!
Vanderbilt is a double-edged sword in these parts. We praised them in bowl season when we discussed our strength of schedule (they're a BCS-conference team, they put up a fight with most opponents, they were leverage in our debate vs. Florida) and yet we disparage them when we list the foofiness of Bill Martin's gimme-the-money scheduling. Just being devil's advocate here.
Let's not forget the other pandering to the almighty dollar, such as the shorter kickoff tees, and the rule that now allows host schools to shorten or extend the length of halftime as they feel necessary. The latter will never, ever happen; though it theoretically allows for more commercials, the big bucks are in postgame analysis shows.
Also, let's NOT forget, Dude - that keeping wildlife... an amphibious rodent, for uh, domestic, you know, within the city... that ain't legal either.
is UNC that much better than Vandy? i don't know, at least it's a BCS level program. with ND and Oregon, it's not a terrible OOC sched.
re: Bill Martin's "pay the bills." you're right that they don't need the $$$ in 07. they didn't need 8 games of rev in 06, 05, etc. but what they need it for is the $75M renovation of crisler in (whatever year that starts). and the $225M renovation of the stadium in 08. and teh $25M for the Baseball/softball complex. and i think they have plans for the outdoor track. not to mention a new practice facility for football i think. yes, i agree that coaches salaries are out of wack. but, imo, that's a piss in the pot compared to the arms race that is facilities: dedicated recruiting centers (Jung ctr), lux boxes, practice gyms for M&W hoops, softball & basball too. that's not even considering the NBA/NHL-level arenas at NoDak, OSU, Wisc, even BU & Miami (OH) & others. without much thought put into this: imo, there needs to be a salary cap-like structure put onto Althletic budgets. is this feasible? anyone?
Preach on, Brother! I am as disgusted with the state of the game as you are. And Saban's ridiculous contract's ripple-effect will of course make things worse.
Yet, I can't help but remind myself that shall watch every game next year, and pay to go to many. We may all be rubes, but we're willing rubes. Even though we're being taken advantage of, and we see how the game could be improved, we still love it enough to put up with this garbage. And that's why they keep doing it to us.
Lloyd Carr gets criticized as an old codger who doesn't understand the way things work these days. But what his critics fail to see is that he understands it better than anyone - and he cares more. Even at his position, he can exact no more change to this momentum than the rest of us can. When he is gone, who will stand up for the kids and the fans? Not Nick Saban. Not Kirk Herbstreit. And apparently not Bill Martin.
Jeremy -
The line is:
Even when the weather is cold, cold, cold; Appalachan is hot hot hot.
Picky, perhaps; but I will not stand for the greatest college ad being misquoted.
"the final Lexus in their burgeoning luxury car Voltron"
- I love it. Saban's Voltron has assenbled to defend the universe of destitute football coaches from the evil underpaying Universities, the rapacious legions of devoted fans and most of all, the press.
I agree on all fronts with you and Lloyd - we have gone down the path of no return. Now if only I had the fortitude to remember that on Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday nights when I tune into Ohio U vs. Ball State and Louisville vs. upickum
Coaches getting paid so much money that they have nothing left to do with it than assemble themselves a Voltron comprised completely of luxury vehicles...
Nick Saban as Scrooge McDuck....
see this is mainly why I come here. not to get the low down on recruiting and what ever the current sports talk is, though that is a part of it, but mostly just to read crazy shit like that. laugh out loud funny
hope this doesn't make me some sort of blog whore, but I'm going to steal that Voltron thing and when the situation is right, I'm going to steer whatever conversation/discussion I'm participating in, in a direction where I can use it. I'm sure it will get laughs and truth be told, I probably won't give credit where credit is due...sorry
I couldn't remember it verbatim and I went with the rhyme that fit some sense of structure instead of the devastating, horrible truth. My apologies.
When Bill is paying the bills, some of that money better go to paying off Amaker after he is FIRED this March.
There's a school of thought that he will be back just because Martin won't pay two coaches for three years.
One, just one, football game would take care of two of those three years on Amaker's ridiculous contract. Let's hope the 2007 season opener will be known as "the Tommy game" around the Hall.
Honestly, I think it would be a bad decision to fire Amaker after we fail (again) to make the tourney this year. If nothing else, we have a pretty solid recruiting class for next year, all of whom we'd probably lose if Amaker were to leave.
Sure he can't coach for shit, but he's not completely worthless. I think the solution is to spend some cash on quality assistants.
What's up with us playing Oregon? How did that come to be?
tim, i'm kind of with you but since, imo, the 08 class will not fall into place the way we want it to, and we won't make the tourney this year (or next year logically)....why not get rid of him? the 07 guys signed...they can't get out of it.
re: lloyd. after reading/hearing all the comments he's made over the last 2-3 years, i think he's gone after 07. 99% sure. todays game just isn't the game he wants to coach or be involved with. look what happened since he started in 1995:
1.BCS has formed
2.the coaches giving osborn a going away gift title in 1997
3.rose bowl devalued/not always B10-P10
4. the citrus people taking iowa over M in 05-Delaney did something to hurt M there, i forget what is was. that led to Carr favoring teh playoff just to spite the bowl people. and delaney?
5. the 12th game.
6. night games are so prevalent...btw, given the home sched this year, expect at least one night game this year.
7. yea...Urban
I recall hearing back in 03 or so that carr promised Henne/Hart that he'd stick around till they're done. and hasn't done the same for any recruit since. after Mallet committed, i thought maybe he'll stick around. but then the last 3 months happened...lobbying, the contract, etc.
"Nick Saban's Scrooge McDuck vault"
Bonus points for the Scrooge McDuck reference.
You did, however, miss additional scoring by failing to describe Saban swimming in said vault.
Michigan had a home-and-home series scheduled with Oregon for the 2002 and 2003 seasons. Unfortunately, we all know what happened in 2003 with the loss at Eugene.
The previous year, however, Michigan was scheduled (courtesy of Tom Goss) to play Washington, Western Michigan, at Notre Dame and Oregon. When Goss was fired, Carr contacted the Ducks AD and had the game moved to 2007. Oregon was replaced with Utah in 2002. That proved to be a good move because the Wolverines were flat against the Utes (only winning by a score of 10-7) after losing to Notre Dame.
My guess is that Michigan will have alternating years of seven and eight home games per year. Look for one "name" program in a home-and-home series (Notre Dame through 2011) and three lesser programs willing to play for pay in Michigan Stadium. I understand that according to the Big Ten Media Guide for the 2006/7 season, UM will be playing Cincinnati, Miami (Ohio), at Notre Dame and Army in the 2008 season prior to conference play.
Given the way the BCS is set up, playing one major non-conference opponent per year is about the norm for most programs in the BCS conferences. Southern Cal seems to be an exception to the rule in most years, but that's the only school I can think of right now that will take on more than one major non-conference school per year.
No idea at this juncture what happens after 2011 IRT the Notre Dame series. I suspect both schools will cut down the number of games in the series so that they can play other programs. ND is in a scheduling pickle because they have to play the B10 schools in September. Taking Michigan off the schedule allows them to play other schools from the major BCS conferences (most recently, ND had a home-and-home with Nebraska during the two year hiatus with UM in 2000 and 2001). The same situation goes for Michigan IRT September. It will be interesting to see what Bill Martin and Kevin White decide upon IRT the series.
Dan, this is nitpicky, but the Citrus Bowl has the #2 pick. It was the Outback Bowl that snubbed us.
Also, we will never have a night game at the Big House. Certainly not this year.
Ore series was a home & home from the 2003 Navarre season. M's return game was set for 04 or 05, but the schedule was too tough or something? it's a leftover agreement from the pre-12 game/money money money/gotta get the green-era of today. honestly, if this vandy agreement comes through, I don't see anyone better coming in for games in the future. w/ ND a sure away game every other year, there's no way martin will agree to 6 home games in even a single year. and no decent level program will want to come here and not expect a game in return. but hey, at least Martin's trying....it would be really easy to bring in another MAC team or 1AA team. especially when you consider that those teams only want 2-3-4 hundred large for teh game. I'd bet Vansy's asking for 500-750 large in these agreements.
ok, my memory is not as good as some. not surprising. what's the hold up with the night games at M? if it's Carr, i could see him saying- 'fine, i'm outta here anyway, let's just do it as long as it's not every other friggin game.' it jsut seems like a small hill to fight for from carr's prospective. they'll play one on the road anyway, and why not give M that same advantage? plus, if they do it for ND, they could have the kids get used to the routine for the eventual night game at MSU or Iowa (or both). i'm not against the night games, if they're in Sept. why not play EMU at night?- cool temps, no travel issues there. i know my wife hates Sept games just b/c of the heat. but they moved it to OCT. dang, why does eveyone seem to spit in logic's eye?
The Daily addressed this a couple years ago. Sounds like Bill Martin doesn't quite get it.
http://
media.www.michigandaily.c...gepublisher.com
The new stadium renovations include fixtures and stands for temporary lights to be put in place when needed for games at night or late in the day.
Not exactly a ringing endorsement for night games, but the infrastructure will be in place to play at night.
Thanks for the reply -- I hope we get someone besides Vandy..
Dan,
There's no way UM (or probably anyone in the country) would hold a kid to his LOI after firing the coach for whom he signed it.
yea, i remember Martin's reasoning now...but still, a night game vs Army/EMU/Miami(OH) would not be that dangerous to the crowd. if anyting, safer wrt heat fatigue in Sept. the ND game would be a big deal, drinking, etc. but not much worse than a 3.45 kick. i also hear that A2 buisnesses like the noon games b/c people tend to stick around A2 afterwards. safe lighting for night games is the same as for 3.30 kicks after EDT comes around the end of OCT. imo, it's more Carr tahn anything. from what i always hear from Carr, this is a bigger issue for him than anyone on earth (for teh reasons he cites). maybe Martin sees this as a small hill for himself to defend from Carr, so Martin lets him have his way-then comes up with all this other crap to support his decisions. i don't know, *one* night game, in early Sept, vs a weak-ish to OK team would be favored by everyone (fans, players, TV, red cross, vendors, etc) except Carr, and the A2BBB. logic always sniffs out BS.
tim you're probably right, i just can't think of a time where a coach was canned after signing day. anyway...Dick Bennet's kid @ Wazzu.. my sister says he's pretty content (wrt family) in the palouse. it may be hard to get him. but they have one senior, one D-1 level player, and they are ranked. they play together, and beat pretty good teams in a good conference. this is his 1st year though, so who knows how he recruits, and he got the job as a condition for his Dad's hiring there 3-4 years ago.
This is what happens when the NCAA gets in bed with outside revenue generating influences... The BCS is dragging the college game to new lows just because a few sucky programs are jealous of big schools, all they need to do is build their programs up... like the biggies. Every year it seems we suffer another kill-joy afforded us by the NCAA.
Sorry, Brian, but next year's home schedule (even with Vandy) is no slouch. Home games vs Notre Dame, Oregon, Penn State and Ohio State? It makes Minny, the return of Purdue, the Hurons and whomever else very tolerable.
repub, what? maybe it's late in the eve for me, but who's the kill joy? and the sucky progams...examples? and what is the context? $$$ in CFB i assume. just asking for clarification. thanks.
Well, it was pretty clear... In my estimation the BCS pits out of division schools in a sort of "fantasy" league kinda manner against schools with developed programs... in a ridiculous series of bowls for the most commercial of reasons... and the more the doors are open to the money machine... less football resembles what it used to be. It was a nostastalgic statement...
ok, so you're not a fan of boise in the fiesta? i don't know...i still see this drive for $$$ a result of the facilites arms race and title IX (which i support) more than anything else.
Nah... it's about recruitment and dollars under it all. It's hard to see it as much more than that... it stinks but that is where things seems to be.
Apropos of little, the Duck Tails theme song was fantastic. So was Chip and Dale: Rescue Rangers for that matter. Disney shows generally blew for a while, but they have always nailed theme songs.
"tim you're probably right, i just can't think of a time where a coach was canned after signing day."
Kelvin Sampson last year, hence Scottie Reynolds asking for (and receiving) his release fro OK, and ending up at Nova.
Vandy's out:
http://nashvillecitypaper.com/in...s&
news_id=54106
I'm not if Vandy being out of the picture is good or bad. On the one hand, I really couldn't have been any less excited to see a rematch with Vandy. But at the same time, if the replacement ends up being another MAC school, I'll be even less inspired.
Put some damn lights on the stadium, good grief.
a couple of things:
re: night games - I seem to recall the '05 PSU game ending up under the lights.
re: the '06 Outback Bowl - no one in the Michigan administration pissed anyone in the Outback Bowl off. This isn't rumor, I know it for a fact, as I partied that whole week with someone on the selection committee. The Citrus bowl (or Capital One bowl, or whatever it is called now) always has the second pick out of the Big Ten. That doesn't necessarily mean they HAVE to choose the team that finished second. Likewise, the Outback Bowl always has third pick, but that doesn't necessarily mean they HAVE to pick the third place team. When faced with a 7-4 michigan team or an Iowa team with a similar record, the choice is obvious - take Iowa. Why? Because we, as Michigan fans, are a bunch of jackasses. We expect to be #1 in the country every year, and if we aren't we don't travel well. Iowa, on the other hand, is usually just glad to be going to a bowl game, so they have a ton of alumni go to the game. It is, as with most things related to college football, all about the money.
Penn State did finish under the lights, and the Michigan State game this past season started at 4:30. As far as I can find, that's the latest a game has ever started at Michigan Stadium.
It doesn't seem like it would really be worth it for ABC or ESPN or whoever to have to set up expansive lighting systems around the stadium to televise a night game. It would also make sense for installed stadium lighting to be included in the renovations, but I don't remember seeing anything about it. Anyone know if this is being considered with the other upgrades?
iirc, there are no plans for perm lighting in the designs. they did however, make a conscious effort to allow for the portable lights they currently use to still be viable around the new structures. (i.e., the new structures don't curl all the way around to the scoreboards).
Regarding the night game discussion, here is how I understand it:
At some point we're going to have to cave and play a semi-marquee (or better) home game at night. Since ABC/ESPN has the rights to this Saturday Night Football, they're going to put the best programs on. As long as we are/remain a consistent top-10 program, we're a prime candidate (along with a host of other schools) to be featured. One thing to note here is that ABC/ESPN has the rights to the Rose Bowl, so they are probably more interested in putting Big Ten/Pac-10 teams on their Saturday Night game as often as possible. This significantly thins out the number of big-time programs.
If we won't play a home game at night, then they'll feature us on the road (and possibly more than once). I think that when faced with the possibility of playing more than one night game on the road, or caving and playing one night game at home, we'll cave. Just my opinion.
I'm been wondering for this enire decade about that 2000 game at UCLA. When is the return trip? I don't remember UCLA visiting in the '90s, and the Bruins certainly haven't been to Ann Arbor since then. What's the story? Anyone know? I can't fathom the possibility that Michigan went to UCLA for a one-off game.
no, ucla played Mich in 1996 i think---at the stadium. 2000 was the return for ucla. i remember because they had those awful uniforms with the giant curly numbers.
has the quote from Bill Martin not duly shocked anybody other than me? it could be used as exhibit A that College Football Is Broken. if anyone in any level of management in any team sport in the world came out saying "we NEED to play two thirds of our regular season games at home" he would immediately be called out as not only greedy but stark raving mad. then the governing body for his sport would tell him to get his head checked, and furthermore that his team would be playing half of their games at home and half on the road just like everybody else.
considering pulling the NCAA's collective head out of its ass is an impossible endeavor, i say the best remedy is to insert a kludge in the BCS computer rankings that docks points for "number of home games over 6." =P
There's nothing wrong with adding a 9th conference game vis a vis the Pac-10. While some will complain about the schedule being too tough on the players, it has added fluff-free football for the fans and it has ended ridiculous debates regarding conference "misses" (re: Wisconsin, 2006).
For OOC strength of schedule, Arizona State (woot!) schedules it's three opponents in an A-B-C fashion. We play one solid BCS conference opponent (A), one up-n'-comer (B), and one cream puff (C). This passed year it was Colorado (scheduled long before their downward spiral), Nevada, and Northern Arizona. This system creates a solid (not great) SOS and gets the boys out of the house, as most of the bigger programs will only do home-and-homes.
We love night games, as 1) it's too damn hot at noon and 2) who doesn't want to tailgate all day?
So...instead of a 12th game, UM should schedule a track meet?
Blowing out Vandy will "totally shut up all those SEC partisans"? Really? Seriously? No, really? That...I just can't...what? Really? VANDY? Vandy is your proxy for dominating SEC teams?
That's a mighty weak leg you're trying to stand on there, bud.
Vandy?????
Shut up S.E.C. partisans?
Vandy, a team that went 4-8 last year.
Yeah, and Michigan should have been playing for the national title instead of Florida. You are very delusional.
So blowing out a bottom rung SEC school will show how undominate the SEC is. So by that logic, if LSU blows out, say, Northwestern, then it would prove the opposite, right?
SECers, chill out about the Vandy comment. Pretty sure he's being facetious about that.
Why is Lloyd such a curmudgeon? The atmosphere for the 8 PM ND@MSU game was amazing. Somehow the kids down in SEC country manage to get a decent night's sleep. Does an 8 PM start cause him to miss Matlock reruns? Good Lord.
Skip Every Class....sometimes stereotypes are rooted in truth apparently. hello...it was a joke....
i hate this as much as everybody else, and im ashamed we'd do something that florida or nebraska (who's even worse) do.
but, the only thing i will say in favor of it is that it is NOT true that it used to be the case that we played three powerhouses before the conference sched. sarted. now, to be sure, it used to be better. but look at the way it "used to be", like i just did, and you'll be surprised how many pancakes we used to play but we just have forgotten. also, if we look at the schedule minus the 12th game, we have oregon, notre dame, and emu. thats not so bad- in fact its about the same as any other year. emu is the traditional pancake, oregon is ok, and anyone who criticizes michigan for scheduling ND needs to have their head examined. its not like they dont have the second-best winning % in football. ok, so maybe ND is not good in individual years, but is georgia trying to convince us they shcedule troy for their upside, to get their names in the hat? are they saying they expect troy to be better than ND on a regular basis? if you schedule ND, youre trying for a good game. if you schedule troy, everybody knows what that is.
so i wont defend playing app st. too much, because at michigan we pride ourselves on NOT doing what everybody else does. but thats what we did this time. its too bad that 12th game just means ANOTHER pancake, but like brian says, its not going to change. and when lloyd goes, its gonna get worse.
Commenting by HaloScan
