night games

Mooch'd. Shemy Schembechler came, and then he went. Warde Manuel:

"Effective this afternoon, Shemy Schembechler has resigned his position with Michigan Football. We are aware of some comments and likes on social media that have caused concern and pain for individuals in our community. Michigan Athletics is fully committed to a place where our coaches, staff and student-athletes feel welcome and where we fully support the University's and Athletic Department's commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion."

Schembechler got booted for his twitter account, which had dozens and dozens of likes on posts ranging between debatably racist and obviously racist. The ESPN story linked about asserts that "a source with knowledge of the situation told ESPN that Schembechler went through a thorough background check during the hiring process," which uh no he did not. When your background check misses publicly available information it was not thorough. Or even a "check," really.

Add it to the "What The Hell Is Warde Manuel Doing?" files. This is currently an athletic department that's winning the most important game on the schedule and doing very little else right. At this point the number of unforced PR errors that the department is stumbling into like so many rakes in front of Sideshow Bob is, dare I say it, Brandonesque. Articles are rolling in with titles like "Michigan leadership continues to embarrass itself" from places like The Athletic—not exactly the RCMB.

Shemy released a statement repudiating his hundreds of endorsements of racist right wing tweets, for what little that's worth.

[After the JUMP: anonymous quotes article woo]

Free concert thing. Ann Arborites, Treeverb is happening tomorrow at First and Huron, just across the street from the MLive building and the world famous Residence Inn Ann Arbor Downtown, where the podcasts originate.

Food trucks will be on site, along with an option to purchase adult beverages. More information at their website.

Exit DeAndre. Saddi Washington will be the only survivor amongst Michigan's assistants:

As the saying goes, all good things must come to an end. My time here at the University of Michigan was nothing short of a dream. pic.twitter.com/91Y8FiJ53O

— DeAndre Haynes (@CoachDreHaynes) May 30, 2019

Mike Miller, who was discussed a couple days ago, Howard Eisley, and former St Joe's coach Phil Martelli are the names that have been floated for the two open spots. (Yaklich's departure for Texas is now official.)

Note that the report that Martelli has a firm offer came from a Philadelphia source, not Michigan. Brendan Quinn disputed that, citing sources on both sides.

[After THE JUMP: potential additions]

It's time we do another of these.

That Sponsor: TicketIQ of course. We like them because they’re the ticket site that doesn’t hide the fees. The online sites with official connections to the schools all have about the same inventory and prices, so if you go that route go with the one who gives us money and isn’t trying to hide the fact that they make some until you’re about to buy.

The Board: Remember I calculate AFTER fees so this is what the real buy price is. Subtract about 25% for the real sell price. 

2FISTDS = 2 friends in seats that don't suck, i.e. what I would normally target.

One thing to keep an eye on when trying to peg the final ticket price in a ticket market not yet trading very much is how close the good seats and group seats are to the face value of normal seats. The scarcity of group tickets for OSU already shows that's going to be a hard to get seat. Conversely the group price for MSU being so close to the get-in price suggests the market for people purchasing the cheapest seats out there is working but there aren't a lot of buyers out there yet.

Going Group:

No spouses were consulted during the sharing of this photo

If you and your friends have been looking for a game that it's reasonable to attend together, your options for home games are this weekend and IU. Of course if you've ever tried this you know it's a massive hassle. I once rustled up 20 tickets in the same section to a Michigan-Bowling Green game for out-of-towners coming to a Sunday wedding. We ended up paying an average of $60 per ticket, had to eat some cancellations, and watched everybody else file into the stadium for $10 to free. It sucked.

If you're doing it for your flag football team and their parents, contact the university (of that venue). Otherwise here's my tips if "Let's get together and all go to a Michigan game again" is the other* subject of your group text thread:

• Don't get more than 8 together for any reason. Split up the group. It's okay.
• Don't just look for "4 together" on the ticket sites. A few ticket sites now will consider two consecutive rows a group but even there when an individual puts tickets for sale they have to be in the same row. Last time I had to get 4 seats I bought two in my section that were 4 rows up from the seats I already had. Finding someone willing to trade was way easier than selling two and paying the premium for four.
• For a bigger group, don't put it all on one person**. It becomes a huge job and a communication nightmare. Make everyone responsible for their tickets, and everybody keep an eye out for deals.
• For smaller groups, look for two pairs or singles in the same section. The less interesting the game the better this works—people will trade around with you if you give them the better seats, or you can just squeeze in. Don't try this at Ohio State though. Maryland game should be fine.
• If it's important to be together, agree to all pay the same price, start with a pair (either a pair you've got or around where you want to sit) and build off from there.
• Don't be afraid for games like MD, Rutgers, IU to just get single tickets and all meet in an empty part of a section.
• Don't settle for the cheapest seats. You are paying a premium for seats together but it might be just a few bucks more to sit in really good seats (e.g. for Wisconsin it's $175/ticket for 6 good seats together or $150 for crappy seats).

These all work way better for a home game—if you're traveling, especially for a ticket that's hard to get—try to use official channels as much as possible and try to keep your group closer together. MSU is a good candidate right now: at $175 a ticket for 8 tickets right now you're paying about market value (less than a typical M @ MSU game), and gaining protection from the other fanbases' classier contingents.

* [The first being what was up with that 1st quarter]
** [Yes, even and especially if he literally writes a regular column about buying tickets in this exact secondary market.]

[After THE JUMP we'll go over lessons from Northwestern, and strategies for each game remaining]