Unverified Voracity Induces Perd One Last Time
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Exit J'Marick Woods. Ol' Woods hit the portal:
Per the portal, Woods — who is in his third year at Michigan — intends to pursue a graduate transfer.
— Nick Baumgardner (@nickbaumgardner) October 21, 2019
Getting guys through in three years is something they've done before thanks to summer school and early enrollment—Woods did enroll early—and it's good to send guys off with their degree. Woods was inevitably going to get passed by Dax Hill, and has. That meant he was blocked from starting as a senior, and naturally this leads to a departure.
Michigan's safety depth next year will consist of Sammy Faustin, German Green, Quinten Johnson coming off ACL surgery, and true freshman. A little ominous, that.
We can't send Woods through the portal without one last look back at the most remarkable part of his Michigan tenure:
"He's kind of earning his nickname -- we call him 'Woods' -- and he definitely brings the wood, as a physical player."
The worst nickname in the history of the world.
[After the JUMP: a Todd comparison I like but you'll probably hate!]
Assumed but now confirmed. Isaiah Todd is aiming to be one and done:
In an interview with HighSchoolOT.com, another outlet that was in Raleigh, Todd said, “I’m focusing on being a one-and-done. Juwan and I have spoken about that. He just wants to push me to that.”
His high school coach speaks on his game a bit:
"His skill set is impeccable," Williams said. "He's not a big man. He's not a guard. He's just a real unique player."
Williams plans to play Todd at multiple positions this season against a challenging schedule. Todd can handle the ball and shoot from the outside, a luxury at his size. “And the good thing is he doesn’t overplay on the perimeter,” Williams said. “A big guy can’t check him and the guards are too small. He’s a mismatch problem.”
DJ Wilson, but more and immediately?
Huh. Kwity Paye made PFF's list of the best guys in "pass rush win rate":
Chase Young is winning 36.9% of his pass-rush snaps this season, best at the FBS level and is on a historic pace this year! pic.twitter.com/231J4ADW6e
— PFF College (@PFF_College) October 17, 2019
He is in fact the #2 P5 on this list behind only Chase Young. I can't say my grading has agreed with that. If you'd told me Uche is in that spot I'd believe you. Paye has been decent—better than last year. He hasn't popped out as the guy most likely to get to the QB on any particular down.
Favored! Michigan is favored vs ND. By one point, but still!
This is actually in line with the fancystats, which haven't been enthusiastic about Notre Dame this season. SP+ has ND five spots behind Michigan. The gap is only 1.5 points, but that would imply a 4.5 point home spread, so the betting line is actually more skeptical than the numbers that I'm pretty sure are no longer baking in a preseason component.
No, I don't know how Michigan is the #14 team in the country after:
- Squeezing by #77 Army in OT
- Getting obliterated by Wisconsin
- Squeezing by #24 Iowa at home
- Having a reasonable game against #70 Illinois
- Rugtgers///////
SP+ probably gave Michigan a lot of credit for a shoulda-won game in Happy Valley. Still don't get it.
They tried that already. You'd think an athletic director asked to say things about the direction of college sports would have a passing history of where the vector is coming from. Florida AD Scott Stricklin:
“One of the problems we have from an optics standpoint is our athletes aren’t in a free-market setting,” Stricklin said. “They’re in a socialist setting. But yet we have coaches coaching them who are in the ultimate free-market setting. It’s really an uncomfortable dichotomy.
“If Congress wanted to cap coaches’ salaries and administrative salaries in college athletics, I’d have no problem with that. I think it’s un-American, but so is the system we have for student-athletes. It’s socialism, right? But it’s socialism in the name of providing opportunity in an academic setting that makes some kind of sense."
…
ok
First, here is an SEC athletic director straight up asserting the NCAA system is "un-American"! Friends like these, Dude. Second, the NCAA tried capping assistant coach salaries and got obliterated in court. Third, "one of the problems we have from an optics standpoint"… gah. People in charge of things are just in charge of them.
And the thing they tried. The NCAA capped a certain assistant spot at 12k. Dollars. In 1998, not 1898. These days:
If you are lucky enough to be the head golf coach at Texas A&M, you are down to make $209,100, which is dog food compared to the head men’s golf coach at the University of Texas, who makes $275K.
The head women’s basketball coach at UTEP makes $246,000, or $700 less than the defensive coordinator for a Miners football program that is currently 1-4.
And if you are the the head women’s bowling coach at Sam Houston State university you pull in $73,584.
That's where the money goes instead of Denard. The average compensation for a D-I football coach is up 9% to 2.7 million.
If it's Jim Heckman, it's crap. The company that bought Sports Illustrated and then made it into a network of team sites with underpaid freelancers is run by the two guys who have run around various sports organizations over the past decade, running them into the ground. The Maven is next up:
According to an SEC filing that covers the quarterly period ending June 30, 2018, Maven’s management expressed “substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern within one year.” Maven’s independent public accounting firm came to the same conclusion based on the company’s financial standing as of the end of 2017. During the first six months of 2018, Maven lost more than $8 million, and in July 2018, the company borrowed $225,000 from chief executive officer James Heckman.
“Notwithstanding these recent financings, the Company does not have sufficient resources to fully fund its business operations through June 30, 2020,” the filing says.
Heckman will exit with yet more money. I will buy the Sports Illustrated branding and turn it into a brochureware website advocating the return of Pitbull to college football commercials.
What is an athletic department for? Bradley University doesn't have sports to make money directly. It has sports to market the school, and that function doesn't change when players get more money. Matt Brown interviews NYU professor Lee Igel:
MB: Let’s talk about that a little more. I was reading recently that the president of Bradley University, where he was saying that this imbalance (between the rich and poor schools) could get to the point where they’d decide not to have sports at all. My understanding is that at Bradley’s level, the real purpose of the athletic department is for student recruitment, and to help your brand, rather than trying to win anything meaningful. Is it possible that endorsement opportunities could cause some D1 institutions to rethink that calculus?
Dr.Igel: Yes, sure. And they refocus on the meaning of the school and what they’re trying to do with students? Yes, absolutely. I’m at an institution where that’s part of the conversation about athletics. NYU is DIII, and in the past, they were a powerhouse basketball program (years ago), and after some seedy things that went on, the administration decided to refocus. Athletics are still an important part of the student experience, they just look differently at our institution. And sure, that could happen.
MB: That level of refocusing seems awfully rare though, doesn’t it? I know it took gambling scandals to spur that conversation at NYU. I know Chicago famously did it, and Idaho sort of did it, but even a low-major school leaving D1, unless they’re broke, like a Savannah State, seems pretty rare. You think this could cause that level of paradigm shift?
Dr.Igel: It could, because this will be a different landscape. What this law does, it really changes the definition of student-athlete. And I think if we go one step further with it, for the NCAA, that’s been the sticking point all along. We’ve known it since the early 20th century!
And the world around is going nope. It means something much different than it did 100 years ago. And the world has just gone on, and the NCAA isn’t. But it’s changed!
So now all schools, from the biggest and best to the Bradleys of the world, they’re all going to have to re-think what it means to be a Division 1 school.
They can re-evaluate, and nothing will change. The lure of the NCAA bid will keep Bradley in D-1 and will keep the OVC pretty much the same.
Etc.: A Name and Image bill FAQ if you're still catching up. Hockey picks up a commit from WMU decommit Mark Estapa, for some year between 2021 and the moon blowing up. Uh… you can't… I mean… it's not legal. Connor Grady apologizes. Josh Langford out until January for MSU basketball. That guy can't catch a break.
October 22nd, 2019 at 3:24 PM ^
Well clearly Michigan's rating is inflated by preseason expectations that we would be favorites in the Big Ten, when the reality is we're out of the race in the middle of the god damn season.
October 22nd, 2019 at 3:38 PM ^
Not so fast, my friend. I did the arithmetic, and we still have a .16% chance to win our division. If you figure we would have a 50% chance of winning the Championship Game, if we get in it, we have a .08% chance of winning the B1G, or, put another way, a 1 out of 1250 chance! Go Blue!
October 22nd, 2019 at 3:39 PM ^
No question that preseason expectations are keeping the rating up. That's not at issue. The question is rather should preseason expectations be keeping the rating up if we're trying to predict how Michigan will play in the future? Bill's research on SP+ has found that yes those preseason expectations still matter. Results have been underwhelming thus far, but Michigan is still an experienced team with a lot of talent and a good record of recent success relative to the vast majority of college football.
I think it's hard for a lot of fans to disentangle themselves emotionally from the team, something Bill and SP+ have no problem with. For all of us, we look at everything that's happened and we despair that we'll ever get it right. SP+ looks at what's happened and thinks "Yeah, OK, but there's still some chance everything will come together." And it bakes that chance into its projection.
Sure, maybe there's something exceptional about Michigan that causes an objective rating system like SP+ to overrate it. As fans we are both the best and the worst equipped to divine that fact: the best, because we're so close to the team and have way more information than SP+; the worst, because we're so emotionally invested in the team that an objective analysis is near impossible.
In any case, I'm happy to have a system that's factoring out all the noise and is just focused on objective data.
October 22nd, 2019 at 8:13 PM ^
There's also the question of how much the preseason rankings are keeping it up. If it's not that much, it doesn't really matter.
October 22nd, 2019 at 6:32 PM ^
But Michigan was never the favorite in SP+. OSU was. And I don't recall preseason rankings off the top of my head but PSU was only a few spots behind.
October 22nd, 2019 at 8:24 PM ^
The preseason ratings don't care about where a team is predicted to finish; it's based on returning production, offensive and defensive efficiency, and a slew of other factors not captured by talking heads on gameday. Now, if you want to take issue with the fact the offensive predictions were based on last year's offense and this year's scheme has submarined a lot of that value, I'll agree. But if I asked you to name me 14-15 other teams that are absolutely, positively better than Michigan right now my guess is you'd struggle a bit.
October 23rd, 2019 at 2:10 AM ^
Yeah, I don't really get why Michigan being 14th in SP+ is that big of a deal. We're 18th in the human polls and that's not crazy. M just outplayed a top 10 (nominally) team at their place. They're certainly better than Iowa who is appropriately ranked just behind M.
October 22nd, 2019 at 3:23 PM ^
Re: Todd, I'll take DJ Wilson but more! Wilson was on the brink of becoming an outstanding college player when he left. And he was already unique in a way that made him fun to watch.
October 22nd, 2019 at 4:18 PM ^
Yeah, top-level DJ Wilson is good. Brian is all concerned that we're mad that he isn't calling Todd our Zion Williamson. If Todd is our only 5 star next year then Brian's point from the other post is more or less accurate: He's a nice piece for our Sweet 16 or Round of 32 team.
I think the rest of us are believing (or hoping) that he will be one of several top-level DJ Wilsons coming.
October 22nd, 2019 at 3:29 PM ^
The reason NCAA football makes so much money is because they show us a million advertisements every single game. Instead of paying even more money to a bunch of players who already get their tuition, room, and board for free, let's just reduce the number of commercials we show during the games.
October 22nd, 2019 at 8:56 PM ^
Solid plan, I’ll kick that up to the NCAA and the networks. You’re gonna be the most popular cornman ever.
October 22nd, 2019 at 3:38 PM ^
That article in the "etc" section about the team forfeiting the whole season is great. Thanks for the link.
October 23rd, 2019 at 6:28 AM ^
What a bunch of shady characters those coaches were. It's really hard to believe they actually did this and the excuses the head coach made are hilarious.
October 23rd, 2019 at 1:33 PM ^
I'm reaching out to someone named [checks notes] "Marvin Burks" to play QB for Michigan. He certainly will not wear number 10, nor will he be Tom Brady, I can assure you of that.
October 22nd, 2019 at 3:41 PM ^
Can I get a clarification on the transfer portal? Entering mid-season, is Woods still available to play if needed until he does select a transfer destination, or has be basically removed himself from the active roster effective immediately?
October 22nd, 2019 at 3:55 PM ^
Does it bother anyone else that the ath dept (and certain blogs) are basically proclaiming that "It's perfectly ok to come and be enrolled at UM even though you have zero intention of pursuing an academic degree and are just going to leave after your first and only season on campus (which may or may not cover two complete semesters). Have fun and try at stop by a classroom sometime!"?
Maybe it's just me and my misperception of what a "school" is.
October 22nd, 2019 at 4:22 PM ^
That's one way to look at it. The other would be that they're telling these athletes that they're gonna do everything in their power to help them pursue their dream of playing in the NBA and if that includes leaving school early, then that's alright. But if something doesn't work out, they'll have the opportunity to pursue at degree a the University of Michigan, and while they're here, they're expected to behave accordingly.
Things don't always go according to plan. As long as these athletes are upholding the standards of the university while they're here, I don't think we should have any problem with them leaving to pursue their dream (I know I would have).
October 22nd, 2019 at 4:46 PM ^
I completely get someone doing whatever they can to pursue their dream - I'm not going to fault anyone for that.
However, if any kid is good enough to get millions of dollars after playing only 1 year of college ball - do they really even need to be there? Is that single year of college basketball giving them that much development beyond where they were at the end of high school?
Especially in basketball (as opposed to other sports), there are do many options available for kids to play (and be paid reasonably well) prior to NBA - all without having them go through the motions of being a student if they have desire to actually be one.
What does this say about the university also? UM rightfully prides itself of being a premier academic institution with very demanding scholastic standards for entry - just ask anyone who worked hard and pushed to do their best in high school only to get a deferment or outright rejection to their application. Letting someone in who has no intention of taking the academics seriously (let alone whatever admissions leniency they may have been shown simply because of athletic talent)... seems a bit insulting.
October 22nd, 2019 at 5:17 PM ^
I mean, if you want to argue that the NBA should eliminate one-and-done, I'm certainly not going to disagree. The best thing would be for talented kids like Todd to have the ability to sell their services in a free market, like all the rest of us (and, indeed, the rest of the world, where kids in their mid-teens can sign professional contracts with top soccer clubs). But one-and-done isn't up to Michigan, it's up to the NBA.
So what should Michigan do if these kids need a place to play basketball before making the move to the professional ranks? I certainly think it's a lot better for the kids that they are given the option of a Michigan degree rather than stone nothing right out of high school.
Should Michigan be concerned with how those players behave while on campus? Absolutely. Michigan should still ask that any player who shows up for basketball uphold the standards of the university, even if Plan A is to leave for the NBA as soon as the opportunity presents itself. And if that opportunity doesn't arise as planned? You've given the young man a hell of a Plan B, and you've asked him to earn it, the same as any other student-athlete.
October 22nd, 2019 at 5:34 PM ^
I do believe the NBA should change, but with basketball there is still a free and open market for kids straight out of high school - both in the US and overseas. They don't need to come to a university to wait out their year and then be paid - they can already go and get paid (a fair amount) for that year and then get their NBA millions right afterwards.
My point is that is is somewhat unfair to allow someone into a prestigious school if they have no intention to make academics the priority. This doesn't necessitate that they must graduate, but even successful early departures such as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, etc. at least started school with the intention of focusing on academics and finishing. The school shouldn't change its standards just because a student also happens to be a high caliber athlete.
October 22nd, 2019 at 5:37 PM ^
Sorry, I was forming additional thoughts as you were responding to this, so they're posted in reply to your previous comment. :)
October 22nd, 2019 at 5:36 PM ^
As to whether Michigan should relax standards for athletes, I have a few thoughts:
- These athletes help market the university. They are its face to much of the public, and help the public form an attachment to the university. This benefits the university a great deal when it comes to securing donations, public funds, etc. It's not just the athletes who benefit from Michigan, Michigan also benefits from the athletes to increase its prestige, which the other students who are admitted then benefit from in turn.
- The university isn't strictly focused on pure academic performance for any student. It has long argued that fostering a diverse atmosphere is a priority, because they believe it benefits all students to be exposed to many different people with different points of view and experiences.
- No one "deserves" a place at Michigan just because of their raw academic performance. This was hard for me to accept when I was graduating high school. I felt I was more qualified than some of my high school classmates that were admitted to Michigan and was bitter about this for a long time. Happily, I was able to buckle down, put the work in at Washtenaw Community College, and transfer to Michigan for my junior and senior year, ultimately earning my degree from Michigan. The university has standards for admission that go beyond pure academics, and that's OK. No one should feel entitled to admittance just because of their test scores or GPA.
- Brian has long argued that admitting athletes to your school isn't really taking the spot that would go to some other student, because there isn't really a hard cap on supply; you can always squeeze another student into a lecture hall, right? I'm not sure how true this, but it's probably got at least a grain of truth to it.
And with all that said: yes, while you're a student at Michigan, the university should require you to take your education seriously, even if that isn't Plan A for the student-athlete in question.
October 22nd, 2019 at 6:08 PM ^
To each point:
1) The marketing aspect is a very poor reason to use as justification for relaxing standards or the use of a double-standard. An often used joke is that UM is the "Harvard of the West" and Harvard is "the Michigan if the East"... with the theme that UM thinks of itself as comparable to Ivy League (not here to debate about how accurate that is or is not at any level - but the meme has been out there for a long time). The point is that UM doesn't need athletes to market itself.
2) No one ever said that the sole aspect of college is academics and students cannot be involved in other pursuits and areas that round out their experience. My point is that academics should be priority #1 - everything else (university-related) is second to it, but not necessarily unimportant. Priority #2 does not mean lowest priority.
3) Academics are very important in admission, but also not the end - they are the beginning. My point is that no one should be accepted into UM if they cannot demonstrate serious and superior academic ability - but that is still a very large number of prospective students that needs to be whittled down. Additional factors (extracurriculars, public service, socioeconomic status, etc.) can be used afterwards - but simply being an outstanding athlete shouldn't be given so much weight that it lowers the academic bar.
4) There is always a hard cap on total enrollment in some way. Revenue sport student-athletes might not usually be taking away someone else's spot in a specific class or program (but sometimes they might, especially if that student-athlete is actually pursuing a real degree and taking meaningful classes that other people want to take - which is good!) - but they are occupying space in dorms, using campus services, and doing other things ar the university that may effectively be squeezing someone else out. Now, if that student-athlete was there to be a legit student and just happened to also be great at sports (with all the benefits that entails - up to and including a free ride), that's fine - they absolutely earned the right to squeeze someone else out that may be equal in all other respects but did not have the athletic considerations.
October 22nd, 2019 at 7:06 PM ^
At this point, revenue sport athletes are already planned into the enrollment caps. They know they are going to admit some basketball players for instance. They know they are not going to admit 150 of them.
October 22nd, 2019 at 4:43 PM ^
College is to prepare you for your profession. If your profession is willing to throw millions of dollars at you after one year then you should leave college and start your profession. Michigan can, and should, put together a suitable curriculum for someone who will only be there one year and then will be a high paid basketball player.
October 22nd, 2019 at 5:44 PM ^
College is preparing people for certain professions in a very specific way - via academic education. This is why they are selective about who is admitted and why they do not offer training just any profession (trade jobs are a great example - they also require significant training but not through college, they use apprenticeships and journeymen routes).
This is also why no university offers degrees in athletic sport performance - there is no real academic component and this the training/development lies fully outside the scope of a university education (which is why college sports at any level - IM/club/varsity - is classified as an extracurricular activity).
October 22nd, 2019 at 8:55 PM ^
I feel deeply privileged to have gone to college at a place where literally no one I encountered in four years ever discussed what job they would get after college-- though I guess a pretty high percentage went to graduate school, so that probably has something to do with it.
In any event, I wish the US had a more Eurpoean system, where vocational training was not looked down on, and people that wanted to train for a profession could do so, and people that wanted to become educated went to college.
October 22nd, 2019 at 7:00 PM ^
Just curious . . . if you have announced you are a one and done before you start school, and everyone from coaches to administrators buys into it, you are obviously not working toward any degree.
So what classes do you take, if even any?
What department are you admitted under?
What do they do with you on the academic side? Do they have a compressed one year of study, or do you just pretend you are a freshman and take normal freshman / core classes and then just cut it off in May as if you dropped out?
If Michigan is going to start down the one and done path, it seems like they could come up with an actually useful academic program that lasts a year.
October 23rd, 2019 at 6:38 AM ^
You guys make some good points. For me, the one and done does not sit well for many of the reasons you guys lay out. I also came to accept and like that Beilein would turn 3 and 4 star recruits into really good CBB players toward the end of their careers. Yes we had a few that left early, but overall he built some really good teams by development and that was always very satisfying.
For my own selfishness, I would prefer that CBB players had to stick around for a few years like CFB players do. I like CBB and abhor the NBA.
October 22nd, 2019 at 4:37 PM ^
At first, I thought you were talking about Nobel Prize-winning economist Jim Heckman, and I was confused. I would probably rather have him running sports media companies.
October 22nd, 2019 at 4:49 PM ^
I need to change my username to "Marvin Burks". That is the best fake name ever.
October 22nd, 2019 at 5:57 PM ^
Pierre Delecto and Ron Mexico would like a word with you.
October 23rd, 2019 at 1:58 PM ^
Are those guys friends with Carlos Danger?
October 22nd, 2019 at 5:02 PM ^
The answer to “why is Michigan the #14 team in the country” is as simple as it always is. It’s college football. Nobody is actually good besides like 8 teams.
October 22nd, 2019 at 5:23 PM ^
Haha, this is also totally true. Let's not pretend there's some wide chasm separating team 14 from team from team 19. The gap between teams 1 and 9 is wider than the gap between team 9 and 31.
Maybe it helps to understand what "14 in SP+" means if one thinks of it as "in the same tier as Washington, Minnesota, Baylor, Iowa State, Missouri, Notre Dame, UCF, and Memphis." Suddenly we don't sound nearly as out of place, huh?
Really solid point, Mr. Cat.
October 22nd, 2019 at 8:17 PM ^
Yup. There are only 5 teams in the country that I think are clearly better than Michigan. One could make an argument for Michigan over anyone else on a neutral field. There just aren't many teams without a lot of flaws and no teams outside the top 5 or so that come close to Michigan's talent.
October 22nd, 2019 at 5:40 PM ^
Michigan at #14: “The game is made up and the points don’t matter.”
October 22nd, 2019 at 7:08 PM ^
Unlike MGoBlog points.
No, wait . . .
October 22nd, 2019 at 6:06 PM ^
Bradley is MVC*
Although this neither changes nor makes incorrect your assertion.
October 22nd, 2019 at 9:16 PM ^
Brian's assurance notwithstanding, the game changes once players can "earn" money from their likeness. Bradley is in Peoria, for god's sake. The market around that school is not going to provide enough support to compete with any P5 school. Talent will want to be compensated and the Bradley type schools won't be able to compete.
October 22nd, 2019 at 9:30 PM ^
The market has little to do with it. Most of the money athletes will make "off their likeness" will be from boosters, as now - it'll just be over the table now.
October 22nd, 2019 at 7:16 PM ^
Safety depth chart for next year looks a little better with Dax and Hawkins.
October 23rd, 2019 at 2:14 AM ^
Yeah, I read that list and was like wait...and then realized he's talking about depth after the starters. Someone will step up to be a decent backup, right? RIGHT?
October 22nd, 2019 at 8:55 PM ^
Brian really hates Michigan today and for some time. It is hard to read his posts these days.
Whatever
October 22nd, 2019 at 9:49 PM ^
Whatever
October 22nd, 2019 at 10:29 PM ^
Coaches are overpaid. So are professional athletes. College football players are compensated to the tune of $80K+ per year in education, housing, food, medical care, tutoring, yadda at UM.
I don't and won't see how adding them to the list of overpaid people in sports will solve any fucking problem. Not a one.
"Big fucking piles of money are wrecking college football and basketball. So let's fix it by adding to it." ???
Go pay for your kid's college education full boat (tuition, housing, food, medical, transportation, etc), then see if you still feel like student athletes get nothing for playing games.
October 22nd, 2019 at 10:32 PM ^
So if you are Hoeg Law Firm why would you sponsor something so negative to a big part of your potential client base?
Are you not worried about a backlash? If not, you are foolish
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