Harbaugh Tweets Common Sense

Submitted by HelloHeisman91 on

There R B-Ball teams & other NCAA teams that spend summer breaks traveling to countries around the world for team bonding & team development

— Coach Harbaugh (@CoachJim4UM) February 20, 2016
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BlueSteinInAZ

February 19th, 2016 at 8:23 PM ^

I love these subtle but factual tweets...the SEC is so hypocritical. So long it's good for them and not others...then it's more than appropriate. If the SEC can't particpate...it's a catastrophe and considered unfair and unethical. Pound sand degenerates. Go Blue and Hail Harbaugh!!!

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Wendyk5

February 19th, 2016 at 9:24 PM ^

My son's high school varsity baseball team (Evanston) goes to Georgia during spring break for games and thus practice(it's pretty cold here in March). They see it as a reward for making the team. 

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Section6

February 19th, 2016 at 10:50 PM ^

The spike was horse shit by Bolden, especially because he didn't back anything up on the field. It was a clown move and I would hope our coach would run up the score if someone did that to us. I didn't have a problem with THAT apology, Michigan is better than that.



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Magnus

February 19th, 2016 at 10:55 PM ^

I agree that the spike was dumb, but there was no need for a public apology from the coach. I don't know that I've ever seen another coach apologize for something that was so inconsequential. Did Urban Meyer publicly apologize for Marcus Hall flipping off all the fans when he got kicked out of the game a few years ago? (That's a legit question; I honestly don't remember.)

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OC Alum91

February 19th, 2016 at 10:42 PM ^

Didn't want to start a new thread....a long the same lines as OT http://saturdayblitz.com/2016/02/19/jim-harbaugh-laughs-off-criticism-o… Nick Baumgardner  ✔‎@nickbaumgardner Just asked Jim Harbaugh if he's bothered by SEC pushback to the spring practice stuff: 'I think it's comical,' followed by a chuckle 1:45 PM - 19 Feb 2016 Says Harbaugh: “I guess he’s stating a case, but it doesn’t hold water to me,” Harbaugh said. “It’s not an addition of time, it’s the same amount of time. It’s 20 hours. We’ll be on the same rules and guidelines that every other team will be under during spring practice. “It’s no more time demand than otherwise would be, it’s a 20-hour week. It’s the spring season when you’re allowed to do that. So (if anyone’s upset), that’s confusing to me. “There’s a lot of teams that travel to the state of Florida or Arizona. Softball teams, baseball teams. I bet if you researched it, some of those teams do that in their offseason. … I think it’s going to be a great use of our time.”

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Magnus

February 19th, 2016 at 10:51 PM ^

FWIW, I can see an argument against the "20-hour week" thing. I'm guessing that if we're speaking technically, the travel to and from Florida amounts to significantly more than 20 hours when combined with practices. If you factor in the drive to DTW (1 hour each way), the flight (let's say 3 hours each way), wait time at the airport (let's say 2 hours each way), and travel to IMG (I have no idea), that's at least 12 hours right there. You could make a case pretty easily that holding practice on South Campus is a lot less time-consuming.

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Magnus

February 19th, 2016 at 11:14 PM ^

Right......................

...........but let's be honest: if you're forced to travel 12 hours, that's kind of maybe something that should be counted.

To put it a different way, if I'm a 40-hours-a-week employee on an hourly wage, I'm going to expect to be paid extra when my boss tells me I'm going to a conference that requires 12 hours of travel on top of those 40 hours.

I'm not saying I wouldn't do it for a trip to Florida in the middle of winter...but it's definitely a gray area. We should be able to admit that if we take off our Michigan-tinted glasses.

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brad

February 19th, 2016 at 11:31 PM ^

I hear you, but the travel time is no more of a grey area than watching film or having workouts outside of coach contact time. If they really "work" 50 hour weeks every week, which I believe they probably do, then 30 are unpaid every week in that analogy.

Flying on a plane, watching film, throwing a football shaped towel, working out with quality control staff instead of coaches. The whole affair is more grey area than countable hours. I guess I don't see the difference.



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Magnus

February 20th, 2016 at 12:02 AM ^

There's a significant difference between missing mandatory practices that are approved by the NCAA (a.k.a. the spring practices in Bradenton, FL) and missing voluntary workouts/film sessions, even if there should be quotation marks around "voluntary." One involves outright insubordination that could terminate your place on the team and your scholarship. The other means you probably end up in the doghouse and lose playing time.

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brad

February 20th, 2016 at 12:15 AM ^

Sure, it's possible to differentiate between the different types of non-countable hours. If they spend 30+ min-countable hours a week anyway, who cares if 12 are spent traveling? In fact, a lot of the kids will probably be watching film or studying the playbook on the flight.



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Magnus

February 20th, 2016 at 12:29 AM ^

You're not really grasping the idea.

Sure, they *might* spend 50 hours per week, but 30 of those hours per week are not mandatory. There are certainly kids who do less, and probably kids who do more. Beyond the required 20 hours, the rest is "voluntary."

The issue is that if you spend 12 hours traveling to those 20 hours of practice, then you're making 32 hours MANDATORY, because there's absolutely no way for any kid to participate in those 20 hours of practice without hopping on the bus and then the plane.

Anyway, my point is not that this is wrong or should be vilified or made illegal. My point is simply that I think an opponent of this practice - the SEC, the ACC, perhaps the NCAA - could make a reasonable argument. Instead, they're saying stupid stuff about "The kids should be able to go to Chuck E. Cheese on spring break!"

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Magnus

February 20th, 2016 at 8:03 AM ^

*sigh*

I knew someone would come up with this lame argument. Let's not be completely obtuse here. If you can't see the difference between choosing to live off-campus while attending school and being forced to travel to Florida for practice, then I don't know what to tell you.

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Magnus

February 20th, 2016 at 9:21 AM ^

Wow. Why are we struggling with this so much?

Yeah, it's the same as traveling for a game or bowl game or conference championship...BUT IT'S NONE OF THOSE THINGS.

And as I've said a couple times now, I'm not saying I would turn it down as a player when I get a chance to spend a week in Florida during the winter. All I'm saying is that the opposition has a reasonable argument when it comes to time requirements. You're arguing with me about whether a free spring break in Florida is good or bad when that's irrelevant to my point.

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brad

February 20th, 2016 at 4:05 PM ^

You're struggling with this because you don't like having your logic questioned, but you're presenting questionable logic.

The opposition has no reasonable argument relative to time requirements, because they're only going to be spending like 12 countable hours during the whole week. There is no other formal time limit.



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