OT: Illinois AD writes open letter about B1G Champions situation
Illinois' athletic director just wrote an open letter about how they feel like they should be at least be B1G Co-Champs. Pretty convincing or funny or embarrassing from whatever angle you choose to look at it.
I didn't downvote you but I also didn't think Warde should publicly bitch and moan about the ball placement. I'm fine if he privately took issue with the conference but an AD who complains about a rule he agreed to because it didn't work out the way he wanted isn't doing his athletic department a solid regardless of which team he helms.
Makes sense. He’s bitching. I love the bitchy guy! What a $(&@@ surprise!
Lol. Bitches love bitches
What you see as standing up for his players, i see as being a sore loser who is trying to go against the exact thing that he and every other AD agreed on months ago. It’s just whiny sour grapes, and not a good look imo
So....had Warde complained publicly back in 2016 about the officiating in Columbus you would've thought he was being a "whiny bitch?"
Because all the ADs agreed upon the head of B1G officiating and he was responsible for assigning that particular crew to that game.
Apples and oranges. The ADs didn’t agree to have an Ohio-based, biased crew ref that game. Unless I’m mistaken, the ADs have no say in who officiates each game.
They did agree how the regular season championship would be decided - by winning percentage - and because it didn’t go their way the AD, coaches and players are crying about it.
If Warde would’ve hand-picked the crew, and then complained after the fact when it didn’t go his way I think ‘whiny bitch’ would be pretty accurate
So Illinois "hand picked" the way the way the B1G is determining their champion?
No, they were part of a group, like we were in 2016, that mutually agreed to something. Something that later came back to bite us in the ass like agreeing to winning % is biting them.
Like I've said now 4 times. He's completely wrong.....and I respect him for bitching anyways. I wish our AD had his stones and did the same in 2016.
March 10th, 2021 at 11:29 AM ^
I don’t think we’re even disagreeing about anything other than whether it’s a ‘good look’ or good idea to publicly whine like this.
The fact is he did ‘hand pick’ this result when he agreed, with every other AD, that the regular season championship would be decided by winning percentage. He was one of the 14 people who said - ‘let’s do it this way’. That’s ’hand picked’ as far as I’m concerned.
More like IlliNOPE amirite
“We agreed in November that the championship would be decided by winning percentage, but since we didn’t have the best win percentage everyone should totally retroactively change that now”. What a douchebag and what a perfect representation of a whiny, entitled fanbase that hasn’t won shit in forever
This is the correct answer.
I understand Scott Frost has petitioned the Big Ten to acknowledge his "national championship" at South Florida, and now apply it to Nebraska.
If he gets his natty from Central Florida transferred to Nebraska as well, that would mean two titles for the Huskers in the same year. Wow!
They lost to Rutgers and Maryland. They didn't deserve better. They earned second place.
The funny thing is Illinois will get noticed more for advancing in the NCAAT than winning B1G but by all means keep worrying about that lack of B1G league championship that shouldn’t hurt your NCAAT run
Yeah, I posted in a previous thread that Illinois would probably start complaining if Michigan lost to MSU in that final game.
Well, this issue is about if the win percentage rule favorited your team, then you're fine with it. If it went against your team, then you're not fine with the rule.
It would've been that way with either fan base. Whoever benefited from it was going to celebrate, while the other cried foul.
The Big 10 made a decision. It would be tough to change it now because a person could argue that Michigan would've played with more determination if they had to win that last game against MSU.
Honestly, Illinois would have complained about regardless of the MSU outcome. They still would have crowed about having more wins + the head-to-head victory. So I don't put much stock in this song-and-dance being any different if UM had gone 15-2 instead of 14-3.
It's funny because playing more games actually helped Illinois when it comes to win percentage and it still wasn't enough
You thought they’d ‘start’ complaining? After msu? You must not follow college basketball all that closely.
March 10th, 2021 at 12:43 AM ^
Well, I guess I could've said start complaining more if Michigan lost to MSU in that last game.
Fair enough. Didn’t mean for this to come off as an insult aimed at you - more a comment on Illinois always complaining about something
Wanna know what me and the Ill hoops team have in common? Neither of us won the B10 title in 2021.
TLDR; We don't like the outcome under the current rules, so we now we want to retroactively ignore the rules that don't benefit us.
Hopefully they don’t decide to revisit this for some reason. Big Ten loves screwing Michigan over. Seems like sour grapes. Although I will say people here are still killing Warde for not making any public comments after the spot.
That dude’s entire argument hinges on the belief that the agreed upon winning percentage somehow harms a team that played more games. There is no factual basis for that and his feelings on such things matter not (though that apparently didn’t stop him from posting this open snowflake letter). Not everybody gets a trophy pal, sorry you lost to Rutgers.
Playing more games actually helps win percentage because losses matter less, and it still wasn't enough to help them get a better win percentage
We are very clearly the second best team in the conference behind the Illini, but the best team often does not win the regular season or conference tournament. It's not a situation all that unique to covid.
Didn't we sweep MSU in 2017 when they won the B1G?
It was 2018. Only played MSU once in the regular season at Breslin and Michigan pulled the upset. I believe MSU had the second easiest conference schedule. Played MSU again in the Big Ten tournament and beat them.
March 10th, 2021 at 10:40 AM ^
Yeah, 2017-2018 season is what I meant
We are very clearly the second best team in the conference behind the Illini,
If that were true, we should have finished behind them.
Losing one game doesn't prove you are worse than the other team overall. It just means you were worse on that particular day. The season standings tell the full story.
Or are we worse than Minnesota, too? Is Illinois worse than Rutgers and Maryland?
March 10th, 2021 at 12:05 AM ^
That is clear to you because.... they beat us in our only head-to-head? Okay, but they lost to Rutgers. Because we lost our last game to MSU? (they also lost to MSU). Because they beat OSU in Columbus (so did we). Because they slap the floor a lot?
m'kay.
Ilolinois
Rarely do you see a school and its representatives fight so hard for a participant ribbon....
I dunno, there is a hard core focus by the younger generation's parents on sharing everything and awarding participation medals.
eh, this ain't intramurals, brother
March 10th, 2021 at 12:04 AM ^
But it's about being a victim of circumstance... and trying to complain to the crowd that 'this is just so unfair'. This is an ongoing theme in some circles not to be named here.
This is unbecoming for an AD of a University.
Everybody is a victim of circumstance at some point. Grow up and get used to the fact that life is not fair.... but in this case, UI lost in both winning percentage and total losses so this just comes across as one of those 'we are victims....' and feel sorry for us.
I hope we get them in the BTT and lay down some reality.
And yes, 'we', is 'us', is Michigan, so you folks that find that inappropriate can go suck it.
With apologies to songwriters Carole King and Howard Greenfield:
It’s not their destiny
They lost four games instead of three
Although they tried, Big Ten wouldn’t abide
So now they suffer in pain
They’re only crying in Champaign . . .
So, as of November Illinois had a choice - Option 1 was to achieve the best winning percentage. I presume they tried to win all of their games and meet this agreed-upon criterion that was being brought into existence for this year (and only this year) because the Big 10 rightfully predicted that Covid would play havoc with scheduling. Option 2 was to recognize a forthcoming failure to succeeding in that objective and thereafter engage in lobbying to change it. Illinois has now failed at both options.
The pace at which that program went from "who cares" to "insufferable" is unreal.
I said this to an alumnus I work, you guys finally managed to make me care about Illinois. Not much but still.
They went from irrelevant to insufferable to "who cares" to insufferable
"Who cares?" Don't you know that we are their biggest rival in football? Well I didn't either. Apparently it's true though.
My sister went to Illinois and she says that they are "kind of weird" when it comes to sports rivalries so I have to take her word for it.
If you think about it, they kind of don't have any natural rivalries (Northwestern, but NW isn't typically good in any consistent capacity in big money sports), so they've kind of had to invent rivalries in their own minds, so why not Michigan?
I mean, they have an article on thechampaignroom.com where they are confused about who their own rivals are...https://www.thechampaignroom.com/2019/6/9/18647288/illinois-fighting-illini-rival-indiana-northwestern-iowa-ohio-state-michigan-purdue-wisconsin
March 10th, 2021 at 10:42 AM ^
They have the most onesided rivalry with us. They've sold "Much Fichigan" and "Ann Arbor is a whore" tee shirts for the past few decades and hate us for some reason, but still claim we aren't their rivals? Very odd
So somebody with a lower winning percentage is a champion? Case closed buddy!
Letter? that's a fucking book.
tl;dfuckingr
If this situation were reversed.... I'd congratulate my Illinois friend for their first big ten championship in a million years.
COMPARE AND CONTRAST
Illinois’ four Big Ten losses occurred before February 25 when Michigan then had only one loss, but the Wolverines had missed games at Penn State (7-12 in Big Ten games), against Indiana (7-12 in Big Ten games) and at Northwestern (6-13 in Big Ten games) and had one game against Michigan State rescheduled. The other three postponed games could not be rescheduled.
Illinois played and twice beat Penn State, Indiana and Northwestern. Illinois’ four losses were to teams that Michigan beat (Rutgers, Maryland, Ohio State and Michigan State). Michigan had only one game each against Penn State, Indiana and Northwestern.
Despite supposedly no positive cases within the men’s basketball program, due to Michigan Athletic Department’s COVID-19 policy that required all athletic programs to be suspended for 14 days (no practices or games allowed), Michigan played no games from January 23 through February 13.
While it’s true that Illinois crushed Michigan in Ann Arbor and they might be favored to win a rematch in the Big Ten Tournament, Michigan played by rules set by the Big Ten before the season started in determining the season championship. The team with the best winning percentage won the championship.
Sorry, Fighting Illini, but your fingertips have been fed to the Wolverines, so you could not boil the Wolverines.