I'm for whatever format gives me the most good college football playoff games to watch. Why? Because I like watching big time college football matchups. If I had my way, I wouldn't guarantee a G5 team a spot. If they have a team that earns getting in then so be it but I'm not guaranteeing them a spot just to be nice.
Yes, there are multiple factors that are taken into account when analyzing financial information to determine true cash flow. My larger point was that you can't just look at the bottom number on a financial statement of a complex organization and say, "this is what we made".
Be careful just looking at the bottom line of a financial statement when trying to determine the true cash flow of any entity, especially one as large as Michigan's athletic department. I haven't viewed the financial statements themselves but I'd bet dollars to dimes that there's a ton of "noncash" expenses built into the financials that skews the financial reporting. One of the largest of these items tends to be depreciation which books as an expense but there's no real expenditure of cash, per se. Generally, at least in the banking world, we would add back these noncash expenses to the bottom line to determine the true cash flow of a given entity. In successful ventures, this can dramatically change the presented financial condition of an entity.
Step #1 would be to hire a commissioner that oversees the sport and administer enforcement
Step #2 would be to agree to some sort of scheduling framework
I don't know if I would consider this to be good advice. Sure, in Colson's situation its probably best that he goes. But I would argue Michigan has had a history of having players leaving for the draft when they would have been much better off returning to school. Case in point, Gemon Green. He could have returned and been part of a national championship team, earned some NIL, and improved his draft stock. Instead, he leaves early, goes undrafted, gets signed by the Giants as an UDFA, and ultimately gets cut. I believe he was paid about $100k for doing so.
Just my opinion, but if a player has eligibility remaining and isn't projected to be drafted no later than maybe the 4th round it makes no sense to leave. I have a feeling we'll see a couple of guys leaving early again this year that'll end up being 5th-7th round draft picks or even go undrafted. I'll never understand how that makes any sense from either a career or financial standpoint.
What does Milroe do well? 1. He can obviously run. 2. He can hit the deep ball. 3. He beats you off script.
What does he not do well? 1. Not great or experienced at reading defenses. 2. Not a terribly accurate passer. 3. Reliant on big plays.
If I'm Michigan:
- Play two deep with complex coverages
- Set hard edges on the wide side of the field
- Blitz from the wide side of the field when the ball is on the left hash to push him into the boundary and use the sideline as a 12th defender while speeding up his decision making.
- Use Colson and/or a secondary player as a spy to cheat angles
- Make him beat you by dinking and dunking his way up and down the field. Eliminate big passing plays and make him execute play after play after play. Compress the field and make him make tighter window throws than he's used to.
If he goes crazy superman mode breaking tackles right and left or goes nuts making tight window throws then so be it. But I'm not letting him break contain and have easy deep shots to their athletes on the outside and I'm not running coverages that allow for him to get big chunks with deep ins and outs. Make him beat you by playing boring and efficient football at a high level of execution.
I'm not sure why people are so hell bent on how he performed this year. Yeah, his numbers weren't good. But he was also a true freshman on a bad team, with a bad roster, in what was the best conference top to bottom in the country this year. He wasn't ready to start and he shouldn't have been put in that situation. I'll take his talent in the QB room 100% of the time, especially when we aren't necessarily relying on him to be a savior.
Best case scenario, JJ comes back and Moore and Davis can develop and battle it out to see who earns it for the 2025 season and the other can transfer if they feel it necessary. Hell, if Underwood wants to come in too then even better. We should never turn down high level talent for the QB room under any circumstance. Take the best we can get and let the chips fall.
Very much would like him at Michigan. Sure, he had some struggles this year at UCLA but I saw him play a few times and the talent is undeniable. More talent in the QB room is not a bad thing.
So far this year I've only gotten a bottle of Stagg but the raffles I usually get in haven't happened yet. Not anticipating I get anything great this year because last year I had crazy luck and got a bottle of Sazerac 18 in a raffle and then the week before Christmas I walked into the liquor store and they had a bottle of George T Stagg on the shelf. Both were had for MSRP.
Some stuff that I will be on the lookout for this year if I'm lucky enough:
1. The obvious: BTAC, Pappys, King of Kentucky etc.
2. Thirteenth Colony Double Oak
3. EH Taylor Barrel Proof
4. Birthday Bourbon
5. Jack Daniels Coy Hill, 12 year, Twice Barreled etc
Probably a bridge too far but does the fact that these teams obtained, compiled, and shared this information constitute both advance scouting and the use of electronics to do so?
Idk, it just seems like it checks an awful lot of boxes:
1. Petitti doesn't want this headache for the conference and he certainly doesn't want Michigan's program to suffer. It gives him something to go back to the other ADs and coaches able to say he took some action.
2. A one game suspension for Harbaugh wouldn't admit guilt on his part but could be spun as filling the NCAA's new rule of holding head coaches accountable even if they aren't aware
3. Michigan gets to put this to bed and move on without any reason to not give Harbaugh his extension
4. The B1G and SEC now have the NCAA by the balls because if they want they could render the NCAA obsolete by simply starting their own governing body. I'm not sure how much the NCAA would want to shake that hornet nest if Petitti tells them this is how its going to be
Nobody gets everything they want but everyone can spin it as a win to their constituents. I've seen worse deals thats for sure.
Am I crazy to think that this might be a good time for Santa to set up a call with Harbaugh and Petitti to make a deal? Maybe bite the bullet and give the conference their ounce of blood to get this to go away? Stallions is gone, offer to pay up a big fine, maybe a one game suspension for Harbaugh (Maryland?) and in exchange Petitti leverages the influence of the B1G to pressure the NCAA to accept this as a sufficient punishment? Maybe the NCAA gives Stallions a show cause to wrap a bow on it all.
To add some weirdness to an already weird story, Clayton Sayfie, Trevor Woods and others are now tweeting some very cryptic stuff that gives off the impression that things are turning in Michigan's favor. Who knows what the hell is happening at this point.
Who's to say compliance wasn't informed? I obviously have no knowledge of how the work flow of something like this would occur but is it that farfetched that UM hired this firm to do background before the Harbaugh extension, found this stuff and brought it to compliance and Warde/Ono whom then agreed to forward it onto the NCAA for reporting?
Some of the other theories just seem like a plot out of a movie and I tend to be just as skeptical about them as I am about the descriptor of their being a "vast network" supporting this whole thing. Dollars to dimes that when the facts behind this all come out we're all going to lose our minds because this was self inflicted in more ways than the actual rule violation itself.
Appears to be a typo. Article says the firm "brought" the information to the NCAA.
No way this firm isn't linked to Michigan in some way. Absolutely had to have permission or the authority to access this information. There's almost no chance this was hacked material as that gets into some serious legal troubles for whomever did so. I also can't imagine a law enforcement agency brought this to the NCAA after stumbling upon it while working the Weiss investigation. For one, there's already been reports that the Weiss stuff isn't related. Second, Law enforcement agencies deal with legal issues not violations of membership institution rules. The chances that a law enforcement agency would even have the depth of knowledge of the NCAA handbook too know this was a potential violation to report just seems so small to be realistically plausible.
My money is on this firm being contracted with the athletic department in some way. Did the AD up their due diligence after the Shemmy fiasco and was doing a search before signing Harbaugh to the extension and they found this? Were they "self reporting" it to the NCAA and it opened a can of worms with the NCAA already up UM's ass? Did someone in accounting identify charges/reimbursements that they questioned and decided to look into it further?
I don't know but this feels like something we're all going to facepalm about when its all said and done.
Let me preface this by saying that this is internet account and could be completely wrong so I'll eat the downvotes. That said, @genetics65, a twitter account that has had a bunch of Big 10 and realignment news that has seemingly come to fruition, has been tweeting about this situation. It seems like this guy either may actually have some connections to Big Ten athletic departments based on some past information he has posted or he has gotten lucky on some speculation. Take this all with a big grain of salt but this is what he's said:
Regarding how this all started:
"How/who blew all of this wide open - Michigan signal stuff. Las Vegas. Those guys don't like losing money."
"All I know is they (Vegas) found irregularities in data that didn't make and sense any that is how it got started. Sounds like Vegas contacted the Big Ten."
"When you piss of Vegas, you have pissed off the wrong people."
On the current status of things:
"I will put it in a polite manner...Big Ten leadership is mad."
"Serious conversations of Jim Harbaugh having coached his last game at Michigan. Major talk of an incoming suspension."
"I don't know what will get approved since it is a group of folks that have to approve or reject, but what is on the table is the following:
I've seen some other rumors online that Vegas tipped off the Big Ten. Could be complete bullshit but it wouldn't be the first time Vegas has notified a league of something "being off."
As someone in the central time zone, I love night games. 6:30 and 7:00 pm starts are awesome. Looks like I'm in the minority but I would prefer Michigan have 3-4 night games in their regular season schedule. To each their own.
I really don't understand the Jones stuff. Sure, he isn't the greatest pass blocker but he is a very good run blocker. At least we know what we're getting and can scheme to help him with pass blocking. Hinton may have a higher upside but how do you scheme for solving his inconsistency?
I'd have to go find it again on Twitter but I had seen that Sanders was going to get around $2mm in NIL this year and Travis Hunter was estimated to come in around $1.5mm.
I feel like its going to be hard to keep Hausmann off the field. Him and Colson are our two best linebackers which means Barrett might see his snap count drop dramatically.
They'd have to take a huge haircut on the revenue side of things and Cal would have to agree to sit in the corner and keep their mouth shut during any decision making meetings so the grown ups can get some work done.
Objectively speaking, Portnoy may have pulled off one of the greatest business deals we've seen in as long as I can remember. Guy sells is business for a couple hundred million and then buys back 100% for $0 while also maintaining stock ownership in $Penn after the ESPN deal? How does that even happen?
Feel bad for their fans but as far as I'm concerned if Cal doesn't give a shit about their own athletics program why should anyone else? They've allowed a bunch of nutjobs to infiltrate their circles of influence and the bill came due.
I just don't think this is true. Advertisers want eyeballs which means networks want a product that will bring the most eyeballs. The goal from a network perspective is to be able to fill 3-4 timeslots per day with marque matchups that attract the most eyeballs possible. More high quality programs = more high quality matchup combinations = more demand for advertising = higher revenues for networks = bigger tv contracts for conferences = bigger distributions for member programs.
Its the same reason that I've never understood people thinking Cal would be a good fit in the Big Ten. Sure, it puts another very good academic school from a huge market it California. But nobody watches Cal football so if I'm an advertiser why would I give a shit? Hell, I put Stanford in the same boat and would only want to take them if I knew it could be leveraged to add Notre Dame.
For context, Oregon averaged about 2.21 million viewers per game last year, which is actually higher than USC averaged at 2.07 million. Cal is at like 800k which would put them only above Rutgers in the Big Ten and I would argue that their average is skewed by higher viewerships they get credit for when they play the USCs and Oregons of the world. On the flip side, I would argue Oregon's average viewership would increase because now all of the sudden they have more marque matchup combinations that people would be drawn to.
Just my two cents but I work in banking not TV so someone that works in TV could rightfully tell me I'm full of shit.
Well, Notre Dame is the biggest no brainer take left in college football right now. The ideal scenario would be for the Big Ten to land Oregon, Washington, Stanford and Notre Dame. The TV contract would be insane and the inventory of games available would be awesome.
Really hope Oregon and Washington aren't going to end up following them due to the uncertainty of them ever getting a Big Ten offer. That would be a major missed opportunity for the Big Ten and with the current uncertainty in the Pac 12 they may feel like they have to make a move sooner than later.
I would second Tornado Room as a fantastic old school steakhouse. Like going back in time and the steaks are great.
That said, my favorite restaurant in Madison is Osteria Papavero. Some of the best authentic Italian food I've ever had and pretty moderately priced for the quality of the food. I'll be in Madison for a couple weeks in August and will probably go 3 or 4 times while I'm there.
I don't know if I agree with this. I don't think there's 15-20 schools with a bigger national brand (for football) over the last 10-15 years than Oregon. Are they a national brand at the level of Michigan, Ohio State, Alabama, Georgia, USC, Notre Dame etc? No. Are they at the same level as your Penn State, Wisconsin, Auburn, Florida etc? I think they are. Are they a bigger national brand than Florida State, Miami, Michigan State, UCLA, Iowa? Without a doubt.
If they joined the Big 10 and I were to rank the top teams in the Big 10 in order of what I think people throughout the Country would have an interest in watching I would say:
Ideally, I would like to see Oregon, Washington, Stanford, and Notre Dame. Done. Thats a huge haul with a massive inventory of stellar matchups. The GaTechs and Cals of the world just don't do it for me.
Joel Klatt just had a segment on his show about the whole "size of market" a school is in. He made it sound like TV execs and advertisers have now shifted their mindset away from caring about how many TVs are in a given market and instead are now focused on quality of matchups. It doesn't matter how big of a market Eugene is if you have a matchup of Oregon vs Michigan because everyone throughout the Country is watching that matchup and advertisers are willing to pay more to have the eyeballs.
If that is indeed the case, the Big 10 will gobble up Oregon and Washington as fast as possible because it would now mean assets/inventory is much more valuable than location.
Correct, but the NCAA's deal given to the University of North Dakota was different than that of Florida State for example. Florida State had to get permission from the nearest Seminole tribe. North Dakota had to receive permission from multiple tribes. The nearest tribe (80 miles away), the Spirit Lake Sioux, voted and approved using the nickname by over a 2-1 margin. The Standing Rock Sioux's (300 miles away and primarily in South Dakota) tribal leader would not allow the community to vote on the name.
Why was Florida State allowed to get approval from only one tribe (the tribe closest to campus) and North Dakota had to get multiple tribes, including one predominately in a different state? Additionally, for those that may think the Sioux logo was offensive, it was designed and created by Bennett Brien whom happens to be a Native American artist from North Dakota.
To this day, if you go to the reservations in North Dakota there is UND Sioux memorabilia all over the place. They overwhelmingly loved the representation of the name and logo. It boiled down to politics and activist groups and attorneys that had never stepped foot in North Dakota telling the people of North Dakota and Sioux Nation what was best for them and what they should be offended by.
Still boils our blood when we think about it and most people in the State hope that the NCAA burns to the ground in the most brutal and embarrassingly way possible.
That's a very good question. If you ask the people of North Dakota, the NCAA used the University of North Dakota as a sacrificial lamb to show everyone how serious they were taking the nickname stuff. North Dakota happened to be the perfect candidate. A medium/small division I program that happens to be a major player in a minor sport. Enough to make headlines for the NCAA to pound their chest but a small enough school/sport that other schools throughout the country wouldn't care.
There's already a precedent for this. I was at the University of North Dakota during the whole nickname stuff with the NCAA. The Sioux tribe voted for the school to keep the name, and the State of North Dakota enacted a law to keep the name. The NCAA came back and basically said, "fine, keep the name but you're ineligible to participate in any postseason of championship events." For the most part, State law does not supersede rules and regulations for participating in a private organization. The NCAA can generally put whatever parameters it wants to put in place for access to the events they operate.
People's feelings on Koepka are kind of a mixed bag. Many people dislike him but, personally, I love his game. He isn't "the next" Tiger but he is an absolute killer in the Majors. Supremely talented when he's focused.
I hope that the league doesn't leave nonconference scheduling completely up to each individual school. Sure, let them have a ton a rope in scheduling non conference but our nonconference schedule the last two years has been a joke. The league should require at least 1 P5 nonconference game in my opinion.
Bringing Patridge back does make sense. Give him the safety group and/or special teams. Move Jay to Co-OC & passing game coordinator. We add back an above average recruiter in Patridge that didn't burn any bridges when he left last time. Jay has earned a promotion and we also turn what is one of our worst recruiting positional coaches (Weiss) into one of our best. I would love to have Jay in the living rooms of some of these 5 star QBs we've been trying to land. Then, in a year or two Sherrone gets hired as a HC somewhere and Jay gets elevated to OC.
Recent Comments
Beebe won't last until the third round.
I'm for whatever format gives me the most good college football playoff games to watch. Why? Because I like watching big time college football matchups. If I had my way, I wouldn't guarantee a G5 team a spot. If they have a team that earns getting in then so be it but I'm not guaranteeing them a spot just to be nice.
Yes, there are multiple factors that are taken into account when analyzing financial information to determine true cash flow. My larger point was that you can't just look at the bottom number on a financial statement of a complex organization and say, "this is what we made".
Be careful just looking at the bottom line of a financial statement when trying to determine the true cash flow of any entity, especially one as large as Michigan's athletic department. I haven't viewed the financial statements themselves but I'd bet dollars to dimes that there's a ton of "noncash" expenses built into the financials that skews the financial reporting. One of the largest of these items tends to be depreciation which books as an expense but there's no real expenditure of cash, per se. Generally, at least in the banking world, we would add back these noncash expenses to the bottom line to determine the true cash flow of a given entity. In successful ventures, this can dramatically change the presented financial condition of an entity.
Well, shit.
Step #1 would be to hire a commissioner that oversees the sport and administer enforcement
Step #2 would be to agree to some sort of scheduling framework
I don't know if I would consider this to be good advice. Sure, in Colson's situation its probably best that he goes. But I would argue Michigan has had a history of having players leaving for the draft when they would have been much better off returning to school. Case in point, Gemon Green. He could have returned and been part of a national championship team, earned some NIL, and improved his draft stock. Instead, he leaves early, goes undrafted, gets signed by the Giants as an UDFA, and ultimately gets cut. I believe he was paid about $100k for doing so.
Just my opinion, but if a player has eligibility remaining and isn't projected to be drafted no later than maybe the 4th round it makes no sense to leave. I have a feeling we'll see a couple of guys leaving early again this year that'll end up being 5th-7th round draft picks or even go undrafted. I'll never understand how that makes any sense from either a career or financial standpoint.
What does Milroe do well? 1. He can obviously run. 2. He can hit the deep ball. 3. He beats you off script.
What does he not do well? 1. Not great or experienced at reading defenses. 2. Not a terribly accurate passer. 3. Reliant on big plays.
If I'm Michigan:
- Play two deep with complex coverages
- Set hard edges on the wide side of the field
- Blitz from the wide side of the field when the ball is on the left hash to push him into the boundary and use the sideline as a 12th defender while speeding up his decision making.
- Use Colson and/or a secondary player as a spy to cheat angles
- Make him beat you by dinking and dunking his way up and down the field. Eliminate big passing plays and make him execute play after play after play. Compress the field and make him make tighter window throws than he's used to.
If he goes crazy superman mode breaking tackles right and left or goes nuts making tight window throws then so be it. But I'm not letting him break contain and have easy deep shots to their athletes on the outside and I'm not running coverages that allow for him to get big chunks with deep ins and outs. Make him beat you by playing boring and efficient football at a high level of execution.
This would be a massive get!
I'm not sure why people are so hell bent on how he performed this year. Yeah, his numbers weren't good. But he was also a true freshman on a bad team, with a bad roster, in what was the best conference top to bottom in the country this year. He wasn't ready to start and he shouldn't have been put in that situation. I'll take his talent in the QB room 100% of the time, especially when we aren't necessarily relying on him to be a savior.
Best case scenario, JJ comes back and Moore and Davis can develop and battle it out to see who earns it for the 2025 season and the other can transfer if they feel it necessary. Hell, if Underwood wants to come in too then even better. We should never turn down high level talent for the QB room under any circumstance. Take the best we can get and let the chips fall.
Very much would like him at Michigan. Sure, he had some struggles this year at UCLA but I saw him play a few times and the talent is undeniable. More talent in the QB room is not a bad thing.
Why would Michigan firing a coach make something automatically turn into a level I violation?
So far this year I've only gotten a bottle of Stagg but the raffles I usually get in haven't happened yet. Not anticipating I get anything great this year because last year I had crazy luck and got a bottle of Sazerac 18 in a raffle and then the week before Christmas I walked into the liquor store and they had a bottle of George T Stagg on the shelf. Both were had for MSRP.
Some stuff that I will be on the lookout for this year if I'm lucky enough:
1. The obvious: BTAC, Pappys, King of Kentucky etc.
2. Thirteenth Colony Double Oak
3. EH Taylor Barrel Proof
4. Birthday Bourbon
5. Jack Daniels Coy Hill, 12 year, Twice Barreled etc
Duggie Buckets. Put it on a shirt.
Probably a bridge too far but does the fact that these teams obtained, compiled, and shared this information constitute both advance scouting and the use of electronics to do so?
Idk, it just seems like it checks an awful lot of boxes:
1. Petitti doesn't want this headache for the conference and he certainly doesn't want Michigan's program to suffer. It gives him something to go back to the other ADs and coaches able to say he took some action.
2. A one game suspension for Harbaugh wouldn't admit guilt on his part but could be spun as filling the NCAA's new rule of holding head coaches accountable even if they aren't aware
3. Michigan gets to put this to bed and move on without any reason to not give Harbaugh his extension
4. The B1G and SEC now have the NCAA by the balls because if they want they could render the NCAA obsolete by simply starting their own governing body. I'm not sure how much the NCAA would want to shake that hornet nest if Petitti tells them this is how its going to be
Nobody gets everything they want but everyone can spin it as a win to their constituents. I've seen worse deals thats for sure.
Am I crazy to think that this might be a good time for Santa to set up a call with Harbaugh and Petitti to make a deal? Maybe bite the bullet and give the conference their ounce of blood to get this to go away? Stallions is gone, offer to pay up a big fine, maybe a one game suspension for Harbaugh (Maryland?) and in exchange Petitti leverages the influence of the B1G to pressure the NCAA to accept this as a sufficient punishment? Maybe the NCAA gives Stallions a show cause to wrap a bow on it all.
To add some weirdness to an already weird story, Clayton Sayfie, Trevor Woods and others are now tweeting some very cryptic stuff that gives off the impression that things are turning in Michigan's favor. Who knows what the hell is happening at this point.
Who's to say compliance wasn't informed? I obviously have no knowledge of how the work flow of something like this would occur but is it that farfetched that UM hired this firm to do background before the Harbaugh extension, found this stuff and brought it to compliance and Warde/Ono whom then agreed to forward it onto the NCAA for reporting?
Some of the other theories just seem like a plot out of a movie and I tend to be just as skeptical about them as I am about the descriptor of their being a "vast network" supporting this whole thing. Dollars to dimes that when the facts behind this all come out we're all going to lose our minds because this was self inflicted in more ways than the actual rule violation itself.
Appears to be a typo. Article says the firm "brought" the information to the NCAA.
No way this firm isn't linked to Michigan in some way. Absolutely had to have permission or the authority to access this information. There's almost no chance this was hacked material as that gets into some serious legal troubles for whomever did so. I also can't imagine a law enforcement agency brought this to the NCAA after stumbling upon it while working the Weiss investigation. For one, there's already been reports that the Weiss stuff isn't related. Second, Law enforcement agencies deal with legal issues not violations of membership institution rules. The chances that a law enforcement agency would even have the depth of knowledge of the NCAA handbook too know this was a potential violation to report just seems so small to be realistically plausible.
My money is on this firm being contracted with the athletic department in some way. Did the AD up their due diligence after the Shemmy fiasco and was doing a search before signing Harbaugh to the extension and they found this? Were they "self reporting" it to the NCAA and it opened a can of worms with the NCAA already up UM's ass? Did someone in accounting identify charges/reimbursements that they questioned and decided to look into it further?
I don't know but this feels like something we're all going to facepalm about when its all said and done.
I sure hope you're right! I would love it if this speculation turns out to be complete bullshit!
Let me preface this by saying that this is internet account and could be completely wrong so I'll eat the downvotes. That said, @genetics65, a twitter account that has had a bunch of Big 10 and realignment news that has seemingly come to fruition, has been tweeting about this situation. It seems like this guy either may actually have some connections to Big Ten athletic departments based on some past information he has posted or he has gotten lucky on some speculation. Take this all with a big grain of salt but this is what he's said:
Regarding how this all started:
"How/who blew all of this wide open - Michigan signal stuff. Las Vegas. Those guys don't like losing money."
"All I know is they (Vegas) found irregularities in data that didn't make and sense any that is how it got started. Sounds like Vegas contacted the Big Ten."
"When you piss of Vegas, you have pissed off the wrong people."
On the current status of things:
"I will put it in a polite manner...Big Ten leadership is mad."
"Serious conversations of Jim Harbaugh having coached his last game at Michigan. Major talk of an incoming suspension."
"I don't know what will get approved since it is a group of folks that have to approve or reject, but what is on the table is the following:
- firing of Jim Harbaugh
- Jim Harbaugh suspension
- Bowl ban for THIS season
- Forfeit games this season and last season"
I've seen some other rumors online that Vegas tipped off the Big Ten. Could be complete bullshit but it wouldn't be the first time Vegas has notified a league of something "being off."
I'll be cheering for asteroid.
As someone in the central time zone, I love night games. 6:30 and 7:00 pm starts are awesome. Looks like I'm in the minority but I would prefer Michigan have 3-4 night games in their regular season schedule. To each their own.
Mason Graham is incredible.
I really don't understand the Jones stuff. Sure, he isn't the greatest pass blocker but he is a very good run blocker. At least we know what we're getting and can scheme to help him with pass blocking. Hinton may have a higher upside but how do you scheme for solving his inconsistency?
I'm also not a lawyer but I don't think that's how this works.
I'd have to go find it again on Twitter but I had seen that Sanders was going to get around $2mm in NIL this year and Travis Hunter was estimated to come in around $1.5mm.
I feel like its going to be hard to keep Hausmann off the field. Him and Colson are our two best linebackers which means Barrett might see his snap count drop dramatically.
They'd have to take a huge haircut on the revenue side of things and Cal would have to agree to sit in the corner and keep their mouth shut during any decision making meetings so the grown ups can get some work done.
Wait until you find out how much Tonal costs.
Objectively speaking, Portnoy may have pulled off one of the greatest business deals we've seen in as long as I can remember. Guy sells is business for a couple hundred million and then buys back 100% for $0 while also maintaining stock ownership in $Penn after the ESPN deal? How does that even happen?
Feel bad for their fans but as far as I'm concerned if Cal doesn't give a shit about their own athletics program why should anyone else? They've allowed a bunch of nutjobs to infiltrate their circles of influence and the bill came due.
Not of fan of watching a larger quantity of high quality games?
I just don't think this is true. Advertisers want eyeballs which means networks want a product that will bring the most eyeballs. The goal from a network perspective is to be able to fill 3-4 timeslots per day with marque matchups that attract the most eyeballs possible. More high quality programs = more high quality matchup combinations = more demand for advertising = higher revenues for networks = bigger tv contracts for conferences = bigger distributions for member programs.
Its the same reason that I've never understood people thinking Cal would be a good fit in the Big Ten. Sure, it puts another very good academic school from a huge market it California. But nobody watches Cal football so if I'm an advertiser why would I give a shit? Hell, I put Stanford in the same boat and would only want to take them if I knew it could be leveraged to add Notre Dame.
For context, Oregon averaged about 2.21 million viewers per game last year, which is actually higher than USC averaged at 2.07 million. Cal is at like 800k which would put them only above Rutgers in the Big Ten and I would argue that their average is skewed by higher viewerships they get credit for when they play the USCs and Oregons of the world. On the flip side, I would argue Oregon's average viewership would increase because now all of the sudden they have more marque matchup combinations that people would be drawn to.
Just my two cents but I work in banking not TV so someone that works in TV could rightfully tell me I'm full of shit.
Well, Notre Dame is the biggest no brainer take left in college football right now. The ideal scenario would be for the Big Ten to land Oregon, Washington, Stanford and Notre Dame. The TV contract would be insane and the inventory of games available would be awesome.
Really hope Oregon and Washington aren't going to end up following them due to the uncertainty of them ever getting a Big Ten offer. That would be a major missed opportunity for the Big Ten and with the current uncertainty in the Pac 12 they may feel like they have to make a move sooner than later.
Not really a fair comparison. JJ was a true sophomore. Bennett was like 32 years old.
I would second Tornado Room as a fantastic old school steakhouse. Like going back in time and the steaks are great.
That said, my favorite restaurant in Madison is Osteria Papavero. Some of the best authentic Italian food I've ever had and pretty moderately priced for the quality of the food. I'll be in Madison for a couple weeks in August and will probably go 3 or 4 times while I'm there.
I don't know if I agree with this. I don't think there's 15-20 schools with a bigger national brand (for football) over the last 10-15 years than Oregon. Are they a national brand at the level of Michigan, Ohio State, Alabama, Georgia, USC, Notre Dame etc? No. Are they at the same level as your Penn State, Wisconsin, Auburn, Florida etc? I think they are. Are they a bigger national brand than Florida State, Miami, Michigan State, UCLA, Iowa? Without a doubt.
If they joined the Big 10 and I were to rank the top teams in the Big 10 in order of what I think people throughout the Country would have an interest in watching I would say:
1a1b1c - Michigan, Ohio State & USC
4 - Penn State
5 - Oregon
6 - Wisconsin
7 - Michigan State
8 - Iowa
9 - UCLA
Ideally, I would like to see Oregon, Washington, Stanford, and Notre Dame. Done. Thats a huge haul with a massive inventory of stellar matchups. The GaTechs and Cals of the world just don't do it for me.
Joel Klatt just had a segment on his show about the whole "size of market" a school is in. He made it sound like TV execs and advertisers have now shifted their mindset away from caring about how many TVs are in a given market and instead are now focused on quality of matchups. It doesn't matter how big of a market Eugene is if you have a matchup of Oregon vs Michigan because everyone throughout the Country is watching that matchup and advertisers are willing to pay more to have the eyeballs.
If that is indeed the case, the Big 10 will gobble up Oregon and Washington as fast as possible because it would now mean assets/inventory is much more valuable than location.
Correct, but the NCAA's deal given to the University of North Dakota was different than that of Florida State for example. Florida State had to get permission from the nearest Seminole tribe. North Dakota had to receive permission from multiple tribes. The nearest tribe (80 miles away), the Spirit Lake Sioux, voted and approved using the nickname by over a 2-1 margin. The Standing Rock Sioux's (300 miles away and primarily in South Dakota) tribal leader would not allow the community to vote on the name.
Why was Florida State allowed to get approval from only one tribe (the tribe closest to campus) and North Dakota had to get multiple tribes, including one predominately in a different state? Additionally, for those that may think the Sioux logo was offensive, it was designed and created by Bennett Brien whom happens to be a Native American artist from North Dakota.
To this day, if you go to the reservations in North Dakota there is UND Sioux memorabilia all over the place. They overwhelmingly loved the representation of the name and logo. It boiled down to politics and activist groups and attorneys that had never stepped foot in North Dakota telling the people of North Dakota and Sioux Nation what was best for them and what they should be offended by.
Still boils our blood when we think about it and most people in the State hope that the NCAA burns to the ground in the most brutal and embarrassingly way possible.
That's a very good question. If you ask the people of North Dakota, the NCAA used the University of North Dakota as a sacrificial lamb to show everyone how serious they were taking the nickname stuff. North Dakota happened to be the perfect candidate. A medium/small division I program that happens to be a major player in a minor sport. Enough to make headlines for the NCAA to pound their chest but a small enough school/sport that other schools throughout the country wouldn't care.
There's already a precedent for this. I was at the University of North Dakota during the whole nickname stuff with the NCAA. The Sioux tribe voted for the school to keep the name, and the State of North Dakota enacted a law to keep the name. The NCAA came back and basically said, "fine, keep the name but you're ineligible to participate in any postseason of championship events." For the most part, State law does not supersede rules and regulations for participating in a private organization. The NCAA can generally put whatever parameters it wants to put in place for access to the events they operate.
People's feelings on Koepka are kind of a mixed bag. Many people dislike him but, personally, I love his game. He isn't "the next" Tiger but he is an absolute killer in the Majors. Supremely talented when he's focused.
I hope that the league doesn't leave nonconference scheduling completely up to each individual school. Sure, let them have a ton a rope in scheduling non conference but our nonconference schedule the last two years has been a joke. The league should require at least 1 P5 nonconference game in my opinion.
I like this analysis. Particularly point #1.
Bringing Patridge back does make sense. Give him the safety group and/or special teams. Move Jay to Co-OC & passing game coordinator. We add back an above average recruiter in Patridge that didn't burn any bridges when he left last time. Jay has earned a promotion and we also turn what is one of our worst recruiting positional coaches (Weiss) into one of our best. I would love to have Jay in the living rooms of some of these 5 star QBs we've been trying to land. Then, in a year or two Sherrone gets hired as a HC somewhere and Jay gets elevated to OC.