Unverified Voracity Settles
Harbaugh in the wind update. The Athletic clears some things up about what's going on in Harbaugh's head:
…sources pushed back on the theory that Michigan’s handling of NIL will be a major factor in Harbaugh’s NFL decision.
“Everybody’s got this so unbelievably wrong,” one source said, pointing to Cade McNamara, Blake Corum, J.J. McCarthy, Aidan Hutchinson and other Michigan stars who landed lucrative NIL deals, along with an arrangement that allows players to profit from the sale of officially licensed jerseys.
However:
Whether it’s relaxing restrictions on the use of school trademarks or providing additional NIL infrastructure, there’s a sense that Michigan can do more to maximize its NIL potential.
Harbaugh is Harbaugh so he may indeed flit off to the NFL at a whim but it doesn't sound like it'll be because he feels like he can't compete at a high level. Michigan had the misfortune to run up against a generational Georgia team without the kind of flamethrower at QB you need to overcome that kind of opponent, but that's more an accident of timing than fate.
Settlement reached. The Dr. Anderson number:
Michigan has reached a $490 million settlement with more than 1,000 survivors of sexual abuse by former team doctor Robert Anderson. Parker Stinar, an attorney representing Anderson survivors, said the two sides reached an agreement at approximately 10 p.m. Tuesday.
I have no opinion on whether this is the correct number. So much of the sturm und drang around this was plaintiffs lawyers saying whatever to make the number go up and university officials saying nothing because they weren't allowed to. The number does not matter. What matters is how the university handled it once it was brought to light—pretty well, it seems, no John Englers—and how ruthlessly they ejected Mark Schlissel when his malfeasance came to light. I've seen a lot of questions about why they released the massively embarrassing emails, and I sincerely hope the answer was "fuck around and find out." No quarter for people high up in the university's governance who can't follow basic protocols about decency.
[After THE JUMP: PSU gets aggressive with ticket holders]
Off the board early. Dane Brugler's latest mock draft has NC State OT Ikem Okonkwu at #1, Aidan Hutchinson at #2, and David Ojabo at #8, and Dax Hill at #29 . This is cursed because:
2. Detroit Lions — Aidan Hutchinson, edge, Michigan
A Week 18 victory against the Packers meant the Lions lost the No. 1 overall pick, but there is a decent chance that the top-ranked player on Detroit’s draft board will still be available at No. 2.
Not like this!
Got a little cheesed off. Juwan Howard got a technical last night and uhhhh probably justified:
I would like to know what she heard pic.twitter.com/FLWaaZmqZ7
— Patrick Barron (@BlueBarronPhoto) January 19, 2022
I'm not sure you have the leverage to do this any more. A development at Penn State:
“We are going to put an awful product on the field two years in a row and also take your season tickets after your purchase supported us post-COVID. Oh, and please give us money for facilities upgrades and NIL.” - @GoPSUsports
— Kevin Horne (@KevinHornePSU) January 19, 2022
(Not mine, obviously. But I stand with this James.) pic.twitter.com/wZ43qpTLWo
Per this guy season tickets at PSU haven't sold out in more than a decade, so you wonder what the upside of this is for PSU. Now this guy isn't buying tickets and putting them on the secondary market… okay. Who's buying them instead? We've reached the point where season tickets are a dubious investment for most fans, at least in terms of being able to resell them and make a profit.
I have wanted Michigan to be more aggressive about getting butts in seats for a while now, particularly at Crisler, where there are many, many empty lower-bowl seats for almost all weekday games. Those tickets are just getting eaten by holders, which is worse from the perspective of the AD than just reselling them. What with all these tickets being electronic now Michigan should be asking holders to notify the U when those tickets aren't being used so they can resell them for cheap in an effort to make the atmosphere better.
Anyway.
Blowing it up. Inside the failed attempt to expand the playoff:
The reality is no single person or conference has derailed expansion, though the spotlight is now on the Big Ten and ACC commissioners, who have both publicly dug their heels in on their leagues' respective playoff positions. Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren remains steadfast in his belief that the Power 5 conference champions deserve a guaranteed spot in an expanded playoff -- a view vehemently opposed by many others in the room.
I find it boggling that happens to be the hangup. The worst version of the proposed playoff, from the perspective of a potential P5 conference champion, is the one where the top six conference champions get auto-bids. The chances that not one but two G6 leagues spit out teams more highly ranked than a Big Ten champ has to be unfathomably remote. (The ACC… okay, I see the concern.) Not only would a Big Ten West school have to win the league but they'd have to get stuck behind two G5 teams even after vanquishing OSU/Michigan/PSU in the title game. I don't get it.
Sign a contract, disband a committee. Kirk Ferentz got a new contract and bang:
IOWA CITY — A year and a half after the University of Iowa Athletics Department formed an alumni advisory committee in the wake of players alleging the football program fostered a culture of racism and bullying, head coach Kirk Ferentz last week abruptly dissolved the volunteer group.
“I have come to a decision that this is an appropriate time to dissolve our committee as it stands currently,” Ferentz wrote in a Tuesday email to the 10-member group of football alumni who have worked since summer 2020 to improve the program’s culture. “As we start a new calendar year and prepare to move forward with our preparation for the 2022 season, I am giving thought to how we restructure the committee/board in a way that best serves our program moving forward.”
Ferentz’s decision to dissolve the group came after a contentious meeting Oct. 18 and after committee chair David Porter, former Hawkeye offensive lineman, suggested to the group in a chain of text message Jan. 2 that it’s time to “bring in a new head football coach, football staff, and athletic director.”
I suppose the thing that says "fire this guy" is not really going to stick around after the guy does not get fired and instead gets a 7 million dollar contract.
Not having any of your complaints. Minnesota (and former Michigan) goalie Jack Lafontaine signed with his NHL team midseason once the Hurricanes had four goalies go out injured. This has caused consternation amongst the college hockey coaching community, and the 'Canes goaltending coach is having none of that:
“It’s been comical, reading some of the backlash,” Muzzatti says. “Quite frankly, there’s a lot of people pissed. All these college coaches. It’s like, cry me a river. How about we talk about what these college coaches are doing to kids in hockey? They overcommit. A lot of schools have seven spots and offer 14 kids, then they just weed them out. Some schools will just cut a bunch of guys for no reason.
“They’ve made it sound like (us signing LaFontaine) was the greatest offense ever, but these guys are looking out for themselves. I don’t think they look out for the kids enough, quite honestly. I played college hockey too, and it was a great experience, but let’s not kid ourselves here.”
Yeah! And the Midwest regional is in Allentown, Pennslyvania for the fiftieth consecutive year!
Etc.: Interesting article at the Athletic about what happened to Pitt basketball. Michigan-Ohio State was not competitive enough to make Bill Connelly's list of the top 100 games of the year. Ah well. Dad items. Don't click here.
January 19th, 2022 at 4:02 PM ^
Brian.
Stop being lonely
January 19th, 2022 at 4:06 PM ^
Didn't Penn State join the Big Ten because it was pushed by a former PSU administrator who moved to a Big Ten school?
Maybe that's why hockey keeps going to Allentown, some hometown boy is one of the College Hockey Overlords.
January 19th, 2022 at 4:16 PM ^
The Allentown-PSU bid was the only one for the midwest regional. They got it by default... even though Allentown is ~3hr drive from PSU campus. The question is why does no one else place a bid? I assume the economics of it are bad, since this is not the first time it's happened (covid doesn't help, but it is not the reason).
January 19th, 2022 at 5:16 PM ^
They really need to go back to allowing schools to host in their own arenas. Short of that, I agree with Brian from 1-2 years ago that Michigan should be bidding the Huntington Center in Toledo every year...
January 20th, 2022 at 6:25 AM ^
Its because the economics are horrible. You'll see a bunch of regionals try once or twice and that's it. Ft Wayne, Grand Rapids, Toledo, St Louis, Cincinnati. All of them end up poorly attended because the system is awful
So what we end up with is cities pretty much only bid if it's going to be profitable so you often get 2-3 regionals east of say Syracuse/Harrisburg, and 1-2 west of Chicago and generally nobody in the Big Ten / CCHA footprint. This results in teams like 4-seed Providence getting rewarded with de facto home ice. It's a BS system but it'll never change because if 1 seeds host all the small schools know they'll be on the road all the time so we continue on with this "neutral site" system
January 19th, 2022 at 4:10 PM ^
Possibly just my browser, but when I clicked "read more" it took me to the top of the article, instead of the jump. I thought that was fixed?
January 19th, 2022 at 4:19 PM ^
I was curious who those four people were (including the girl with the wide-eyed reaction) sitting behind Juwan. Would normally expect Al Glick, but I don't recall seeing him at a game since covid (though I could be wrong there).
January 19th, 2022 at 4:19 PM ^
Very interesting article on Pitt basketball…thanks Brian. They came up in another comment thread recently as an example of how losing track of your program identity and historical baseline/ceiling can be really costly. Yowza!
January 19th, 2022 at 4:33 PM ^
Penn State's head football coach is named James...hmmm.................
January 19th, 2022 at 4:56 PM ^
Um, no. I believe his name is Frames.
January 19th, 2022 at 6:55 PM ^
Name is Janklin, Frames Janklin!
January 19th, 2022 at 4:55 PM ^
I don't disagree with Brian on Anderson or Schlissel. On the latter situation, though, I would love to know if there was any conversation before the regents met allowing him to resign, realizing there may have open meetings issues. My point isn't to question the outcome, but just to stay that to many a Saturday firing followed immediately by an email to the entire campus community containing 118 pages of messages between Schlissel and his subordinate looks harsh.
January 19th, 2022 at 5:34 PM ^
I'm still waffling over whether the university needed to release the emails. I know the media will end up getting them through the FOIA. But they're fairly benign and some, at least the ones I read, appear to be consensual. I also get that he broke university rules but to out someone like this will likely ruin his marriage (if it wasn't already ruined) and his life isn't going to be so great either, with this story being on the front page of the NYT, etc. Brian sees it as a "If you can't do the time, don't do the crime" thing. I just don't know if flirtatious emails rise to the level of inflicting that kind of punishment on someone. If this had been Anderson then yes, by all means, show the world who he is. Schlissel? I just don't know.
January 19th, 2022 at 6:17 PM ^
Personally I thought it was a very unusual step for the university to release those emails. Transparency is one thing, this was beyond that, and even though they would have been revealed eventually it would have taken time and by then the immediate shock of the story and his firing would have worn off to some degree.
The fact that some of the messages make the relationship appear to be/have been consensual is another matter. The fact that she was a subordinate means that the relationship was imbalanced and included conflicts of interest, regardless of her (perhaps) genuine desire to be involved with him.
Even if Michigan hadn't recently fired its longtime provost for ongoing sexual harassment and similar illegal/inappropriate behavior they had every reason to come down hard on Schlissel and tell the world exactly why they were doing so. In light of recent as well as remote history (Anderson) this seems even more true.
But I nevertheless agree with you that releasing the entire trove of emails was unusual and a bit weird.
January 19th, 2022 at 7:33 PM ^
In light of the fact that his imminent 2023 departure had already been announced... yeah it's hard not to think that this would have been handled differently had Schlissel not already been disfavored.
Maybe the outcome would have been the same, but the form of it definitely had a very salty flavor. They wanted him out, this was a good reason to do it early, and they took the opportunity to not only do it but rub his face in it a bit.
Which is not at all to excuse the behavior, which was inappropriate and also very very stupid (seriously, you can't get a damn gmail account to carry on your illicit affair?)
January 19th, 2022 at 5:01 PM ^
"I have wanted Michigan to be more aggressive about getting butts in seats for a while now, particularly at Crisler, where there are many, many empty lower-bowl seats for almost all weekday games."
I was a season ticket holder for basketball in the upper bowl. I was so frustrated that I had to pay for tickets and a a PSD and the lower bowl would be 50% full for many games. I have contacted Warde a few times on this topic and ... crickets. I guess I just do not give enough $'s to warrant a response. I stopped being a season ticket holder.
Brian and team have made several suggestions on solutions but the AD has done exactly zero to even try to remedy the situation.
I am not a Warde fan. He has done a decent job of maintaining the fan experience in general, but nothing to actually improve things, despite upward costs.
January 19th, 2022 at 5:17 PM ^
The AD's bottomline is to generate revenue and to make money. If they got money from the season ticket holders, they have zero incentive to fill the seat because they already sold the seat/ticket to the season ticket holders. Would they like them to show up for the game? Absolutely, but they can't make them come to the Crisler Arena.
January 19th, 2022 at 5:49 PM ^
They could. Penalize non attendance.
From this - https://mgoblog.com/content/week%27s-obsession-how-do-we-fill-crisler
1. Assign an attendance score and notify people about it. 5 points for 15 minutes early, 3 points for on time, 1 point for late but scanned. Send people their percentile rank in this stat after each season, like DTE does when they notify you how energy efficient your home is.
2. Start offering rewards for hitting certain benchmarks. These would mostly be Victors club points but there would also be a swathe of NCAA tournament tickets reserved for high attendance people.
3. Enter the stick. In stage three you lose victors club points if you don't hit certain benchmarks. Selling on stubhub is fine. If you don't want to bother with that you can return the tickets to the AD for a no harm no foul freebie. AD then has a poole of Rush tickets they resell for ten bucks, allowing upper bowl people to switch to lower bowl seats or get some high schoolers in the lower bowl.
January 19th, 2022 at 5:06 PM ^
Remember it isn’t just season tickets it is the quality of the season ticket seats. If a scalper is monopolizing dozens of high quality season tickets then others can move up. So i understand their reasoning the lovers of the school who make the real donations should be able to get the better quality season ticket over time and not be locked out by scalpers.
January 19th, 2022 at 5:42 PM ^
Those ladies acted like they had never heard what they just heard LMAO!!
January 19th, 2022 at 5:57 PM ^
Bill Connelly probably needs to tweak his algorithm sort of like the way kenpom does his POY rankings to take into the account the quality of the teams involved, not just (I assume) whether the game was close.
January 20th, 2022 at 11:57 AM ^
Article only covers back half of the 100 games. Will probably be in the games ranked 50-1 installment whenever that comes out
January 19th, 2022 at 6:05 PM ^
Brian, I think you’re missing the forest through the trees a little bit. I think the big ten is intentionally getting negotiations hung up so avoid the 12 team playoff.
The SEC adding Texas and Oklahoma means you have to do something to prevent them from having things their way. I can’t envision both Michigan and Ohio state losing at least two games without another dominant team dethroning them and getting into the playoff.
12 team gives the SEC more of the market pie and recruiting and increases the likelihood of all SEC finals.
January 19th, 2022 at 7:38 PM ^
That makes no sense. A 12 team playoff is more likely to have 2 B1G teams than zero, which is the exact opposite of the current situation where 2 B1G teams is essentially never-gonna-happen and zero has already happened twice.
January 20th, 2022 at 1:56 AM ^
So then what do they want? A 4 team playoff? Then they wouldnt be negotiating at all. Just say nah we're good.
January 20th, 2022 at 11:34 AM ^
We all need to spam Bill Connelly at ESPN for not including the UM-OSU game as one of the Top 100 games of 2021. I mean, REALLY???????
January 20th, 2022 at 11:56 AM ^
article only covers games ranked 100-51, just half of his list. Should be in the next installment of 50-1
January 20th, 2022 at 11:55 AM ^
@Brian, Connelly only covers games 100-51 on that article. ESPN has a habit of releasing things like this in installments. I guarantee this year's edition of The Game will be in the 50-1 part of the article.
January 23rd, 2022 at 3:39 PM ^
Haha OSU. Gotta love it.
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