As originally planned, Utah was to fill the September 20th open date on the 2008 fotball schedule. This is no longer the case. Utah will instead come to the Big House on August 30th, giving the football team a bye week on September 20th. The schedule will look like this (C&P from MgoBlue):

Posted under Misc.

I got an e-mail from the Michigan Athletic Department announcing a Big Ten Network open house Wednesday, August 8 at 12:45pm. It will take place at the Junge Family Champions Center (so you can see where a recruit goes to be wowed). Big Ten Commissioner and Angry Letter Writer Jim Delany will be in attendance as well as the Mark Silverman, Big Ten Network President.

The e-mail and the event is being coordinated through the Michigan Athletic Department, so I’m kind of curious if this will be traveling show that will hit up every Big Ten school. It would seem a little weird to only have this event on one campus. It’s not as though Michigan is the only fan base who have their reservations.

It is definitely a ploy to try to control the dialogue. The most politically drenched section:

We at Michigan are extremely excited about the network and believe that local cable companies have an obligation to look out for the community’s interest. Their competitors, DirecTV and AT&T, are both carrying it on basic cable, and we think big cable is abusing their position in the market place.

The rest of the letter is basically logistics and posturing. It’s weird that it just went out in a direct e-mail without any corresponding link on mgoblue.com. Varsity Blue will be providing full team coverage. We’ll also be covering media day on Monday. Should be a big week.

Posted under Misc.

…for 25 years. This is a sort of mixed blessing. If nothing else, it gives us a “name” program on our non-conference schedule in perpetuity, even if Notre Dame isn’t actually as good as their unnecessarily good reputation would imply.

On the other hand, it means we won’t be seeing a variety of non-conference foes who are high in the prestige factor. It will be the same old Notre Dame, over and over again, with the occasional foray into middle-of-the-pack BCS programs, with maybe a power here-and-there.

Used to playing Notre Dam,e always, I call this a net wash.

Posted under Misc.

Originally, the announcement of the new Michigan apparel deal with Adidas rubbed me the wrong way. The tradition of Michigan being one of the original Nike schools, and the affinity I gained for Nike by virtue of their officially licensed UM gear really made me wish that Michigan would have stayed with the swoosh.

However, upon further reflection, I realized that these reasons weren’t good enough. If anything, they are actually criticisms of the athletic department by many Michigan fans: doing things the way they’ve always been done because that’s the way they’ve always been done, or because tradition mandates it. So in the end, while I’m sad to see something that has become somewhat of a tradition (being one of the original Nike schools) come to an end, it’s time.

There are also definite advantages of switching from Nike to Adidas as well. As mentioned by Brian, Nike has lately seen itself as the spectacle on display in sporting events, rather than just clothes worn during said events. The ugly Nike jerseys are no longer a threat to the aesthetics of the Michigan football team (for the record, I do not hate the piping on the away jerseys, though I’m apparently the only one). The Adidas deal also allows for slight redesigns to uniforms that may not have been possible staying with the same outfitter, allowing the Michigan look to maintain tradition without getting stale. And finally, the money factor. Michigan is making much more money out of the Adidas deal than they ever did from Nike, and the new contract has a clause guaranteeing Michigan preferred treatment from the clothier.

In the end, it’s sad to see one tradition end, but it opens the door for a new (and quote possibly better) one to begin.

Posted under Misc.

In the Dark Ages before a strong, Michigan blogosphere developed, the only outlet online for a fan to see others’ opinion and voice his or her own were free, online message boards. Premium message boards and blogs have claimed the best posters from the ESPN.com message boards and left them a demolished wasteland with sticky caps-lock keys. I plan on venturing into these groups of partisan savages and report back with the most outlandish claims and back and forth claims of “OWNAGE!1”

In today’s edition we explore the rantings and ravings of a poster who goes by the handle WCD34. He is what the local refer to as a “troll.” A vagabond poster who travels from board to board bringing any intelligent discussion to halt.

In this thread he is defending Notre Dame and trying to justify his position of Michigan losing to Notre Dame. When someone mentioned that pretty much every Notre Dame offensive unit is worse than the corresponding Michigan unit, he (I assume) came back with this:

Moving on…Our RB situation is BY FAR MUCH BETTER than Michigan’s. Again, it’s young, but sick. Do you guys even pay attention?

…

Guys, we’re going to have so many RB’s, you’re not going to be able to keep up with which one is which. And ALL OF THEM are talented. I know plenty of Irish Fans who are happy that D. Walker chose the draft. I can’t wait to see the shocked looks on your faces when ND rushes for over 200 yds in Ann Arbor. :)

The dotted out section is a list of running backs who haven’t really played (except for a bit of Blue & Gold game action). So his argument is that their running backs by batallion composed of totally unproven players is better than Michigan’s give the ball to one of the premiere running backs in the country approach.

Let’s take a look at this…

Adding up the yards that all the running backs he mentioned gained last year we get… 241 yards. Michigan’s top returning back-up (Brandon Minor) has 249 yards. To get over the whole “Michigan runs more” argument, the Notre Dame running backs had 65 attempts while Brandon Minor had just 42.

So… with Michigan’s primary back-up posting better numbers than the entire field of Notre Dame backs AND having a preseason Doak Walker candidate, I really can’t see where he is coming from.

I understand being exciting about a good group of young studs, but to say that potential is better than a top-5 back, not to mention a few young guys with their fair share of potential, is just down right dumb. I guess that is why he’s cruising around ESPN message board, and maybe why he’s a Notre Dame fan (I kid…).

[Click here to see the thread]

Posted under Misc.

In the Dark Ages before a strong, Michigan blogosphere developed, the only outlet online for a fan to see others’ opinion and voice his or her own were free, online message boards. Premium message boards and blogs have claimed the best posters from the ESPN.com message boards and left them a demolished wasteland with sticky caps-lock keys. I plan on venturing into these groups of partisan savages and report back with the most outlandish claims and back and forth claims of “OWNAGE!1”

In today’s edition we explore the rantings and ravings of a poster who goes by the handle WCD34. He is what the local refer to as a “troll.” A vagabond poster who travels from board to board bringing any intelligent discussion to halt.

In this thread he is defending Notre Dame and trying to justify his position of Michigan losing to Notre Dame. When someone mentioned that pretty much every Notre Dame offensive unit is worse than the corresponding Michigan unit, he (I assume) came back with this:

Moving on…Our RB situation is BY FAR MUCH BETTER than Michigan’s. Again, it’s young, but sick. Do you guys even pay attention?

…

Guys, we’re going to have so many RB’s, you’re not going to be able to keep up with which one is which. And ALL OF THEM are talented. I know plenty of Irish Fans who are happy that D. Walker chose the draft. I can’t wait to see the shocked looks on your faces when ND rushes for over 200 yds in Ann Arbor. :)

The dotted out section is a list of running backs who haven’t really played (except for a bit of Blue & Gold game action). So his argument is that their running backs by batallion composed of totally unproven players is better than Michigan’s give the ball to one of the premiere running backs in the country approach.

Let’s take a look at this…

Adding up the yards that all the running backs he mentioned gained last year we get… 241 yards. Michigan’s top returning back-up (Brandon Minor) has 249 yards. To get over the whole “Michigan runs more” argument, the Notre Dame running backs had 65 attempts while Brandon Minor had just 42.

So… with Michigan’s primary back-up posting better numbers than the entire field of Notre Dame backs AND having a preseason Doak Walker candidate, I really can’t see where he is coming from.

I understand being exciting about a good group of young studs, but to say that potential is better than a top-5 back, not to mention a few young guys with their fair share of potential, is just down right dumb. I guess that is why he’s cruising around ESPN message board, and maybe why he’s a Notre Dame fan (I kid…).

[Click here to see the thread]

Posted under Misc.

http://www.rudybeverage.com/

Posted under Misc.

As I have stated in this space before, I am a huge proponent of scheduling teams with a pulse, regardless of whether they even stand a chance of beating Michigan. In the past, I had mentioned Rutgers among the teams that I would like to see Michigan home-and-home with in the future. According to this article in the San Antonio Express-News, Bill Martin is on the same wavelength (it’s buried down there).

Michigan has a hole in its 2008 football schedule, preferring an opponent for the first or fourth weeks of the season. The Wolverines likely won’t play a Mid-American Conference school after already booking two games with teams from that conference.

Wonder if a Big 12 team would be willing to accept the challenge of playing at the so-called “Big House?”

The most likely team would be KSU, particularly as OSU already has a tough home game assured with Georgia as the return from their game this season.

But Michigan athletic director Bill Martin told the Detroit News that his preferred opponent would be Rutgers, particularly if a return game could be arranged to play the Scarlet Knights at the Meadowlands in a later season.

I haven’t yet had the opportunity (desire) to search for Rutgers’s 2008 schedule to determine if they have either the first or the fourth week open. This would be a good thing for Michigan. First, it’s playing against a team that’s on the rise, though not yet among the nation’s elite. Plus, it affords the ability to technically schedule a home-and-home with some added benefits.

The home leg would function as any other part of a home-and-home series, with the home team (in this case Michigan) taking all the gate money, and the teams splitting TV money. The away leg, however, is where things get interesting. Bill Martin has long desired to play a game in the Meadowlands, which is conveniently located in New Jersey (as is Rutgers(!)). This is to bring the UM football product near New York City, where a large number of alums live. Martin would likely refuse to play at Rutgers unless the game was moved to this venue. Since Rutgers would be unable to fill the stadium without one of the biggest draws in collegiate athletics (this is pretty much speculation, but I’m guessing second to Notre Dame football), Michigan would take some of the gate money, in addition to the even split for TV money. A large proportion (certainly not half, but much much greater than for any other away game) of the fans would also be Michigan supporters, easing the challenge of playing on the road for the Maize-and-Blue, as well.

In conclusion: YAY!

Posted under Misc.

Game times for the football contests against Oregon and Notre Dame have both been announced. Both home games will be on ABC at 3:30 PM. Oregon is a likely candidate for College GameDay to show up in Ann Arbor. Both teams will be undefeated (Oregon will have played Houston, Michigan will have played App. State), and it will be an opportunity for GameDay to show up in Ann Arbor, where they haven’t been since the 2003 OSU game. A potential hurdle is the fact that ND @ Penn State that day is also on ESPN, and ESPN has a hard-on for Notre Dame, despite the fact that ND shuns ESPN.

The Notre Dame game is a possibility, but less likely, as Notre Dame would have to beat
Georgia Tech (which they should), in addition to upsetting Penn State to be undefeated in week 3.

The other games with times already announced are the Purdue game for homecoming, which will be at noon, and the Illinois road game, which will be at 8:00 PM (7 local). Neither game has had its television coverage announced. The Appalachian State game time (and network)
should be announced sometime in June or July, and the rest of the game times will be announced after the start of the season.

If Wisconsin and Michigan both do as well as they are expected to this year, the road contest in Madison will assuredly be a night contest, and a likely candidate for GameDay as well. Michigan should probably be undefeated at that point, with the toughest game against Penn State, and Wisconsin would likely be as well, though they will have to get through Iowa, Ohio State, and Penn State.

Posted under Misc.

The annual Carr’s Wash for Kids event, during which you can pay $25 to have your car washed by UM football players, takes place from 12:30 to 2 PM. All proceeds go to C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital, which has been the benefactor of much Carr generosity in the past.

It’s a good way to have fun and support a good cause before heading to your local sports bar to catch the UM baseball team take on the Beavers of Oregon State at 3:0 PM.

Posted under Misc.