…because I’m pseudo/fully lazy.

Important games today:

• Michigan baseball home opener 3:05 EDT at Ray Fisher Stadium. The Wolverines take on IPFW. Paul and I will be in the house, so stop by and say hey.
• Michigan hockey in the CCHA semifinals against Alaska. Yost Built has 10 Things to Know about the Nanooks.
• Michigan lacrosse against Eastern Michigan in their CCLA conference opener. 8PM at Oosterbaan Fieldhouse. Come support an awesome club varsity team. $3/6 for students/non.

Hockey Sophomore Louie Caporusso has been named a finalist for the Hobey Baker award. Great honor for the young player, though his torrid goal pace from the beginning of the year didn’t hold up.

Michigan Sports Center has your first glimpse at the 2009 student football shirt. For the record, I don’t mind the slogan on the back, more as a reminder to those who wear them than as decoration for other people to see.

Saturday’s basketball game against Oklahoma will take place at 5:50 PM EDT. Don’t forget to check out last night’s victory post, and I’ll have your preview of the Sooners coming tomorrow.

Speaking of posting previews on the weekend and such, I know the semi-regular schedule around here has gravitated toward “hectic and random” of late, but it’s a fairly busy time, what with the basketball team in the Tournament and all. Once they bow out, the football-centric Varsity Blue you know and love should return.

Recruiting Update coming this afternoon.

Posted under Baseball, Basketball, Blog News, Hockey

I wasn’t going to post about this, but it provides the opportunity to bitch about the mainstream media in general, and ESPN in particular.

If you’re reading a college football blog now, you’ve undoubtedly heard about Braylon Edwards’s wearing of a Penn State t-shirt for an interview on Monday Night Football a couple days ago. There has also been rampant speculation about why he did such a thing, and even joking photoshops (mspaints?) about the “actual shirt” he was wearing.

Whatever, I don’t really care what T-shirt Braylon is wearing, and I doubt it has anything to do with the Rodriguez misunderstanding earlier this summer. Dude’s still donating scholarship money to the school, something tells me he suddenly hates it. Whatever, he wore a t-shirt, who cares, right?

Well, on ESPN yesterday and today, the analysts have discussed what they think Braylon’s motives might have been in the whole thing. College Football Live today discussed the possibility that it is residual bitterness from the aforementioned #1 jersey flap. Speculation, whatever. Most people on the Michigan side of things cite a previously-unheard of (at least to Google) tradition #1 has of wearing the shirt of the school Michigan plays that weekend. You know who has the opportunity to go right to the source and find out?

YOU DO, JESSE PALMER. YOU’RE ES-fucking-PN! Has one reporter from that network even tried to ask Braylon about it? You can bet not, otherwise they’d be citing his “no comment” as further evidence that it is RR-grudge related. Sure, it’s great to have a monopoly on all the national sports coverage power, but for the love of god USE IT!

In conclusion, ESPN kinda sucks.

Posted under Football

Paul posted a list of guidelines for those fortunate enough to sit in the student section for Michigan games, and Maize N Blue Nation has responded. What should those fans relegated to the rest of the stadium do? Check it out here.

I’d like to contribute the following addenda (while strongly endorsing the “be kind to opposing fans” and “support the team with noise” points):

• Wear maize. I don’t care if you have a vintage Tom Brady Orange Bowl jersey. Wear it at the tailgate or in front of the TV. A maize shirt costs you a maximum of 16 dollars (and even that’s only if you get the official T-shirt). Wear it.
• If a play that you predicted is called (successful or otherwise), don’t gloat or say “I told you so.” It pretty much just makes you “that guy.”
• If you know the answer to a question the people around you are searching for, tell them. That said, don’t act like an asshole know-it-all.
• Support the team, the cheerleaders, the band, and everything that makes Michigan’s gameday unique and amazing.

Enjoy yourselves. Only 3 more days until the Best Time of Year.

Posted under Analysis

We have, to your right, the Michigan student football t-shirt from a couple years back. On the left? a new Ohio State t-shirt, completely ripping off the format.

Posted under Misc.

So… it seems as though people don’t really care for the t-shirt designs. I have to say, no combination really draws me in or inspires me. A lot of people seem to be nostalgic for the ephemeral student design contest (it lasted 3 years, right?). In total disclosure, my favorite student t-shirt in my time at Michigan, the same four years as Hart and Henne, was the ultra-Nike 2006 edition:

The font, the winged attitude, the message were all spot on especially after the rough 2005 season. Part of it also probably has something to do with the amazing season that happened that year (I have blocked out the last two games).

Now, there aren’t really any good choices (you can see them here). I don’t dig front 1 and back 2 because of “The Tradition Continues…” and the overly complicated designs. Back 1 is fine. I actually like it, it’s everything that the back of the football shirt needs to be. Front 1 is way too simple. So… where are we now?

The Man has let us down, so let’s do it ourselves. At least one person has said they could make a better design in an hour, so… lets see them! I’m not quite sure what the endgame will be, but the we’ll probably have a vote on the blog among the submissions (or finalists if there are too many). The winner can either make their shirt and have it pimped here or we’ll make the shirt and sell it on the site.

THE DETAILS
There are a couple ground rules:

1. Shirts must be maize
2. Shirts should be family friendly (unless really funny)
3. Try to keep it around 5 colors

I was thinking there might be two different categories: a mainstream shirt and a inside-blogosphere joke shirt.

To submit your design, leave a link to the design in the comments or e-mail the graphics to panel1382 |at| gmail |dot| com. Please submit them as .png, .gif or .jpg. Other formats may or may not work, but I’ll try to make it work.

Let’s see what you guys have out there. Tim and I know a couple people in the Athletic Department and we may forward the winner onto a couple of them. It obviously won’t make a difference this year, but it may help in the future. Who knows? Please try to get them in the next week or so.

Good luck.

Posted under Misc.