MichiganCardinal

Notre Dame has Marshall, Cal, Stanford, UNLV, Clemson, and Boston College as their home NBC games in 2022. NBC is also carrying the BYU game, which is being hosted at a neutral site in Vegas. Only one - maybe two - of those games even deserves national broadcasting. Marshall may well get kicked to Peacock as it is. But yes, tell me more about how that somehow warrants a tripling in payout to over 10MM a game just to Notre Dame LOL Let's "shoulder" UNLV/Notre Dame with a good barnburner like Kansas/Baylor or TCU/Kansas State though... that'll make up the difference.

Their egos are getting in the way of their brains on this one, which is not surprising. Notre Dame will not be able to independently match what can ultimately be distributed in a mega-conference with 20-24 schools. Even if they can come close, they will eventually find doors being shut on them when it's no longer in USC, Ohio State, and Clemson's interests to schedule non-conference games against them.

I think he’s here to do both. You don’t hire a university president for a short-term gig. He’s here for a sense of stability post-Schlissel, but he’s also here for the next chapter, whatever that brings. He’s not James Hackett, here to make you forget the errors of Dave Brandon, usher in Jim Harbaugh, and gracefully bow out. I think Harbaugh will find ways to spend money and use resources in positive ways should Ono provide him with such.

I think it goes to what your expectations are. Michigan will never be Bama, nor should they aspire to such. Michigan has way more going for it as an institution than football. Alabama would change their name to the University of Football and cut research funding in half if they thought it would guarantee them another win each year. I don’t want to win football games at the expense of everything else the university is doing. I think it does say that Michigan will take the step forward necessary to compete in the upper echelon of the sport rather than being left in the dust of transition.

Speaking to athletics, it seems like he's invested (despite the recent history at UBC). A school like Cincinnati doesn't become a powerhouse without a hefty amount of administrative backing. He was there until 2016, leaving a few months before they hired Fickell and really turned that ship around. We'll see if he puts his money where his mouth is, but I think it's an encouraging sign for the Athletic Department.

Haha that was confusing. I mean to say that it seems even with a great manager in Hinch, 0.500 is likely the ceiling for what the roster under Avila could possibly accomplish through the rebuild in my eyes. Not to say that they’ll end around 500 this year or are competing for it actively.

I worry about the Tigers. Illitch stumbled into a winner with Stevie, and I think Yzerman will have the Wings competing at a high level in the next five years. It would be sooner if the top of the East weren't so stacked at the moment. Some questionable moves today were brought up here, but I think he's brilliant and making more right moves than wrong, and I think with hockey's salary cap he's likely given free rein over the direction of the team. The Lions seem to be moving in a truly universally positive direction for the first time in most of our lives, so expect the meteor to kill us all at any moment. The Pistons (though I am admittedly least knowledgable about) seem to be getting a little lucky and making smart moves that will get them out of the basement sooner rather than later. And then there are the Tigers. They just seem destined to be in purgatory for the next 10+ years. They have one of the best managers in baseball and he's struggling to get a team that should definitely be competing by now to 0.500. Ownership completely dismantled a team that should realistically still be competing for championships with the sheer amount of talent they had, nonsensically fired a HOF caliber General Manager in the process, only to hire his assistant to fill his role ever since? Worse, there is really no end in sight, short of Hinch pressing the issue about Avila and Illitch getting incredibly lucky in identifying a replacement (or outsourcing the search to Hinch). And the possibility of that sequence occurring (not to mention Illitch opening the checkbook a little wider) seems incredibly remote considering there is no HOF legend of a player/executive just waiting for a call to join this team. It's sad to think we could be in another 1988-2006 run here. (not really Wings offseason related, but came to mind and it's a free country dammit! Lol)

Live look-in at the University of Michigan Board of Regents:

I thought the look Mike gives Howard as he lies in the grave was interesting. Almost foretelling that he knows this is how they will all end up in a business like this.

I don't think Cliff will raise much fuss, though there could be an interesting bit of dialogue which occurs between him and Jimmy. To everyone on the attorney/outward side of Jimmy and Kim's life, it appears that Howard is in a downward spiral. He sums it up himself in his speech to Jimmy and Kim - his marriage is a mess, he appears to have a worsening addiction to cocaine, he just suffered a massive public embarrassment... Sad to say, but I think they will take it logically, even though it's nowhere near where he actually was mentally. I think we could have a scene at a vigil, or a funeral, or a search party, where we see Jimmy and Kim have to face the raw emotion of the situation they created, of which they can't tell anyone the truth of what happened.

Another one bites the dust.

I can't remember the last time I was waiting to watch a TV show as it first aired... may have been The Following when that was airing on FOX.

I don’t like WC or his site for personal and political reasons, but I do think he has a relatively sharp football mind. I think a lot of what he wrote has truth to it, though I’m not as optimistic about the result, as I see it more as an absolute ceiling than an expectation that I would predict. I would probably drop a star from both RB and receivers, but otherwise concur with his positional breakdown. A lot hinges on what Jared Goff we get.

For those of you who put stock in Walter Cherepinski, or just needed a Kool Aid refill...

Browns and Panthers play each other week one. Should be a fun watch. I think Mayfield could be really good in Carolina.

While unnamed sources are about as reliable at predicting realignment as astrologists, this matches my thinking about where the B1G may be heading.

I’m so sorry. I know we are just internet strangers, but know that we are all here for you.

I think UNC and Duke are ideological fits but I’m not sure they make sense in the context of having just added USC and UCLA. If the Big Ten wants to be a coast-to-coast conference, adding North Carolina doesn’t really move that needle. Notre Dame is different, as always.

I think this is a really interesting point, because it speaks to the evolving landscape and how much things have changed (while other things have remained the same) since the Big Ten added Rutgers and Maryland in a clear money grab at adding the NYC and DC television markets. I look at fandom in two ways: (1) butts in seats/game day experience and (2) nationwide following. As fans, we care about #1 because games are more exciting in a sold out Big House or a Penn State white out… Butts in seats is a small fraction of the overall revenue generated though which is why (1) is pretty much outright dismissed by the powers that be in conference expansion… Frankly, ten years ago, the powers that be didn’t really care about fandom at all. The system was setup such that it was a binary: either your regional market carries the B1G Network or they don’t. Adding Maryland and Rutgers checked those critical market boxes, fandom and competitiveness be damned. Nowadays though, streaming is all the buzz. Butts in seats still means nothing to anyone but fans, but national following now matters increasingly more. Not only does checking the “Los Angeles” box matter, so too does garnering interest from USC and UCLA’s alumni base. They may not have attended a game in 20 years, but they still care, and they’ll buy the B1G Network streaming service. That’s what is wanted and that’s what will drive this round of expansion. I think it’s also why a school like Stanford and/or Cal might be the next target, before UW, Oregon, or Utah, despite the latter three generating far more fan interest for their competitiveness and game-day experience (though Oregon is an interesting case and might be an exception). Stanford and Cal would bring the SF market (to check the boxes of yesteryear), but also have international followings. Their attendance figures are pitiful when compared to the Midwest or SEC, but that just doesn’t matter when it comes to the real money.

I will admit that when the Lions did not come out as having any interest in DeShaun Watson I was a little put off. Seemed like an opportunity to get a franchise QB in his prime. With the benefit of hindsight though, I do not envy the Browns at all. They may have over $60 million tied up in QBs this year, while starting Jacoby friggin Brissett for 17 games. It's not unrealistic to envision the Browns finishing in the bottom third of the league.

Except beach volleyball, those selfish bastards.

Academics will be the spin the Big Ten gives this expansion, even though you can rub two brain cells together to see it's all about TV deals and money. Notre Dame can F themselves sideways and I feel like a lot of B1G presidents likely feel the same way, though I would still be surprised if they aren't given one last chance at the final spot. A call with an ultimatum of "we have 23 schools and we are stopping at 24. You have 48 hours to take it or we are offering (Kansas/Pitt/Virginia/whoever) and we already know their answer". Another school I haven't seen brought up is Georgia Tech. They are AAU and would bring the Atlanta market, though would probably prefer the SEC. If I had to predict where we are in 2026, it would involve the B1G and SEC withdrawing from the NCAA for football and forming their own league with its own playoff... B1G East: Penn State, Rutgers, Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State B1G Midwest: Wisconsin, Northwestern, Purdue, Illinois, Indiana, Notre Dame B1G Plains: Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Utah, Arizona B1G West: Washington, Oregon, UC Berkeley, Stanford, USC, UCLA - SEC Atlantic: Florida, Florida State, Miami, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Clemson SEC East: Georgia, Alabama, Auburn, Kentucky, Vanderbilt, Tennessee SEC North: UNC, Duke, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Missouri SEC West: Texas, Texas A&M, Arkansas, LSU, Ole Miss, Mississippi State - Each team plays every other team in their own division every year, plus every team in another rotating division in their conference, for 11 total games, plus one game with a team from the other conference and one game against an FCS team (practically a preseason game), for 13 games total. If you win your division you make the postseason and play a quarterfinal against the winner of another division, then the semifinal is the conference championship, and the National Championship is Big Ten vs. SEC.

If the Big Ten were smart (they’re probably not), they would move to poach the PAC12 of all their schools with AAU academic prowess (Washington, Oregon, Cal, Stanford, USC, UCLA, Arizona, Utah, and Colorado). If they all accept it puts you at 23 and even if they don’t all I think most would, and it puts you very close to a true super conference. You can send invites to Kansas, Duke, UNC, Vanderbilt, and/or Pitt to fill you out to where you want to be.

The older I get the more I realize what a waste 2008-2010 was. There was an opportunity to do so much. A supermajority of 60-40 in the Senate, and all that was accomplished was baby steps towards a more equitable health care plan. That was an opportunity to pass gun regulation, make DC a state, reform the electoral college, codify Roe, the list goes on.

I don’t even like basketball and this has me invested. Next I want a six team trade involving multiple front office and coaching personnel, maybe a vendor or two also.