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basketball
ESPN Bracketology: Michigan a 10 Seed
Yes, yes, yes. It's stupid to be talking bracketology in early January. You don't need to point that out. But I'm still looking forward to our match-up in St. Louis against seventh-seeded George Washington!
Expectations for the next 3 MBB games
Michigan basketball is entering a possibly season-defining three-game stretch against 3 ranked teams (Iowa will be after they beat MSU and Purdue in consecutive games). We play at Purdue, vs. Maryland and at Iowa. It reminds me of January 2014 when Michigan played at Wisconsin, vs. Iowa and at MSU and went 3-0.
What are the expectations from everyone in these three games? I think a 1-2 record would be holding serve, and anything on top of that is gravy. Hopefully Caris will be healthy for Purdue and going forward!
Go Blue!
Caris is out today - lower leg injury
Did the MSU basketball team violate an NCAA rule concerning impermissible benefits?
At the MSU-Bama game tonight, they showed coach Izzo and the MSU basketball team.
After the Spartans lost their Big Ten basketball opener at Iowa on Tuesday night, they were told they were flying to Minnesota for a few days in advance of their next game Saturday against the Golden Gophers. But players got a surprise on the plane when they found out they were instead going to Texas to see the Spartans play Alabama in the Cotton Bowl.
NCAA rule 16.01.1 states:
A student-athlete shall not receive any extra benefit. Receipt by a student-athlete of an award, benefit or expense allowance not authorized by NCAA legislation renders the student-athlete ineligible for athletics competition in the sport for which the improper award, benefit, or expense was received. In the student-athlete receives an extra benefit not authorized by NCAA legislation, the individual is ineligible in all sports.
The rule continues:
For violations of Bylaw 16 in which the benefit is $100 or less, the eligibility of the student-athlete shall not be affected conditioned upon the student-athlete repaying the value of the benefit to a charity of his or her own choice.
Furthermore,
Receipt of a benefit by student-athletes or their relatives or friends is not a violation of NCAA legislation if it is demonstrated that the same benefit is generally available to the institution's students or their relatives or friends or to a particular segment of the student body (e.g., foreign students, minority students) determined on a basis unrelated to athletics ability.
Clearly, the benefit exceeds $100. I also assume that this benefit is not generally available to the institution's students. This would seem like a benefit that is much more substantial than whether or not their bagels had cream cheese on the.m. I bet nothing comes of this, but I'd love to see Izzo and his program run into a little trouble as a result of this.
MSU might argue that this situation is covered by rule 16.9.1. However, it's interesting that the rules allow tickets for HOME events in other sports (16.2.1.3) but they specify HOME events, leading one to believe that away events in other sports (like the bowl game tonight) would not be permissible.
