football

this has been rumored.

espn.com confirms.

http://sports.espn.go.com/los-angeles/ncf/news/story?id=5275644

Today's story, provided by Mark Snyder.  Headline:  "What the USC-NCAA situation means for U-M."

There is absolutely no need to read it.  It is content-free fluff, in which the free Press goes back to its favored "NCAA expert," Florida attorney Michael Buckner, to attempt to supply something to make the otherwise-vacuous Mark Snyder article less embarassingly vacuous.  I read the article, and five minutes later, I cannot recall one single consequential thing that attorney Buckner had to say.

Snyder reports essentially, the procedure that USC has gone through is the procedure that Michigan is going through.  And the facts in the USC case were significantly different from the Michigan case.  And USC says it will appeal.  And so the two situations are similar, but different.  And by the way, the "major" violations that Michigan accepted were blah-blah-blah-blah.

The meta-story here is that Friday is a home-delivery date for the Free Press.  And the Freep never wants to let one of those days pass without another chapter in the campaign against Rich Rodriguez. 

Mark Snyder.  "Your Michigan Wolverines reporter at work." 

We now return you to your regularly-scheduled blogging and messaging...

Our cousins in East Lansing like to talk about Michigan arrogance and they're probably not completely wrong about that.  Maybe we do exhibit a little too much cockiness from time to time.  On the other hand, we're pretty good about acknowledging our shortcomings and doing the right thing (witness the University's reaction to practicegate).  It's part of the Michigan ethos.

Contrast that attitude with USC's reaction to the NCAA's sanctions.  Mike Garrett and Lane Kiffin are openly defiant and dismissive.  We now know that their defense was essentially "How could we have known?"  Well, they're sticking with it.  And it's truly amazing to watch.

Hundreds of miles away from Heritage Hall and only a few hours after the release of an NCAA report that spelled out major penalties for USC, athletic director Mike Garrett broke his silence on the matter by telling a group of the school’s sports boosters that the report was “nothing but a lot of envy.”

“As I read the decision by the NCAA, all I could get out of all of this was … I read between the lines and there was nothing but a lot of envy, and they wish they all were Trojans,” Garrett said to cheers Thursday night at the San Francisco Airport Marriott.

<<<>>>

Declaring that “we can still split a national championship if we win all our games,” Kiffin also indicated he was heartened to learn 56 of his players appeared this morning for a voluntary 7 a.m. workout.

“Regardless of what happens in that appeal, we know this: SC is more powerful than anything else,” Kiffin said. “The university, the football program, the basketball program -- no matter what they try to do to us, it won’t matter.”

There's more where that came from.  Read it and shake your head.  These are the faces of truly major violations.

If the above mentioned teams do in fact get added, the regular B10 conference schedule will be a buzz saw.  But it will be especially tough for Ohio State (and also Texas if they continue the Red River Rivalry).  tOSU's out of conference games for the near future include home and aways with Miami (FL), Cal, VT, Oklahoma, and Tennesse.  Imagine that on top of the juiced up B10 schedule.

http://ohiostate.scout.com/3/fbschedule.html

SIAP, I looked all over and could not find this referenced...

Someone came up with a possible Big Ten logo incorporating (http://b16ten.org/) the 16 teams reference... it actually works pretty well

If USC appeals and only delays the penalties (which would be my guess), USC would be even less appealing for Andre Yruretagoyena, since he would be there for 2 post season bans instead of 1.  In addition, Nick Perry would be in play due to the relaxed transfer rules under the penalty.

My take is that they should not appeal.  Trying to operate under a cloud is usually a mistake, something RR could relate to. 

I'm sure if he could do it over, RR would have paid the buyout and moved on.  Perhaps the media vultures would not have been circling the campus looking for carcasses.