football

In this Michigan Today piece, John U. Bacon examines the history of Big Ten membership, focusing on when Amos Alonzo Stagg forced Fielding Yost's hand causing Michigan to leave the Big Ten in 1907.

Reform was all the rage in college football—and that's where Stagg saw his chance. As the de facto leader of the Big Ten, Stagg pushed for new rules governing recruiting, funding and eligibility—which Yost, probably to Stagg's surprise, readily agreed to—but Yost couldn't stomach the conference's proposals to reduce schedules from a robust eleven games to a measly five, restrict player eligibility to three years, and insist that football coaches be full-time faculty members. Stagg already was, Yost was not.

Yost knew if he complied with the new Big Ten regulations, his team would have little chance against the Eastern powers. To sacrifice that hard-won recognition galled Yost.

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When it came time for Michigan's Faculty Board in charge of Intercollegiate Athletics to vote, Yost urged them to refuse the conference proposals. They did, forcing Michigan to drop out of the Big Ten in 1907.

That's right: Michigan, the school most closely associated with Big Ten football, left the conference in a huff.

Michigan was an independent for ten years and during that time, it had to find new opponents to fill out its schedule as Stagg made sure a rule was passed that prohibited Big Ten schools from scheduling games with schools that had left the conference (i.e., Michigan).  It was during this period that Michigan began its most important rivalries: Ohio State, Notre Dame and MSU.

Michigan...had to resort to filling the schedule with independent schools like Notre Dame twice, and Ohio State, which was not yet in the Big Ten, for the first six of those years. Another independent, the Michigan State Spartans—then called the Michigan Agricultural College Farmers—appeared on Michigan's schedule for just the third time in 1907, and have continued to do so all but four seasons since.

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So, whenever a commentator remarks that Michigan is the nation's only team with three great rivalries, Wolverine fans should thank Amos Alonzo Stagg, who made it all possible—however unwittingly.

Ladies and gentleman, the inimitable John U. Bacon delivers the goods once more.

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=5272466

Really Beano, it might just be time to hang em' up.  The sunset may well beckon old man.

I mean c'mon:

"Is this what they had in mind when they started football back in 1869?  I don't think so."

Dude, they didn't even have the forward pass in mind, not to mention pads, helmets, 6 points for a touchdown, team buses, Boise State University, ... hell they had to commit recruiting violations via telegraph.  

-.-- --- ..- .-. / - .. -- . / .. ... / --- ...- . .-. / -- .-. .-.-.- / -.-. --- --- -.- .-.-.- / .... .- -. --. / . -- / ..- .--. .-.-.-

http://www.onlineconversion.com/morse_code.htm

There have been a lot of articles written about NCAA sanctions will impede the Trojan's recruiting in 2011 and beyond.  I wanted to see strictly based on the numbers what USC will be able to do this year in recruiting.

The USC Depth Chart lists 16 scholarship players as either a Senior or RedShirt Senior.  I also counted 4 RedShirt Juniors who were low on the depth chart and unlikely to earn a 5th year.  By my count USC will have somewhere between 16-20 scholarships available for 2011.  Take into the NCAA banhammer and they are down to 6-10* available scholarships. 

*This number may also get bigger if Juniors and Seniors on the team decide to transfer

USC already has 7 Verbal Commitments but obviously some of those players may be looking elsewhere.  However 6 of them are from California (the other 1 from Las Vegas) so they may stick it out.  And since there is a scholarship reduction not all of the Freshman would probably redshirt may be afforded that luxury (Michigan fans know all about that).  USC coaches will have to make some tough decisions on what positions they want to focus on recruiting the next 3 years.

In relevance to Michigan football directly I don't think this means too much.  I believe the only recruit Michigan and USC are competing for is OL Andre Yruretagovena.  In 2011 USC will have only 3-4 Offensive Tackles on scholarship so I believe they will still be pursuing Andre.  I am hopeful he goes Blue and Michigan is playing in a bowl game while USC is not.  GO BLUE!

St. Xavier LB Sean Duggan is on his way home from his trip to Michigan. His Dad couldn't make the trip, but his Mom and Uncle (who's the equipment manager for the Detroit Lions) came.

Sean first told me he didn't have words to describe the visit. He said everything about it was awesome. They first toured the normal buildings, academic center, and the Big House. Sean and his family said they were in awe. He couldn't believe the size, and how nice it was. He was trying to compare it to his current field in high school, which holds 10,000 people. It seems like everything really blew them away. They got a chance afterwards to eat some local food, and take in campus.

They then met with the coaches. Greg Robinson sat with them, and talked about his experience, and why he liked Michigan. Sean and his family were very impressed that Rich Rodriguez actually sat with them for an hour to talk about everything.

He told me his Mom loved everything she saw, and so did Sean. Before this visit Sean didn't know too much about Michigan, but this visit vaults them into his top three.

I'm on my phone, so forgive me if there's any errors.

I put together a little welcome for Herbie on the blog Corn Nation:

http://www.cornnation.com/2010/6/10/1512242/i-think-youre-gonna-like-it-...

Figured the MGoFamily would get a kick out of it.

2 minute (obviously prewritten) response stating he knew nothing about what went on.