Home
i'm an actor, not a reactor

Primary links

  • About
    • $upport (lol)
    • Ethics
    • FAQ
    • Glossary
    • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
  • MGoStore
    • Hail to Old Blue
  • MGoBoard
    • MGoBoard FAQ
    • Michigan bar locator
    • Moderator Action Sticky
  • Useful Stuff
    • Depth Chart By Class
    • Hoops Depth Chart by Class
    • 2017 Recruiting Board
    • Unofficial Two Deep
    • MGoFlickr
    • Diaries, Windows Live Writer, And You
    • User-Curated HOF
    • Where To Eat In Ann Arbor
  • Schedule/Tix
    • Future Schedules (wiki)
    • Ticket spreadsheet
Home

Navigation

  • Forums
  • Recent posts

User login

  • Create new account
  • Request new password

MGoElsewhere

  • @MGoBlog (Brian)
  • @aceanbender
  • @Misopogon (Seth)
  • @Aeschnepp (Adam)
  • @BISB
  • @EUpchurchPhoto
  • @FullOfTwitt (Fuller)
  • Hail to the Victors 2016
  • MGoFacebook
  • MGoPodcast
  • WTKA
  • Instagram

Michigan Blogs

  • Big House Blog
  • Burgeoning Wolverine Star
  • Genuinely Sarcastic
  • Go Blue Michigan Wolverine
  • Holdin' The Rope
  • MVictors
  • Maize 'n' Blue Nation
  • Maize 'n' Brew
  • Maize And Go Blue
  • Michigan Hockey Net
  • MMMGoBlueBBQ
  • The Blog That Yost Built
  • The Hoover Street Rag
  • The M Zone
  • Touch The Banner
  • UMGoBlog
  • UMHoops
  • UMTailgate
  • Wolverine Liberation Army

M On The Net

  • mgovideo
  • MGoBlue.com
  • Mike DeSimone
  • Recruiting Planet
  • The Wolverine
  • Go Blue Wolverine
  • Winged Helmet
  • UMGoBlue.com
  • MaizeRage.org
  • Puckhead
  • The M Den
  • True Blue Fan Forum

Big Ten Blogs

  • Illinois
    • Illinois Loyalty
    • Illinois Baseball Report
  • Indiana
    • Inside The Hall
    • The Crimson Quarry
  • Iowa
    • Black Heart, Gold Pants
    • Fight For Iowa
  • Michigan State
    • The Only Colors
  • Minnesota
    • GopherHole.com
    • The Daily Gopher
  • Nebraska
    • Corn Nation
    • Husker Max
    • Husker Mike's Blasphemy
    • Husker Gameday
  • Northwestern
    • Sippin' On Purple
    • Lake The Posts
  • Notre Dame
    • The House Rock Built
    • One Foot Down
  • Ohio State
    • Eleven Warriors
    • Buckeye Commentary
    • Men of the Scarlet and Gray
    • Our Honor Defend
    • The Buckeye Nine
  • Penn State
    • Slow States
    • Black Shoe Diaries
    • Happy Valley Hardball
    • Penn State Clips
    • Linebacker U
    • Nittany White Out
  • Purdue
    • Boiled Sports
    • Hammer and Rails
  • Wisconsin
    • Bruce Ciskie

Links of Note

  • Baseball
    • College Baseball Today
    • The College Baseball Blog
  • Basketball
    • Ken Pomeroy
    • Hoop Math
    • John Gasaway
    • Luke Winn/Sports Illustrated
  • College Hockey
    • Chris Heisenberg (Class of 2016)
    • College Hockey Stats
    • Michigan College Hockey
    • Hockey's Future
    • Sioux Sports
    • USCHO
  • Football
    • Smart Football
    • Every Day Should Be Saturday
    • Matt Hinton/Grantland
    • Football Study Hall
    • Football Outsiders
    • Harold Stassen
    • NCAA D-I Stats Page
    • The Wizard Of Odds
    • CFB Stats
  • General
    • Sports Central
  • Local Interest
    • The Ann Arbor Chronicle
    • Arborwiki
    • Arbor Update
    • Ann Arbor Observer
    • Teeter Talk
    • Vacuum
  • Teams Of The D
    • Lions
      • Pride of Detroit
    • Pistons
      • Detroit Bad Boys
      • Need4Sheed
    • Tigers
      • Roar Of The Tigers
      • Bless You Boys
      • The Daily Fungo
      • The Detroit Tigers Weblog
    • Red Wings
      • Winging It In Motown
      • On The Wings
    • Michigan Sports Forum

Beveled Guilt

Site Search

Diaries

  • New
  • Popular
  • Hot
  • Thirteen unlucky minutes (TL;DNR-This is a bit of rant about the refs)
    docwhoblocked - 2 weeks ago
  • Fan Satisfaction Index End of Season Bball Survey
    OneFootIn - 2 weeks ago
  • How likely are we to revert to the mean?
    Bo Glue - 2 weeks ago
  • It's time to avenge Villanova's 1985 NCAA tourney upset over Michigan
    Communist Football - 2 weeks ago
  • 14 Months Ago: The Fire Beilein Threads.
    stephenrjking - 3 weeks ago
  •  
  • 1 of 2
  • ››
more
  • This Month in MGoBlog History - March 2008: Pryor isn't coming, Boren has left, and some academic fraud allegations sprinkled in
    Maize.Blue Wagner - 215 comments
  • The Ballad of Jordan Poole
    k.o.k.Law - 176 comments
  • 14 Months Ago: The Fire Beilein Threads.
    stephenrjking - 91 comments
  • PreSpring Football updates from Sam Webb
    AZBlue - 90 comments
  • Thirteen unlucky minutes (TL;DNR-This is a bit of rant about the refs)
    docwhoblocked - 61 comments
  •  
  • 1 of 2
  • ››
more

MGoBoard

  • New
  • Recent
  • Hot
  • Softball Wins Series Opener Over Maryland, 6-0
    5 replies
  • OT: How do some student-athletes finish a bachelors so quickly (to transfer)?
    54 replies
  • OT: Avicii dead at 28
    59 replies
  • Chase Young becomes highest drafted Michigan lacrosse player
    20 replies
  • Podcast discussion on the conference
    30 replies
  • Matthews Declares WITHOUT agent
    44 replies
  • OT - Jalen Hurts possibly looking to transfer
    109 replies
  • Game Day Condos - who's gonna buy one?
    69 replies
  • OT: Arsene Wenger set to retire from Arsenal FC
    51 replies
  • OT: The Cube Inaccessible Until Fall 2019
    22 replies
  • It’s Friday - Time to POSBANG!!
    78 replies
  • RIP Earle Bruce
    47 replies
  • Final 2018 Basketball COMPOSITE Rankings
    34 replies
  • OT: Map of college stadiums that sell alcohol
    89 replies
  • Auston Robertson arrested again
    59 replies
  •  
  • 1 of 6
  • ››
  • Softball Wins Series Opener Over Maryland, 6-0
    5 replies
  • OT: How do some student-athletes finish a bachelors so quickly (to transfer)?
    54 replies
  • Karsen Barnhart - did we cool on him?
    92 replies
  • OT: Avicii dead at 28
    59 replies
  • OT: Arsene Wenger set to retire from Arsenal FC
    51 replies
  • Game Day Condos - who's gonna buy one?
    69 replies
  • Chase Young becomes highest drafted Michigan lacrosse player
    20 replies
  • OT - Jalen Hurts possibly looking to transfer
    109 replies
  • Apparently, the NCAA has already received a response from MSU about Nassar
    62 replies
  • It’s Friday - Time to POSBANG!!
    78 replies
  • Matthews Declares WITHOUT agent
    44 replies
  • Belleville coach Jermain Crowell mad at UM again
    244 replies
  • RIP Earle Bruce
    47 replies
  • OT: The Cube Inaccessible Until Fall 2019
    22 replies
  • Podcast discussion on the conference
    30 replies
  •  
  • 1 of 6
  • ››
  • Why should we be optimistic about 2018 M football?
    273 replies
  • Belleville coach Jermain Crowell mad at UM again
    244 replies
  • Police investigating Elysee Mbem-Bosse for death threat against Harbaugh
    224 replies
  • "Being Not-Rich at UM" Guide
    168 replies
  • Buckle Up
    159 replies
  • Scouting the Enemy: Ohio State QBs are Good
    158 replies
  • Semi-OT: What sports would you fix?
    158 replies
  • Elysee Mbem-Bosse disturbing tweets
    157 replies
  • Whats the Best Way to Make Flight Arrangements?
    149 replies
  • Wagner to NBA
    141 replies
  • Urban Meyer throws more shade at Michigan
    141 replies
  • FB new Nutrition plan under Herbert is well received by players
    132 replies
  • What past season would you have liked to see an Amazon-style documentary on?
    121 replies
  • OT: best-selling musical artists by state of birth
    120 replies
  • The Ice Storm Cometh - And Your Favorite Winter Storm
    119 replies
  •  
  • 1 of 6
  • ››

Support MGoBlog: buy stuff at Amazon

adidas

MGoPodcast 7.24: We Remembered Jabroni Of The Week

By Brian — April 4th, 2016 at 3:12 PM — 16 comments
Filed under:
  • 2016 spring game
  • adidas
  • podcasts

Hello. This is our last podcast of the year barring something spectacular before August. Thanks for listening.

90 minutes.

26124672261_a82cee39a6_z

[Eric Upchurch]

A big thanks to our sponsors. The show is presented by UGP & Moe's. Shopping with them helps us and supports good dudes. Check out 100years.moe for the rich history of Michigan's oldest apparel store.

Our other sponsors are also key in the expanding empire: thanks to Homesure Lending, Ann Arbor Elder Law, the Residence Inn Ann Arbor Downtown, and the University of Michigan Alumni Association.

Spring Practice Recap: Offense

Feelingsball to start. QB battle for real. Hello Ty Isaac. Wide receivers? Ace deploys the word "shambolic," and is not talking about the offensive line!

Spring Practice Recap: Defense

starts at 27:53

Backups mostly but we can still infer some things. Tyree Kinnel can play. Still on board with Jeremy Clark over Stribling. Mike McCray is major key emoji.

Gimmicky Top Five: Worst Adidas Atrocities

starts at 45:24

There are no surprises at the top. We do posit a darts Champions' League theme.

Inside The Crooked Blue Line w/ Steve Lorenz

starts at 55:02

Steve talks Michigan's recent commits and the massive visit weekend that just completed. We also remember Jabroni of the Week. Score. The very first ever will SHOCK you. Probably. 

Music

"Across 110th Street"
My Morning Jacket — The Day Is Coming
Blind Melon — No Rain
Planet Funk + A Pub Of Drunk Darts Enthusiasts — Chase The Sun

THE USUAL LINKS

  • Helpful iTunes subscribe link
  • General podcast feed link
  • Direct download link
  • What's with the theme music?

It look's like you don't have Adobe Flash Player installed. Get it now.

no rain man

  • 16 comments

Summer 2015 Survey Results

By Seth — August 24th, 2015 at 10:19 AM — 40 comments
Filed under:
  • adidas
  • brady hoke
  • dave brandon
  • fire coach x
  • fire dave brandon
  • jim hackett
  • jim harbaugh
  • nike
  • road games
  • season-tickets
  • surveys
  • ticket bubble

We had a survey, 3,556 people responded to it. We learned some things about them:

1. They only get to a few games

image

The average was two a year but the split is more like 26% go to no games, 36% get to one, and 38% get to more than one.

2. Most don't have season tickets

image

Four in five (79%) responders don't. Also, when these were run against the previous question season, ticket holders averaged 5.05 games a year, while non-season ticket holders went to 1.11 per year. Season ticket holders were then asked if they would have renewed if Michigan had kept Hoke. Most (68 percent) would but even 32 percent "no" is ominous:

image

3. There's a clear preference for ADs

Rating Brandon %RS Hackett %RS
1 (bad) 1488 42% 17 0.5%
2 (poor) 1654 47% 0 0%
3 (meh) 322 9% 28 1%
4 (okay) 33 1% 426 12%
5 (good) 19 0.5% 3040 87%
[no response] 40 - 45 -
Avg. 1.70 - 4.84 -

On overwhelming majority (almost 90%) of respondents gave Brandon a 1 or a 2. Conversely, Hackett cleaned up; among Michigan fans just 17 people who are impossible to please out of 3400 is some kind of magic. Brian demanded I combine these in a bar graph.

image

Ace: "That is beautiful."

Brian: "See? Bar graphs!"

4. Harbaugh?

image

Harbaugh has some catching up to do on his boss, at a still really positive approval rating of 4.27 out of 5. Then again Hackett has already reeled in a 5-star while I guess Harbaugh has yet to do so.

5. As for his predecessor

image

Yes.

6. They'll pay more for better opponents, but not too much.

image

What they have now is about what the market wants to bear.

7. What they want to wear

image

Either the readership didn't understand that Underground Printing is our t-shirt guys and this would essentially mean MGoBlog gets to design all the uniforms, or they understood too well. Anyway UGP barely beat Under Armour, probably because they're the only company other than Nike that spells their name right.

8. Who they'd like to play

You're going to have to click this one I think:

image

Notre Dame is the obvious one, and the next-most popular was Harbaugh taking a shot at his old team. Stanford makes a lot of sense in fan type, location worth visiting, old history, and a team we haven't seen much of. LSU would be great too though it probably will be less fun (and less easy) once Les and Cam are out of there. The Pac and SEC were easily the most desirable conferences. A breakdown:

Conference Votes
SEC 3587
Pac 12 3139
ACC (no ND) 1312
Notre Dame 1122
Big XII 452

The games already scheduled weren't included, otherwise I'm sure the interest in Texas and Oklahoma would shoot the Big XII back up to at least ACC levels, while Washington and Colorado could put the Pac 12 on equal footing with the SEC.

  • 40 comments

Gallery: A look back at Michigan's Adidas uniforms over the years

By Anonymous Coward — July 8th, 2015 at 12:33 PM — 1 comment
Filed under:
  • adidas
  • mgoblog

don't click here

Link: 
Gallery: A look back at Michigan's Adidas uniforms over the years
  • 1 comment

The Best of the Only Incompetent Germans

By Seth — July 7th, 2015 at 2:32 PM — 77 comments
Filed under:
  • adidas
  • adidas sucks for a new reason
  • hokepoints
  • only incompetent germans
  • uniforms
  • uniformz

It started off so well.

20082

Mantras sewn into the fabric, apparently less intrusive piping, nods to the helmet stripes. The only ominous sign was marketing people who insisted on brand-specific copy errors.Untitled

Then they tried to lick our moisture:

…and things began to fall apart.

[After the jump: crimes against fashion, crimes against yellow, crimes against offense, crimes against eyes, crimes against humans]

Read more »
  • 77 comments

Michigan Signs With Nike

By Brian — July 6th, 2015 at 4:12 PM — 145 comments
Filed under:
  • adidas
  • nike would like you to wear this aerodynamic fez

This has been a fait accompli for a few weeks now; it is now official:

Reunited and it feels sooo good. http://t.co/ZCpmchtZMV #URecord pic.twitter.com/MPguZr2oPg

— UniversityofMichigan (@UMich) July 6, 2015

Also press release.

Creepy divorce metaphor aside, this is likely to please everyone. We have a Best Of Adidas post being assembled and it's a doozy. Around here we started calling them the Only Incompetent Germans after Glenn Robinson's jersey exploded in a cloud of fibers for the third or fourth time.

Nike's not perfect—in fact the only Nike tag we have on the blog is "nike would like you to wear this aerodynamic fez"—but the athletes really wanted Nike according to internal surveys. A lot of the fans really wanted Nike according to Sam Webb, who would know. Even those who were pretty indifferent to the brand of clothing they're wearing scoffed at the many and diverse fashion crimes perpetrated on the best uniforms in sports. And so the department acquiesced even though there were reports that the Adidas offer was worth significantly more.

Yes: the athletic department made a decision based on something other than making revenue go up. Even if you don't really care what symbol is on Michigan's jerseys, that has to feel good.

No numbers yet. Those will be announced next week. Current details:

  • Contract runs to 2027 with a Michigan option to extend to 2031.
  • Contract starts August 1st of next year.
  • Michigan can use "Jumpman" apparel for their basketball teams—apparently this is a big deal.
  • The Daily's Zach Shaw reports that employees were told that Michigan will be Nike's "top deal." I think they say that to all the girls.

I don't think uniformz are off the table unless the AD says they're off the table; that will be the next thing to watch for.

  • 145 comments

Unverified Voracity Has Glowing Green Eye

By Brian — July 2nd, 2015 at 11:50 AM — 68 comments
Filed under:
  • 1993 rose bowl
  • adidas
  • adidas sucks for a new reason
  • cord cutting is coming
  • espn
  • jim harbaugh as great white shark
  • jim harbaugh is emo sometimes
  • nba draft
  • nik stauskas
  • penn state
  • recruiting is for gentlemen only
  • unverified voracity

101202-great-white-shark-hmed-755a[1]

AHHHH PLAY FOR MICHIGAN

Ex-Harbaugh staffer: 'A great white shark, mouth open, staring at you'

That's from a longer profile he wrote in May on the often-inscrutable Harbaugh. I referenced this yesterday, but whenever these things happen I think about a Nietzsche quote despite never having read any Nietzsche. You see, there was this science-fiction Civ game called Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri and when you got one of the techs it always said this at you:

Man is a rope, tied between beast and overman—a rope over an abyss. A dangerous across, a dangerous on-the-way, a dangerous looking-back, a dangerous shuddering and stopping. What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not an end: what can be loved in man is that he is an overture and a going under. I love those who do not know how to live, for they are those who cross over.

-- Friedrich Nietzsche ,"Thus Spoke Zarathustra"

Pretentious! But sometimes Harbaugh does not know how to live, like when he's on a national radio show and the preening show host starts in by asking him if he's ever soft. The vision of masculinity presented by Cowherd is so disorienting to him that his mind goes blank in terror*.

The good news is that Harbaugh can now enact the Thought Control government form. So he's got that going for him.

*[Just as I recoil at the arrogant bro-dom presented by Jim Rome.]

More Harbaugh. Face time in the 1993 Rose Bowl.

Doesn't say much there, either.

Yes, please. The NCAA may be slightly loosening its tie when it comes to the NBA draft:

Under the proposal, which was a coordinated effort by the NCAA, the National Association of Basketball Coaches and the NBA, underclassmen would be allowed to attend the Chicago pre-draft combine in May, get evaluated by team personnel and given a true reading on their draft status. The players would then be able to decide if they wanted to stay in the draft or return to school. They couldn't sign with an agent, though.

The current draft rules don't allow a player to return to college once he officially declares for the NBA draft. The NBA would still have an early entry deadline of late April and an official withdrawal date of 10 days before the draft, as per the collective bargaining agreement. But the NCAA would then have its own withdrawal date moved up from the week after the Final Four to sometime in mid-to-late May.

That last sentence is confusingly worded and should be "moved back". This is progress of a sort—the kind of progress that takes you back to about eight years ago when this was the standard. College coaches hated it because they didn't know who would go and who would stay when the late signing period—which also starts about week after the Final Four—began. So they changed it. Now they might change it back.

Anything that acknowledges the reality of the NBA and NFL is a good change. This one is a bit half-hearted, and it seems like it's flirting with disaster to make this change without delaying the late signing period. Kid signs, other kid decides to return: whoops. You know that's going to happen.

The best solution here is draft and follow.

Exposure to price. When people start talking about the inevitable cable unbundling that is coming, they often make this calculation: if only X percent of people would get ESPN and ESPN costs Y amount of money, then ESPN is going to cost Y * (1 / X) dollars. That's a lot of dollars! Bet you don't want unbundling now! An example:

So you'd think a standalone ESPN app, with all their channels, would cost around the same [as Netflix, Hulu, HBO, etc.]. As Lee Corso would say, not so fast. ESPN's perceived value and what the network actually needs to sustain their business model are vastly different.

One industry source I spoke to believes ESPN would have to charge sports fans at least $30 a month for an a la carte version of the networks to offset lost cable subscriber fees and advertising. MoffettNathanson Research believes Disney would have to charge $36.30 a month for ESPN to achieve the same level of reach it enjoys today.

At this point, we've reached a similar structure to European television. Channels such as Sky Sports, which carries popular properties like the English Premiere League, are not part of the basic service and run at $40 a month for the family of networks. Sky Sports even offers "day passes" for roughly $15. While hardcore American sports fans can justify similar prices here in the States, casual fans will balk and just catch the big event games on over-the-air networks.

But as taxi drivers and music labels and newspapers have found out, the internet tends to erode comfortable perches from which you can rake in piles of dough. ESPN has the advantage of still being a monopoly, but if the product was the only reason you could charge Y dollars you would not be able to get every song ever made for ten dollars a month.

The existence of Sling TV, which has ESPN and ESPN 2 and 18 other channels besides, for 20 bucks, is plenty of evidence that ESPN cannot reach that price point—and probably will not even try. Sky is a very different business model because the thing that is by far their main attraction, soccer, is virtually ad-free. You get some signage in the stadium, shirt sponsors, and halftime when everyone goes to the bathroom and gets a snack. That's it. The prime reason American sports keep spiraling in value (and can no longer fit in their assigned time slots) is that they are much more amenable to commercial breaks. Sky is trying to maximize its revenue; ESPN's attempt to maximize its revenue is going to come in much lower because 1) Americans are going to balk at the 40 dollar price and 2) advertisers want the eyeballs ESPN can deliver so very badly.

ESPN is currently subsidized by a lot of people who do not care about sports. When the internet is television, that goes away—and it does not necessarily get replaced one for one.

This is why adding Maryland and especially Rutgers was folly. In the near future the only people who get the Big Ten Network are going to be people interested in the Big Ten. They will no longer be able to snatch a dollar from the pocket of every cable subscriber in New Jersey who is a Tulane man. This is going to happen in ten years, at which point whatever short-term revenue gain will be spent, Jim Delany will have his bonus, and the Big Ten will be stuck with a couple of teams nobody cares about.

[HT: Get The Picture.]

Sauce relocates. Nik Stauskas is traded to the 76ers for… uh… stuff?

Many in Philadelphia wanted Stauskas last year. Now, 12 months later, Hinkie got him, a 1st rd pick, and 2 pick swaps for basically nothing.

— Derek Bodner (@DerekBodnerNBA) July 2, 2015

Stauskas had a rough first year in the NBA in a terrible situation, but that's awful quick to give up on a guy and dump him with some terrible contracts in exchange for cap space. Like the Pistons giving away a first round pick to be done with Ben Gordon, the main "asset" Sacramento acquired was the ability to not have Carl Landry on their cap any more. So they could go sign more free agents. Someone try to rip the face off the Kings GM just in case it's Joe Dumars.

Only incompetent Germans. Louisville's new helmet is… this…

screen3.0[1]

Which I kind of like for an Arena League team. Of the future. Playing a life and death game against octopus space nazis.

Here is a conveniently-timed article titled "Adidas: Sports Apparel Laughingstock."

The old recruiting ghost story. Willie Williams has been revisited. It is a funny and sad story, one that you've probably heard before. Apropos of little, here is former Florida Gator on his trip to Penn State:

As if that story wasn’t juicy enough, Crowder spoke of his visit to Penn State as a recruit, which was “the worst.”

“They sit me in a room with two bottles of Mad Dog 20/20 Banana Red,” Crowder said. “They say ‘drink these, we’re gonna go out.’ Okay, I get all feeling good. We walk out of the door, go down two doors and go back into an apartment and it’s four big white girls sitting there and me. Big ole white girls. Talkin’ about 250.”

Crowder no doubt said his decision was all about the academics.

Here's this! It is a show featuring a bunch of Michigan guys, one a former walk-on QB under Moeller, and an mgoshirt.

It appears it is still looking for a home. If you are a TV executive, adopt it maybe.

Etc.: Here is a good thing about the buddha-fication of David Foster Wallace. Akron built a stadium. It's not going well. Warde Manuel($) is a name to watch for Hackett replacement. Bring Your Champions, They're Our Meat on the NBA Draft.

  • 68 comments
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • next ›
  • last »
Powered by Drupal, an open source content management system
Theme provided by Roopletheme; sidebars adapted from Chris Murphy.