Slate piece analyzes The Horror II [ED:BiSB]
[ED:BiSB - The OP was not... good... but the article is worth a read. It discusses the financial trends of college football and the market forces that lead teams to make unpopular and/or dumb-ass scheduling decisions. MGoBlog is cited, as is John U. Bacon]
"You’d think that Michigan would want to eradicate every reminder that this game ever happened. Instead, at noon this Saturday on ESPN2, the Wolverines will give the world an occasion to remember that day of epic shame. Per a scheduling decision made by their athletic director, Dave Brandon, three years ago—which is to say, a decision made voluntarily rather than as a contractual obligation related to the original 2007 game—Michigan will once again open its season against the Appalachian State Mountaineers."
http://www.slate.com/articles/sports/sports_nut/2014/08/michigan_appala…
August 26th, 2014 at 8:11 PM ^
I like our historical boasts. I don't like that there can be any team out there who can claim an all-time winning record against us. We won't get another shot at the Cleveland Athletic Association (0-1), who bested us in 1891 -- we're stuck with it. But we get to wipe one off the board this Saturday, and that makes it much more exciting to me than YET ANOTHER game against Eastern.
This Slate writer finds himself in the awkward position of complaining about the Alabama-WVU and Boise State-Ole Miss matchups in week 1 (because they have sponsors) as well as the Michigan-Alabama matchup, while noting that foolish Dave Brandon could have scheduled...Central. I'll wait and see what Bacon's tally is for the number of fans excited about *that*.
August 26th, 2014 at 8:31 PM ^
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
August 26th, 2014 at 8:34 PM ^
I'm not complaining about the matchups, just that they take place in a stadium that isn't within 200 miles of the campus of any of the teams playing. and I didn't have room for it in the article but the fact that both the Chick-Fil-A game and the AT&T Cowboys Classic are technically nonprofit endeavors is pretty stupid too.
August 26th, 2014 at 10:54 PM ^
Fair point on holding the games distant from campus -- I agree. It takes too much of the college out of college football.
But singling out the distance/off-campus element as the problem with those games sits uncomfortably with the argument that a trend of "stunt marketing and contrived event games" has "reached [its] apotheosis/nadir in this rematch made in hell," when the rematch is a regular season game, on campus, without a sponsor or special name, and without any special-event merchandising. The main thing the Michigan-ASU game has in common with the Chick-fil-a games is that it's an interesting week one matchup -- and I like that part.
All that said, I'm not sorry to see a widely read site used to remind ADs of dissatisfaction with many of these other trends: I wish the special uniform trend would end, that the music would be provided only by the band, that games would all be on campus, that there would be fewer bowl games, that we'd reinstall grass, and, before anyone else mentions it, that kids would get off my lawn.
August 27th, 2014 at 1:14 AM ^
You're right—it's a secondary connection, which was one of the things I was worried about when I was writing the piece. I think what I'd say is that M-App St. feels like the most egregious example to me because it's trying to contrive attention and relevance where there is absolutely none at all to begin with. When you've made M-CMU or M-EMU seem like a desirable alternative, something has really gone wrong.
August 26th, 2014 at 8:16 PM ^
You should've just made your title I'm a dipshit. Would've been sufficient.
August 26th, 2014 at 9:35 PM ^
A Horror is when you lose to a horrible team. If we lost to Akron or Uconn last year, that would have been horrible. But App St was not horrible. I repeat once more: The 2007 App St team was ranked nearly ten spots higher than the avg B1G team that year. It was ranked five spots higher than the 2011 Ohio St team.
August 26th, 2014 at 10:22 PM ^
August 26th, 2014 at 11:32 PM ^
August 27th, 2014 at 12:16 AM ^
August 27th, 2014 at 12:16 AM ^
The 2007 App State team was ranked 5 spots higher than the 2011 Ohio State team.
IN 2007, the national Sagarin ranking for B1G schools was 53.5; and the App State ranking was 44. That's nearly 10 spots better than the average B1G team
August 27th, 2014 at 7:48 AM ^
August 26th, 2014 at 9:48 PM ^
August 26th, 2014 at 10:24 PM ^
As others here have pointed out, no one cares about this game except us. And only a few of us, at that. It's not that big of a story at this point partly because we're not Goliath anymore. At least not now. Yet another attempt by anyone who's trying to make money off college football to create a bigger story than really exists.
August 26th, 2014 at 10:37 PM ^
And if we lose, well.....I honestly don't even want to comprehend what would happen to this program should we somehow lose again. Ann Arbor would be set ablaze within an hour.
I'll be rooting for our boys hard on Saturday, same as always, but there was absolutely nothing to gain by scheduling this game. We could win by 200 and it wouldn't change a damn thing.
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
August 26th, 2014 at 11:19 PM ^
The Horror was my first day on campus as a freshman so I will never forget it, but I think The Horror here is obscuring the broader point of the article which is college football moving toward ALL OF THE ATTENTION AND MONEY as the overriding goal. Whatever you think of the game, DB has been pretty clear that this is all about attention. Nevertheless, maybe Penn State in Ireland (EURO MONEY!) or Wisco-LSU in who-gives-a-fuck-Stadium and Lambeau would have been better examples.
And I think the broader point is totally correct. College football has to remain college football. When it becomes a money seeking enterprise it's just, as Prof. Bacon points out, a worse-NFL. Someone who is a die-hard AHL or AAA fan can tell me whether that is a legitimate long-term strategy to remain relevant.
August 27th, 2014 at 12:31 AM ^
Tsk tsk...
2016 will not be Colorado's first Big House visit since 1994. They returned for a 27-3 thrashing that started off the National Championship season in '97.
August 27th, 2014 at 1:16 AM ^
You're right...and I've watched this game on BTN, I think. Their quarterback gets pasted. Will correct post-haste.
August 27th, 2014 at 3:28 AM ^
August 27th, 2014 at 9:53 AM ^
There are only three possible outcomes from this game, and two of them are bad.
August 27th, 2014 at 10:21 AM ^
How the hell did I miss this:
The school started outfitting its players in special-edition unis and is planning to begin the 2015 season by playing on a Thursday for the first time ever.
I guess I didn't pay attention to the 2015 schedule all that much, but what the crap?
August 27th, 2014 at 1:52 PM ^
It's at Utah. I'd be upset if Brandon did this at Michigan, but I can live with a Thursday game if we are the guests.
August 27th, 2014 at 12:41 PM ^
To me the loss to a average MAC team, Toledo, was much more of a horror then App St. App St. would have defeated Toledo by 30. After driving 1100 miles to watch this game,I felt much worse about our program and knew RR would not be successful here!