will be michigan's highest pick in a while
Those Rumormongering Athletic Directors
This from a Crain's Detroit interview with Dave Brandon got under my skin:
There was some chatter last year that the Ohio (State)-Michigan game could be moved in the future from its traditional spot in the schedule as the final game of the season.
Brandon dismissed such talk as gibberish.
"I think it's nonsense. I've never heard any talk of that," he said. "I don't think there's anything being contemplated as it relates to that. I think someone spewed something on a blog somewhere, and is usually the case by the time it gets told three times, people start to believe it. There's a pretty strong commitment on behalf of the conference that that game belongs as the last game of the season."
Brandon on the Michigan Insider about 18 months ago:
SAM WEBB: Would it be still be the tradition to keep that game [The Game] the last game of the season?
DAVID BRANDON: I think there's a distinct possibility that game will be a later game in the season, but not necessarily the last game of the season. …What you're really going to want is for that last game of the season to determine who's going to be the champion of that division and who is going to play for the Championship... Although I love playing OSU the last game of the year, I don't thinks it's necessarily a slam dunk.
That is all.
implying that Brian "spewed" something on this blog somewhere?
That's gross.
I think you are being too tough on the guy. He rethought his position and now agrees with us. Let's hope it stays that way.
My thinking is 18 months ago he floated the idea out there about moving the game. He heard the backlash and realized its not a good idea.
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But he didn't say that. He said that there was no real talks about moving the game, and not only were there talks but he was an active discussion of it. Nobodies really attacking him, just pointint out the hypocrisy
If you're doing nothing, how do you know when you're finished?
Kind of petty. Okay, really petty.
Omnes i facere est vincere
good managers engage in revisionist history when it suits them.
"I think it's nonsense. I've never heard any talk of that [because I was wearing the cans they make you wear when you go on the radio]," he said. "I don't think there's anything [other than what I already said on the radio] being contemplated as it relates to that. I think someone spewed something on a blog somewhere [about what I said on the radio], and as is usually the case by the time [what I said] gets told three times, people start to believe it. There's a pretty strong commitment on behalf of the conference [and many blogs] that that game belongs as the last game of the season [and I should be Brian'd for saying things inconsistent with that, as well as for blaming the blogs for directly quoting me]."
gunna do, what everyone THINKS im gunna do.... and FREAK OUT MAN
All i wanna know is... whats Brandon thinking

On the fifth night—possibly the sixth—a breeze arose.
It was cool and dewy.
DB, you must understand the true power of the Interwebz in the hands of people like Brian. Information does not go away. Brian's internal auto-detect quotation algorithm remembers everything.
Rumors were spewed on many blogs, including this one. That is, if you define "rumors" as "the Athletic Director's words", and define "spewed" as "reported verbatim."
In the spirit of Bob Loblaw, Dave Brandon wants to know why HE should get in trouble for a quote that someone ELSE remembered?
The proper place for a comment like this is obviously a law blog.
Intensity is a lot of guys that run fast.
Like Seth did? Since you are no longer in South Bend?
"It does not matter how many times you get knocked down, but how many times you get up." Vince Lombardi
And I may still do it. But then this guy's name would make no sense:
Herre is what wikipedia says regarding douche:
The term usually refers to a person, usually male, with a variety of negative qualities, specifically arrogance and engaging in obnoxious and/or irritating actions, most often without malicious intent.
So, the questions for you would be:
- Are you a male?
- Are you arrogant?
- Do you engage in obnoxious and/or irritating actions?
- Is your arrogance and are your irritating actions done without malicious intent?
For good or for bad, I would hazard a guess that these markers are relevant to a large majority of mgoreaders, and to most male Michigan students and alumni.
If the shoe fits . . .
"It does not matter how many times you get knocked down, but how many times you get up." Vince Lombardi
The great thing about being high up in an organization is that you can ignore/rewrite the past as you wish.
The problem with being a blogger is that since you can't roll around in Scrooge-McDuck piles of cash, you have nothing to satisfy your meager soul except truthfulness, accuracy, and archival record-keeping.
Aspire to higher things, Brian!
Candace: No... That why they make smart word box for tell monkey hard brain-hurty things.
Phineas: Removing prepositions makes it more condescending.
Wouldn't this have been better as a tweet or something? If a regular user posted this on the board, it would get more than a few "Cool story, bro"s.
Yeah, that way someone could've broken the tweet on MgoBoard where it belongs
Q.E.D.
I love how all references to blogs can only be referring to mgoblog. Just the way it should be. That is all.
Denied by UM multiple times, nonetheless lifelong M fan.
come on, what is this "evidence" you're using?
... that's what ADs do, and that's what Brandon does particularly well. Let Hoke be Hoke ... saying only what needs to be said and not a word more.
That said, I do think it's a distinct possibility this issue will get revisited if Michigan and OSU play back-to-back games two years running. Just a hunch.
Midwestern born and raised ... now living in the heat of the Arizona desert
let's not get ahead of ourselves. it can't happen this year. it would be awfully hard for both UM and OSU to win their division two years in a row at the same time.
In general I agree ... I think the Big 10 has a whole lot more parity than it did back when Michigan and OSU dominated year after year after year.
But ... let's say we get back to the Big 2 and Little 10. And let's say we see Michigan play OSU in the final game, then again in the B1G championship. What I'm saying is that's when the murmurs will start. And if it happens a second year then it heats up quite a bit more.
So I guess we should hope it's not Michigan/OSU year after year. Yeah, Michigan to win its division every year. But let the other division sort out its teams with a different result each year. :-)
Midwestern born and raised ... now living in the heat of the Arizona desert
they were certain that Miami and Florida State would be meeting on a regular basis for the title, and they were moving into a conference that was significantly weaker than the Big Ten.
Miami's ACC title game appearances to date = 0. (Obviously the preferred comparison here would be Michigan = Florida State and OSU = Miami. Well, it would be nicer to have Virginia Tech's appearance percentage, but you get the idea.)
imagine a year where a rematch was inevitable due to both Michigan and Ohio locking up their divisions before The Game.
I think that'll be even worse since it'll cheapen the value of the first game, which has more meaning to most of the fans than the championship game.
The real solution to all of this is to have us both in the same division. Period.
M'Dog
I could not agree more. If we don't beat OSU, we don't deserve to play for Big Ten championship, in my opinion. In reality, putting M and OSU in opposite divisions, I think, will eventually lead to the game being moved to earlier in the year, or the divisions being changed with U of M and OSU in same division. Because if UM and OSU play twice in a row, it's not going to be as much of a hit with fans as DB seems to think (as in, his past comments about the issue, and also the comments of, I want to say Delaney, about how AWESOME it would be to have the biggest game EVAR twice in a row; I'm fairly certain I've heard DB invoke 2006 as an argument in favor of this). That being said, divisions usually won't be wrapped up until sometime during that day (the last day of the season), so it's also quite conceivable that U of M and OSU wouldn't know they would be playing each other twice in a row until after the slate of games on that Saturday before the Big Ten championship had concluded.
Still, it just makes much more sense for us and OSU to be in same division. . . but "sense" seems to be somewhat overshadowed by "ZOMG UM-OSU TWICE IN ONE YEAR! TWICE IN A ROW! IT'S RAINING MONEY!"
I think we should all realize that Dave Brandon is a former CEO, a bit of a politician, and will spin things any way he can to make Michigan fans/boosters happy. If he made a mistake in saying something, then he never said it.
File under Brian: Obligatory Brandon Bashing.
Subhead: consistency: hobgoblin of little minds.
Example: Whitman. "Do I contradict myself? Very well, I am large, I contain multitudes."
Last week I saw a woman flayed, and you will hardly believe how much it altered her person for the worse.
Well, first of all Emerson said "a foolish consistency," as in, an unthinking consistency.
Second, I don't think he was referring to "denying that you said the precise thing you actually, empirically, factually, said."
+1 ... that's Brandon's job. Well, that and making revenue exceed expenses.
I kinda-sorta like Brandon ... I think he's the right man at the right time. Like it or not, college athletics really is a matter of keeping the fans/boosters interested, energized and happy. Brandon, as a former CEO and a marketing guy, understands that. The night game against ND was a master stroke -- the TV imagery was magic -- then not scheduling a night game in 2012 is brilliant ... keep night games rare and mysterious. (And whoever thought of the maize pom-poms should win an award -- that looked awesome on HD TV.)
Midwestern born and raised ... now living in the heat of the Arizona desert
Was the game itself and one tremendous fourth quarter. Had it gone the other way we all would feel differently about night games.
I have a Fandom Endurance III merit badge
Even before the superawesome finish, I thought the game was pretty damn cool. We wouldn't look back on that specific GAME as fondly, but that was still going to have been as cool as any gameday atmosphere I've ever experienced.
The late start did lend well to me sitting at Ashley's for five hours and that is something to appreciate.
I have a Fandom Endurance III merit badge
Mega-conferences (two divisions) and conference championship games suck.
Preparation is not suddenly accomplished, it is a process steadily maintained.
I just like the hell out of this Blog. That is all
"Runnnn!!! get to da choppa"
he is speaking to the sarasota - bradenton M club. it only costs $30 to hear the man himself. thirty measley dollars to be graced by His presence. yay.
I will fucking cunt punt the next person I hear about doing something like that, and I don't give a fuck if you SOR me, I WILL FUCKING ASSAULT YOU.
I love mosi of your calls but dude you really troll so hard
"Runnnn!!! get to da choppa"
It sucks when people are less than honest. It also sucks when people in positions of relative authority use their pulpits to mislead less connected people.....that gets under MY skin.
December 2010
"Brady Hoke is not a serious candidate for the Michigan job. He is not any sort of candidate. If Dave Brandon was willing to hire Hoke to coach Michigan, Rodriguez would already be out the door because there would be a dozen people he'd rather have coaching Michigan than Rodriguez. Unless meteors hit both Jim Harbaugh and Rich Rodriguez, the chance Brady Hoke is Michigan's coach in 2011 is zero point zero percent. http://mgoblog.com/content/brady-hoke-and-nature-information
January 2011
"This is a stupid hire. It will always be as stupid hire and David Brandon just led the worst coaching search in the history of Michigan football. He managed to chase off half of an already iffy recruiting class, hired a Plan C coach on January 11th, probably ensured the transfer of the reigning Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year, and restricted his "national search" to people who'd spent at least five years in Ann Arbor. Michigan just gave themselves a year of USC-level scholarship reduction voluntarily." http://mgoblog.com/content/hoke-react-no-swearing
The swag is back.
but I do not think you know what it means.
Citing examples of a consistent opinion over time isn't exactly a strong example of Brian being deceptive or "misleading."


So does that mean he doesn't hear himself talking?
Michigan Resurgent? Michigan Resurgent!
The beatings will continue until the uniforms improve!