Unverified Voracity Bears No Ill Will Towards Bears

I've always preferred the attitude of track and field guys/gals. I think there is something to be said to giving an absolute effort in an event, so much so, that when said event is over, you have no energy left to showboat, but just need to catch your breath. Watch a competitive 400 someday and you will see the agony of victory mixed in with the agony of defeat.

I like the guy who calls LTT a Nazi. We are fast approaching the Godwin's Law Singularity Event.

Brian you spelled state wrong, follow the car.

I've said this before and I'll say it again. 4 groups of 3 teams; let's call them groups A, B, C, and D. Each team plays the other 2 teams in their group. Each group faces off against two other groups. So A and D play B and C. That's 8 games. Then you take the two best winners of the groups and have them play in the conference championship. You get around the division rule by deciding which groups make up divisions after the regular season. So, if the winners of A and B are to play, then A and C are in one division and B and D are in the other. If A and C are to play, then A and B are in one division and C and D are in the other. If A and D are to play, then either combination works.

What you'd have to do is try to put the best 4 teams in separate groups. For example, the SEC would probably try to put LSU, Bama, and Auburn in separate groups. If Bama and LSU were in separate groups this year, then they could have played in the SEC championship game instead of having the rematch. In 2008, if Texas and Texas Tech were in the same group, TTU would play Oklahoma in the championship. No more 3-way-tie BS unless all 3 teams were in separate groups, in which case you are pretty much screwed seven ways to Sunday no matter how you choose teams for a championship game.

This conference talk is so ponderous.  Where is the eye bleach?

I posted it in the BHGP comments, but note that the background of the msu pro combat picture features the Burton Bell Tower and Hill Auditorium on the UM campus. 

Also, who is this "Crane" character?  Think you're missing a link...

This is a pretty shitty comment:

" None of that money goes to anything other than an ever-expanding cadre of athletic department marketers and facilities for minor sports I'm indifferent to."

So...lacrosse, gymnastics, swimming, volleyball, rowing, etc are on the same level of worth as the AD bureaucracy?

Damn Michigan for giving those non-revs locker rooms!

This may seem like an utter shock, but the school doesn't make budgeting and spending decisions based on Brian Cook's interest level in sports.

I don't much care for Sociology. I don't think we should give their classrooms to engineers.

...where Brian is coming from here:

Also it seems like Michigan is taking advantage of a soon-to-be-closed loophole here...

There's no indication in the article's sidebar that this trip was anything but permissable under current rules (ergo, not a "loophole" with its implications of shadiness) and there's no indication that the rule that makes such an event permissable is scheduled to be altered. Unless there's other information to the contrary?

I don't really have a comment... just felt that the other version of the NIKE MSU Pro-Combat Uniforms should be preserved on this blog for posterity.

The SEC scheduling model fits what has historically been the way the SEC has scheduled. 6-game schedule as late as the mid-80's. Teams would have historical rivals which they'd meet yearly (or nearly every year) and some they would rarely meet (Ole Miss, Tennessee, Alabama). Florida's rivals were Georgia, Auburn, LSU, and Mississippi State (only one of those teams is in the East.

Because of these rivalries that weren't geographically centered, the conference went to a 5-2-1 scheduling model in 1992 (5 division, 2 permanent cross, and 1 rotation). Florida's permanents were Auburn and LSU. The conference eventually moved to a 5-1-2 system and Florida lost Auburn as a permanent rival.

It isn't perfect, but this new system fits how the SEC has done business for 80 years. Florida misses the Auburn rivalry. Older Gator fans may miss Mississippi State, but they don't miss any other rivalry in the West because they're rarely played anyway.

I'm curious how the Big Ten has historically scheduled?

Holy cow, is that  Michigan Cross Colours shirt or something?

Wow, I read the LTT tweet responses, and I can't confidently say that Caleb Michael Houser is a bonafide piece of shit. He told a 17 year old kid "you're gonna burn boy" and "(LTT) is a raging homo." as if the latter is cool to say about anybody, regardless of age.

"Fast, tall, smart, and wears cool shades: good package."

I'm really glad that that colon was not a comma. /Punctuation matters

"You 14-year-olds have no idea how good you have it in re: ND. Not so much with the MSU. There's going to be a point four or five years in the future when the student body has an inexplicably strong hatred of MSU."

This. As a 16 year old Michigan hopeful (out of state tuition SUCKS), I can say that I hate Michigan State with a burning passion. Not just because they beat us the past 4 years, but because they DON'T SHUT UP. My memory of Michigan Football is mostly 2008-2011. Sucks right? Before that there are small memories which stick out: Manningham Penn State Extravaganza, Loss to Texas in the Rose Bowl, Capitol One Bowl. However, I can't explicitly remember the last time we beat MSU or OSU. The OSU win the last season was incredible because it was part of that Michigan Tradition which includes that rivalry. I don't hate MSU in the same way (not yet). I hate them because they get a four year win streak, and they act like kings of the world. I don't hate them because they are rivals. I hate them because of their arrogance. It doesn't really matter if we beat them, but losing to them is just plain annoying. 

Notre Dame on the other hand has a completely different feel. We've beaten them the past three years, which is alot of my recent memory. They've been down in the dumps for a while, and there was a strong connection between us in 2008 and Notre Dame in recent history. I remember praying that we would not become the Notre Dame of the Big Ten. In a way, I sympathized for them, seeing what they've gone through for several decades. Doesn't mean I don't want to beat them, but I still respect them as a team (even if they are clueless sometimes) and their tradition. I do not feel this respect for MSU.

Obviously these are just feelings based on the past four years, but for a person my age, that's 1/4 of my life right now. I can tell you that I will hate MSU for the rest of my life, which seems to be something older Michigan Fans feel towards ND. It's interesting to see how things are changing.

"There's going to be a point four or five years in the future when the student body has an inexplicably strong hatred of MSU." This is very true. Michigan fans in my high school hate MSU way more than OSU. Besides losing to them four years in a row, my school is split about 50-50 between Michigan and MSU fans so they hate getting made fun of by their MSU friends. 

These Pro Combat uni's are hilarious... Purdue is still my favorite, but MSU is a close second.

is that Northwestern gets a favorable schedule (at least for as long as the current B1G team strengths hold), I don't see a problem. As the only private school in a conference of enormous state universities they're disadvantaged in ways that are probably permanent; if an otherwise satisfying proposal happens to offset that disadvantage a bit, so much the better/