High… lights? I think that's the word. Wolverine Historian for the win:

Them. Us. As you can read in plentiful detail in the upcoming This Week In Schadenfreude*, Notre Dame fans have about had it with Charlie Weis. BGS was moved to note the rampant inexperience plaguing Notre Dame's coaching staff:

Notre Dame has the following on the sidelines:
A defensive coordinator in his second year as a defensive coordinator.
A offensive coordinator in his first year as an offensive coordinator.
A head coach in only his fourth season as a head coach.

Michigan, on the other hand:

• Scott Shafer is in his eighth year as a defensive coordinator.
• Calvin Magee is in his fourth year as an offensive coordinator.
• Rich Rodriguez is in his sixteenth year as a head coach.

As Rodriguez says, this is not his first rodeo. He's proven he can do this at two places lacking in resources; give him time to prove it here.

(FYI: I actually could not log in to the Fanhouse the past couple weeks because they key fixer of these things was out of the office, which explains TWIS's regrettable absence.)

And now for something no one cares about except me! College hockey realignment is apparently on its way:

Conference expansion is on its way, folks. Because of the looming demise of College Hockey America, don’t be surprised if the WCHA and the AHA go from 10 to 12 teams, with Bemidji State and Nebraska-Omaha joining the WCHA and Robert Morris and Niagara going to the AHA.

This isn’t just opinon. I can’t divulge my sources, but this is what is being discussed by conference commissioners. And it makes sense.

The CCHA would lose UNO and pick up Alabama-Huntsville, the last CHA straggler, leaving college hockey with four twelve-team conferences and one ten-team outfit (Hockey East). This is all well and good, I guess, as it keeps the remnants of the CHA in Division I, but I'm not a huge fan.

Adopting the above proposal has two negative effects:

1. It basically forecloses on any future expansion. Anyone wishing to start a team now has no conference to slide into. When UNO started a program, they could get into the CCHA. When there were 4-6 independents they could band together for an autobid and give themselves a purpose. Now every conference is basically full and anyone joining college hockey is looking at a pointless existence as an independent.
2. Adding more teams to the various conferences further restricts already-sparse nonconference games. Michigan plays either 34 or 36 games a year depending on whether they have an exemptions (ie, whether they play in Alaska or not) and 28 of those are spent playing other conference members. That leaves only a few opportunities to play teams outside the conference, which makes those games incredibly important when it comes time for PWR to arbitrarily decide who gets in.

College hockey should really consider shattering the mega-conferences they have into smaller units. As of now the only chance there is for more teams to enter college hockey is the far-off idea that Canadian teams will join the NCAA and six or so will enter en masse as a conference.

Deep in the hart of lameness. Dude, would you believe this was a home game for a top five team?

A Maize 'n' Brew diarist provides a trip report from Texas-Baylor and it, as the title suggests, "puts Michigan fans into perspective." Okay, this is the fourth quarter of the Baylor game but that's like a 50% full stadium. And it wasn't a whole lot better earlier:

The stadium never filled up.  The stadium was no more than 70% capacity at any time.  (box score says 97,000, i say bull)

Apparently UT has no dedicated student section:

Students are peppered in with random fans everywhere but bottom of the home side.  Tailgating for students is non-existent near the campus as well.  Those living out on West Campus past the Drag may have some house partying going on, but that would be like partying at Greenwood or the far side of Washtenaw at Michigan.  It's just so far out of the way, its not worth going.  The majority of freshman dorms are only a block away from the stadium.  My sister was totally unaware tailgating even took place.

I was a little disappointed with the lack of howling banshees in the upper deck at the LSU-Auburn game, but Texas appears to take apathy to a level even beyond that you might find at a Michigan-Indiana game.

Etc.: MVictors purchased some game notes from Michigan coaches on the 2006 Iowa game. West Virginia fans… eh… not so happy.