Unverified Voracity Has Glowing Green Eye
![101202-great-white-shark-hmed-755a[1]](https://mgoblog.com/sites/mgoblog.com/files/images/UV_93F3/101202-great-white-shark-hmed-755a1.jpg "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]](https://mgoblog.com/sites/mgoblog.com/files/images/UV_93F3/screen3.01.png "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.
The draft and follow, while it will never happen, could theoretically result in a player starring in both March Madness and the NBA Playoffs in the same year. The whirlwind for some of these guys would be insane.
Alpha Centauri was my favorite game growing up, remember it like it was yesterday. This tech unlocked the thought control society which was really key for The Hive faction. God I miss that game, After Earth is a poor successor to it imho.
You can get the SMAC Planetary Pack at GOG. There are also unofficial patches: the one by Yitzi has added features you can modify in alphax.txt.
That Willie Williams story is the reason I wake up and check this blog every day. Poignant, sublime, and endearing.
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.
Ugh. I hope we have reached our limit with commercial breaks. The NFL is unwatchable, college basketball nearly so (Timeout Murder!). The only thing that makes college football tolerable is that there are usuall 5 games on, and I can just flip to another game. But it is shocking how often they are all on commercial break at the same time.
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Harbaugh is a different guy, it's funny how when he was a "clunker" of an interview in the NFL no one cared but the local SF media, why? Because the NFL is full of "non-radio personalities", Belichik being the main guy nowadays.
Frankly, I would feel a bit more comfortable if that "clunker" hadn't clunked but hey, JH is still our football coach and we will have to take the good with the "clunks". It will not be all roses, he will be tough, he will put off some media once football actually starts and some players will get over his non-stop attitude but we will win football games and this program will be talked about across the country.
I read on the board the other day someone say we will be the most hated program in the country in 5 years - sign me up for that!
Who's got it better than us?
#Nooooooooooobody
our coach in noting that he doesn't feign interest in things he's not interested in, like talking to some dumbass ESPN personality in remote about things which don't intrigue him. I guess being sociable and engaging is part of your job and "selling your program" but I don't really have an issue with Harbaugh not engaging Cowherd with questions that a first-year college student would have greater imagination offering a Michigan coach on national radio.
As for the Great White metaphor for Harbaugh's personality, which Brian so neatly served up in researching a former staffer's view, i am reminded of Jaw's dialogue uttered by Robert Shaw's Capt. Quint when confronting a shark up close and personal, as he relates in a story about the delayed rescue of men in shark infested waters from his sunken aircraft carrier Indianapolis, which delivered the bombs that ended World War II.
In conversation, Quint notes that a shark has "lifeless eyes," dull in appearance, almost like a "doll's eyes" and you really can't comprehend the danger and ferocious nature of this maneater until he bites you and turns the water red. Yeah, I can see a correlation with Harbaugh.
Take him to a ballgame, let him reminisce about his childhood, growing up a Tiger fan with his dad high school buddies of pinch-hitting legend Gates Brown, having Brown and Lou Whitaker share lunch at his home in Ann Arbor, and failing to grasp the full Charlie Lau hitting philosophy, and you might get a red meat interview instead of some pointless questioning about his intensity and the hours difference in pro and college coaching.
Yeah, so Harbaugh is human in a job that's all about a media feeding frenzy about winning games and appearing like a Great White when it suits your bite.
Johnson!
On DFW... WTF is up with this writer...
And then he gets to an example of one of the adult challenges this virtuous thinking will help you overcome: an unpleasant after-work trip to the grocery store. “And who are all these people in my way? And look at how repulsive most of them are, and how stupid and cowlike and dead-eyed and nonhuman they seem in the checkout line, or at how annoying and rude it is that people are talking loudly on cell phones in the middle of the line. And look at how deeply and personally unfair this is.” The horror! Perhaps I’m an outlier, but I’ve mostly enjoyed my visits to grocery stores over the years. In any event, it strikes me that there are more difficult things about adulthood than navigating the express-check-out line, and more that it demands of us than overcoming self-centeredness and reflexive sourness.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but one of the main major points of DFW's infamous Kenyon speech was to NOT be the person that judges everyone in the grocery line to NOT dwell in tha banalities of life, to ENJOY the grocery line. Does the writer of this article have any reading comprehension skills whatsoever?
Let us look at a poor parallel. Personalized cell phone packages sold as "only pay for what you need". What is amusing is that for 90% of people, the personalized custom package is as or more expensive.
Cable will work out exctly the same way. The cable companies don't charge you for what you don't want, they charge you for what you do want. The rest just comes along for the ride. Unbundling will not substatially reduce your cable bill. Even when the cable companies "unbundle" they will still be able to offer packages. You'll have choices like Netflix unbundled for $15 a month and a 14 channel package that includes Netflix for $15 a month.
Either way the cable companies have to make a profit and they will. When I added BTN it cost me $14.95 a month, and I got 10 other channels a couple of movie channels and a bunch os sports channels. Did I care? Not a bit because I was buying BTN which I'm certain would have cost me $14.95 no matter what.
The Internet is a boon for distribution of content, in that the rights-owners of the content have lower distribution costs and can better identify the people who will buy what they have.
Sports programming is no different. ESPN rents the rights and will make their money either way; it's not like network television, where you can go to Hulu/iTunes/whatever and get the exact same thing for a cheaper price if all you want is every episode of "Royal Pains". If you want B1G Football, the Big Ten Network will sell those rights to various distributors for enormous dollars, and those distributors will absolutely make sure that they get paid for distributing it to whoever wants it. Whether that's a subscription to ESPN Sports or a cable subscription, it will be about the same amount because ESPN and the B1G don't care how you watch, they just care that you pay to watch.
By the same cable unbundling becomes widespread, the economic picture won't change for the B1G - they'll have made enormous profit, and will make still more for every school they add, as long as the distributors think that the additional cost to them will result in additional subscriptions to enhance their profits.
Put simply, adding Maryland and Rutgers has already paid off, and will continue to pay off because people will pay for Maryland basketball and Rutgers alumni sports fans will pay for Rutgers sports - one way or another.
I hope Mr. Harbaugh does more things like this. My favorite media statement from Mr. Carr was something the media wet their pants about, since he didn't say what he was supposed to say:
http://mvictors.com/lloyd-carr-todd-harris-what-really-happened/
with reporters if they questioned his judgment or coaching approach. He suffered no fools, taking a page out of Bo's book. The Harris interview or failure of it, was classic Lloyd. The king of Well-ness took some major criticism for walking away from Harris at halftime of the Ohio State game with Michigan enjoying a lead in one of its most decisive victories over the Buckeyes in recent times. .
I actually think that the question about whether to increase the lead before halftime by being more aggressive was a legitimate point and question.
However, Lloyd clearly felt differently and his smirking walkaway treatment of the sideline reporter also was well appreciated by many Michigan fans although some thought him rude. But I would argue that arrogance means nothing in the context of the pressure of that game, Seeking excuses for playing it safe and conservatively at home is like asking if water is wet and it feels good to be ahead at halftime. Yeah, it beats being behind. Thanks for the insight.
I have never felt a coach is obligated to explain himself unless something extrodinary occurs that requires a statement from him as he's running off the field. Typically you get nothing from these interludes except Captain Obvious capsule comments pretty much designed to jive with whatever the color guy has been pontificating about for two quarters. Vindication, we must have it, apparently.
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