Unverified Voracity Has Opinion On Long Twos Comment Count

Brian

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I really wish you hadn't asked me about that thing, you know, that

I know let's talk about bunnies

I like bunnies they are fun

sometimes I call them funnies

But what will actually happen to Penn State? This space has talked at length about what should happen to Penn State, but what actually will is an open question. NCAA president Mark Emmert certainly made it sound like something is coming down the pipe in an interview with PBS, because, yeah, PBS!

"This is completely different than an impermissible benefits scandal like (what) happened at SMU, or anything else we've dealt with," Emmert told Smiley. "This is as systemic a cultural problem as it is a football problem. There have been people that said this wasn't a football scandal.

"Well, it was more than a football scandal, much more than a football scandal. It was that but much more. And we'll have to figure out exactly what the right penalties are. I don't know that past precedent makes particularly good sense in this case, because it's really an unprecedented problem."

He said that after refusing to dismiss the application of the death penalty out of hand. So… there will be some sort of action. Michael Buckner has been quoted

"Even though there's no authority under the [NCAA manual], I could see President Emmert still proposing to do something," said Michael Buckner, a Florida-based attorney who specializes in sports law. "I could see some kind of sanctions, and Penn State would be hard-pressed to fight it. Imagine Penn State trying to argue that the NCAA doesn't have the authority in the realm of public pressure?"

…stuff is going down.

The Bylaw Blog points out that the NCAA is in a lose-lose situation here, what with New York Times columnists blasting it and demanding Penn State's head on a platter, an advocacy group for athletes has announced it would like Penn State players to be able to transfer without penalty—which everyone learned was automatic when postseason bans got handed down in the USC case—and people of Facebook are not sane.

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE!

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You will now think "ERMAHGERD" whenever Denard does a Denard thing this fall.

Via EDSBS and /r/cfb. Explanation.

Michigan hockey summer: the funnest summer. I think we thought we were out of the woods after losing Chris Brown to Phoenix and Connor Carrick to a bout of insanity, but it seems like Merrill is not 100% to return based on this NHL.com article:

"I'm happy with the way my game has developed," Merrill said. "Everything they do at Michigan, I stand by, and have no complaints. If I go back to school, I can develop in a great university and if I leave, I'm in a great organization like New Jersey; so it's a win-win."

Michigan coach Red Berenson, who left Michigan after his junior year to play with the Montreal Canadiens, has traditionally encouraged players to remain in school rather than signing minor-league contracts. The Devils don't seem to be pressing Merrill on the issue.

"It's undecided right now," Lamoriello said. "He's here for the week and we'll sit down at the end of the week."

It does sound like all parties are leaning towards Merrill's return, but Michigan hockey + summer  == doom.

Berenson exit imminent. Not like, imminent-imminent, but Red said he's probably not going to have another contract after this one:

“I mean let’s face it, I’ll be 76 when this contract is over. So I would say it’s the last contract,” Berenson said. “In theory, you would say this will be the last contract. I would be surprised if there would be another one after this.”

…“The way I look at it, I’m not picking a goal or a situation to retire. The thing I’m looking at is what’s good for our program, are we moving forward, are we competitive, are we living up to the expectations of Michigan and are we one of the dominant players in college hockey?” Berenson said.

When Red does retire I think it's time to put his name on the building. Something, anyway.

"More?" An Alabama legend called out Auburn for its dirty recruiting tactics after GA LB Rueben Foster ostentatiously flipped from 'Bama to AU recently. He might want to pick his words better:

“Because Reuben was paid more (by Auburn) than Alabama was willing to pay him. We got boosters out there that weren’t willing to pay Reuben Foster and boosters willing to pay him in Auburn.”

Where rebounds go. An analytics company has found out and put together a cool flash application so you can see where rebounds go off NBA shots.

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Morals of the story:

  • They mostly go long.
  • Boy, people try a lot of layups.
  • Offensive rebounds are far more common on those layup attempts than anything else.
  • Long twos are horrible, horrible shots: there are a couple zones beyond the arc near the corners. Threes from the corners go in at a 36.6% rate. Step inside the line and it's a 37.6 rate for one less point. The differences are greater from what I'll call the Aarghaway zone but still very slim: long twos around the top of the key go in at just under 39%; threes from the top going at around 33%. These are NBA numbers and can't be directly transported to the college game but since the main difference is that a chunk of the long two space in the NBA is worth three in college I'd guess those shooting percentages are even more compressed.

Long twos are horrible! Long twos are hoooooorrrrrrible! Long twos with 25 seconds on the shot clock are grounds for a civil lawsuit based on pain and suffering!

I dislike long twos.

[Via @kjonthebanks]

And nevermind all that also. Nevermind all the thats. Raising the bowl eligibility threshold to 7-5 has seemed like a thing that would happen for a while now, but now the Big Ten is backing off of that, too:

Delany said he has “heard from friends in different parts of the country, some of the major conferences, that they are in favor of (keeping it at) six. I suggested that maybe there’s middle ground. If a program hasn’t been to a bowl in five years … it’s an exciting thing.”

As long as the bowls at the bottom are prevented from acting as parasites on college football, whatever. The existence of the Illinois-UCLA Fight Hunger Bowl is at worst an opportunity to launch zingers… as long as those two schools aren't forking over 500k for tickets they know they can't sell.

Additional doo-dad. It must be fun being a Big Ten athletic director these days. Every year the conference is like "whoops, forgot to give you these three million dollars," the Rose Bowl is suddenly worth triple what it was, the Big Ten Network is steadily increasing in value, and maybe the guy before you built a giant cash factory on top of the football stadium. MSU doesn't even have the last item in that list (or at least hasn't added it recently) and they've been dumping money into football. An ESPN article recently boggled at the money Indiana is flat-out burning in a futile attempt to keep up with the meekest and most humble of the Joneses by way of noting that everyone in college football is building everything.

One of many results at Michigan:

Michigan athletic director Dave Brandon is putting forward a proposal to the school's Board of Regents on Thursday asking for $2.8 million for an "informational marquee" that can be viewed from Stadium Boulevard. The plan is to use "visual and audio technology" for information on upcoming events and welcoming guests to the facilities.

I'm a little leery about audio being included in this thing but whatever. It'll be a big billboard type thing on Stadium that will announce things. It costs money, and it is being done because it can be.

Etc.: Red signs three-year extension, as expected. Syracuse fans are sad about leaving the Big East. CHN on the Kitchener nuisance lawsuit. M seems to lead for 2015 IN G Chandler White. Obviously a long way out there. Scouting the Adidas Invitational. Zak Irvin scouting video.

Comments

French West Indian

July 18th, 2012 at 1:26 PM ^

A billboard on Stadium Blvd?  Why not go big and put an audio/video board in Times Square?  Global domination!

mGrowOld

July 18th, 2012 at 12:52 PM ^

Brian:

How can you hold to the position that the NCAA should not nuke the PSU program when it's painfully obvious that the students, faculity and apparently administration, according to Emmerit's complete interview, seem to overwhelming support saintly JoePa in face of all evidence indicating otherwise?  How can you expect problems in the athletic department or anywhere else in the University to be handled any different than they were previously when they essentially deny the very existance of the problem?

If their was even an ounce of contrition that would support your arguement but if it exists I sure havent seen it anywhere.

ca_prophet

July 18th, 2012 at 4:07 PM ^

... so it won't get reported.  I'm sure there is some, but trying to tease it out of the media frenzy intent on "reporting" the idiots behavior in a frantic grab for dollars/traffic/page-hits/whatever-the-new-money-is seems like a fool's errand.  For some of the people involved, there won't ever be enough contrition to buy them out; for others, they have nothing for which to be contrite.  

More seriously, the man who committed the horrific acts has been convicted.  The four principals accused of covering up those actions are either dead or will face criminal charges themselves.  The trustees/regents of the University should end up drawing some penalties - they were supposed to oversee those guys and didn't - but they have the defense that their trusted subordinates lied to them.  That's a failure in judgement and could cost them their jobs, but it's not (AFAIK) a crime.  

Who else did anything wrong?

MGlobules

July 18th, 2012 at 9:07 PM ^

at SMU, right? When do you punish an institution? If you ask me, it's when millions more are made by covering up. And when your showers and other facilities were used for awful purposes while members of the institution looked away. 

Shutting down the program for a while really isn't going to kill anyone, btw. 

 

MaizeAndBlueWahoo

July 18th, 2012 at 10:54 PM ^

How can you hold to the position that the NCAA should not nuke the PSU program when it's painfully obvious that the students, faculity and apparently administration, according to Emmerit's complete interview, seem to overwhelming support saintly JoePa in face of all evidence indicating otherwise?

That argument basically boils down to "punish them for not hating Joe Paterno enough."  I mean, first off, the NCAA can't possibly be expected to act based on the opinions of the students and faculty towards Paterno.  Punish them til they're sorry?

The NCAA punishes as a deterrent for wrongdoing against the NCAA rulebook.  Either that's happened or it hasn't, but it certainly should never hinge on whether they're sorry or not.  Besides, if they're that irrational, they could literally drop a nuclear bomb on State College as punishment and it still wouldn't have the ability to force them to hate JoePa.

M Fanfare

July 18th, 2012 at 12:56 PM ^

That NHL article is incorrect. Red did not jump to the NHL after his junior year, he did so after his senior season ended. Freshmen weren't eligible back then, so while it was his 3rd season on the varsity squad, he was a senior.

EDIT: Upon clicking the link, the author/editor removed the part about Red leaving after his junior year. Outrage downgraded to minor annoyance.

turd ferguson

July 18th, 2012 at 4:24 PM ^

I'd really like something like that, too.  It places Berenson's name in the heart of Michigan hockey for the foreseeable future while still acknowledging the history of the building.

More generally, I think we need to recognize that we're dealing with a legend here who probably has been as meaningful to our hockey program as anyone else has to any other University of Michigan program.

French West Indian

July 18th, 2012 at 4:31 PM ^

Since we're dealing with a legend the obvious thing to do would be to build a statue of him.  And then hope like hell he doesn't have any skeletons in his closet.

But in all seriousness, I'm loathe to rename things.  Especially something with as much history behind it as Yost. 

turd ferguson

July 18th, 2012 at 7:20 PM ^

To be fair, Yost has some pretty serious skeletons in his closet, as we've learned from some of the historians who have dug into the history of African-Americans playing college football at Michigan. 

JustGoBlue

July 18th, 2012 at 2:49 PM ^

I really don't like having X rink at Y arena.  I think it's super mouthy and kind of annoying and a slapdash way to honor whoever you wanna honor.  Michigan can afford a building for both of them.  I also think that both men have done enough for Michigan that they clearly deserve their own buildings.  And, Yost isn't going to last forever and then new-Yost no longer honors Yost or Red.  The only problem is, if/when they build the new Red Berenson Ice Arena, then Yost is suddenly purposeless or re-purposed into something that almost has to be less cool.  Or, if they build a Red Berenson something else and leave Yost as the ice arena, Red probably deserves better.

My best thought would be to put up a fairly large statue of Red in that little plaza between Yost and the Ross Academic Center, to honor Red now, then when the new ice arena is built in however many years, they can put Red's name on it and move the statue.  Then they can maybe turn Yost into an athletic museum or something.  Right now they have something at Schembechler and someting at Crisler, but it might be nice to have it all in one place that has definite hours as opposed to just whenever there's a basketball game or I don't even know how one accesses the museum in Schembechler.

lhglrkwg

July 18th, 2012 at 1:00 PM ^

We should make a 'Never Forget' poster for all the hockey players we've lost early.

I suppose it'd really be more like a book, or encyclopedia, of posters

Icehole Woody

July 18th, 2012 at 1:04 PM ^

I don't think the NCAA should get involved in law enforcement; they have thier hands full trying to enforce thier own convoluted rules.  And while Mark Emmert has very nice hair I don't think he has the balls to cancel Penn State's football season.  The loss of revenue to Penn State's athletic department would be staggering.   It would jeapardize other non revenue sports like woman's lacrosse, etc.  

Quail2theVict0r

July 18th, 2012 at 1:17 PM ^

I actually witnessed the creation of this:

My co-worker actually created it because of my obsession with Michigan football. She's also the one working with Odoms on the #Eating campaign.

She posted it on Reddit yesterday and I told her it wasn't popular enough until I saw it on Mgoblog. As soon as I said that - I refreshed the page and there it was. It's amazing how fast the internet works.....

She has a shirt up with the phrase (and less Denard for legal reasons) to help Pahokee: http://robothustlecrew.goodsie.com/

Brown Bear

July 18th, 2012 at 1:21 PM ^

IF there is a large group of students at penn state who condemn joe Paterno and what happened there they need to speak up in mass and fast. Because the kool-aid drinking cult is not making it easy to state a case why they deserve a football program.

DamnYankee

July 18th, 2012 at 2:16 PM ^

but if you nuke the football team, would you also need ot nuke all of the other sports?  If PSU is like UM, Ohio, Texas, etc. then football pays for all of the other sports.  Does anyone know how their budget is structured?  Does the athletic dept. receive financing from the university?  If they do ban the football program and the rest of the athletic dept., how does the NCAA handle the eligibility status of the football players and the rest of the student athletes?  More questions than answers, I know.

Secondly,  the funniest part of the Alabama/Auburn link is the comments section.  To Brian's point, no one seems to realize just what Copeland said - that Alabama pays people but Auburn's boosters pay more.

Bryan

July 18th, 2012 at 2:26 PM ^

Now I'm picturing the video screen from the scene in Back to the Future II where it's advertising the new Jaws film and Jaws COMES OUT OF THE SCREEN. Brandon, make it happen because it would be awesome.

ChiBlueBoy

July 18th, 2012 at 2:32 PM ^

That whole "ERMAHGERD DEHRNERD" thing won't get tired after 13 games. Of course, the man himself will never get old, but internet memes? Maybe not so much.

CLord

July 18th, 2012 at 2:49 PM ^

A cursory glance at those PSU fan Facebook comments clarifies why the Board is being patient about tearing down the statue and other compensatory measures.  Never underestimate the wrath of irrational fringe.  Victim 1 had to deal with it and be relocated, now the board has to deal with it. 

MGoShoe

July 18th, 2012 at 3:06 PM ^

...College Hockey News. Also #freeslovin.

Also, yes to the informational marquee. The university and the athletic department have a clear interest in spurring interest and attendance at non-revenue sports events. Besides making them less non-revenue producing, it benefits the school and the city long term if people realize that there are opportunities to see sports played at a very high level in great venues in A2 beyond the big three.

Finally, Red engineering his departure after 4 more years seems about right. You'd like to think that when you give a legend the freedom to choose how and when he turns the page, he'll do it correctly. It appears that Red understands this. Unlike others.

Sac Fly

July 18th, 2012 at 3:32 PM ^

Something just doesn't feel right to me. I am less confident in Jon returning than I would like to be. The situation and timing just seems off to me

cutter

July 18th, 2012 at 4:21 PM ^

Someone needs to tell that Michigan State blogger that the Big Ten Network didn't  pay $25M, let alone $18M per school in any year since the BTN started.

The buy who wrote is confusing conference distributions with revenue from the Big Ten Network.  The $25M figure for FY 2013 is correct, but it pertains to the B10's annual conference distribution that comes from net bowl revenue, the NCAA men's basketball tournament and from all the television contracts for football and basketball.  That television revenue comes from three sources:  ABC/ESPN, BTN and CBS (for basketball).

The Michigan Athletic Department's FY 2013 budget spells it out pretty clearly.  The $25.2M in conference distributions includes $18.7M from television.  See 

http://www.regents.umich.edu/meetings/06-12/2012-06-X-19.pdf

Per ESPN and the St. Louis Dispatch, the $18.7M of television revenue included $7.2M from the BTN (down from $7.9M the previous year).   See

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/college/illini/big-ten-payouts-estimated-at-million/article_41763ece-a120-11e1-b930-0019bb30f31a.html

http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/50363/b1g-revenues-estimated-to-keep-rising

That's not to say that the Big Ten's conference distributions haven't grown--it's quite the opposite.   In FY 2006, that number was around $10M.  Two years later, after the start up of the BTN and the new ABC/ESPN contract went into effect, it was over $17M.

That ABC/ESPN contract is up in a few years' time, so the B10 should get a major boost for its regular season television rights not covered by the BTN.  Couple that with the money from the new post-season setup, and we're likely to see conference distributions in the $35M to $40M range by FY 2016 or FY 2017.  

But no, the BTN alone didn't provide the $18M or the $25M--it came from a number of sources as part of the annual conference distribution.

 

 

 

 

 

Blue Ambition

July 19th, 2012 at 10:02 AM ^

The Chronicle is the leading industry publication for higher education.  It's highly reputable and generally publishes very well-researched and well-written stuff. You can usually believe what you read there.

And yeah, I can't believe that the universities would ever give a league commissioner the authority to fire a coach.