Unverified Voracity Just Wants It To Be Saturday
Rivalry bleah. I find myself completely unmoved by all the rivalry stuff this week, from OSU trying and failing to remove Ms from their campus to Markley spelling out "FUCK OSU". I don't care that Rivalry Game Is Personal For Player, whether it's Mike Weber or Mike McCray. Rivalry Game is personal for everyone on ever roster. Rivalry Game is personal for me. It is personal for everybody.
Does your rivalry item accelerate the pace of time? No? Not interested. Anyway, here's some stuff that does nothing to accelerate the pace of time.
Four minutes of Bo and Woody.
Ohio State things. JT Barrett had a typical JT Barrett bad weather game against MSU:
It was another classic game in this the “Year of the Running Quarterback” as Barrett posted a 55.9 passing grade but made up for it with a 92.6 effort on the ground. He was clearly affected by the wind, with passes floating all over the place and one throw that was dangerously close to a disastrous turnover, but the Buckeyes relied on him heavily to make good decisions in their run/pass option game and he came through with 122 yards on 20 carries. Even on a day where he finished 10-for-22 for 86 yards, Barrett showed that he can still provide enough value in the run game to keep Ohio State in games.
Under Barrett, OSU's passing game falls apart in crappy weather with a consistency that's undeniable at this point. This weekend's weather... partly cloudy, tiny percent chance of precipitation, 9 MPH winds. Subject to change five days out, but doesn't look like we'll be getting Bad Weather Barrett.
OSU made up for it by running for almost 300 yards against a makeshift MSU defensive line minus Malik McDowell. If Michigan cannot significantly outperform MSU, they will lose. You'd expect they would, but if you're in a believe-it-when-I-see-it state when it comes to Michigan shutting the OSU offense down, I don't blame you.
OSU had extreme issues protecting the passer against Penn State, giving up pressure on almost 50% of their dropbacks. Those issues were mitigated shortly thereafter, but one dollar says those are still lurking. Adjusted sack rates:
- Penn State: 21st
- Northwestern: 79th
- Nebraska: 42nd
- Maryland: 15th
- MSU: 121st
- Michigan: 1st
OSU's offense is 67th at preventing sacks. Their run stats are all terrific save for explosiveness—Barrett and Weber are not big play threats and Samuel doesn't get enough touches to make up for it—and that's what'll come down to. Passing downs should be a major advantage for Michigan... if they exist.
Time for a change? Ross Fulton notes something about the Michigan defense you may have noticed watching Mike McCray try to shut down huge swathes of space:
The Buckeyes’ best matchup is Samuel to the edge and as a receiver against Michigan’s linebackers and safeties. Brown often prefers to put Peppers to the formation strength.
So Meyer and his staff need to use alignment to target the edge away from Peppers – where the Wolverines are left dependent on the less athletic Will linebacker Mike McCray for edge support. And the Buckeyes need to provide Barrett sufficient time for Samuel to work option and out routes from the slot – or routes from the backfield – against man coverage.
I would not put it past Don Brown to make a change here. McCray was exposed in all that space against Lorenzo Harrison and would be again against Samuel; he can get better, but it's not a great matchup. I also wonder if Michigan is going to stick with cover one and a bunch of man coverage—OSU does see many people play man against them for obvious reasons.
Brown's been great so far this year but this is the game he was hired for. Much rides on his ability to stay one step ahead of Urban Meyer.
In one graph. Impossible to defend:
Why so much unrest re: compensating college athletes? The gap between revenue and how much athletes get is exploding https://t.co/Zs5wGx2dID pic.twitter.com/I1kHFhnxq7
— Warren K. Zola (@WarrenKZola) November 17, 2016
Meanwhile even Power 5 schools raking in piles of cash are seeing a large proportion of their athletes on little to no scholarship money:
All of the colleges Allison was considering provide scholarship assistance up to the NCAA limit in the sports they sponsor. But a closer look at athletic-aid distribution at one of those institutions, North Carolina State University, shows how scarce the dollars are for many athletes.
More than 200 of NC State’s 558 athletes last year had 20 percent or less of their costs covered by athletic aid. Outside of football, basketball, and the four other sports that can [ed: I this is actually "must"] award full athletic scholarships, just 27 Wolfpack athletes were on a full ride.
Power 5 autonomy has not seen these gaps close. The money just keeps rolling in, and going somewhere. Not to the people who earn it, or even the people who are potentially incurring piles of debt to be athletes.
Basketball WTFs. One of these events is weirder than the other:
- Northwestern hammers Texas 77-58 in a neutral site game. Barking Carnival runs down the good, bad, and ugly, with "everybody driving the ball," "everybody shooting free throws," and "everybody passing the ball" in the latter category.
- Illinois loses to Winthrop at home. Winthrop is one of those good-but-not-that good low major teams you should be scheduling to prop up your RPI, but you have to, you know, win those games to prop up your RPI.
Which is weirder? It's got to be Northwestern. Illinois has not been good under John Groce, who is Big Ten basketball's Darrell Hazell. Groce was hired after a brief MAC tenure ended well—you probably remember. He was hired on the strength of three games.
One of the reasons Big Ten basketball is rather good is that there's a much deeper pool of head coaches to poach. Indiana plucked Tom Crean after seven years at Marquette including five tourney appearances; Michigan grabbed John Beilein after five years at West Virginia. Maryland got Mark Turgeon after he took Texas A&M to the tourney four straight years. Thad Matta was at Xavier, coming off three consecutive Kenpom top-25 teams.
There are various head coaches who moved up from MAC-like leagues. Fran McCaffrey had three straight tourney bids at Siena, with his final two teams ranking #67 and #59 in Kenpom and has more or less worked out at Iowa. The rest are guys at Minnesota, Penn State, etc. Illinois should be hiring like Michigan and OSU, not Minnesota and Penn State.
Speaking of Illinois, here's a crazy Illinois stat. Via Illiniboard:
I’ve mentioned this stat 131 times but one more won’t hurt: in those eight years, in the Power Five conferences, every single school has had at least a Sweet 16 appearance in basketball or an eight-win football season (with a solid bowl game) except for two: Illinois and Wake Forest. Colorado WAS part of that group, but Colorado just won their ninth game on Saturday and is headed to a great bowl – perhaps even a New Years Six bowl. And, as someone reminded me on Twitter, if Wake beats Boston College this weekend (and they probably will), they’re a bowl win away from eight football wins.
I didn't think I was getting into what I ended up getting into when I started this here blog but the all-time I've Made A Terrible Mistake By Starting This Blog champion is Robert at Illiniboard. Keep him in your thoughts the next time you consider rooting against Illinois for Gary Moeller or something.
Administrative leave is not a good sign. Barney Farrar, the gentleman mentioned in Laremy Tunsil's text, is placed in the plane of Limbo:
OXFORD - Ole Miss has placed assistant athletic director for high school and junior college relations, Barney Farrar, on administrative leave, according to a report from Rebelgrove.com.
The website reported Farrar did not accompany the football team to Texas A&M last weekend and that he's not expected to travel with the Rebels to Vanderbilt this weekend.
Ole Miss athletic director Ross Bjork declined to comment on the situation, as did a university spokesman. Attempts by The Clarion-Ledger to reach Farrar were unsuccessful.
Something less than good is coming down the pipe for Ole Miss.
Etc.: Nebraska and Minnesota seek to throw the $5 Bits of Broken Chair trophy down the memory hole. Michigan was the only Big Ten school to flat-out say no to Friday games. Remembering Bo. The program from his memorial service, including the Lloyd Carr speech. (Guess who's on the first page!) Rivalry Game Personal for Mark Donnal. Rivalry Game Personal for DJ Wilson. 2K classic keys. Ten Year War 2? Peppers profiled. Fake tickets are bad.
November 22nd, 2016 at 4:38 PM ^
Do you consider the Arena Football league semi-pro? That was Kurt Warner's route to the NFL.
November 22nd, 2016 at 3:36 PM ^
You are still pretending your situation is anything like theirs and in any way comparable. Your jealousy is unattractive.
I wouldn't call it jealousy. It's a simple truth that most people at these schools would trade places in a heartbeat with the football or basketball players. That the players don't also get paid millions of dollars doesn't really gin up a lot of outrage in that situation.
Frankly, on the scale of injustices, the fact that a tiny handful of gifted athletes has to wait a couple years before realizing the massive paydays they think they're worth, rates awfully low. And a significant percentage of those could go start getting paid right away if they wanted to.
November 22nd, 2016 at 3:46 PM ^
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November 23rd, 2016 at 6:46 AM ^
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November 22nd, 2016 at 3:10 PM ^
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November 22nd, 2016 at 3:50 PM ^
November 22nd, 2016 at 4:51 PM ^
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November 22nd, 2016 at 4:55 PM ^
?? They go because they don't have a choice. The NFL, totally arbitrarily, set a rule stating you could not join their ranks until the passing of your 3rd year out of HS. Otherwise, the ones who could go straight to the NFL, would.
They come here because they are forced to....no other reason.
November 22nd, 2016 at 5:35 PM ^
November 22nd, 2016 at 6:46 PM ^
The funniest damn thing in this whole discussion is that both MileHigh & crg voted for Trump without EVER having this discursive and detailed a debate with anyone who was voting the same way they were. If only there'd been anywheres near this much thought put into that decision...
November 22nd, 2016 at 7:33 PM ^
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November 22nd, 2016 at 7:45 PM ^
What are you talking about Schreibee? I didn't vote for Trump but nice of you to put your own prejudices on me....moron.
November 22nd, 2016 at 9:51 PM ^
You are correct, Sir!
I AM prejudiced against anyone that rates the value of an endeavor in a scholastic organization by it's revenue stream. Both you and Tai have done so, even while arguing vehemently against each other over paying the athletes. So that's a little weird anyway?
Anyway, I lumped you...
So, if I judged your political stripe incorrectly based on that, I apologize.
November 23rd, 2016 at 12:35 AM ^
November 23rd, 2016 at 6:49 AM ^
November 22nd, 2016 at 4:40 PM ^
We give out 20 scholarships a year to members of the women's rowing team. Do they really have a "wildly profitable skill set"?
November 22nd, 2016 at 4:50 PM ^
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November 22nd, 2016 at 4:59 PM ^
How do you do that and not run afoul of Title IX?
November 22nd, 2016 at 5:16 PM ^
November 22nd, 2016 at 5:33 PM ^
I don't see how any politician is going to touch it. To drop the requirement that schools need to give equal athletic opportunities for women would sound like political suicide.
November 22nd, 2016 at 7:15 PM ^
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November 22nd, 2016 at 8:28 PM ^
You'd need to change federal law for that to take effect. Good luck with that.
November 22nd, 2016 at 6:49 PM ^
If we're going to the Supreme Court, can we do something about Citizens United et al first please?
I have my own set of priorities, and paying college athletes is on that list, but not very close to the top...
November 22nd, 2016 at 6:58 PM ^
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November 22nd, 2016 at 10:19 PM ^
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November 22nd, 2016 at 3:11 PM ^
November 22nd, 2016 at 3:23 PM ^
I used to think in a similar vein. But then one has to look at the numbers. If you assume 25 scholarships per school for 125 D-I schools and then another 100 or so D-II/III school, that's a pool of ~5600 student-athletes. Out of them, 200 are selected for NFL bringing the ratio to about 3.6%. For all engineering degrees, students getting a "job" is much more than 4%. So even though football players seem to be making it really HUGE, overall that's a very small minority. Compare that to the other students and they can earn for a much longer period.
Engineering and other students also get the chance to showcase skills for multi-milion dollar paydays - publish papers - go to conferences - do an MBA - get hired by McKinseys-BCGs and Hedge Funds.
These student-athletes are also working 20-30 hours per week outside their class work - it's called practice/film study/team meetings.
I am trying to undermine your efforts. I am always awed and respect who can pull off study and work together. But compare their efforts to the rest of the student pool and you will find similarity. They are not some mystical creatures appearing every saturdays. They are 18-23 year old students just like the rest of us.
November 22nd, 2016 at 3:31 PM ^
Quit football and join the engineering program. More free time. Better chance of career placement. Problem solved.
November 23rd, 2016 at 7:05 AM ^
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November 22nd, 2016 at 10:49 PM ^
November 22nd, 2016 at 4:40 PM ^
November 22nd, 2016 at 5:18 PM ^
I'm fine with increased funding, but universities also need to do their part and keep costs under control, especially in the administrative sector. University budgets have ballooned like crazy in the past couple of decades, in spite of stagnant or declining state aid. They then pass the cost onto their students.
November 23rd, 2016 at 7:11 AM ^
November 22nd, 2016 at 5:06 PM ^
missed a "not". I am not trying to undermine your efforts. My original comment didn't have the "not".
November 22nd, 2016 at 3:14 PM ^
Did anyone else notice that Maury Povich was the moderator at the forum with Delany?
BIG TIMES AT THE BIG TEN: Panel moderator Maury Povich referenced Ohio State’s 62-3 win over Maryland last Saturday when asking Delany if he was worried this his conference has turned into one of haves and have-nots.
I guess the symposium is named after his father who was a longtime Washington Post sports columnist. I guess you learn something new everyday.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/bs-sp-digest-1104-20161104-story.html
November 22nd, 2016 at 3:14 PM ^
Damnit Dave Brandon on that Bo program....
November 22nd, 2016 at 3:24 PM ^
I mean, it's OK--Bo basically saved that commencement.
The speaker was the head of engineering for Xerox, gave a totally dull speech that only drew applause when he said he'd helped invent spell-check... It was awful. Bo gets up there to get his degree after DB read the citation (which is understandable--he was a regent and a former player, who was unquestionably close to Bo), ad-libs an absolutely magnficient, typically Bo speech, and brings the entire stadium to their feet. I don't think he was even supposed to talk. He just did it, and it was good.
November 22nd, 2016 at 3:25 PM ^
I'm driving the 3 and a half hours across that damn state tonight. Leaving Virginia for Flint with my fiance and the kids in tow. Always a joy to drive past AA on my way up. Last year for Christmas we stopped by the Big House and snapped a selfie in the snow that's sitting in a frame next to me at work right now. I'm so freaking pumped. Let's. Fucking. Go.
November 22nd, 2016 at 4:32 PM ^
November 22nd, 2016 at 10:07 PM ^
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November 22nd, 2016 at 3:32 PM ^
Getting rid of a top 5 trophy. Goddammit.
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