Unverified Voracity Is Obvious In Retrospect Comment Count

Brian

Captain Renault. So let's say you're an unemployed Cleveland man who spends two months constructing an igloo instead of, you know, attempting to find a job. What would be totally bitchin' for the wall of your igloo?

lol-igloo

Obviously.

Score one for baseless internet speculation. According to Greg Banks, the internet-wide speculation about a Ryan Van Bergen position move is on the nose:

Banks is one of a half dozen or so Wolverines who’ll play an expanded and slightly different role on Michigan’s defensive front this fall.

He said he expects Ryan Van Bergen to take over Graham’s pass-rushing defensive end spot - “I think that’s the plan,” he said - while he plays both end and tackle.

Birkett follows that up with an assertion that Mike Martin "could see time outside" if Will Campbell progresses. I assume that means three-tech DT, not defensive end, because that latter would be plain nuts. To reiterate: the move is the best bet for Michigan to have an excellent defensive line next year. RVB isn't going to be Brandon Graham but he's far better than the alternatives and moving Mike Martin to three-tech will get him one-on-one with guards he's faster than, potentially paving the way for a ton of TFLs. He'll be more effective there, and NT should be decent with the Sagesse/Campbell platoon.

For his part, Banks is up to 278 pounds, 15 or so up from last year. LaLota also comes in for some praise, but I'm betting serious playing time for him is another year off.

Vincent Smith, meanwhile, is already jogging and should have no problems returning in time for fall practice.

And then they do nothing. Internet speculation has gone from "maybe the Big Ten will add Pitt" to "in ten years only four conferences will exist and football will be played by sexy robots." I'm not sure whether this Barking Carnival post positing a 14-team Big Ten, here previously deemed completely infeasible and then met with a crazy semi-relegation proposal*, is genius or mad. Or possibly both. Check the rationale here:

Powers knows that the Big 10 universities compete individually and as a region for its fair share of the federal R&D pie and that, despite the greatness of its member universities, the Big 10 region has not faired nearly as well as the coasts. Compared to numerous universities in California and Massachusetts, several of which don’t give a second thought about college football (MIT, Cal-Davis, Cal Tech, U of San Francisco, etc), there is a rather dramatic concentration of academic R&D that is not favorable to the Midwest or Southwest. Point being, there is room for growth here, and adding two powerful Senators from Texas to the sixteen Senators representing Big 10 states is not an insignificant addition. Without Texas, the CIC universities represent the best of the rust belt. With Texas, the CIC represents the best of the middle of the country.

Wha? I'm not sure how much I buy the idea that heartland universities will have a bigger lobbying block if they're all in the same conference. The CIC happens to have all Big Ten schools and Chicago, but is it really necessary to bring along Texas's athletic programs—not like that would exactly be a downside, though—to invite them to join the CIC? It's not like the Big 12 has any leverage over the Longhorns.

Elsewhere, 14 teams i the new 11 teams. and people are coalescing around a 16-team uber conference that comes with NCAA secession. Andy Staples's version may or may not be sarcastic, but I've seen plenty of other speculation to that effect. Most of it is Bleacher Report quality and not worth linking or anything, but it's out there.

To reiterate my previously expressed stance: a college football "conference" that has more than 12 teams isn't really a conference unless it adds promotion and relegation. Static divisions are separate conferences with a weird scheduling agreement and a wildly unbalanced schedule. It would be logistically terrible.

At this point it would be fantastic if no one did anything. Too bad Tradesports imploded.

BONUS. I don't remember where I saw this, but I believe it was some random message board: if the Big Ten comes down from on high with an end result that seriously damages the Big East, isn't the Big East's best move booting Notre Dame in an attempt to force the Irish into the Big Ten? If ND was cut loose by the Big East all their other sports (save hockey) would be adrift with basically nowhere to go. At that point ND might have to swallow hard and join up.

*(Which a commenter pointed out is mathematically impossible for the same reason you can't play nine conference games in an eleven-team conference. Shame.)

Etc.: Help this pickle get more fans than Nickelback. The second half of the recruiting podcast in which I do my best Mel Kiper. Michigan's putting on a camp thing on the 28th at Newsterbaan, plugging the presence of Rivals and Scout. Seems like a clever move to get an early camp experience, maybe unearth an instate prospect or three.

Comments

formerlyanonymous

February 18th, 2010 at 1:47 PM ^

I saw a blog post from Kansas City that says the BigTen should be dissolved before they're allowed to expand.

Ok, yes, I’m aiming right between the Big Ten’s eyes because of their apparent insatiable lust for Big 12 schools. There are now rumors of Texas being asked along with Missouri. And, even Colorado. I say, let the Big 12 go after the lowly Big Ten. In fact, let’s do even better than that. Let’s break up the Big Ten.

It basically makes the Big12 the super conference by picking off our schools. Original if anything. Definitely not plausible unless the Big12 did some MAJOR revenue restructuring, research restructuring, as well as a myriad of other ideas.

M-Wolverine

February 18th, 2010 at 2:48 PM ^

Wow, the first paragraph was so badly written I had a hard time doing more than skimming the rest. I'm interested in the Sports Illustrated article more. And one of the comments points out his idea puts U-M and OSU in DIFFERENT CONFERENCES. I guess it's fun, if you like internet masturbation. But a BIG Big Ten....seeming more and more likely, no?

trickydick81

February 18th, 2010 at 2:13 PM ^

So, as of the last NSF rankings, big ten schools account for 3 of the top 10 in research expenditures and 5 of the top 20... That doesn't seem like we're lagging behind. The pac 10 is the only conference close with 2 of the top 10 and 4 of the top 20...

http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/infbrief/nsf09318/

Table 4 - research

And that doesn't include Purdue and Northwestern, which both pop up when you add non S&E fields into the equation.

Feat of Clay

February 19th, 2010 at 1:54 AM ^

I know, I about did a spit take when I read the assertions about R&d. It's gotta be common knowledge that there are only a couple of schools who beat us in research expenditure, and one of them is Wisconsin. That sounds like someone cooked that theory up outta thin air, liked that it was a fresh take on the subject, and rolled with it. FAIL

shorts

February 18th, 2010 at 2:17 PM ^

I guess I'm missing something, but why would the Big East benefit from booting Notre Dame? If they somehow were weakened, wouldn't ND be the conference's best asset to lure other schools and keep its national perception at a respectable level?

Or is Brian saying that they would be booted to leave them out in the cold and force them to rejoin with football as part of the deal?

GCS

February 18th, 2010 at 2:33 PM ^

In theory, booting Notre Dame would force them to join another conference. This would likely be the Big Ten, which would stop any more expansion talk and remove any fears of a Big East football team leaving.

In theory.

TrppWlbrnID

February 18th, 2010 at 6:20 PM ^

to summarize - big ten says to big east, we won't poach one of your better schools who will bring all of their sports with them, if you dump notre dame from all sports besides football and hockey. this leaves ND alone on an island for the rest of their sports and puts pressure on ND to join the B10 whole hog.

yes?

hisurfernmi

February 18th, 2010 at 3:41 PM ^

Almost makes sense... because if you took the champion from each of the 4 conferences then you would literally have Semi Final matchups in place to determine the eventual champion. The Quarterfinals would be the 'conference' championship games. This idea needs to be expanded on... Brian... Brian.. hello..

Here is the split (Big East combines with ACC), SEC (takes on part of Conference USA and Big 12), Big Ten (takes on rest of Big 12 and Conference USA), PAC 10 (takes on MWC and best of the WAC). Leftovers fall into a pit of hell and are ignored when they whine. Chaos insues.. Notre Dame implodes... and Sexy Robots are not only sexy, but really good at tackling in the open field.

Don

February 18th, 2010 at 5:00 PM ^

As of 2006, nine of the top 25 US research universities are B10 schools.
http://mup.asu.edu/

It's interesting that there is a contingent of people who have absolutely no sense of the realities of athletic competition and instead are focusing entirely on academics/research as the motivation for expansion, while at the other end there are those who completely ignore the academic side. The idea of adding schools purely because they'll add to research clout is dumb—at the end of the day, the Big Ten exists primarily as an athletic conference that also has important academic aspects. If there was no athletic component, the conference wouldn't exist. Both sides of the equation have to be satisfied in the eyes of the existing Big Ten members in order for a school to be invited. Any invitee will have to be a member of the Association of American Universities but also has to have a very robust athletic program that can be competitive in the conference.

The idea of the Big East booting ND to forestall any further poaching is brilliant. If I were them I'd do it in a heartbeat.

MaizeAndBlueWahoo

February 18th, 2010 at 8:34 PM ^

That sure is nice of the dad to let this dude build the igloo in the front yard. My folks would be cool and all if I were staying at the house for a little while in between jobs (and in fact I will be doing precisely that for a month or so) but igloos in the front yard - especially ones with extension cords running out of them - would be met with the requirement to stay in it 24/7 or GTFO.

Wonder what happens when Ohio gets a sudden warm front?