Unverified Voracity Posts This A Day After The Rest Of The Internet Did Comment Count

Brian

Another podcast. In case you just cannot get enough of listening to me talk, I was on the FanSided Friday Tailgate podcast. Starts off with a considerable amount of meta talk before moving on to the State game and some other general college football picks.

HYPE VIDEO. The rest of the internet has gone crazy for this UAF hype video and it's obvious why:

EXPLODING POLAR BEAR DOOM. Michigan plays Fairbanks next weekend. Further evidence that university administrators hate life:

Hockey open w/ Polar Bear from Fairbanks, Alaska for the UAF Nanooks AKA "The Alaska Nanooks". This is the intended directors cut with the original music choice, rejected by the UAF people for being "too 80's" as if there is such a thing.

Yes, Paul will be directed to insert an exploding polar bear into next year's hype video. Or wolverine. Whatever. Maybe both. We'll give the wolverine a lacrosse stick.

Maybe we should actually explode all non-blog polls. First Stewart Mandel note: he picks Michigan State, 3.5-point favorites, as his "upset special" this week. Maybe this is why his straight up prediction record this year is 20-20.

Second: AAAARGGGGH. Here's Mandel on the possibility that Boise State might end up in the national championship game:

Should they keep winning late into the season and start knocking on the title-game doorstep, we'll witness something else: significant outcry from those who feel the Broncos are undeserving.

However, there's very little precedent for voters suddenly downgrading a team without cause. And contrary to what you might believe, the BCS computers aren't likely to cause the Broncos' undoing. For one thing, they only account for one-third of the overall standings, not to mention an unblemished record goes a long way in the computers' eyes. Last season, both Utah and Boise State actually finished the regular season ranked higher by the computers than the voters. The Broncos may get docked a couple of "style points" should they endure an undue scare against a San Jose State or Idaho, but realistically, the only way they could fail to make up three spots in 10 weeks is if the voters start vaulting other, more "deserving" teams above them following a big win or two.

Argh! Boise has done exactly one thing to warrant the #5 spot they're in this year: beat Oregon. At the end of the year they will have done exactly one thing to warrant whatever spot they finish in: beat Oregon. The scare quotes around "deserving" are amongst the most idiotic in the history of the rhetorical device. They prioritize the uninformed opinions of writers and people who don't even watch Boise play over things that happen on the field. Boise has no right to the national championship game and if they make it there it will be a travesty that will further convince everyone else to never schedule anyone in the nonconference. Braves and Birds has more on this travesty.

Mandel's the same guy who used to vote WVU up high specifically because he thought the 'Eers had an easy schedule, and now he's justifying the placement of Boise high up as if that's some sort of birthright. This man had an AP ballot. ARGH!

This is not going in the hype video. Rumeal Robinson is in some legal trouble of a horrifying variety:

Helen Ford has been known in the Cambridge community as a woman with a big heart and open arms for numerous foster children. But she never expected that one of her adopted sons, former NBA basketball player Rumeal Robinson, would play a part in evicting her from the place she called home for more than 30 years.

Robinson was arrested by the FBI for bank fraud, bank bribery, wire fraud, and a lot of other nasty stuff. Sounds like things went sour for him after his… NBA career. Insert typical middle-aged white sportswriter 600 words about how the young folk can't keep their money on their mind. I'm at a loss; the NBA should just hire someone to show up at every player's house every two months to slap them and scream "FIRE YOUR ENTOURAGE AND GET A SAVINGS ACCOUNT." Probably Charles Oakley if the NBA would like their guy to remain alive.

Side note: the picture of this woman painted in the comments is vastly different than the one painted by the article, with multiple commenters offering up various serious-seeming stories about her Not Being Very Nice. Not that that would excuse anything that's been alleged here, obviously.

Spot on. We had a photoshop of Mark Dantonio as Rodney Dangerfield, and I feel another coming on in the event of a Michigan win on Saturday:

#22 Michigan at Michigan State

Holly: Rich Rodriguez IS White Goodman IN Dodgeball. Say, did you know Sparty’s chestplate contains actual kevlar? Nice moves, although it won’t save them. RichRod is a smug, entitled bastard, but shoo-law does he have a lot of projectiles in his smug, entitled arsenal. Sometimes the lovable losers win, and sometimes they get their front teeth broken at the gym. (And sometimes the losers ain’t all that lovable. Dantonio, you never call.)

Orson: Michigan State IS Khan IN Star Trek 2: Wrath of Khan. Khan had to have a “XX Years XXX Days XX Hours” clock in his bunker on Ceti Alpha V. You know this to be true, just as you know we could have just as easily cast Dantonio as the flower pot falling from the sky in Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, the reincarnated object killed again and again by Arthur Dent’s unending carelessness. Khan, though, has the right ring in terms of attitude. Michigan State is all effort and survival, but ultimately the lack of experience in three-dimensional combat that Rich Rodriguez’s offense has will doom the Spartans (though like the Enterprise in the film, Michigan will suffer significant damage due to lack of shields.)

I think those are W predictions for M, FWIW, which is nothing. As Orson says, THIS MEANS BET ON THE OTHER TEAM UNLESS THAT TEAM IS COLORADO.

Get to campus get to campus get to campus. The first indication that the 2010 hockey recruiting class is as dirty as previous suggested is a Hockey News list of the top 50 prospects for the 2010 NHL draft that features three Wolverines in first-round spots:

Rk
Player
Ht.
Wt.
Pos.
Team
Born
Comparable
11 Jon Merrill 6'3 205 D U.S. Under-18 Feb-92 Ryan Suter
15 Jack Campbell 6'1 171 G U.S. Under-18 Jan-92 Rick DiPietro
23 Luke Moffatt 6'0 190 RW U.S. Under-18 Jun-92  

In addition, D-man Mac Bennett has already gone in the second round of this year's draft.

(HT: WCH)

Etc.: Jason Forcier has a nice car. Big Ten Geeks tackle Illinois basketball.

Comments

Ty Butterfield

October 2nd, 2009 at 5:19 PM ^

Okay, this is OT but I can't ignore the Boise State comments. How can anyone say for sure that Boise State is not "deserving" to play for the MNC? I am not a Boise State supporter I am just playing devils advocate. Yes, Boise State is in a horrible conference, but they can only play the hand they are dealt. They beat Oregon, at home, but that is still a quality win. Do you think Oklahoma thought Boise State was "deserving" after they lost to them? Yes, they used some trick plays but they still won. I mean how can you not love that hook and ladder they pulled off? I know that most people would say that Boise State would get run off the field by an SEC team, but how do we know till they actually play? As far as the non-conference schedule for Boise State, would you want to play Boise State? I don't think so. I bet they have trouble scheduling games. Do you think Florida would want to schedule an early September game against Boise State, even at home? Hell no. Urban Meyer has too much fun beating up on Troy and Charleston Southern. Florida has a better conference schedule, but they get a pass every year when the schedule Troy, this does not make sense. Boise State is good. How good? We don't really know. HOWEVA, saying for sure they don't deserve to play in a MNC game doesn't seem to make sense. We don't know how well they would play unless they can actually get in the game. No matter what the schedule is going undefeated is VERY hard. If they are undefeated, it seems like they have just as much claim to an invite to the MNC game as a one or two loss SEC team.

Ty Butterfield

October 2nd, 2009 at 5:30 PM ^

I am not sure what you mean. My main point was that I don't think that a weak non conference schedule is all Boise State's fault. I would bet that they try to schedule harder non-conference games but teams do not want to play them.

In reply to by Ty Butterfield

Gene

October 2nd, 2009 at 6:20 PM ^

I think you certainly have a point about how it might be difficult for Boise to schedule more real opponents. But that changes nothing in terms of the strength of their resume, which will be severely lacking even if they go undefeated. If they truly want to compete for a national championship, they either have to a) convince more real opponents to play an OOC game, or b) join a major conference. We don't know how *any* team would do in the MNC game unless they get to play it, but obviously there's only two spots; those two spots should be given to teams that have proven their ability against real competition, not a team with low floor and unknown ceiling.

Other Andrew

October 2nd, 2009 at 5:19 PM ^

At least he defended the Doug Lesmerises' "terrible" ballot:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/stewart_mandel/09/23/jaco…
...which was much more blog-poll-ey than anything we've seen before from the AP. I realize that runs somewhat counter to the Boise State comments above, but I don't believe he was defending the writers' position on Boise, just explaining it. The question that led to this paragraph wasn't "Do the Broncos deserve a shot at the national championship?" simply "do they have one?" Should Mandel have come out and condemned the idea? Perhaps, and maybe later this year he may if such a thing comes to pass.

OK, yes, the scare quotes are excessive, but sadly, he's right that it most certainly is possible for Boise to get in there.

DCBlue

October 2nd, 2009 at 5:39 PM ^

would create a collective disgust among powers-that-be in the college football world, most importantly the BCS conferences. While it would still be unlikely, the voices for a playoff would likely increase.

Don

October 2nd, 2009 at 6:14 PM ^

Huh? A coach who states more than once that "we will win when we deserve to win" is "entitled?"

I don't know who in the fuck "Holly" is, but he/she/it is thoroughly unfamiliar with what words actually mean in the English language, and probably in any other language, too. RR may be a variety of things, but "smug" and "entitled" are the exact opposite of what he's all about.

Jeff H

October 2nd, 2009 at 8:02 PM ^

Please see this post from a couple of years ago: http://www.everydayshouldbesaturday.com/2007/09/17/the-wager-fulfilled/…

Not normal fare for the MGoBlog site, I understand, but just so ya know. And that picture's the result of Holly paying up on a bet from the 2007 UT/FL game featuring "He-Who-Would-Become-The-Losing-QB" from that season's Capital One Bowl.

In connection with Orson's comments on Star Trek and British humor, please see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luVjkTEIoJc

I know I posted that link a couple of days ago, but I find it pretty funny and at least on-topic in light of Orson's post in the EDSBS article on the UM/MSU game this weekend that the offending quote was drawn from.

Have a good weekend.

Don

October 2nd, 2009 at 6:20 PM ^

ridiculous things I've ever seen. Watching the polar bear hurtle fully ablaze into the Alaskan tundra is something right out of MST.

The FannMan

October 2nd, 2009 at 9:35 PM ^

Am I reading it right - UAF turned down the video of the world ending POLAR BEAR??? A leter writting campaign is seriously in order.

My 6 year old daughter watched it with me and said it was "cute." Her favorite part was when the bear started playing hockey. UAF - why are you breaking the hearts of little kids? Why, I ask, why?

Seth

October 2nd, 2009 at 10:18 PM ^

Is it really such a bright idea to have an EXPLODING SPACE BEAR wandering around one of the world's richest oil reserves?

Don't get me wrong, I like the Nanook -- it just seems like something that could end up with the locals getting a good view of Russia, if you know what I mean.

Prophet

October 2nd, 2009 at 10:51 PM ^

Fact is as both a Huge U of M fan and A Huge Boise State fan, they (Boise State) would at this point destroy us....

Boise State can't help everyone is scared to play them. P.S don't look now but Or. might just win out so all things considered....
Unless you've actually watch them as I have watch every BSU game (when I was a player for ISU, Idaho Sate we referred to them as bullshit U) they not only have the recorded but look the part, they owned BG last week unlike anything we've done all year and that was a away game. way away from home after playing an away game at Fresno. Don't get me wrong there is nothing I would love more than U of M in the big game but right now we have a long way to go to even consider ourselves in BSU league..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvekMsBleA8&feature=player_profilepage

Thats my YouTube account so don't doubt my loyalties...