What The Hell Should HTTV Look Like?
FOLKS:
We publish a football preview magazine annually. It's called Hail To The Victors, and has been a going concern since we put a fresh-faced Rich Rodriguez on the cover. We were in the planning stages of the 2020 version when
- spring practice got canceled
- everything got canceled
- everything's probably gonna stay canceled
Putting out a preview magazine for a season that is currently less "in doubt" and more "not happening"…
“Larger gatherings — conferences, concerts, sporting events — when people say they’re going to reschedule this conference or graduation event for October 2020, I have no idea how they think that’s a plausible possibility,” Emanuel told the Times. “I think those things will be the last to return. Realistically, we’re talking fall 2021 at the earliest.”
…seems rather futile.
[After THE JUMP: well, what do you want?]
At the same time, HTTV is a sizeable chunk of MGoBlog's annual revenue and we have no idea what the next year is going to look like. Signs point to Not Good if Vox is furloughing at least half of the Shutdown Fullcast, a podcast that sells tickets to events that people buy. (Bought.)
So. A big chunk of the book is already Michigan history, and we could expand on that. We could write stuff about our favorite games, players, stadium concessions, or towels that get waved in your face on critical third downs by well-meaning people who sit in the IMG seats and have no idea how to act. We could interview those guys who dressed up like tubes. We could expand the above into basketball and hockey content.
We could put recipes in! Most of them would be slightly altered versions of Alton Brown or Kenji Lopez-Alt recipes! I could write a revised version of the final season of Game of Thrones! (Yes, it will have Phil Martelli in it. Yes, it will still be better than the extant one.)
So… yeah. We want to do a book. Do you want it to be pretty much the same? Or different? And if it's different what do you want?
This will be a two stage process: comment below to register an opinion and we'll take the temperature, then present a few different options that folks can vote on. Thank you for your support of this sports blog when there are no sports.
Honestly, I think you guys are in a unique position where
1. Your writing is entertainment and enjoyable and
2. Your opinion is actually something we all want to know.
So I think you guys writing about your opinion on stuff is great. Especially non-Michigan stuff. Best games you guys watched from around the country, favorite non-Michigan players. Or even your overall outlook on the Michigan or any other program you follow closely. Opponent Watches, obviously, have to find some kind of return.
HTTV is usually pretty objective as far as Michigan fans go, but I would definitely love to hear you guys be more subjective if there is nothing else to cover. You earned it.
....or, just thought of this. Comedy Central Roast of Rutger
The Game of Thrones idea is intriguing.
Maybe have a section on Ryan Day’s offense and how to defend it.
I would like between one and 31 pages written by Craig Ross on whatever non-sports related topic he finds fascinating. But not like, some of the things he find fascinating.... something that most people would find fascinating, too
April 18th, 2020 at 10:06 AM ^
I'll sign up for a HTTV no matter what it is, but I'd love to see some UFR for the best games of the modern era, i.e. 1997 games and others from before the MGoBlog period of my Michigan fandom. I want to know what Brady and Woodson look like under the microscope of UFR! I know it's a ton of work for Brian and the staff, but if all we get this year is a YouTube video from Wolverine Historian and a UFR each week from MGoBlog, then I'll take it and enjoy it! Thanks for all you do to feed us the Michigan food that we need.
April 18th, 2020 at 10:49 AM ^
To paraphrase JEJ,
Print it and we will buy...
Love the site. Love the content.
April 18th, 2020 at 11:29 AM ^
I like the idea of having as much of the regular content as is feasible. I think adding some basketball, hockey, and other sports (SOCCER!) content would be great!
& water polo!
Please write it as though the Season was going on as scheduled. I promise to buy. Some more Seth X&O's and M FB history articles would be great too.
If the blog actually started to cover football recruiting again, I would buy HTTV no matter what was in it. I have bought it for the last 4 or 5 years giving extra money to support the blog. I can’t continue to do that as you have stopped covering the one part I can’t cover on my own (as I refuse to follow 17 and 16 year old on twitter). Maybe seeing low ranked three stars would not come as such a surprise if someone would actually cover the recruiting cycle the way you used too. Time to fire Ace and get someone who can cover it the way the blog used too, back when it was at its peak.
Player interviews would be great. I’d love to hear from some guys that we’re great players but didn’t necessarily stay in the NFL, get a life update post-Michigan.
I always buy multiple copies to support the blog and will do so this year, regardless of the content.
To echo some ideas I've read here, I think it would be cool to learn more about the origins of the blog, the early days, the moments when it felt like this could really be a "thing." I also like the idea of interviews with players from years past about special games -- Desmond's "The Catch", and others along those lines.
While I may be in the minority here, I'd be down for this HTTV to stray a bit from sports. I understand that people are looking for solace from the news, but I feel like it would be weird to completely ignore everything that's happening and do a normal HTTV.
Personally, I'd love for Brian to let himself riff on favorite movies, books, and music, travel, and especially parenthood.
What about Ace, Brian, Seth, and crew discussing A2 life and culture -- favorite foods, nightspots, college memories and townie memories, etc. Does someone have memories of their own college intramural basketball, soccer or flag football season that would be fun to write about? A discussion of best and worst Big Ten cities. That kind of thing. Maybe these are more of online columns, and some of these topics have been run before. But would be fun to think about, and I always love the columns where everyone chimes in.
I'd even be curious for UM sports stories that relate directly to the pandemic. A longer interview with the former UM football player who's now an ER doctor in a Detroit hospital, or other UM athletes who have found themselves affected in intriguing ways. And I've been wondering: What happened in UM sports during the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic? Did games go on as scheduled? How were players, coaches, and fans affected? There must be an interesting story or two there. Not that you'd need to lean too far into this kind of stuff, but I think a couple pieces along this line could be really interesting. Understand if it's not what the readership wants.
Thanks for including us in the brainstorm, and no matter what you do, can't wait to read. Appreciate having this place to visit in the midst of such challenging times.
Brian-
i think some sort of “retrospective” of our football program from late Lloyd(from the blog’s inception) to now would be hugely valuable and insightful. Just a thought
You should write the preview as normal because they are almost certainly going to play some sort of season, even if it includes checkerboard seating to maintain social distancing, especially if the Gilead treatment ends up working.
I do have a suggestion though: add a dollar to the price and have Spencer do a national preview.
If you are going to change,I would like some basketball/hockey stuff.
Former players on how they see the basketball/hockey programs when they played to now. Maybe even a few football players. How do they see Michigan sports now
A Mike Legg story about The Michigan. Why he did it, how does he feel about it being called The Michigan
BTW I don't do the Kickstarter because it always gets the goal. I always get mine through the MGoStore
I’ll buy it anyway, just for the speculation about who’d start etc. More Neck Sharpies would be good.
The same as usual. Even if there is no season, it would be great to read about the hypothetical season.
April 19th, 2020 at 10:29 AM ^
Two thoughts:
1: There are a lot of good CFB general writers out there who are furloughed. (Spencer Hall comes to mind!) Why not pay them to write some M content? I'd kill for his opener post to be about us.
2: I would love to know the history of MGoBlog / a look "behind the curtain." How does this stuff get made? What was it like building the site? Etc, etc.
(Also endorse the idea of doing a regular HTTV preview anyways!)
April 19th, 2020 at 11:17 AM ^
I keep my comments on the board to a minimum (daily reader), but when it comes to my favorite annual publication I must state my strong support for the HTTV! I would keep the format and possibly add a little more history and maybe some basketball/hockey previews (I would gladly pay more for extra content). Also, you can't have too much of Craig Ross. Keep up all the great work you guys do.
I do want to see the season preview for the current team. I think the 2020 season will be played in some form, most likely abbreviated and not this fall.
I've always been curious as to what this place would have looked like during the 1997 season. My own recollections of that season are a bit hazy, I was in the thesis year of a master of architecture program and not in Ann Arbor. I do seem to remember a lot in the national press about how elevating a long time assistant was a disaster & that Coach Carr should be gone after the year. My suggestion is a slight spin on mGrowOld's thought: write a roster preview on the 97 team as though that's the season that is about to happen. In the likely event that there is no football this fall, the blog could write almost all of the normal features as though the 1997 season were happening now. I think the Unverifed Voracities would be hilarious and it would be fun to see UFRs of those games [I think it was the Iowa game that was a full 60 minute pucker].
Given everything that's happened at Vox this week, guest writers are another thought. I don't know if there is a stretch goal that we could hit [either in the HTTV kickstarter or in the Charity Bowl if that happens] that would induce Holly Anderson to write a Charles Woodson hagiography.
Whatever HTTV ends up being, I will buy it. This place has been a great diversion for me over the years. I hope you and everyone around you are now and continue to be healthy.
I'm liking the idea I read from mGrowOld. UFRs for historic games would be amazing and can really fill out the pages for the "season coming up" that will be sparse to non-existent probably.
Honestly I would love to see some well thought out takes on the most utterly contrived “we flew every player/team in the sports league to a private island for two months” tournament formats. What would a radical reimagining of a sports league season look like to fit it within those constraints?
Echoing many above, I'm still interested in reading the "normal" preview stuff even if it's a little lot on info given the lack of spring practice.
I'm always very engaged by the Technical Dossier and would love to see that section expanded. Perhaps time could be spend on a piece or three on the Buckeye offense so we know what to hate.
Final comment - it would be interesting to hear about the recruiting process from some recent recruits. If it's possible to interview a current underclassman or even a recently graduated one to hear more about how they went through the process, dealt with all of the attention, narrowed the field, etc.
Thanks for all that you do guys!
I would love to see more written about the relationship between the academic part of the university and the athletic part, and how that relationship has changed over history. The latest Bacon book touched on this and I found it fascinating.
April 20th, 2020 at 10:45 AM ^
I will support on whatever y'all do. I have them going back over a half dozen years since i found the site (and even one personally signed by Seth after his sister recognized the shirt he designed on my flight from Houston to Detroit). Enjoy all the content everyone provides on the site - both the informative and the humorous. So as soon as the kickstarter is up, I am in for my 2 copies and shirt - always hand the second copy out to a Michigan fan I meet during the year in Houston so that hopefully they will start visiting the site and become a devoted MGoBlog fan also.
I'd like to see a feature of former players commenting on a handful of plays that Brian UFR'd, including some he got exactly right and some he got interestingly wrong. I think that would be a great way to add value to HTTV and your business model as a whole, especially since Brian would presumably learn something about both known and unknown unknowns that would inform his UFRs going forward.
April 24th, 2020 at 10:49 AM ^
All great ideas. Would love some historical content — including coach/player interviews.
Also, how about a section dedicated to what Michigan can/should do to beat OSU whenever that game happens again.
Buying and supporting no matter what. Much appreciation for the blog team.
Go Blue!
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