Brandon on WJR 8/26 (Subj: Realignment)

well, it looks like this must be it:

Division Bo
Michigan
Michigan State
Iowa
Nebraska
Illinois
Northwestern

Division Woody
Ohio State
Penn State
Wisconsin
Minnesota
Purdue
Indiana

Rivalry week is going to make me depressed each and every year.

._.

You could flip Wisconsin and Iowa in that alignment also.

Nobody is going to be completely happy with the realignment, but at least Brandon and Co. will lay it out there for everyone.  Personally, the rivalry between OSU and UM supersedes the date, even though it is obviously great to have it at the end of the year.  Sure, it's a play for more money by the networks, but I guess I'm not surprised that is the case anymore.

We could get Nebraska as our rivalry week opponent to end the season?  I wouldn't like it, but this would sit better with me than having MSU as our end of season opponent.

The season cant get here soon enough. im having so many mixed feelings and emotions. I just wanna watch some damn football, everything will be easier to swallow once michigan starts winning

I wish they could poll fans and see how many M/OSU fans would prefer to play once a year vs a possible twice.

We are going to start hating nebraska and setting up a rivalry with them for screwing up THE GAME.

Wonderful!  In 10 years, when someone asks me when I began to stop caring about college football, I can point to the day the divisions come out.  "See, son, we used to be special, and not like other sports.  The last game of the year was OSU, and it meant everything.  Then we added Nebraska, split up into divisions, moved the game, and tried to convince ourselves that making it to the Rotel Big Ten Title Game was a big deal."  This will be said in the car on the way to an MLS game, which in my eyes is the only league that doesn't actively try to piss off its fans.  We also won't have a choice, because the NFL and NBA will be on strike, and MLB will start all games at 9:30 east coast time. 

/old man rant

(I'm 28)

I'm starting to hate Brandon.

He's done everything right up to this point, but it doesn't mean shit when he screws up our most important tradition.  This is right on par with messing with The Victors, IMO.  I'd rather him plaster the Big House with ads and mandate ALL MAIZE home uniforms than mess with The Game.

It only makes it worse that he's hiding what everyone already knows--this is all about money.  Money should be a consideration but he has put it at the forefront and is willing to sell out our most important traditions to bolster the bottom line.  Not the kind of leader I want.

then money means more than the UM/OSU rivalry.  It won't be the same.  Hello Nebraska, our new archrival.

I seriously do not understand why the ADs can't see past the money in this. Look at the SEC, each division has a gigantic rivalry game (Florida-Georgia, Bama-Auburn), but they didn't muss around with splitting them up. Ugh, this is going to be such a load of suck.

No coach or TV person wants to see that?  I respect DB, but this logic (whether he truly supports it or not) is mystifying.  How often do the conference ADs, presidents and administration really expect M and OSU will meet in the conf. title game?  And isn't that an implicit F.U. to the other programs?  I'm not sure what's more offensive: the complete and unambiguous removal of the fans in these considerations or the disruption of  a century of traditions.

Congrats, sacrificing Michigan's greatest tradition.  Ridiculous.

but this was proposed to me by a buddy.  Think about it, it NEVER happens in football that you play two weeks in a row, barring the NFL week 1 playoffs.  Think of the bad blood that would brew before that second game knowing that you JUST played them.  You have a chance to atone for every mistake you made, and if ANYTHING happened in the previous game that you took offense to, you have a chance to pay them back.

I think what most people are worried about is that if they play in back to back weeks that the game will mean nothing.  However, the only way for that to happen is for both teams to have wrapped up their respective divisions at that point.  If the odds of us rematching in the champsionship game are about 1 in 10, as people have been speculating, then what are the odds of that?  One in 50?  Almost always, that game will determine if one of the teams makes the championship game, and the bad blood that would be HUGE if there was a rematch the next week.  Screw the TV people, the fans would love it.

He's a business man. He's not anything higher or lower than that. He's not a "straight shooter", or a "Michigan man" or a "no nonsense" guy. He's not an absolute anything.

He may not allow ads at Michigan Stadium and call it tradition, but it's all just a calculated business decision on what would hurt the brand and what wouldn't. But I think he's finding out that he's seriously underestimated people's ire over this issue. The decision was made, probably not at his behest but with his acquiescence and he thought he could sell it to the public better than he is. He is hurting the brand, by diminishing the Game.

The most annoying thing about this process is that he speaks in terms of fiat: "no one wants the same matchup in consecutive weeks"; "no one wants UM/OSU to never be for the Big Ten title again". He bases this on nothing. He's nothing special and nothing terrible. He's just a businessman who has made some smart moves and (apparently) some really dumb ones.

Delany, Brandon, and Smith are now the leading assholes in their respective states. This is such a terrible, horrible crock of shit.

Ohio State vs. Penn State will become "The Greatest Rivalry in College Football" by 2015 and Michigan will meet OSU in a Big Ten title game once every five years for a rematch in one of the worst conceivable settings.  This is an epic blunder, and it is completely fucking obvious!

Thank you David Brandon!

I am just accepting this as the latest in the conference and U of M being forced to change tradition for $.  You have to be kinda old to remember it, but the conference used to actually have 10 teams.  We used to play nine conference games.  The unforms used to be plain blue, then Nike wanted to put a swoosh on them and we said OK.  ($).  Then we dropped to eight confernce games to add another OOC ($).  Penn State came in ($$).  Then we all wanted to add a 12th team ($$$) so we could get a title game ($$$$).  Hell,in June and July we were talknig about adding 5 more teams ($$$$$).  Now, OSU as the last game is (apparently) the latest tradition to fall.  It is sad, but it is really all that different?   Just be glad it's not  (yet) "The Game - OSU v Michigan live from Las Vegas brought to you exclusively on Pay-4-View by Tostitos!  I'm your host Ryan Secrest."

He did stress several times that the divisions will be formed based on past performance (dating back to PSU's entry into the conference) more than anything else;

Worked out well for the Big12 and ACC afterall...

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Oh wait no, it fucking didn't.