Search4Meaning

September 29th, 2010 at 8:10 PM ^

I don't know that I like this game.  BYU is that dangerous team that gains you little by beating it, but is huge if you lose.

Unless we're talking revenge for their National Championship game victory over one of our worst teams in the last 40 years...

coldnjl

September 29th, 2010 at 8:58 PM ^

how do we not gain anything from beating a team that is perennially in the top 25? We play cupcakes and people complain. We play good teams like Uconn and maybe BYU and we don't gain enough. If we play a team like Alabama or Texas, people complain that we can't beat them. Lets just be happy its not BGSU or App st

profitgoblue

September 29th, 2010 at 8:10 PM ^

Personally, I think that's a horrible idea.  No good can come of it, at least none that I can put my finger on.  Why play BYU as an out of conference with a home-and-home when that same type of arrangement could draw many more interesting matchups with west coast teams?  Along those lines, I'd love to see a Michigan-Cal matchup.  Two of the most liberal institutions butting heads on the gridiron.

jeag

September 29th, 2010 at 8:23 PM ^

Why is Cal more interesting than BYU? I, for one, am intrigued by BYU, both as the world's foremost Mormon university and as a good football team that plays a weak schedule. Plus they have Samoans!

maizenbluedevil

September 29th, 2010 at 8:25 PM ^

Non-alum here....  Re. this:

"I'd love to see a Michigan-Cal matchup.  Two of the most liberal institutions butting heads on the gridiron."

Is U of M actually *that* liberal?  I'm not trying to incite political debate here, I'm genuinely curious.  I hear U of M and AA characterized as very liberal a lot, but, in my experience, when something is labelled "very ____" relative to politics, it's usually an attempt to marginalize and in reality the place being referred to isn't as extreme as some would wish to characterize it....  So, is UM/AA really any more liberal than any other college/college town?  

profitgoblue

September 29th, 2010 at 9:06 PM ^

The reputation grows from the 60s and the Vietnam anti-war protest.  Berkeley, CA and Ann Arbor, MI were the two most active anti-war areas and both because of the universities there.  I just think the history behind both schools would make Cal-Michigan an interesting matchup.

Needs

September 29th, 2010 at 9:52 PM ^

To call SDS a political terrorist group in their days based in Ann Arbor is inaccurate. At that point, they were committed to direct action to change society and the economic system, but didn't advocate violence. Ineffective, self-absorbed, having far more genius at self-promotion than in accomplishing political change, sure, but not really student terrorists.

It's not until the late 60s, when splinter groups (mainly Weathermen and some Trotskyist youth organizations) who advocated and used violent tactics, seized control of SDS at one of their national conventions (I want to say 1969), but that was really the last nail in the coffin of a splintering group.

bigmc6000

September 30th, 2010 at 9:15 AM ^

Texas, as a whole, is obviously conservative but I'll tell you that Austin is right up there with UM and the schools in CA.  I don't know about UM but UT has a MASSIVE population of pot smokers such to the point where the police had to change the laws that carrying a certain amount just gets you a traffic ticket (so to speak) because they didn't have enough room in the jails for all the kids getting busted carrying it around.  And beyond that it's a huge liberal center politcally speaking and center of a ton of organizations part of the green movement that many consider to be part of the "liberal camp."

blueheron

September 29th, 2010 at 9:01 PM ^

"... when something is labelled very ____ relative to politics, it's usually an attempt to marginalize ..."

So true ... Ann Arbor is a large Midwestern town with a decent (and shrinking) population of white-collar professionals and a smattering of LIBRULLS (or, if you want to go talk radio, LLLIBRULLZUH).  In no way do the latter overwhelm the town.  They certainly give it a flavor that's not found in other towns in that weight class (Madison excepted), but (again) I consider it a pretty tame place.  It is much more yuppified/corporatized than it was 25 years ago.

M-Wolverine

September 29th, 2010 at 9:28 PM ^

Republicans don't even bother to run in Ann Arbor anymore for office. It's usually Democrat vs. Democrat, or liberal independent. Take that FWIW.

blueheron

September 29th, 2010 at 10:20 PM ^

Look closely, though (at actions, rather than campaigns and such), and you'll see some real business done here and there. (I do not mean manufacturing of cars composed of, and run exclusively on, soybeans.)

It's true that Sarah Palin couldn't get many votes in Ann Arbor, but I still think it's far from the left wingy freak show that people picture.

maizenbluedevil

September 29th, 2010 at 10:26 PM ^

Interesting.  What blueheron wrote is about what I expected the "view from the ground" in AA is really like....as opposed to the sensationalized characterizations of it.....war protests and hash bash notwithstanding.  =)

bigmc6000

September 30th, 2010 at 9:12 AM ^

OSU has something very, very similar called "ChitFest" where it's just a big massive pot smoking, drug-fest mixed with gratutious amounts of alcohol held on Chittenden Ave.  I only bring that up because most seem to think UM is much more liberal than OSU so saying you have a pot smoking party once a year doesn't really equal liberal, it just equals large school that, by raw numbers, has to have a certain number of pot smoking hippies (insert Cartman reference here).

Shop Smart Sho…

September 29th, 2010 at 9:25 PM ^

Having been to most of the B10 towns and having lived in 3 of them, none come close anymore to Bloomington.  This is the city that continually protests against the state building an interstate extentsion that would allow for the rest of the I-69 project to finish and have a continguous interstate between Canada and Mexico.

Bloomington is the only B10 city not on an interstate, and is one of the most difficult to get to because of it. 

Add the political activism to the burgeoning gay, lesbian, and transgendered population, and you come up with the most "liberal" B10 campus.

mgobleu

September 29th, 2010 at 10:12 PM ^

I guess I can't give you specifics, just personal experience; i.e., friends, acquaintances, etc. But I would put Madison right up near the top. But maybe you should take that with a grain of salt as I am a self professed conservative. 

Edit: On second thought, I probably shouldn't have shared that. Now watch me get negged.

Shop Smart Sho…

September 30th, 2010 at 11:57 PM ^

Maybe you were in West Lafayette and were very confused.  Bloomington is the most iberal city in Indiana.  That was before the influx of kids from the east coast after 9/11.

 

And seriously, someone negged me for saying Bloomington is more liberal than Ann Arbor.  You stay classy MGoBoard.

somewittyname

September 30th, 2010 at 12:52 AM ^

At one point I think Ann Arbor had the highest per capita contribution rate to the Obama campaign in either the nation or state. I'm having trouble finding a link but this is at least some support. I'm sure that's partly a reflection of the relative wealth of the city but certainly a pretty good indicator of its policital tendencies.