Latest article on B1G football realignment
The Athletic article just popped up and I thought it was somewhat interesting - though nowhere near as good a Plan as Seth has posted in the past (leaving games at end of season to schedule based on strength of teams to make sure the best play the best). Of note are the author's choice of 3 protected rivalries for each program - and somehow we draw Rutgers as #3.
https://theathletic.com/3304806/2022/05/11/big-ten-football-scheduling-relalignment-divisions-rivalries/
Help me with the link if it doesn't show up - I'm a relatively new poster.
Heads up to all not in the know - The Athletic is a paid site. To each their own, but I don't think their content is worth any fees, even a small fee. The Athletic typically, not always, barters in speculation and shoddy sources.
I disagree. Writers such as Brendan Quinn are worth the reasonable fee alone in my opinion.
Seconded. I find The Athletic to be much more substantive and informative than other sports news sites.
Thirded(?) Lots of good coverage that's curated to the teams / leagues you want to follow
Fourthed. As a person born & raised in Michigan who lived for much of the 80's in San Francisco and has resided since 89 here in the Cleveland area I find The Athletic to a fantastic source of information on teams I'm interested in that the local media doesnt care about. Plus it has very good writers from this area writing on the Browns & Cavs and I think it's a bargain compared to the content they deliver.
I'm certainly not attacking anyone for their decision to pay for an Athletic subscription. The cost is not excessive. I hope my post did not come off as an ad hominem attack on either the OP or anyone else. I respect that some, maybe even most, disagree.
I subscribed for several years, and I consistently was disappointed by the quality of journalism and/or commentary compared to other outlets. For Michigan sports, I find the analysis and the actual news-breaking most helpful on this site, Touch the Banner, or through social media posts. For some context, I don't live in the state of Michigan. I don't follow any of the Detroit area sports teams. Maybe The Athletic is great for Detroit sports - I truly do not know. If so, I can completely understand why one would subscribe. I am ill-informed about Cleveland sports media, so I wouldn't dare disagree.
When a post contains a link to a paid article, I appreciate it when an OP lets ($) everyone know. I know it's not required, but it is appreciated nonetheless.
The main problem was that this:
The Athletic typically, not always, barters in speculation and shoddy sources.
Seems totally inaccurate. Nobody thinks you were making an ad hominem attack, they just think you're reasons for trashing The Athletic were totally untrue.
And this follow up doesn't help:
For Michigan sports, I find the analysis and the actual news-breaking most helpful on this site, Touch the Banner, or through social media posts
Yeah, The Athletic barters in speculation and shoddy sources, but social media posts are very reliable and well sourced!
Athletic = trash
facebook = great journalism
I don't believe the The Athletic is "trash." It's just not for me. Bruce Feldman did a really poor job with Harbaugh "news" after the season.
Facebook is trash. I think Twitter accounts from proven reliable sources, such as John Clark in Philly, are best for local sports news-breaking. Again, just my preference.
I think this site (and Touch the Banner for recruiting) has the best commentary for all Michigan sports. I feel fortunate that we have the main page. When I subscribed to The Athletic, I found myself back here almost always.
71% of Americans get their news from social media
The President met with aliens!! …and they discussed college football.
I'll soon be into my third year as a subscriber to The Athletic and am 100% intending to renew.
Can't say that about any other paywalled site I've ever tried.
Why did Quinn write so few Michigan BB articles this past season? It felt like it dropped to one a month from one a week.
He mentioned on his podcast (The Beat) that the Athletic has made him more of a national writer for college hoops, so most of the Michigan specific content will likely be in podcast form moving forward.
Thanks for the update.
Quinn also has been writing stories on PGA golf, especially during some of the major tournaments.
I think Austin Meek (current UM football and basketball writer for the Athletic) has had some excellent, in-depth and/or behind the scene pieces on both football and basketball. In addition, Quinn's pal Nick Baumgartner often writes articles breaking down UM football's offensive and defensive schemes (in addition to doing the same for MSU and Detroit Lion football)
I vociferously disagree with you. I love my Athletic subscription...well worth the $s IMO.
Did you mean Bleacher Report?
What? The Athletic is one of the few sites on the internet that is actually WORTH $$$ to read. Not sure how much--that is personal, but they have a lot of quality content.
Not saying this story is good--I haven't read it yet.
This is a mind boggling take. If The Athletic isn't up to your standards, there must not be any sports media source that is.
Their Red Wings coverage is fantastic. That alone, for me, is worth the monthly fee.
i like it quite a bit. they seem to focus FAR more on getting good writing than on talking heads and "hot takes." if i want scores, i go to espn. if i want analysis i go to the athletic.
Couldn’t disagree more. The Athletic is great and has tons of local and national content that I read daily.
I found The Athletic a little thinner than I had hoped, a little less rich--as time passed--with the kind of socially insightful reporting about sports, all sports, that I really crave. It came to feel dutiful and perfunctory--predictable--and I let it go.
But your criticisms are miles over the top. The writers there are diligent, cover their beats with a professionalism that's increasingly rare in this world of junque news, and occasionally there is still fine long-form journalism to be found there. You need to speak with greater care, friend; words matter.
Don't mean to pile on here - but I am also one who both believes that the subscription fee is worth it, however I no longer have an active subscription, because I personally didn't use it enough to merit the subscription cost - Michigan football/basketball are really the only sports/teams I follow so for me it wasn't really worth the $8ish just for Michigan for me
Man what a slap in the face to our rivals at the University of Illinois that would be.
Rutger should be replaced with PSU.
No as why should we get 3 of the toughest 4 teams in the B1G most every year. Replace Rutger with Minnesota.
What?
Why no pic of the spray-tanned Scarlet Fan-bruhs?
Are these Staee fans or Rutgers fans??
No signs of Axe Body Spray, so hard to tell if they're Rutger, MSU, or ACC fans...
Those are Rutgers fans. These are MSU fans:
Are these mutually exclusive?
Here is the staee fanbase....
Ask and ye shall receive....
Well....
IF we did get Rutgers it would certainly help recruit a VERY rich high end talent state! Which is a reason they were brought in in the first place.
You pretty much have to start making shit up when it comes to finding rivals for Rutgers and Maryland. They haven't been in the league long enough, and they haven't been good enough, for anyone to care about them. At least with Nebraska you could imagine some regional rivalries.
The only thing linking Michigan to Rutgers is that they are the two oldest football programs in the conference.
Seems like PSU should replace Michigan State with Maryland in their protected list - the regional angle alone makes more sense. Rutgers having Maryland, Penn State, and Michigan is fine in my book.
But...but...but ...what about their coveted Land Grant Trophy?
Before Penn State joined the B1G, it played - and beat - Maryland every year so there’s a bit of history there.
Let's not forget 1989, when Maryland tied Penn State --- PSU's first non-victory in 24 straight games in the matchup --- and that led to Terp fans tearing down the goalposts (at old Baltimore Memorial Stadium)!
More seriously, if the B1G ever goes to a 3 protected opponents schedule structure, I can't imagine a scenario where it is NOT MD, Rutgers and OSU for PSU. For other conference teams, it's more up in the air. But MD and Rutgers are basically going to "demand" PSU as a guaranteed game. They have no other real B1G rivals and PSU fans help fill their stadiums every other year.
OSU is the one B1G foe PSU has played every single year since 1993 (PSU/MSU and PSU/U-M have had the occasional breaks), so I imagine that one would stay.
Rutgers being our rival is almost more for us than them. There are tons of M graduates on the east coast.
No doubt. Getting U-M/PSU as a home game on an alternating year basis is the RU football ticketing department's dream. Probably not their coaches' dream, but $$$ talks, ha ha.
Like me--I absolutely plan on heading down to Jersey sometime for our game.
I've tried this exercise myself and often end up with Rutgers as Michigan's third set game. Like you mentioned, someone has to have Rutgers. From Michigan's perspective, it's just not fair to have OSU, MSU, and PSU every year, so PSU has to go. Some will say Minnesota, but it's just too easy to put Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Nebraska in a quartet of death where they are all each other's three rivals. Plus with Rutgers the big east coast UM fanbase still gets a game every other year.
Yes, not smart to schedule murderer's row for every year and also someone has to take Rutgers.
I always enjoy the victory on the west coast as rare as they are.
With the four western teams, you can have them all play except leave out the Minnesota-Nebraska game from that quartet. Let the four Illinois/Indiana teams be in a four team pod, but eliminate the IU-NW matchup.
- PSU, Rutgers, and MD all play each other, with PSU also playing OSU.
- Michigan gets OSU, MSU, and Minnesota.
- OSU gets Michigan, PSU, MD.
- MSU gets Michigan, IU, and Rutgers.
- The one game left is Nebraska-Northwestern, and they can create a NU trophy.
reasonably equitable; Michigan has the hardest protected rivalries but it’s close with OSU; PSU’s is easy but they’ll have either us or MSU every year too. If it means we actually get to play all of the teams in our conference on a reasonable timescale I’m all for it.
The only thing linking Michigan to Rutgers is that they are the two oldest football programs in the conference.
I think among BIG teams, Michigan and PSU have two of the largest amount of alumni in the NYC area. Television is probably a factor here as well.