Mandel and College Football at Large criticizes Michigan
Alright, so seen here:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/stewart_mandel/10/18/coll…
Stewart Mandel of SI.com deeply criticizes the dismantling of DSU. While He doesn't come right out and say "Michigan did a bad thing scheduling them, and should be ashamed", that's exactly how it reads to me. His issue appears to be with Michigan scheduling a team that had to forfeit a game to play them. For the record, he does outright criticize DSU's higher ups for accepting.
I have seen similar criticisms elsewhere.
My question is this. What was Michigan supposed to do? Teams move games to accept other invitations all the time. It's regular practice to offer teams, especially lower teams, games that they will have to move their schedule around to accept. Was Michigan supposed to pull the offer after DSU accepted? Were they supposed to say, "No, we won't LET you do that to yourselves. It's our job to think for you, you know."
And if the criticism is that DSU is simply such a lower team, where's the criticism for Florida scheduling Charleston Southern, or any other powerhouse who has scheduled an FBS school lately?
Get over it, people. With an extra game and no bye week, this is how you rest your players. Plain and simple.
October 19th, 2009 at 1:56 PM ^
Was that once the contract with Michigan was signed by DSU, they were committed. At that point, DSU probably would have owed Michigan a serious amount of money that they couldn't afford to repay.
The fact that their incompetence as administrators prevented them from checking with NCA&T before signing the contract isn't a reflection on UM. We were simply looking to fill a whole in the schedule, nothing more, and it was the best we could do on short notice.
October 19th, 2009 at 2:23 PM ^
UM has three rivalry games, plus PSU, Iowa, and Wisky this year. Also, even a Purdue can jump up and bite you on the ass if you have a bad enough week. Until the NCAA does the right thing and determines a true champion with a playoff system, UM would be stupid to schedule any more difficult games.
I think the media love to criticize the scheduling of cupcakes because it means they actually have to be creative and talented if they want to write compelling copy. Anyone can write compelling copy about UM/OSU; the game does it all by itself. But anytime the media actually have to earn their money, they piss and moan instead of getting out and writing good copy. I guess it's easier to bitch than it is to find a good story.
Maybe they feel cheated because the games they get to see for free aren't all rivalry games.
October 19th, 2009 at 2:24 PM ^
Seriously guys, this board has been way too defensive with respect to the media ever since the Freep story. The game was an aberration, and we gave some little-used seniors some nice playing time, and it shouldn't happen again. Just chill out and worry about Penn State, instead of getting insulted by every article you can find that's slightly negative towards Michigan.
October 19th, 2009 at 4:23 PM ^
It was the opportunity of a lifetime for those kids. They played in front of more fans on Saturday than the rest of season combined. Yea they got their ass whooped but they got to play in the big house and they made bank. I would happily get my ass whooped if i got to play in front of 106k (i was there and this number is a definite stretch). They all have a story to tell their kids and grandkids. I still tell people about the time that i tackled jonas gray and got tackled by Kenny Demens.
October 19th, 2009 at 4:37 PM ^
criticism because they dropped a conference game to play Michigan and get the big check.
From the perspective of looking at DSU, they sold out their student athletes to pay some bills.
FBS vs FCS is going to happen, and frankly a small part of me thinks is should happen........as long as it doesn't happen the way this one did.
DSU should have said no thank you we can't fit you into our 2009 schedule but we'd love to play you in the future, here are the dates that work. Then everything would be fine.
October 19th, 2009 at 4:45 PM ^
I read it as being much more of a criticism of DSU than Michigan. At any rate, that part of the story is buried on page 3. It's not the lead or anything.
October 19th, 2009 at 5:53 PM ^
These criticisms don't concern me. You could count the number of BCS programs that don't schedule an occasional cupcake on one hand and Michigan didn't decide for DSU to forfeit a game, DSU did.