The Shitheads of the Big 10
We aren't in very good company these days... Maybe we can move to the Big 10 West.
October 31st, 2018 at 2:32 PM ^
Reads like all the 5 stars committed and uncommitted should go to Michigan. :-)
October 31st, 2018 at 2:34 PM ^
Well, levels of “awful” are all relative I guess. The B1G East is a moral sewer, but I’d somehow still take it over the SEC. While similar to Stalin saying, “hey, at least I’m no Hitler,” it offers some solace???
October 31st, 2018 at 2:38 PM ^
What these B1G East teams have done is way worse than paying players. Also, Stalin was just as bad as Hitler. He just won the war so he viewed more favorably by history. His purges killed 20-30 million of his own people.
October 31st, 2018 at 3:07 PM ^
20-30 million is on the low end. It might be closer to 50 million.
October 31st, 2018 at 3:29 PM ^
That is an old, old historical perspective and assumption:
"Today, after two decades of access to Eastern European archives, and thanks to the work of German, Russian, Israeli, and other scholars, we can resolve the question of numbers. The total number of noncombatants killed by the Germans—about 11 million—is roughly what we had thought. The total number of civilians killed by the Soviets, however, is considerably less than we had believed. We know now that the Germans killed more people than the Soviets did. That said, the issue of quality is more complex than was once thought. Mass murder in the Soviet Union sometimes involved motivations, especially national and ethnic ones, that can be disconcertingly close to Nazi motivations..."
EDIT: This is from a professor of history at Yale who has researched and written extensively on the topic. The quote comes from the NY Times Review of Books...
October 31st, 2018 at 3:47 PM ^
You read some scholarly stuff when you aren't busy scaring the crap out of kids. Probably too busy to read tonight.
October 31st, 2018 at 5:23 PM ^
It came up during his research on 1000 ways to be killed by a clown
October 31st, 2018 at 5:57 PM ^
Can’t access on my phone - is this just for the war years or does it also include the Ukrainian famines and fall-out from collectivization? Recently red a new history on that and they were saying old numbers (still in the millions) were likely light given new research into mortality figures and prior made up census numbers the Soviets used to conceal drop in population. All sourced with primary material and actual Soviet / Ukrainian records
EDIT: Name of the book is “Red Famine”
October 31st, 2018 at 6:18 PM ^
There was little to no access behind the Iron Curtain so the number of civilians killed by the Soviets will never be known.
The Germans, however, had a pretty good system of accountability when processing civilians for death.
Snyder is a complete dope by the way.
November 1st, 2018 at 7:56 AM ^
The Soviets kept extensive records too which have recently been released to the public and were extensively analyzed to come up with the numbers in the book mentioned above. I am not sure exactly what your point was but hand waving about the “iron curtain” and saying records don’t exist when they do is a little intellectually lazy. No one will ever know exactly how many people the Nazi’s killed either since outside of Gernmany the record keeping for slaughtering civilians in occupied territories was far less rigorous.
October 31st, 2018 at 6:16 PM ^
"...viewed more favorably by history"
I mean yeah Hitler is widely used as the benchmark of evil, but I don't recall ever hearing a whole lot of love for Stalin. In my experience it seems he's pretty accurately regarded as a pretty big shithead in his own right.
October 31st, 2018 at 2:45 PM ^
I don't know about that. The SEC is almost certainly dirty but hard to compare that to an institution trying to conceal child sexual assault. the worst serial sexual abuser in American history at another institution (institution also claimed victims were looking for an easy payday). Then another one harbors and covers for a heinous domestic abuser and yet another killed one of their own players with a toxic culture and outright negligence. Hate to say it but the Sec has nothing on the BIG East.
October 31st, 2018 at 7:23 PM ^
I'm just glad Michigan wasn't part of that article.
That being said, the SEC is really good at covering things up. One of my former colleagues has a daughter who was a cheerleader at Alabama in recent years, and apparently she was well aware of the shady stuff being done by the football players that the public never hears about.
October 31st, 2018 at 2:57 PM ^
Uh no. 4 of the biggest moral scandals in recent CFB memory have occurred in our division. The SEC does what, pays players? We are the baddies here (the royal we, Michigan is seemingly fine so far knock on wood).
October 31st, 2018 at 5:31 PM ^
No moral equivalents here. The SEC has bag men and a loose moral code - Big East has all kinds of reprehensible things going on that turn a normal person's stomach.
Seriously, I'm sick of Michigan getting tarnished by these other schools inability to act like a human being and do the right thing.
I think Michigan should consider leaving the BIG - we did it before, we can do it again. This conference needs Michigan more than Michigan needs them.
October 31st, 2018 at 3:05 PM ^
The B1G East is a moral sewer, but I’d somehow still take it over the SEC.
So, guys getting free cash (which goes on elsewhere, BTW) is less tolerable than child rape, a rash of sexual assaults, domestic abuse (and coverups of all three) and the death of a player?
October 31st, 2018 at 3:40 PM ^
You think Alabama, who nearly elected an admitted child molester is above hiding some horrendous things in their athletic department? I think his point is that there is nothing about the SEC that screams moral high ground. And had Nassar just happened to have preferred to live in the south instead of Lansing, that it likely would've still happened.
October 31st, 2018 at 3:41 PM ^
No one even mentioned Aaron Hernandez murdering a couple dudes while at UF
October 31st, 2018 at 5:23 PM ^
Probably because the man who coached him at UF is now at a Big Ten school.
October 31st, 2018 at 4:01 PM ^
Don’t bother, Canzior, MGoBlog is enjoying a moment of B1G self-flagellation. There’s no stopping it now...
October 31st, 2018 at 5:35 PM ^
Do you want to defend the B1G? Some of the worst scandals in NCAA history have gone on in this conference, just in this decade. I've never cared about "conference pride" so I have no problem pointing that out.
October 31st, 2018 at 4:09 PM ^
Michigan state political leaders (MSU enablers, lack of accountability) do not hold any moral high ground
October 31st, 2018 at 5:29 PM ^
I think his point is that there is nothing about the SEC that screams moral high ground.
It speaks volumes that we're at a point where we're having to deny that the SEC (!) has the moral high ground. It wasn't too long ago that we routinely mocked them for their lack of integrity.
I'm not interested in speculation about what might go on elsewhere. We know for a fact what has gone on in this conference and it's disgusting. This conference is an incredible embarrassment and I don't know how Jim Delaney lives it down.
I'm just relieved that Michigan has - so far as we know - avoided the Big Ten Disease.
October 31st, 2018 at 2:41 PM ^
What was Michigan's tort? I didn't see it. Had to have been a player, not a coach. Probably Perry?
October 31st, 2018 at 2:55 PM ^
I guess that the statute of limitations ran out on including Penn State.
October 31st, 2018 at 3:01 PM ^
Well, it does say it's only covering the past year.
October 31st, 2018 at 3:07 PM ^
The author clearly has some latent dislike of the B1G. He's taken a bunch of random things across a subset of programs and positioned them against an institutional agenda from a different subset of programs. Now, there can be no doubts that what OSU, MSU, PSU, and MD have done as programs/universities are significantly worse than paying players - I mean, there is no denying that. But, at the same time, the B1G is not committing sexual abuse as an institutional means of being better at football. The SEC, however, has institutionally cheated (paid players) to be better at football.
One is a random set of horrible occurrences, the other is institutionalized cheating. They are very different...
October 31st, 2018 at 5:41 PM ^
1) Do you honestly think no B1G football players get money under the table? Come on dude.
2) You seem to be implying that what really matters is the NCAA's rules, as opposed to actual criminal laws. Kids/athletes getting molested is a bit bigger issue overall than a dude getting a wad of bills from a booster.
October 31st, 2018 at 6:37 PM ^
"You seem to be implying that what really matters is the NCAA's rules, as opposed to actual criminal laws."
Not sure where you get that from my post. All I did was point out the difference between the two conferences, and I actually said what the schools in the B1G (and Baylor) did was much worse. My only point was that the two conferences have different levels of moral/ethical violations, so they can't really be compared. It's apples to lemons...
And yes, I know that schools in the B1G pay some players. But if you think the B1G does it on the level of the SEC, more power to you. I don't... I mean, we all know how much Auburn paid for Cam Newton, yet the SEC turned a blind eye quicker than the NCAA passed on making UNC 'students' actually go to class!
October 31st, 2018 at 3:31 PM ^
Everybody murders?
October 31st, 2018 at 3:38 PM ^
Watch what happens in Columbus as we get closer to The Game. Meyer is going to make some announcement that this will be his last game and ask the players to "win one for the Gipper". Thus he will go out as the ultimate tool of all time in head coaching ranks.
October 31st, 2018 at 4:05 PM ^
Jim Delaney is Satan
October 31st, 2018 at 4:45 PM ^
Michigan is already a terrific school and program. In contrast w the Bucknuts, Sparty and Penn St - we are off the charts incredible.
Contrast is everything. I am so damn happy where we are...