Thoughts On The Pay Sites

Rivals seems more legit because the inside the fort column covers a lot of ground.I had them like 2 years ago and I find the recruiting posts on here to be more credible and interesting.

I just switched over to scout today after being on Rivals. In my opinion Scout gets some news faster and you get a subscription to their magazine with a yearly subscription. Rivals has a better looking site, but I recently started to hate Mike Farrell's smugness over the past year. Plus Sam Webb is better than any other writer on Rivals.

Tom Pussy? Really? Anyway, the best in my opinion is 247 (even though I don't pay for it). I usually roam their board.

Sam probably knows more than everyone else combined, and I hear they're phasing out the guy you don't like. The sheeple thing kind of comes with the territory. 

but why do you want any other message board anyway?

I just text RDT for all info regarding recruits.

It was not unusal for Anison, an unpaid moderator and worth every penny, to get toasted and start libeling other members if they had the ¨audacity¨ to publicly questions his outright lies and unsubtantied claims. That will get you booted. But, in retrospect, I guess it's wiser on their part to side with a guy that will not only fetch their coffee, but also purchase it, just so hey can lay claim to being a moderator. They say he stepped down from the position, but in reality, I think he pissed off so many members that actually contributed, they decided it best to not let him roam the site muzzle free due to legal action that could have been taken by some of their members due to his affiliation, albeit strictly volunteer on his part.

Don't know too much about the other sites-visited scout briefly but not 247-so I can´t comment on them. Rivals has some good member with keen insight like Kevin Werner and a few others, but their mods don't really care for anyone who might have a better understanding of the game and the history of Michigan football than they possess. JMO, but stay away from there. Can get the same information here a day later anyway, so why bother paying for what you can read here?

I'm pretty unimpressed by Scout, which seems to be by far the least thorough of any of the sites that cover recruiting, including ESPN.  Scout tends to overfocus on the glamor teams of the world and let the others fall through the cracks.  Michigan gets good coverage because Michigan is a big-time team.  Want to find anything out about most of the rest of the Big Ten?  Forget it.

24/7 is doing some excellent stuff but they're still kind of in a stage where the quality of their coverage depends more on the affiliate than the network.  They're trying to eat Rivals's lunch, and sometimes succeeding.  Some affiliates are great, some are the RCMB.

Rivals still has the best infrastructure for centralized coverage, I think.  Farrell shows his ass sometimes, but he's pretty well connected.  I trust Rivals' evaluations a hell of a lot more than Scout's.

Confession, though: I subscribe to the UVA sites, not the Michigan ones.

I think that Rivals is the best in the business. Scout's site layout is terrible and Sam Webb tweets out most of the breaking information anyways. Rivals has a ton of info and insiders on the board. Will Heineger (sp?) Is a member and posts on the board, along with 2 insiders on the staff and a guy who runs his own recruiting service. Those guys, along with the staff, provide plenty of information. I know people say that all of the info leaks anyways, but that's simply not true. If you're interested in a paysite, I recommend Rivals.

I like espn bc it's stupid cheap if u use a discount code and u get a magazine. The magazine is awful and just huge but it saves me money on tp. I also like still reading TomVH

In the OP, is the bracketed "[Beaver]" after the name Tom a way of calling tom a pussy? or is it just his last name. Either way, that's awesome.

Many bars/clubs charge cover to keep an undesired clientle out, and usually even a minimal cover charge does the trick. Besides being privy to more information, do these sites keep the immature and embarassing fans out? You know, the ones who "hope so and so gets injured" and cause meltdowns after losses. Or is it a haven for these psycho-obsessive type of fans who are more than willing to dish out cash for access?

I've never cared for any of the sites, I figure all the information will come out eventually. It seems like they do provide some careers and other opportunities for football players who are football lifers which is always a plus. If there is a demand, meet it.

So I very much like that site and the fort (message board). MGB and Michigan's Rivals page are a perfect one two pinch. And as another poster mentioned, Sam Webb from Scout usually breaks his news on twitter regardless.

*Sorry for format! Using Android app* Stopped paying for premium Scout a long while back due to the mentality there, exactly as you explain. Then I just left totally after about 4k posts over years there. They have this insane tier system where you have the leader of each schools site on top and always a douchebag. Then, the contributors who are varied in power and personality (UM's are cool in Sam, etc). Worst are the "mods" as every single one I encountered there as a free board and pay board member was a complete clown. All sites! You have these morons who have no lives (none) and decide that the ability to moderate makes them king. Disagree with them at your own peril. They will insult members at the drop of a hat but edit/delete or even ban you for an honest opinion that they don't like, etc. The cycle is always: a longtime member becomes a mod after the last quits or gets booted after so many complaints (and writes the inevitable "goodbye speech" like people give a shit, further cementing his ego), new mod cool for a while, new mod gets superiority complex after a while, new mod becomes ex-mod, rinse and repeat. Watched that happen easily 8+ times in my time on Scout, free and premium. Finally, the true scum are the weak minded "teacher's pet" posters who agree with the mods no matter what to attain some online friendship bond (or something?!?) and also always go with the overwhelming majority/safe opinion. No chance they ever truly talk football for fear of being disagreed with. They become protected posters as loyal subjects of the mod and shit on new people, free thinkers, etc. All of this with MAYBE 1% knowing anything about football. It is now to the point where I check the free Scout board about once a month and am reminded why I left each time. I was the guy who stuck up for the people being shit on and I refused to bow down to an internet mod so I clashed with almost every mod there. Not always but when we did we really did. Yet, what really made me leave was that I'd say or predict something and said bias always had the mods hate on it only for it to happen and never get so much as an apology or "hey, you do know what you're talking about". In fact, they would just delete the thread/post when they insulted your opinion or answer and you were right rather than look stupid. One mod started an argument one time (really insulted me personally after an innocent reply to a "guess the score" post where I only had us beating nd by 4 in 2011) and went so far as to edit what he and I said to make him seem level headed and me a lunatic. Luckily, others saved/capped it and dude had to write me an apology and I got like 2 months free, lol. Dude then "stepped down" as mod a week later. Aaaaaanyway, all are kind of lame and worthless now. The info is out there for free these days and the egos are not worth dealing with. Scout was my only membership and point of reference, though. Couldn't vouch for the others if I wanted to. Heck, there are dicks here but not in the way the pay sites have them. Couldn't even tell you who the mods are here and I like that. I know who Brian is and that is enough for me, lol. Good dude and only dislike here is the pos/neg system but I don't see it on my phone app anyway so I don't care or know. Scout is a decent site but is ran by absolute chimps.