Recent Comments

They used to focus on whether someone "beat the guy to the spot." In this case there is no question using that criteria. Did we stop using that criteria because of some other technicalities? (Obviously beating someone to the spot by beating them about the face with your elbow would never have counted.)

I was thinking the other day that the internet is not funny anymore, and nobody's really making anybody laugh nowadays. I am wrong.

As some have said above, Stooges are necessary (TV Eye, Loose, Now I Wanna be Your Dog all more than viable). And MC5's Kick out the Jams is the most obvious and winning choice ever.

If you need something cheesier, Detroit acts like Von Bondies ("C'mon C'mon") a few tracks from Detroit Cobras, and work. Hell, even Alice Cooper was born in Detroit.

And no Kid Rock, please. We've been tortured enough.

Which one is the sex offender? I mean, there's no captiion or anything. Oh, he's the one that's too tubby to pick up shoulder pads off the floor? Ah, ok, got it.

In college football they have hardly any (when compared to the other sports). They maintain the archaic rules in part to control what they can.  If that is one of the major goals of their system, then #s 1 and 3 above should be amenable to the NCAA.

Following #3, about a year ago I came up with an idea similar to that, but addressing the TV revenues. It is basically that if the networks are using the images of the players to promote games, they should get paid based on a fixed scale determined by the NCAA. This lets them keep all that control, but fairly gives the money to the players who are actually bringing it in. Nobody's paying to see Will Hagerup (gifs are free, yo). But Denard puts butts in sofas and viewing lots of Coors Light ads.

The long version is here for those willing to indulge.

The worst part about this time of year is all the "outraged interlopers" who think they need to comment on playoffs and every other issue about the sport, yet they don't understand how it's different from the NFL. But whatever. Good post, Brian.

This seven-straight thing just, I mean, it doesn't seem real, does it? It doesn't seem that long ago that we considered this game a holiday because we almost always won. But it has been an eternity. The "seeming" is wrong and probably just nostalgia more than anything. I can't bring myself to think about failure in this game. And I am afriad to think about victory. Kickoff can't come soon enough.

GO BLUE!

I keep thinking about the 2007 team whose offense did just enough to get through the Big Ten season alive before unveiling a spread out attack for the bowl game against Florida. Obviously the various injuries may have made that impossible earlier in the year, but at some point during between the OSU game and the bowl, the coaches realized it would work. Will Borges take a look at this game and realize anything? Will Hoke? How much more do we have to see?

Maybe my comparision is not perfectly direct, but the concept is still a worthwhile one.

Clearly there must have been some moment where RR realized he couldn't win. That whatever steps he had needed to take were already missed opportunities. When did RR realize that he was doomed, and did he openly express any regrets?

Also, how did Bacon find time for both this and playing Rickety Cricket?

That's the most fake smile I've ever seen on Denard's face.

Seems to me that the big problem is that this stuff is set up ahead of time. The school doesn't get to negotiate with the bowl in particular. Doesn't seem like a very sensible way to do business. They have the schools over a barrel, because what are they going to do, NOT go to a bowl game? If you're Northern Illinois, you only get so many opportunities to get that bowl bid. Well, I guess with so many bowls forced to take eligible teams, the "smaller" schools could indeed negotiate this. Why don't they? Are they overly optimistic about how many fans are going to show up?

Look forward to seeing your thoughts congeal into a proposed solution. Seems like they tend to do that...

Double the muppets, double the fun for a 2nd round Big Ten Tourney win over Illinois? What the hell, let's dance!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ax89cSQ3MG8

How can someone with his experience level actually think he was going to get away with this? This is such an unconscionable error, one that he had plenty of time to think about during the offseason before pressing onward. It doesn't matter if these were his two best players. He had to know this was a bill that had an awfully high probability of coming due.

Which leads to my question: is Tressel a junkie? "Successful" junkies (of any kind - drugs, gambling, alcohol, sex addiction) tend to be able to hide their junkiness for a while. They get away with it and do more and eventually things get so out of control that they're snorting coke off the towel rod in the bathroom when their teenage kid walks in on them. As compiled by Brian earlier and referenced above, this is not the first smoke emanating from potential fire on Tressel's watch. It just happens that with those e-mails this smoke comes straight from the gun itself. And Tressel left his prints all over it.

He really was on top of the world. Leading the only significant program in the third most talent-rich state. Big Ten titles and BCS bowls and top recruiting classes. He evidently even had the president of the university in his back pocket. Tressel is now college football's Tiger Woods. He pushed this thing as far as he could while still getting away with it. He should have blown his own whistle as soon as that e-mail came through. Any resonable person would have seen the inevitability of the situation. But he obviously thought he could get away with it. Are we to believe that getting out of jeopardy scot-free in the past is not a factor in his decision to ignore the obvious?

They say never trust a junkie. That's hard to do if you don't know they're a junkie in the first place. Sometimes you need proof to stop enabling. I can't imagine the NCAA will try to do anything less than a harsh intervention. Not anymore at least. Dude hasn't even accepted that he has a problem yet. Someone needs to sit him down and tell him what's what. It's clear that the peopel close to him aren't going to do it.

Kudos to you, Brian for giving this issue so much attention. If it doesn indeed move, you were one of the first ones pushing it.  Thanks.

1) Michigan has/is surely made/making Harbaugh an offer.

2) It's up to Harbaugh to accept or reject the offer.

3) There's only one fucking guy on the planet who knows anything about #2 at this point and he's coaching a football game tonight. So all we can do is wait or talk about Plan B candidates... of which, well, I'd rather just wait.

Anyone can read twitter feeds, it doesn't make it reporting. (This is in no way a slam on Brian, but on reporters passing off "feelings around the league" as some sort of information.)

My friends had a "Malkovich" door in their dorm room which led to a small storage space within the walls and roof of Mo-Jo. This being 1994, that room was not used for storage of anything considered legal beyond a black light and some florescent posters. Time sure seemed to stop in there. Antiguity can have its benefits at times...

Enjoy your much-deserved time off, Brian!

As others here have said, we'll take it!

A yoeman's effort here.

...how much work the UFR for this one is going to be. Thank God Michigan won. Otherwise I don' t know if Brian could survive it.

...but I think in the competition for recruits, overall success of Ohio State only matters a little bit. As naijablue said above, Michigan's performance and excitement about the direction of the program are the two biggest keys.

Losing against Iowa doesn't kill us, but winning against Iowa would have been a huge momentum builder for recruiting. 8-4 is still within reach, and should be the target.

Mgoblog changed my life. It changed my life a lot. I have already mentioned this to Brian and if by chance he remembers the conversation he understands why.

I really think that Brian's story is an inspiration for anyone who has ever wanted to follow their passions. And lucky for everyone who comes here, it is to our benefit.

Excellent profile, Six Zero. I have really enjoyed this series. Thanks for posting.

That first video is remarkable. I'm overcome with emotion. Seriously.

Brian, the other day you were trying to sum up why you're a fan. Well, watching that video it just hits you that this is all so important (even though perhaps it shouldn't be). Even the cheesy country song can't ruin the feeling. Michigan could lose the next 11 games this year, and we STILL have that damn video.

So why am I getting choked up? What's this all about? As much as I loathe the guy, I can't help but think about Isiah Thomas talking with Dan Patrick during an episode of The NBA's Greatest Games, watching an old Finals game versus the Lakers. He's near tears and Patrick asks him why, and he say, "You just, wouldn't understand." Obviously, this is not the same. I never took over an NBA Finals game on a busted ankle. But what I'm saying is WE undestand. As Michigan fans, there is the feeling that rises when we watch seomthing like that. And the shit we weren't around for yet (like Anthony Carter's game winner against Indiana), we feel it anyway.

We can't explain it, even to each other, but we all know it's there. Would love if some enterprising fellow could redo the thing with any other song, but damn, it's fine the way it is anyway. Thanks very much for posting.

In the aftermath, one of my good friends said, "Man if I was John L Smith, I would tell that idiot to cut his fucking rat-tail hanging out of his helmet." I told him, "What's he gonna do, he's Somoan." This made the fucking rat-tail OK for my friend. I don't think either of us realized I was quoting Pulp Fiction, either.

People keep mentioning Burgess' interception return for a TD, but ND quickly tied the game up on their next drive. Woodley's "look what I found", stiff-arm-laden fumble return for a Touchdown is the moment from that game that will always stick out to me. It was at that moment, when we had utterly embarassed them, that it was clear that the team could be something special. It didn't swing a game, but it was the cherry on top of a sweet, sweet sundae.

Also, it appeared he was going to keep running to the back of the endzone and kick a hole in the ND Band's bass drum. That would have been 100% Colombian Awesome.

...and just may end up in the Top 6, no?

Brian, you showed some impressive restraint here. I realize it was days later, but I am sure you are still furious. I have already ruled out four airlines due to my own experiences. I will add this to the list due to yours.

That's some mighty fine work, there, Brian and Compliance Guy. Thanks for the perspective.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Division #1 seems quite a bit more competitive than Division #2, no? You have five of the six worst teams together (and, therefore five of the six best in the other). This would be far more lopsided than the Big 12, and Penn State would play in the championship game 73% of the time.

...but there's no denying that Michigan sure has some kick-ass fuckin' bloggers.

Saludos, gentlemen!

GO BLUE!

"It's really hard to get off on that sort of thing."

That's what she said...

Man, I had forgotten about that particular line and upon your reminder just busted out with a mini-spit-take. I'm still giggling.

Don't worry about the swing in the Vegas line. What's changed this week? A number if insipid quotes by MSU players hitting newspapers about how they're "angry" and "not respected" by Michigan. That may persuade casual gamblers, but I think most would agree it's a much clearer indicator that Sparty's not very focused on the task at hand. I know it's an emotional game and all, but they need to be prepared or they lose. I don't see how such an attitude aids their preparation.

Ohhh... Vera Baits. Hahaha. Seriously, this makes it more hilarious for me.

We shut down State Street in front of the Union. Someone had stolen a Notre Dame flag which was first tried to be lit on fire, then tried to be ripped apart, both unsuccessfully. Eventually, someone pulled out a pocketknife and was able to stab at it, but the flag remained basically intact.

Totally agree on Brian's assessment of when it should be deployed. One of my friends started the chant in a crowded bar during the 2006 Ohio State game when we took a lead in the first half. I still partially blame him for the loss.

You slogged through some incredibly difficult UFRs last year. You deserve this. Thanks!

The Diag

In addition to the foolish long pass (I thought the same as you - it's not that he passed, it's that he went long down the sideline), Weis pulled another huge boner early in the game.

I believe it was on their first drive, when ND had first and and goal and came up empty. On second down, he emptied the backfield and then called a QB run up the middle. Clausen was predictably stopped as was their previous momentum. I'm not sure why this is even in their playbook, or certainly why someone would call a play like this in that situation. I assume it's again because he wants to prove what an unconventional genius he is.

He keeps pulling this crap. I'm reminded of Einstein's definition of insanity...

Great post, Brian.
A

Koger totally stole that ball from Tacopants.

Oh, that's an equals sign. I thought something had been redacted.

(A) I'll go fetch the shredder. You start the fireplace.
(B) Better dead than Red.

Yeah, I know they're scarlet. Whatever, best I could do for now. Great thread here, though!

...I remember being utterly shocked that they chose to spike the ball in that situation. When the clock reads 0:02 that means you have between 1 and 2 seconds left. Why leave it up to the refs? I was in the WSU section (the only place I could find purchase with my accidentally-bought fake ticket). The Cougar fans around me were halfheartedly saying "We should have another play," but you could tell they all thought it was a really dumb decision in the first place.

(Note - not disagreeing with you. The previous play ended at 0:04, but it's not like Price couldn't see the clock.)

...but unfortunately, my work is pounding me right now and I don't have time to take a close examination. But what I can do is eyeball these numbers and relatively definitively say that there's no statistical significance between any of the groupings. It seems to me that "lost games" would be the most important part because it takes into account the severity of the injury. A sprained thumb that lasts for half a game shouldn't count the same as a torn ACL, right?

I think it's safe to assume that the running QBs are getting hit more, but perhaps the fact that they're presumably "elusive" means that they don't take the hits as hard and are able to reach the sidelines to avoid hits more easily. Of course, to do this "right", you probably need data that isn't there. For instance, does the offensive line suck? Is the QB getting tackled by DTs or CBs? Which conference (assuming the power conferences have bigger defenders)? I suppose the one thing to include would be where the tackle was made (loss, 0-5 yds downfiled, 5-10, 10+).

But I think the data here is deep enough (755 obs is plenty), and we're not seeing any strong trend, especially when you look at each year (because defenses may be trending a certain way). The fact that the "1"s have the highest is simply fluky, and further evidence that we see no real trend.

Re: The Michigan Hating Schedule God Thing: OSU has Michigan and Penn State as protected games. Does their overall competition level line up with ours? I'm guessing no since they missed Northwestern in their two best seasons since 1948 as well as Iowa when they went undefeated with Brad Banks. That kind of thing hasn't happened to Michigan. It's either a fluke or teams don't prepare for the season as well when they know Michigan isn't on it (a dubious premise). I can't fathom any other reason.

I'll shut up now and go back to running (more boring) numbers for my bosses...

Sure, vertical stripes are slimming, but eeeEEEEE(!) Barwis. Wow.

Bon Jovi? I have even less respect for Charlie Weis than I did this morning. What the hell is wrong with that guy?

Still there's no quality Washington blog out there? I realize they still suck, but man are Seattle-ites lazy. Or anti-social or something. You'd think someone would start the "Locker Stalker" or another equally silly-named site.

1) Does RR know that we're still selling out every game? There's only one way that's going to stop happening: another 3-9 season. Don't worry about the entertainment, coach.

2) Ernis kinda beat me to it, but I can only think of one suggestion for the marching band: Sabbath

They should play a different Sabbath track every week:
Paranoid
Supernaut
Wheels of Confusion
Sweet Leaf
Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
N.I.B.
Killing Yourself to Live
Fairies Wear Boots

They've done Ironman before, and it's been fine, but the above list would be superior, and they get you through the entire home slate.

...is a bit irrelevant, but when the hell is UConn going to change that ridiculous logo?

...but in this day and age I just can't see Michigan traveling to Stillwater, Oklahoma for a football game. And to imagine a trip to Virginia, I have to squint really hard. I would think that of the ones Brian lists, Cal and Arkansas are the only likely possibilities for a home and home.

LSU would be the most exciting by far.

FWIW, I really enjoyed my trip to Knoxville. The fans were friendly, hospitable, and generally knowledgable about football (especially compared to most of the other schools in their conference). Though I'm guessing that your CW#2 jersey didn't endear you to anybody.

They are still very angry about this. I offhandedly mentioned Woodson's name and my amiable host suddenly turned extremely serious and appeared as though he intended me bodily harm. I chose not to rub it in their faces the rest of the way.

1) I think Isiah has at least a shot at the title over Millen for worst manager in the history of sports. I'm not saying it's clear-cut, but at least Millen didn't cost the Lions millions in sexual harassment charges (yet).

2) Craig James. Man. I never liked this guy at all. Smug is the perfect word to describe him. Worse (and I'm not sure I should be writing this on the internet, but what the hell), the least favorite e-mail I've read over the last several years was when a publisher told me that they were passing on my college football book to put one out "by" Craig James (quotes mine) that "will pretty much do the same thing this book would." Suffice to say, I can't tolerate his presence in any capacity at this point in time.

Your point of view is extremely useful to all the amateur bloggers in the room. One (perhaps naive) question: Can WLW or UNIX be used in conjunction with Blogger? I'm just not prepared to pick up and move somewhere else yet...

Not just a "too many men on the field" penalty for the Huskies (only five yards), but an "Illegal participation" penalty (for 15). And then Brabbs comes through after the team had already missed a series of kicks throughout the day.

Henson may have had a great arm, but a QB needs more than that. The coaching staff was worried he'd bolt for baseball so they gave him playing time against Brady - pretty much only the second quarter of each game. Michigan only lost two games that year, Michigan State and Illinois. Those losses weren't directly his fault by any means, but if they hadn't played him at all, there was a chance he would have won each of them instead of losing.

Think about it. What's Henson's most memorable play? It was against Wisconsin when he chucked the ball back across the field and got lucky that Terrell was able to outjump two Badger defenders. The guy was better than a freshman John Navarre, for sure, but he just wasn't that good a QB, great arm or not. Jeff George had one of the strongest arms in NFL history, but isn't exactly headed to the Hall of Fame.

Henson never started a full season for Michigan because he was injured for the first 3.5 games. He said he would stick with the team and then bolted for money. In sum, screw him.

He's got a freaking ball point pen, right? Who signs a baby with a ball point pen?!? Whatever it is, it ain't right. And yes, those two dudes are the most quintessential Notre Dame grads ever - right down to the Sam Adams.

...because I find his prose intolerable. I have no idea why. I've tried many times. So I'm not going to check out the article. But did he make any mention of the 1996 Princeton/UCLA game? UCLA was the defending champ and Princeton was Princeton.

...which is the dumbest name for a Korean Restaurant I can think of. Not sure if the name has changed.

I was the same as you, man. University Cafe was my first regular Korean, and I indulged there often. I always wondered about the preponderance of Korean in Ann Arbor, too.

Why is nobody mentioning Backroom? Did they start to suck or go away or something? we had theories that they put something addictive in the cheese because if you ate it one day, you craved it all the more the next.

Nothing makes me feel older than every time I return to campus to see that more of my favorite places have closed or changed. Students, cherish your spots now, because half of them will be gone in ten years. In sum, I'm ooooooold....

Really, the epidemic of crappy scheduling has hardly anything to do with Bill Martin and everything to do with the sport at large. The prime candidate for scorn is the NCAA for allowing:
--I-AA opponents to count for bowl eligibility every season
--A 6-6 record to give you bowl eligibility.
It's all about money, but these two changes altered the interests of a team like Vanderbilt or any other mid-to-low level BCS team. Never before has a bowl game been so possible for those kinds of teams. Now they can potentially have greater value in outslugging a cupcake than taking a paycheck from Michigan. So even if Martin wanted to schedule some decent teams, the vast majority of them are not up for it. A bowl game helps with money and recruiting a lot more than Michigan's paycheck.

Martin sees what the other schools are doing and in order to "remain competitive" (whether that's for Rodriguez's salary, better facilities or, ahem, legal settlements), he needs as much money as possible. Nick Saban affects us all. As Brian says here, it's not that the tickets prices are raised to pay the salaries, it's that we're willing to pay to see Delaware State. It's simple economics, and the demand curve remains above its intersection with supply. There's a consumer surplus and we should all be happy. I'm not really joking...

I interviewed SEC commish Mike Slive about a year ago and complained about this. He said he hates it, too and has tried various ideas to improve things, but the power's really not in his hands.

Blame the NCAA because they are one of two groups of people who can affect this. The other is us if we decide we've had enough and stop going. I don't see that happening any time soon...

Nice Brain Candy reference, Brian.

Seriously, though, I don't see how you can say that healthy newspapers = more readership for you. I definitely see how it makes your job (a little) easier, and probably makes the website better. But if newspapers went away entirely, and people were, you know, in the mood to read something, they'd have to Google Michigan Football which currently has this site turning up in the top ten.

Maybe you don't need those readers, but if you got them, you could hire more interns or whatever.

Actually, I think the copy editor guy removed the superfluous comma and replaced it with his comments. So there were originally commas before and after the "but."

Either way, that's fucking hilarious.

I swore off of Michigan basketball sometime during my junior year (95-96). The team was as talented as any in the nation, but played like a bunch of assholes. I was too big a basketball fan to support them. The fact that Robert Traylor couldn't box out, even by accident, was too much for me to deal with. I was also greatly bothered by the fact that Maurice Taylor never got any better than his freshman year of college. Both were clear signs that there was no coaching going on.

I switched my basketball loyalties back to my home state and Illinois, and have never regretted the decision. Obviously with football, hockey, and every other Michigan sport I remained an ardent fan. But seeing Albert White try to a baseline dunk only to completely miss the rim and send the ball to the third row on the other side of the court (yes this happened in a game), was just far too much for me.

However, Beilein has very quickly won me over. I spent last year in a steady transition back to Michigan and by the end of the season, it was no contest. This is a kind of basketball I can get behind. In sum, GO BLUE!

Also, unless I'm mistaken, Battier originally verbally committed to Michigan and then changed his mind. So he did at least think about it.

I just want to pause for one second and be glad that we even have this minimal amount of excitement. The idea that we "might make the tournament" seems sad on its face, particularly given the fact that Michigan has a pretty solid hoops history. But for today, I'm excitedly excited to be excited. Excitement.

Who knows if he was bad at being president? 32 days ain't much. Now, if you're saying that his job was to wear a damn jacket to his inauguration parade, then yeah, he's even worse than Isiah...

This reminds me of Joan Rivers guest-hosting the Tonight Show. You can take that to mean whatever you want (though the one clear thing it most certainly means: I is old).

Also, I could have said it reminds me of Paul Schaeffer guest-hosting Letterman's show. That would've been worse for sure, right? It doesn't remind me of that, but Joan Rivers guest-hosting the Tonight Show does. OK, enough of my tortured logic until the next posting.

You're kinda convincing me, Onas. Also, I think he probably has the urge to reprove himself after the Syracuse debacle. So that gives me just a bit of hope, too. But I'm not psyched or anything.

I wasn't saying it was my argument, but there are certainly many who make it.

My point was that even if you take that argument at face value, the types of fans that can afford to travel are different. So, let's assume it's 75/25 (definitely NOT the case for the only Rose Bowl I've been to, but Washington State had far to travel, too). On top of having a #s advantage, they also have a, I dunno what to call it - passion advantage? Because the drunken yokels (yes, they have them at USC, too, though in fewer numbers) can actually go to the game.

I think your sample is plenty big (opening it up to more people wouldn't change the results much at all), but as others have said, it probably skews more towards the people who make comments and generate diaries. Not so much because the survey filled up quickly, but because I would imagine they're at least twice as likely to bother to click over and completed it in the first place. Of course, coupled with other analytics, you can probably figure out the proper factor to shift survey results if you're interested.

I find myself missing Keith Jackson more than ever today.

You can move me over to the column of the recently converted, too, but I'm filled more with fear than anything else. Think about how badly they screwed up the BCS. Think they won't immediately go to a hastily constructed 16-team playoff bracket when they do finally make the switch? Anyway, I wrote a bit about it here, before yesterday's game.

What's worse is I stayed up until 3am (Argentina time) to sit through imbecilic hyperbole to see the team I didn't think deserved to be there lose to the team I can't possibly root for as long as the same dickhead is coaching them. Um, yeah, a little tired and cranky at the office today.

I guess I feel like "setting aside" the round robin and going with the rest of the schedule is a cop-out because it means you're eliminating the best two opponents from each team's schedule. Certainly, it makes it all confusing, but that's where style points come in. Just my two cents (and yeah, I'd have Texas over OU with the greatest reason being that their loss was a razor-thin, road, night game).

Brian, you've nailed it as usual. It's clear that the team is playing hard, and despite some painful losses, they're persevering through the growing pains. A friend recently sent out the Jim Rome "Chris" Everett video, and it made me realize what a profound impact that event had on sports journalism. Suddenly, Rome had made a name for himself. Now we have a slew of ESPN shows dedicated to this garbage, and the print journalists all are trying to get into the outrage business. Keep on 'em, Brian.

BUT, we won! We haven't won in a month and a half! Please tell me you enjoyed it at least a little. I hope you did. And maybe it's not your job to have that show up in this space (and maybe especially not right now), but I hope you still had a great Saturday.

Re: Tennessee. After going there for a game (highly recommended), I believed it all the more. Pretty much every Tennessee fan I've met has been cool and really fun to talk football with. But I always held a grudge because of Fulmer's vote. The similarities are clear. Plus, everyone in their conference HATES them. I think we're used to that also...

Henry the Kiss has been known to get around.

For your information, the supreme court has roundly rejected prior restraint. This issue affects all of us, man! Well. Fine. I'm stayin'... Finishin' my pizzas.

Speaking solely as a person who tore his ACL about fourteen months ago and hasn't played hockey or even really skated since age 12, no fucking way.

Brian - just wanted to say thanks for this. For a Michigan fan living in Buenos Aires whose only current method of seeing the game is via a slingbox at a rather egalitarian bar (which means we had to split time with the Auburn, Tennessee, and Florida State fans in attendance), this is an invaluable service. We were fortunate to witness the Minor TD and subsequent pick-6 live as well as Wisconsin's last drive, but there was a general haziness well before any of the Quilmes kicked in. Thanks for bringing me up to speed.

They throw the "It's Great..." cheer out all day long, and a lot of schools in the south do it, too. I tried to find out when they first started and nobody knew. But I know Michigan's been doing "It's Great, to be, a Michigan Wolverine" since at least 1994, if not before. I always thought we invented it, but I couldn't get to the bottom of it. But, uh, maybe we shouldn't be making fun of them for doing a cheer that we also do?

I happen to think "Get up and GO" is pretty cool, actually. It's loud as hell.

There are regional trends in tailgating, but every place has its own unique aspects, both awesome and unnervingly terrible (I'm talking to you, Rutgers bus system!). I hit 17 different games last year, including the Iron Bowl. I definitely agree that the Auburn fans were nice, and unlike other southern schools, the Big Ten and USC bashing was somewhat kept in check (especially ironic since Auburn was the school that actually got shut out of the championship game USC won after the 2003 season).

My main point is that while there are some regional trends, to talk about an SEC tailgate implies that they're all the same. And, based on the four I saw, their differences are many. The only truly unifying thing would be bourbon and lots of it. If you want to read more, I blathered at length in my blog last season. It was an awesome trip, and Auburn was certainly one of the highlights.

Re: TV Advertising. We're Michigan. We're better than that. It is gaudy as hell when replays are sponsored by pizza joints and underarmor commercials assault you from the sky. I'm not sure if it would work, but maybe doing a separate fundraising drive for a Zillatron would do the job. Of course, the people with the most available cash are probably older and would be less into such a thing, but you never know...

Great writeup, Brian. My experience at the Iron Bowl was rather similar. Except I was nearly tackled by Tommy Tuberville. No joke. Full writeup here:

http://roadgames07.blogspot.com/2007/11/iron-souls.html

Sorry you didn't get to see Toomer's Corner all done up. It's a sight to behold.

...but I wanted to say that I am thoroughly enjoying the deployment of the word ponderous.

If and when we do get that excited, can we begin calling him "Marvelous" Martavious Odoms? Thanks.

Big points for creativity on the Stache photo, but I gotta knock em back a bit for execution. Where's that aggressive unibrow???

 Check it:

http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/cover/featured/8296/index.htm