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NY weather can vary that time of year.  Would be interesting to see some of the more southern teams (geographicly) from the ACC play in some nice cold weather.

I don't know if it's beefing up the non-conference schedule so much as replacing ND on the non-conference schedule.

Maybe lacks 'game' speed.  Wasn't his 40 time at the combine or pro day one of the fastest out of the group of safeties?

 www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTSvbv9uLlY

Not sure if that link works but it's Keith Jackson doing the intro to the 100th UM-OSU game.

would probably love to join any 'BCS' Conference - Big Ten, ACC, SEC, Big 12 or Pac-12.  Those are the two schools that are going to be hit the hardest from the demise of the Big East. 

that he's also coached at MSU and LSU.  Neither of which were great programs when he took over at those schools.  Also, when Saban took over Alabama the Crimson Tide wasn't that good either.  They went 7-5 in his first year. 

It'll be interesting to see how the whole team adapts to life without Burke.  I'm hoping in the off-season McGary can continue to develope the 12-15' jumper as well as one or two solid moves moves with his back to the basket in the post.  Combine those items with his ability to put the ball on the floor for one or two dribbles and get to the basket and he could be an absoute terror.

How do you calculate how many 3, 4, and 5 star recruits a school has in the composite box up top?

Up top in the composite box with all the schools, it indicates that MSU has no 4 star recruits but then when MSU's recruits are listed individually 4 of their players have a 4th star from at least one service.

With OSU, in the composite box up top they are listed as having five 4 star recruits but then down below all 7 of their recruits have at least one 4th star from one of the servces.

Good point about the plan for inter division games.  If I'm any team in the west other than Nebraska, Wisky and Iowa (teams who sell out or come close to selling their stadiums every home game) I sure as heck want to see OSU or UM coming to town every year because I know that's one game where the stadium will be sold out or darn close.  If I'm Illinois, NU, Purdue or Minny the last thing I want to hear is that I'm probably going to be hosting Rutgers, Maryland and Indiana a lot more than OSU or UM.

probably hasn't come up as a possibility because why would Stanford want to do that?  Every road trip in conference play would be end being at least a trek half way across the country.

In terms of the overall team rankings quantity of recruits plays a big role.  I usually look at average star per player.  USC last year is a good example.  On rivals their class for 2013 was ranked 13th.  However, their average star per player was 4.42.  Texas A&M was ranked 11th but their average star per player was only 3.35.  A&M brought in 31 recruits while USC only had 12. 

Obviously, you want more than 12 recruits but if UM only signs around 20, their class will be ranked pretty high but they probably won't be ranked #1 because there will be schools that have good classes but sign 25-28 kids.

doesn't necessarily mean there are going to be coaches there/watching.  I'm sure the players know drills they can do whether a coach is there or not.  It's probably not much different than a bball player going to the gym and working on this free throws, shooting, dribbling by himself or with teammates.

If McGary could shoot the three, I'm guessing we would have seen some pick and rolls where instead of rolling to the basketball, he rolls to the 3 point line.  Kind of like what the Pistons did with Lambeer.

Even Kerr and Kellog commented on Hancock moving and that they thought it should have been a no call.

I think Siva was their only sr that started.  UK will be ranked pretty high too. OSU will probably be up there.  They have most of their players coming back and a couple of the younger guys really started stepping up towards the end of the year.

There were a number of items that hurt UM, free throws maybe at the top of the list but that's been a problem all year, but I can't believe those are three of the best refs in D1.  That was a badly officiated game all around.

when they go to two divisions in football in 2015, they could name the divisions the leaders and the legends.

It'll be interesting to see who UM picks on C-Williams to start the game.  Burke's only 6'1" at best.  Do they throw Stauskas or THJ on Williams and let Burke start off on Triche?

Was looking at the Director's Cup website and points for the Fencing National Championship is included in tomorrow's release.  ND got 2nd in fencing.

Alford's had 4 coaching stops in his career before taking the UCLA job and with the possible exception of Iowa, he's done a solid job at the other 3.

The first stop was Manchester, Division 3.  They went 4-16 his first year.  By the time he left after his 4th year they had made 3 straight trips to the d3 ncaa tourney and were 31-1 and ncaa runner-up in his 4th year. 

Southwest Missouri St:  stayed there 4 years.  In his 4th year they made the sweet 16.  He left for Iowa after that.  They haven't been to the ncaa tourney since.

New Mexico:  in 6 years there he won 4 conference titles and made 3 ncaa tourney appearances. 

I don't know if he's going to set the world on fire at UCLA but I doubt he's going to bomb either.

While Morris might have beaten Bellomy out for second string, that might not affect who would play in mop up duty.  If the coaches wanted to redshirt Morris, they might have thrown Bellomy in for garbage time.  However, if Gardner got hurt and was going to be out for a few games, Morris would have then gotten the nod.

Sure Morris can get some game reps this year and sit in 2014, but I think if he isn't able to redshirt this year, he won't redshirt next year unless it's injury related.  If he's healthy in 2014, the coaches will want him to see mop up duty to get him as much game experience as possible before 2015.

There's really only a few times a game where any player might run 40 yds in somewhat of a straight line - punt coverage and kickoff coverage (but you'll probably be dodging blockers at some point), a wr on a fly route, a ball carrier who breaks into the open field. 

I haven't seen much out of GRIII when UM has played the top level big ten teams to make me think he's ready to make the jump to the pros.  When you consistently disappear against the best teams on the schedule, it makes me think he'd be spending a lot of time on the bench in the nba. 

If his dad managed his money right, the money factor shouldn't way to heavily in his decision making process.

That was such a downer.  UM was up something like 12-6, had to put together a nice 4th quarter drive and was attempting a FG to go up 2 scores.  Washington blocks the FG and returns it for a TD.  One or two plays after the kickoff Navarre throws a pass to Perry out in the flat.  It bounces off of Perry's hands and is intercepted and returned for a TD.  Within a matter of minutes (and probably less than a minute on the game clock) UM went from possibly being up 15-6 to being down 20-12.

was almost the perfect opponent to make UM look real good - an undersized team (I think only one starter was over 6'5") that likes a fast pace.

if you're gambling you drink for free?????

another key is how well UM finishes near the rim.  If UM is breaking down the press, they're going to get a decent amount of shots near the rim.  They need to convert those easy chances.  Over the course of the year all most everyone but Burke seemed to have stretches where they have trouble finishing near the rim.

That's what I have too.

I agree that the path for a #1 or #2 seed is much more conducive for more advancing.  Although with the parity and balance in college bball now it might not be as conducive as it was 10, 15, 20 yrs ago.  Assuming you're the ncaa has done a decent job seeding, if you're a 4 seed playing a 5 seed in the second round, you're matched up with a team that is relatively your equal. 

Since their 16-0 start, they've gone 10-7.  I'm guessing it's been since sometime in January when they beat a team away from Ann Arbor that will be in the ncaa tourney.

It started with Grbac (and you could probably say Harbaugh even though Taylor and Brown were between Grbac and Harbaugh), but Moeller and Carr had really developed the QB position at UM.  At least on this graph Henne, Guttierez and Mallet were all highly ranked QB recruits.  I think both Kelvin Grady and Kelly Baraka were both pretty highly rated as running back recruits.  I'm sure there were others (Manningham) but those are the ones that I remember.

Those schools are going from a BCS league to a mid major, probably conference USA.  The women's bball program has to be stunned.  One of the premier women's programs in the country in a good basketball conference getting ready to enter a mid major conference.

Don't get me wrong, the kid has talent, but I'll be interested to see how he does next year with a very green oline.  He had the good fortune to run behind the best oline in the country this past year. 

If the season were to end today, the #2 and #3 seeds would probably have to play Illinois and Minnesota in the quarterfinals.  It's not out of the question that Illinois or Minnesota could fall to the 8th seed, which in that case the #1 seed in the tourney might have to play one of those teams in the quarterfinals.

To win the big ten tourney you're probably going to have to beat 3 teams that are going to be seeded at least 10 or higher or possibly 8 or higher in the ncaa tourney. 

if you look at the 4 teams you mentioned, most, if not all, had very good defenses. 

That was Henson's junior year. 

Devin Gardner doesn't get added to that list.

I think shakey ground is somewhat relative.  As you mention the other teams that the other 'BCS' conferences might consider poaching are UConn and Cincy.  The Big East is what it is now - a mid-major conference where the only real worry is whether teams are going to jump ship to another mid major conference.  The pillaging of the Big East by other BCS conferences is pretty much done.

you want to rotate running backs but if you put a back in only for certain situations, defenses will start to pick up on that and have a pretty good idea of what is coming depending on which back is in the game. 

You ideally want 2-3 backs who can handle all aspects of the position - running, catching and pass protection.

Maybe it's just me but I'm not putting a lot of stock in how Stauskas and GRIII performed in the pre-season NIT as a barometer for how they'll do in the big ten tourney or ncaa's.  There wasn't much in the way of scouting reports for either player at the time of the pre-season NIT and the pressure level of that tourney compared to the big ten tourney and ncaa tourney is apples to oranges. 

Agree.  They seemed to have turned things around at the right time.  4 game winning streak with wins over IU, at Minny and blow out wins against Purdue and Northwesten.

Sure UM just got done with a killer stretch but they've also played some of the worst teams in D1.  Binghampton has an rpi of 336 (out of 347 teams).  IUPUI has an rpi of 308.  CMU is 249 and EMU is 235.  Like someone mentioned those 4 teams are weighing down UM like a bunch of anchors. 

Brian's mentioned this the past few years - sure you want a few cupcake games but you need to make sure those cupcakes are going to be somewhat decent.  You throw a couple teams with rpi's above 300 on your schedule and it's going to hurt your SOS.

Looking at the OP it's pretty telling how tough the first 2/3's of UM's schedule in conference play was.  Illinois, Minnesota, OSU, Wisky, Indiana and MSU all on the road.  Every other team listed in the OP has at least 2 road games remaining against those 6 schools and Michigan except Wisconsin.

At the beginning of conference play everryone said there was 2 keys to winning the conference. 

1) Stealing a game or two on the road.  UM definitely didn't against MSU, Wisky and IU but they walked out of Minny and Illinois with wins.  The teams in 1st, 2nd and 3rd right now have the 3 biggest road wins so far in the conference - MSU in Madison, IU in Columbus and Wisky in Bloomington.  However, they all still have some tough road games especially if you throw in Wisky and IU still have to go to Minnesota.

2) holding serve at home.  So far of the 5 teams in the OP only Michigan and MSU have held serve at home.  IU lost to Wisy, Wisky lost to MSU and OSU lost to Indiana.

If UM can hold serve at home they'll probably be right in the thick of the conference race win Indiana comes to town for the final game of the regular season. 

The offense is what is so frustrating to me.  It's like you said they're either doing a 3 man weave on the perimeter or pick and roll on the perimeter.  Do not they not have any set plays to free someone up?  No one is moving without the ball.  They rarely if ever throw the ball into the low post.  For a coach that is supposed to be really good with the x and o's, you'd think he'd come up with a few tweaks here and there over this tough stretch.

How far UM goes in the tourney will probably depend on who they end up playing.  A physical team will give them problems.  A team that can defend on the perimeter will give them problems.  After watching these last 4 games, it seems if you can keep Burke from penetrating, you're going to cause the UM offense fits.  Wisky usually trailed Burke on the pick and roll but their big men was set up so Burke couldn't knife to the bucket.

If Stauskas and GRIII don't show up on a neutral floor in a huge environment, UM isn't getting past the second weekend of the tourney.

As long as Morgan is healthy I like UM's chances against Duke. 

Louisville, VCU and Minny were neutral courts.  Kentucky, NC State and Miami, FL were on the road.

beat IU in Bloomington.

Indiana's gautlet starts now?  They host Nebraska and Purdue this week. 

MSU still has their gautlet in front of them.  Starting on the 19th they go:  IU, @OSU, @UM, Wisky.

I think one of the big differences back then (and the diluted talent poolf to expansion probably has some merit) is teams had a lot more guys who were good shooters.  Bird, DJ, and Ainge could all shoot really well.  Parish and McHale were good in the low post but could also step out to 15-17 feet and drain a jumper.

On the Lakers Magic and Bryon Scott were both good shooters.  Early in his career Magic wasn't a good shooter but by '87 he was solid, not great.  They brought Michael Cooper and Jamaal Wilkes off the bench - both of who could shoot. 

Even the bad boys had a lot of good shooters - Isaiah, Dumars, Lambeer, the microwave. 

Now there's guys on the floor who couldn't hit the broadside of the barn.  They're role is to play defensive and/or rebound and that's it. 

IU jumped out to the lead and other than a couple stretches in the first half, IU always looked like they were in control of the game.  Very impressive.

If there was ever a year to get one of the top 4 seeds, this is it.  I can't see any team winning 4 games in a row to win the tourney this year.  The 5th seed is going to be a pretty solid team and have a major uphill battle to win the tourney.  Not to mention, that 4 vs 5 game is going to be a great game in the quarterfinals.

There's a good chance someone is going to have to play Illinois in the quarterfinals.  Not that Illinois is a great team, but when they decide to show up they've shown they can play with just about any team in the conference.

I think UM's hopes of winning an outright title come down to whether they can win Tuesday.  A loss Tuesday and the best they can probably hope for is a co-championship.

Sparty acutally has a brutal 4 game stretch coming up at the end of the season:

Indiana, @OSU, @Michigan, Wisky

They'll probably lose 1 or 2 of those games.  Of course, if UM loses at East Lansing UM will be two games behind State and probably need to win out to have a chance at the conference title.

Historically Nebraska's hasn't pulled great recruiting classes. 

Understand his reasoning with recruits but I know a lot of fans don't like a ton of saturday night games.  Especially, those that travel 2-3 hours to come to a game. 

When reading Brian's part about rebounding,  I was scratching my head cause it seemed to me OSU was able to keep the game tight late because of their offensive rebounding.

I'd like to see Burke try to penetrate as well.  If he can get some penetration it opens up a number of options: 1) possible foul on the dribble or shot, 2) if he penetrates and shoots the rebound is probably going to be close to the rim and with the defense rotating to stop the penetration opens up a possible easy put back, or 3) penetrate and dish to an open shooter.

looks like it could either sort things out or have it become even more jumbled.  Everyone in the top 6 plays at least one game against someone else in the top 6 while OSU and UM play 2 games against teams in the top 6.

In the same division it's guaranteed to be the last game of the year.  If UM and OSU are in separate divisions, at least imo, it's only a matter of time until the game gets moved.  If there's back to back years or 2 out of 3 years where UM/OSU play the last game of the season and then a week later play in the conference title game, there would probably be a strong push to move the game to the middle of the season.

I'm not sure why the separation occured but unless Illinois was going to open the bank vaults, there's probably no way they could have kept Self.  Kansas vs Illinois is a no-brainer when it comes to basketball.

they need the extra money to help fund their other 30+ varsity sports.

There's obviously tons of reasons one can throw out there as to why the Big Ten hasn't won a NC.  I went back to 2000 and looked at how many Final Four teams each conference has had and it breaks down like this:

Big Ten - 10

Big East - 10

ACC - 10

Big 12 - 7

SEC - 6

Pac-10 - 4

Other - 5

So while the Big Ten hasn't won a title since 2000, the conference as a whole seems to have performed pretty well.

is what percentage of the population is going to games?  30 years ago the population of the US was a lot smaller than what it is today.  Is a greater percentage of the population going to games today? Or is it a smaller percentage of the fans going to games that is masked by the fact that the overall population is much greater. 

At the beginning of your post Brian you touched on another reason why UM is performing well on the defensive glass - they aren't allowing many shots close to the basket.  Often times shots close to the basket are a result of an offensive players penetration - either the penetrator is shooting the ball or he passes to another player close to the basket.  Once an offensive player has gotten by his defender it forces the rest of the defenders to rotate and help which usually doesn't leave the defenders in a great position to box out and sometimes leaves a 6'4" defender trying to box out a 6'9" offensive player. 

I know people meet on the internet and I know people have long distance relationships, but...you have a long distance phone/internet relationship for 3 years and NEVER MET??????

At some point don't you want to meet this person?  Wouldn't you try to meet over one of the summer vacations?  I just can't fathom two people would keep a long distance phone/internet relationship going for 3 years and not meet at least once.

McGary is wrongfully criticized a couple of times by OP.  As you mentioned, it's the dribblers responsibility to 'rub shoulder's' with the person setting the pick to make it more difficult for the man guarding the dribbler to get through the pick.

The second time McGary was criticized was for setting to shallow of pick.  Again, this falls more on Burke.  For McGary to set a screen further from the basket, Burke needs to wait a little longer before he makes his move.  However, on this particular play the shot clock is running down and Burke might have thought there wasn't time to let McGary come out further.

The kicker to me is what you said.  Assuming use started sometime in the mid to late 90's (Bonds was still fairly thin when he left Pittsburgh for SF in '93), these two were already laying the foundation for a career worthy of the Hall of Fame. 

has a career batting average of .308.  That's extremely high for a guy who spend most of his career playing catcher.

In my opinion, it's much easier to be willfully ignorant of players receiving money.  When it comes to cars, I have a harder time buying it.  These coaches spend months recruiting the players - visiting theirs schools, in home visits, official and unofficial visits on campus.  I would think the coaches should have a pretty good idea of which players families can afford certain types of cars.  If certain players are pulling up in brand new cars, red flags should be going off in the coaches heads.

I said 'most of the defense' will be back in 2014.

Agree.  I think it's still a solid year away.  In 2014, they should have everyone but Schofield returning on the line (including TE),   The crazy thing is looking at the defense most of the guys Brian mentions above will be back in 2014.

You really have to wait and see what happens.  I don't know if the Fab Five had the depth that this team has.  The Fab Five had 5 really good starters and decent guys off the bench, but other than those 3 lottery picks no one else really stuck in the pros did they?  The Fab Five never won a big ten title either.

The '89 team was loaded. 

They've only played one more ranked team than ND.

Alabama:  Michigan, LSU, Texas A&M, Georgia.

ND:  Michigan, Oklahoma, Stanford. 

they end the season with at least a 6 game winning streak.

even splitting those games gives UM a good shot.  It's going to be a biatch to win on the road this year.  Any wins you can get on the road against Minny, OSU, MSU, Illinois and Indiana is going to be huge.

to me is key.  I doubt a player is going to look at the ref and point at the opposing player if the opposing player is beating his chest.  The video cuts off right when Carroll is looking at the ref.  It'd be nice if the video was a few seconds longer.

Coaches can leave at almost any time with no repurcussions.  If you're a player (especially an upperclassmen) and your coach and his staff leave, you are have to pray that your abilities and skills fit the philosophy of the new coach.  I'm not opposed to the new rules if there is a coaching change.

However, if the coach hasn't changed I'm not sure this is a good idea.

Does that include Bollman as the OC?

There's not going to be a ton of depth but I think there could be some good teams.  OSU will probably be preseason Top 10, if not Top 5.  Northwestern went 10-3 (and lead going into the 4th quarter in the 3 losses) and returns a good amount of people.  Nebraska will probably be solid.  From there it really depends on what schools like Minny, MSU and Indiana can do.  It's definitely not going to unseat the SEC as the best conference, but i think the potential is there for it to be stronger than it was this year.

The big issue will be non-conference play.  While the Big Ten wasn't that good this year, they took it on the chin in non-conference play - a lot of losses (some of those to MAC schools) and a number of close wins against mid-major schools.  Fair or not, how a conference does in the non-conference slate goes a long way in determining people's perception of that conference.

After Sanders returned the punt to put South Carolina up 14-3, I was waiting for the wheels to fall off and a possible blow out. 

Gallon's almost the #1 receiver by default, but your description tends to remind me of Avant - not blazing fast, really good route runner, catches just about anything.  Pre-RR era, Gallon would be the 'possession' type receiver opposite a Braylon or Manningham.

I like the placement of the bye weeks on the schedule.

This is my big concern.  The good news is with the the exception of ND, the first half of the schedule doesn't look that difficult on paper.  Barring key injuries, I'll be disappointed if UM isn't at least 6-1 heading into East Lansing.  Hopefully by then, the oline will have settled down and gotten comfortable. 

I also like the bye week before Sparty. 

I thought it was funny listening to Gruden and Tirico say Clowney was the best defensive player in the country after watching ESPN hype Teo leading up to the Heisman.

I think the Big 10 was possibly the best conference in the mid to late 90's.  PSU should have won a share of the NC in '94.  Michigan won a NC in '97  Both PSU and UM were solid programs.  OSU was a fixture in the Top 10.  Saban had turned MSU around, highligted by an upset in 1998 at OSU, which possibly cost OSU a NC, and followed up with a 10-2 year in 1999.  Mason had turned Minnesota into a decent program.  Northwestern won back to back Big Ten titles.  Tiller had Purdue on the upswing.  Alvarez had established Wisconsin as a solid program.  OSU won a Rose Bowl and a Sugar Bowl.  Michigan won a Sugar Bowl and the Big Ten won the Rose Bowl after the '92, '93, '94, '96, '97. ;98 and ;99 seasons.

How much of that is poor play calling versus poor execution by the players?  I thought Borges called a good game.  As others have mentioned, Gardner did OK.  He missed a handful of receivers who were open that would have been big gainers.  UM's offense also had a few penalites at really bad times.

I think they were beating LSU heading into the 4th quarter and then just collapsed.

I'm not up to date on the rules but isn't this a 'no contact' period with recruits.  Was LM3 allowed to talk to coaches or just interact with players?

Guys been playing cornerback for a couple of weeks and he's probably going to see the field?  Either he's a natural or our depth at corner isn't that good.

being able to run a good route and get open is probably just as important as the ability to catch a pass.  Not to mention, once everyone is at the line of scrimmage being on the same page as the QB as to what route you are going to run based upon what the defense does.

I wouldn't necessarily say either is an all-star coach.  However, Richt has the highest career winning percentage of any head coach at Georgia who has been there more than one year.  If they win their bowl game, he'll have 6 top ten rankings in 12 years. 

You do realize he won a NC at LSU before he went pro???

How does Norfleet see the field at corner?  Ramon Taylor had a pretty solid year.  Countess should be back and Avery seems like a solid nickel guy who's got plenty of experience.  Behind them you've got Richardson and Howell - 2 guys that are about the same build as Norfleet.

Is Countess injury maybe more severe than we know?

Just out of curiousity what makes the SEC OCC a joke?  Next year the Big Ten plays almost as many 1-AA schools as the SEC (10 to 14).  Some of the SEC's other non-conference games are:  Virginia Tech, Florida St, Miami (FL), Clemson - 2X, Georgia Tech, Louisville, TCU, Oklahoma St, Texas, North Carolina and Oregon.

Gardner didn't exactly set the world on fire the first few possessions against Minnesota, and that was after a week of practice and preparation.

by the time late November rolls around they'll have a season's worth of experience.

the nfl just have players sign a waiver that they understand it's a dangerous sport with risks of serious injury and they'll hold the nfl harmless for injuries suffered during their career or injuries after their career that resulted from playing in the nfl?