J.W. Wells Co.

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Date	Title	Body
24 weeks 1 day ago	The downside I suppose is	The downside I suppose is that by making your better teams play more tough games and giving easier games to worse teams, you're potentially watering down your product in terms of getting your best teams into a national playoff.  Along with the upside-down draft, the weighted schedule is what gives us so much parity in the NFL.
24 weeks 1 day ago	I wouldn't mind this if it	I wouldn't mind this if it could be done on a 2-year basis, so you'd have set opponents for a two-year term and have a head-to-head home-and-away and opportunities for revenge games.  The surges in new rivalries between MSU-Wisconsin and PSU-Iowa in recent years have been built on revenge games, and that kind of stuff is the essence of college football. Not sure how local hoteliers/restauranteurs in true college towns would enjoy not having game dates set until the end of the previous season, but I assume they'd be able to adapt somehow.
24 weeks 1 day ago	Yeah, imbalance was certainly	Yeah, imbalance was certainly a concern of mine (really it's only a glaring issue in the North-West vs. South-East split that we both mentioned), but then I really thought about it... Excising the RR era, since 1993 Michigan's best seasons have been undefeated and worst seasons have had five losses; that's a pretty big swing.  OSU has had a few barely .500 seasons in that time as well.  Notre Dame, Nebraska, and Penn State have seen awful seasons in recent memory.  Schools like Iowa, Wisconsin, Purdue, Northwestern, Illinois, and Georgia Tech could be 4-8 or 8-4 or better or worse as the pendulum swings back and forth in the next decade. You mention OSU as having a weak pod, and that's true.  But OSU gets Michigan on a permanent basis.  And four out of six years, OSU would either play ND, MSU, and Purdue, or Wisconsin, Nebraska, and Iowa. Michigan's got a strong pod, but four out of six years Michigan would play either NW, Rutgers, and Illinois, or GT, Penn State, and Indiana. I think competitive balance is a yearly crapshoot that can't be planned for on a yearly basis... only general trends emerge over time.
24 weeks 1 day ago	I like this in theory, but	I like this in theory, but I'd hate to lose an annual ND-MSU game in order to avoid a Michigan-OSU championship game rematch, which might happen once a decade, especially given that in two years out of every six, Mich and OSU would be in the same division and couldn't meet in a rematch anyways.
24 weeks 1 day ago	Whoops, gotcha.  Mea culpa.	Whoops, gotcha.  Mea culpa.
24 weeks 1 day ago	Sure there are divisions.	Okay, don't want to start a fight here, but sure there are divisions under this proposal.  The divisions are fixed at the beginning of each 2-year period, and there are true round robins in each division each season.  The winner of each division plays in a championship game.  That meets the NCAA's standard.  Then every two years, the divisions are changed around as the pods rotate with each other. As far as I know, the NCAA does not require divisions to be permanent; just fixed within each season. Plus, it's got to be legal as far as the NCAA is concerned, because the 16-team WAC did something very similar in the 1990s, with rotating pods.
24 weeks 1 day ago	Well the problem with that is	Well the problem with that is that (unless the NCAA changes its tune), you've got to play a round robin in your division.  That means you've got 7 division games.  You've only got 2 total games available for teams in the other division (non-partner pods).
1 year 4 weeks ago	Non-Compete Agreements...	...probably wouldn't work in the context of college coaching anyways.  To be binding, non-competes must be reasonable in (1) length of time; (2) scope of proscribed conduct; and (3) geographic scope. As a matter of public policy, we want people to be able to earn a living doing that in which they are best trained and most talented, so courts tend to look harshly on non-competes that are even just a little too burdensome.  Moreover, courts review non-competes even more narrowly when there isn't a direct client/customer base to be protected, or there aren't trade secrets to be protected. In the context of buying your average small-town neighborhood gas station and taking a non-compete from the former owner as part of the sale, the absolute most that would probably be considered reasonable for a non-compete would be maybe (1) 5 years; (2) no sales of gasoline or other convenience goods; and (3) a radius of 30 miles. In the context of college coaching, with coaches not able to directly steal "customers" and with few if any actual trade secrets to protect, and with so many different schools out there in different areas of the country, in different conferences, in different NCAA divisions, and that don't even play each other, I think the most you could ever reasonably get out of a valid non-compete might be (1) 2 years; (2) no head-coaching at Division 1 FBS level; (3) same state, or a radius of 100 miles.  Even that might be pushing it, given the established nature of the industry. Of course, such a narrow-scope non-compete would never keep a coach from jumping ship and going to a different job; the reasonable scope of the non-compete would just be too narrow to have any teeth.
1 year 34 weeks ago	I haven't seen anything this	I haven't seen anything this epic since I walked out of Camp Randall in 2001 and some random Wisconsin coed was sobbing and saying, "Why can't we ever beat those guys?"
2 years 33 weeks ago	Michigan,	Michigan, 48-34. . yes .
2 years 33 weeks ago	No, what you've said is	No, what you've said is basically accurate.  But looking back at the NCAA lists of national champions, it's fairly easy to see which are the consensus or even co-consensus champions.  See my comments in response to a similar question from MGoUser Fresh Meat below. For instance, in 1901 and 1902, Michigan "shared" its title with Harvard and/or Yale. But Harvard and Yale were named by only one selector each, while Michigan enjoys the opinion of several selectors.  My comment below spells out all of U-M's claimed and unclaimed titles.  For all of U-M's claimed titles, U-M can easily be called the consensus or co-consensus champion.  This isn't at all the case for three of Sparty's six claimed titles, also spelled out below. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/College_Football_National_Championship for a full list of all champions by year and selector.
2 years 33 weeks ago	Well, post-1950 it's pretty	Well, post-1950 it's pretty easy: the NCAA record book, in addition to listing national champions as determined by all recognized selectors, lists consensus national champions as well.  The interesting thing?  Sometimes there are more than one consensus champion.  Generally, if a team after 1950 finished first in one of the two major polls (AP and coaches), it was a consensus champion. Beside the polls, there are many many NC selectors recognized by the NCAA -- anything from mathematical systems to historical researchers to single individuals way back in the day considered authorities on college football.  For instance, in 1997, the AP and most of the other selectors lined up behind U-M, and the coaches and a few of the other selectors lined up behind Nebraska. Because the NCAA record book doesn't explicitly note consensus championships before 1950, things get murky for that timeframe, although it's possible to look at the various teams and see how many selectors lined up behind them as champs. (Also, take into account selectors who actually existed at the time; for instance several somewhat recent mathematical formula selectors have been retroactively applied back many years, often resulting in the naming of a champion that was not recognized as such at the end of whatever season.) Pre-1950 it's common to have two, three, or four schools recognized by somebody as national champions, because of eastern vs. western regional bias in sportwriting, among other factors. For many years, the National Championship Foundation waded through the historical muck and recognized a list of consensus champions, but often even the NCF named co-champions. For the record, U-M claims National Championships in 1901, 1902, 1903, 1904, 1918, 1923, 1932, 1933, 1947, 1948, and 1997.  Michigan shared these championships as follows, according to the NCAA record book: 1901 - with Harvard and Yale (Michigan consensus) 1902 - with Yale (Michigan consensus) 1903 - with Princeton (co-consensus champions) 1904 - with Minnesota and Penn (U-M and Penn co-consensus champs) 1918 - with Pitt and Texas (U-M and Pitt co-consensus champs) 1923 - with Cal, Cornell, and Illinois (U-M and Illinois co-consensus champs) 1932 - with Southern Cal (co-consensus champs) 1933 - with Ohio State, Fritz Crisler's Princeton, and USC (Michigan consensus) 1947 - with Notre Dame and Texas (U-M and ND co-consensus champs... see other commenter's discussion re: unprecedented post-Rose Bowl AP Poll) 1948 - Michigan all alone! 1997 - with Nebraska (co-consensus champs) Michigan's unclaimed and non-consensus national championships (with selectors noted) are: 1925 - by Sagarin Ratings (Alabama consensus) 1926 - by Sagarin Ratings (Alabama and Stanford consensus) 1964 - by Dunkel System (Alabama, Arkansas, Notre Dame consensus, though Alabama finished first in AP and coaches; ND doesn't claim 1964) 1973 - by National Championship Foundation and Poling System (Alabama and Notre Dame consensus; Ohio State and Oklahoma also recognized by selectors) 1985 - by Matthews Grid Ratings (Oklahoma consensus; Florida also recognized by selectors) Michigan State's six claimed national championships are: 1951 - Tennessee consensus (Georgia Tech, Illinois, and Maryland also picked by some selectors) 1952 - MSU consensus (Georgia Tech also picked by some selectors) 1955 - Oklahoma consensus (MSU picked by one selector out of 16) 1957 - Auburn and Ohio State consensus (Oklahoma also picked by a selector. MSU picked by one selector out of 16) 1965 - MSU (UPI) and Alabama (AP) co-consensus 1966 - MSU and Notre Dame co-consensus (Year of the tie; both AP and UPI-coaches named ND as national champions; Alabama also picked by some selectors)
2 years 33 weeks ago	Well, pre-Bo U-M was 4-0 in	Well, pre-Bo U-M was 4-0 in the Rose Bowl.  So make the all-time bowl record 19 wins in 39 games.
2 years 36 weeks ago	- Because Bo did. - The way	- Because Bo did. - The way they cheated to try to get 9-year-men Dimmick and Philbrook into the 1910 game. - After the 2003 ass-kicking game, my little bro picked up a discarded sign in the parking lot that said, "LOSE LIKE A CHAMPION TODAY" and carried it around a while.  An ND fan came up to us with a sanctimonious look on his face and said, "Hey, we will." - Those stupid up-and-down-fist arm movements the fans make in the stands. - The 1812 Overture: ND's AWESOME and totally pumped up version of JUMP AROUND. - The way the wind died for Harry Oliver's field goal. - Tyrone Willingham's fake-confident raised finger in the air to go for one after a touchdown. - Because they keep the grass mown high for speedy teams. - The guys (?) in kilts. - The tinny, no-bass sound of their marching band. - Jeff Samardzija looks like a girl. Seriously. An ugly girl, but definitely a girl. - People seem to like their fight song, even though its composer is on record as saying it's "rather amateurish." - Brady Quinn was drafted too high. - Jimmah Ostrich was drafted too high.
2 years 42 weeks ago	Like Brian, the only of those	Like Brian, the only of those that I missed live was the Thomas fumble, because I too went to Yost. My dong hurts so bad after the rehashing.  It didn't just get punched; it got punched and then clawed by the world's largest and angriest lobster whose claws had been refitted with cobra venom.  I just want a month's worth of ice.
2 years 43 weeks ago	Some odd practical matters.	I took the Michigan bar in 2006.  I'm one of those people that likes to cover all the practical bases, to make sure that I'm prepared for any situation.  Some hints of mine: 1.  Pack your ziplock bag or whatever container you're allowed to take in with you with plenty of extra pens, pencils, a small pencil sharpener, *good* pink pearl erasers (don't trust the ones on the ends of the pencils), and even a few different kinds of pens (you'd be amazed how three hours of writing can hurt your hand if you've got a pen that you have to put too much pressure on the paper with).  Also lots of kleenex (AC can make your nose run bad), your ear plugs (there will be a fair amount of ambient noise), and a good watch. 2.  Overdose on Immodium at around noon on the day before.  Seriously.  Do you really want to have to spend 10-15 minutes finding a restroom and dropping a deuce during your exam?  What if your dinner from the night before suddenly doesn't agree with you during your first essay response?  Better to just eliminate that. 3.  Take a small keychain flashlight as part of your keys that you can take in with you.  What if the lights go out?  (This has happened in bar exams.)  You're still in the clear. 4.  Even if you're like me and well prepared and not the sort of person who gets nervous, you'll still get a bit nervous.  Hit the grocery store the day before and get some food that won't contribute to your stomach turning: fruits, crackers, and juice.  Eat that stuff until you're done with the exam. 5.  Trust your prep work.  BarBri and PMBR's practice exams are made to be tougher than the actual multistate exam in order to have you covered on any of the really confusing questions that have appeared in past years.  Add about 20 points to your practice exams, and that's what your real MBE score will probably be. 6.  After a while, the stuff just starts swimming in your head.  Shut down your studying with two days to go.  Just look over some review sheets here and there.  Watch a ballgame the night before.  If you're staying in a hotel, take your own pillow with you.  Set multiple alarms for the morning of the exam. 7.  I'll totally echo the sentiments of someone above: don't talk to others during the breaks about the exam.  The questions you've already done are over.  Rehashing them will just make you crazy.
2 years 44 weeks ago	Alpena Grandfathers.	I live in Alpena, after seven years in school in Ann Arbor.  I'm not a grandfather, but I know lots of Alpena grandfathers. And I hate Mitch Albom. When I was in 9th grade or so, I'd come home from school every Monday in the fall and read Mitch's THE HUDDLE column.  It was good.  It was funny.  Barry Sanders had lifetime membership.  Lou Holtz was always trying to sneak in.  Albom was a good sports read. Then TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE happened and Albom went all Oprah.  Instead of doing sports, he did politics, social issues, and lots of touchy feely crap.  Now his columns are just all dreck; pseudo-intellectual masturbation.   And I can guarantee you that there aren't many Detroit assembly line workers or Alpena grandfathers who care about reading his stuff anymore.
2 years 44 weeks ago	Well I don't know much of the	Well I don't know much of the pre-MMB and Perry Como history of the song, but "Temptation" as played by the MMB was arranged by Jerry Bilik, a student in the early-to-mid 1950s.  Bilik was also the genius behind the "M Fanfare."  Apparently Bilik languished as a 17th-chair trombone before Bill Revelli discovered his composition skills. Bilik was apparently Revelli's go-to guy for arrangements.  If you've rocked out to Revelli's and the university symphonic band's "Touchdown USA: The Big Ten" recording of concert arrangements of Big Ten fight songs, you know how talented Bilik was/is.  The arrangements are by Bilik, and they're awesome.  This was released on cassette as well (maybe CD at some point), but here's a link to the LP: http://www.amazon.com/Touchdown-USA-Gridiron-University-Michigan/dp/B001TG1120/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1279135773&sr=1-1 As a student at U-M, he was also highly involved with the U-M Gilbert & Sullivan Society (that's late-19th-century English comic opera).  He sang in the company's opera productions, directed/conducted the singers and orchestra, and even composed new music for an opera written by Gilbert & Sullivan for which the music has been lost.  The Company plans on releasing for sale a recording of that music within the next few years.  In 1954, Bilik was the conductor for the Company's production of The Pirates of Penzance. Much as Revelli loved him, he wouldn't let him out of his MMB duties; Bilik had to travel to Michigan's football game in Columbus, then figure out on his own how to hop a plane back to Ann Arbor in time to conduct the 8 PM performance.  During the 1970s Bilik arranged and conducted a Gilbert & Sullivan halftime show for the MMB. As of the mid-1970s, Bilik still lived in Ann Arbor.  Currently, he lives in Cabin John, Maryland, but still maintains an office in Ann Arbor.  He's made his career as a composer.  In addition to arranging music for several popular TV shows, for the past several decades he has served as VP of Creative Development for Disney on Ice, and has written and arranged the music for all of the Disney on Ice shows, which he also directs. His most celebrated original composition is "American Civil War Fantasy" (find a performance on Youtube).  In 2002 he returned to Michigan Stadium to conduct a halftime show for the 50th anniversary of the "M Fanfare" and some of his other work. In May 2009 Bilik returned to Ann Arbor to conduct some of his own work in the Ann Arbor Concert Band's Mothers Day Concert.  His talents range from ice shows to classical to contemporary television to classic pop to comic opera. Google "Jerry Bilik" and you'll find a lot of other info on him.  Here he is: FWIW, you can hear a chamber band play "Temptation" during R.F. Simpson's party scene in Singing in the Rain, a movie set in 1920s Hollywood.  I assume the song goes back at least that far historically.
2 years 49 weeks ago	I think you mean fixed	I think you mean fixed inter-division games.  Extra-division games is also a reasonably accurate term.  Intra-division games are games played against teams in one's own division. Yes, oakapple's original post completely neglects this idea, which is used in the ACC and SEC (for a while each SEC team even had *two* inter-division permanent opponents).  This surely is the best course for the Big Ten, with its many many important (and yes, even recently conjured) rivalries.  Under this system, Michigan could play Ohio State, Michigan State, and Minnesota every year, and would restore an annual contest for the Little Brown Jug. With permanent opposite-division opponents, you play the other five teams in the opposite division on average twice (home and away) every five years, as in the ACC and SEC.  I consider that pretty acceptable.  Without such games, you play the teams in the opposite division only slightly more often, on average twice every four years, as in the Big 12. Not having permanent opposite-division opponents seems to have been one of the early problems that pissed off Nebraska with the whole Big 12 scheme... losing its annual game with Oklahoma... a huge game that in the past had a similar effect on the Orange Bowl and the national championship as Michigan and Ohio State had on the Rose Bowl. Also, not having permanent opposite-division opponents also goes toward another problem the Big 12 has/had: too few links between divisions.  Remember that Oklahoma and Oklahoma State were members of the old Big 8 for decades and had solid ties with all of the northern schools.  It was a very closely knit conference, not unlike the Big Ten (the difference being a wider spectrum in academic quality and its schools lacking cache beyond the Big 8's region).  Look what's happened after the division split: Oklahoma and Oklahoma State are basically in bed with the old Southwest Conference schools, and have very few ties (or anything in common anymore) with their old northern Big 8 brethren.  A definite us-vs-them mentality was created, which wasn't helped by the recent strength of the South relative to the North.
3 years 6 weeks ago	Woj, something tells me we'd	Woj, something tells me we'd do better at this game than trivia at Latitudes.
3 years 14 weeks ago	Brian: What is the point of	Brian: What is the point of this new rule about head coaches in waiting? All I can think of is, if you're a guy like JoePa is or Bobby Bowden apparently was in his last few years, basically an organizing figurehead who farms out most everything in the realm of Xs and Os and dealing with the kids, you're not really the head coach in a traditional sense. Now what if you're one of those guys and you also have a publically designated coach in waiting on the staff, who may actually be running the show? Now you've got the figurehead head coach who is subject to the more restrictive rules, and you've got an assistant who is the de facto head coach, who can go into living rooms as much as any other assistant. Seems to me like the new rule closes a loophole which, though probably not a big deal, is there nonetheless.
3 years 28 weeks ago	The Power of Suggestion.	My dong actually hurts after reading this.
3 years 30 weeks ago	Jack Weidenbach (1990-1994)	Jack Weidenbach (1990-1994) was basically a career administrator (28 years) with the University, and started with the athletic deparment in 1988. Weidenbach built Schembechler Hall and did minor renovations of Cliff Keen Arena and the Marie Hartwig ticket office building. He also scheduled Notre Dame through 2011, which pissed the hell out of Bo. You also forgot Joe Roberson, who served from 1994 until Tom Goss in 1998. Roberson was the first AD to sign a college to an apparel contract (the 1994 7-million-dollar Nike deal), and of course he "fired" Gary Moeller. Roberson was a minor league baseball player whose career was ended by injury, and he became a career administrator and fundraiser for U-M (he had previously served as Chancellor of U-M Flint).
3 years 30 weeks ago	And please, little baby	And please, little baby Jesus, don't let it be Lloyd Carr.
3 years 30 weeks ago	When I was but a callow youth	When I was but a callow youth there were a few Bill Martin edicts that I didn't care for (i.e., student ticket validation, attempts to tone down vulgarity at Yost, etc.). But by and large, save perhaps for the sailing fiasco during the coaching search (and who will ever know what was really going on during that time?), this man was nothing short of absolutely superb in this job. When Martin first started, he made trips around the state to have breakfasts with groups of alumni. Including in my home town, Alpena (that's four hours North of A2 on Lake Huron in BFE for those who don't know). We're a town of roughly 25,000. And Bill Martin cared to come. The week following the 2001 terrorist attacks, I was a junior and my little bro was a freshman. That week people were panicked about what the next target might be, large gatherings of people, etc. My dad left Martin a phone message thus: "Hey, I've got two kids who are going to be in the Big House for the next game. What are you doing to make sure they're safe?" And Martin called him back personally the same afternoon, during the day when he was surely in touch with security firms, police departments, and other concerned citizens, not to mention the Illinois athletic department regarding how to rearrange the scheduled game. Bill Martin gave us a huge and lasting bounty of new, top-notch athletic facilities, and brought athletics back from a constant game of financial Russian roulette to the point that athletics is now swimming in cash, and he's done it all while earning (charming?) the respect of even his enemies. His successor will have HUGE shoes to fill.
3 years 35 weeks ago	Yost? In his most famous	Yost? In his most famous era, the Point-A-Minute teams, the forward pass was still illegal. The most free-wheeling and wide-open plays in Yost's most dominant time were reverses and end runs. Aside from the fact that clearly the best coach for RR's offense is RR, if you want to pick one of Michigan's great coaches of the past, why not Fritz Crisler? Check out the YouTube video of Crisler's Mad Magician backfield (Yerges, Chappuis, Elliot, and Weisenberger). There was some CRAZY stuff goin' on in that backfield. From a TIME magazine article on the 1947 team: "Michigan's sleight-of-hand repertory is a baffling assortment of double reverses, buck-reverse laterals, crisscrosses, quick-hits and spins from seven different formations. Sometimes, watching from the side lines, even Coach Crisler isn't sure which Michigan man has the ball." Tell me that doesn't sound like Brian's UFR rock-paper-scissors-candle bit.
3 years 35 weeks ago	Is that the same Mike Hart	Is that the same Mike Hart who was habitually injured, never beat OSU, only won one bowl game (which he almost lost due to two goal-line fumbles), had a five-loss season, and lost four games his senior year? Yeah, that guy definitely belongs on the list. He's the all-time leading rusher because M didn't have much else in the line of RB's during his four years. Wheatley and Biakabutuka split time, Thomas split time with whomever was left from 1997, and Perry waited for Thomas to graduate. Hart was the whole show for four years. Just the fact that he was so injury-prone leaves Hart off the list for me. I never saw *him* carry the ball 52 times at MSU. And I never once saw him win a race to the house. Great back, yes. Better than Wheatley, Biakabutuka, Perry, and Thomas? No.
3 years 35 weeks ago	Yeah, in terms of winning	Yeah, in terms of winning percentage records, the NCAA counts a tie as half won and half lost.
3 years 35 weeks ago	2002 was the first	2002 was a 12-games-allowed regular season (occasionally this occurred when the calendar lined up to put an extra Saturday before Thanksgiving; now, 12 games are allowed regardless). Also, 2002 was before the few "pre-season bowls" were banned, such as the Pigskin Classic and Kickoff Classic. Teams in these games were allowed an extra regular season game. Ohio State beat Texas Tech in the Pigskin Classic on August 24. Pigskin Classic + 12 regseason games + bowl = 14
3 years 35 weeks ago	Ah yes, how quickly I've	Ah yes, how quickly I've forgotten 11-2 in 2006, bookended as it was with such clunkers. Yeah, I was thinking about OSU when I made that statement about stretches of bad seasons. They haven't had anything as bad as what Oklahoma or Nebraska or USC or Notre Dame have gone through, but the Earl Bruce years were fairly mediocre with some bright spots, and Cooper put up a couple of bad seasons far below percentage. Aside from 1984 and 2008, Michigan hasn't had any other seasons significantly below winning percentage since the Bumper.

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