1. Bid on an item at the lowest possible price, just to lock in the auction item. I have seen many auctions where the seller would end the auction because there were not any bids on it, this sucks big time!
2. DO NOTHING!!!
3. Wait til about 30 seconds to go on the auction, then bid the highest amount that you would possibly pay for the item. Don't try to just outbid the highest bid price, bid your maximum price.
Don't worry, Ebay's bidding structure will only count your bid up to the highest current bid plus a small incremental amount. This strategy works every time and you will never end up spending more than you want to.
It's pretty bad then when you want to interview the black candidate just to cover your ass, the interview process is already over with. I don't think this is the true spirit of the Rooney Rule.
"You have a good idea who the best teams in each conference are, but you have almost no idea how the conferences are relative to each other." - Brian
I agree with the statement above from Brian. And in saying that, this is why I just can't agree to award byes to the top teams at the end of the year. Most of the time, schools skate through the regular season without playing any meaningful competition out of conference and you just can't judge who the best teams are. This is crucial especially since you are handing out all-important byes to the top 4 teams and Brian is handing them out to the top 2.
Right now, the tangible reward for winning a BCS conference is a ticket to a BCS game. Under Brian's plan, this would not be guaranteed at all since only the top 6 teams get spots and there are no guarantees who gets in.
+1 to you. I didn't know about the 1/2 the field must be at-large bids thing. That is stupid, IMO..hell, in everyone's opinion. It just doesn't make any sense.
As for the control, it would need to be ran by the NCAA, similar to the basketball tourney. They can still tie the bowls in and the smaller tiered bowls can still go on, as long as they don't get in the way of the big boys. Similar to how the NIT does it games on the off days of the NCAA tournament.
I went to high school with Archie Collins (Cass Tech, colors green and white, btw). I knew the guy since 9th grade and i can honestly say he HATES UM and always has for as long as I've known him. I don't know what happened, maybe his folks are sparties, but he has always liked the lil bros. I remember when I was in 12th grade and I got accepted to UM during an on-the-spot admissions interview, I came back to class and some of the other students were congratulating me. Not Archie. He gave me a nasty look and said something like "why do u wanna go there?". I just looked past his dumb remarks and said, because its Michigan. But he was being a real a-hole about it and everything.
I ran into him again when I was in college. I liked to visit MSU and some of my HS buddies for their annual picnic at the end of the school year, if you've ever been, you will know what i'm talking about. I saw him at a campus pool party after the picnic and he was visually upset that I was even there because he knew I was a Michigan man. I just gave him a nod and moved my attention on to the bikinis. I saw him hating, even though most of my other friends at MSU were glad to see me.
As you can tell, Archie hates UM and I am not surprised that he is pushing Southeastern players to go to MSU or to hate on Michigan like he does.
Plus not to mention that a D1 football player would probably kick both of our ass at the same time.
Just imagine if you had tapped him on the shoulder to console him, you probably would've got Blounted (see Oregon v Boise).
My points are taking an major hemorrhage for the stupid joke from before. Wow, thanks guys!!
Man I cant wait for the UFR for this game. I've already watched the game 2 times and I want to see how Brian breaks it down and if it matches my observations.
Also, I've read a few from last season. Is there somewhere I can find a UFR key or coding system that will help with some of the metrics?
Its good to see that the false start penalty and lack of balls his way did not take his focus out of the game, especially on a broken play.
OTOH, I did notice that C. Brown did miss a couple of blocks(inside and outside) that could have sprung big running plays. Although he did have a solid day running the ball.
No kidding, but last night, I also had a dream about an upcoming UM game. We lost to MSU. I don't remember the details of the game, but I think it was a double digit spread that got out of hand in the 4th quarter. And I remember dreading having to listen to 97.1 for the rest of the year and hearing loudmouth Valenti and kiss-ass Foster rubbing it in.
I have never had a dream about a UM game before, but it is kind of creepy that we had a similar dream on the same night.
Excellent diary! Some possible star updates...
2003
Chris Graham - should be 4 star, should not be rated same as Max Martin (3 star). 20 career starts, All b-10 Hon Men (2007)
2005
Justin Schifano - should be 2 star
Brandon Logan - should be 2 star
Johnny Sears - should be 2 star
Andre Criswell - should be star
These 4 guys have had the same impact as D. Cone (2 star) on this team. Little or no impact, invisible.
2006
Obi Ezeh - should be 4 star. Multi-yr starter, possible NFL player.
Greg Matthews - should be 3 star, weak or avg starter, similar career to Carlos Brown thus far.
Kates, Banks, Ferrara - should all be 2 stars, mostly invisible. Possible argument for Ferrera 3 star, but that was just because he was moved to OL for injury purposes. Probably will never see field again.
I think this article is more pro-MSU than it is anti-UM. I really couldn't find anything in it that was untruthful regarding the UM program. You may disagree with his point, "MSU is better than UM right now", although based on last season's results and this season's predictions, that not a stretch.
I dislike Drew as much as the next guy, but this article is not as bad as many of you make it seem. Let's save the anti-UM venom for when it really is necessary.
"4- We have one year of Jason Forcier to utilize. While there is no future for Jason, and I don't claim he will challenge to start, there is every reason to believe that he can be at minimum, competent in a backup role if needed."
The issue with this is that J. Forcier is behind Denard, by at least 2 days now (at a minimum), not to mention that he is not even in camp yet. Don't forget, this is a new offense to him, as well. I doubt that he will be able to catch up and/or pass Denard on the depth chart, especially given the speed that Denard brings to the spread option run (RR's favorite play).
I agree, it does "hurt" a bit when I read all the negative press about UM. But we have to realize, that for most of us life-long fans, this is new. Most of us have never experienced a season like last year. This can not be said of ANY OTHER PROGRAM IN THE NATION. This is why it hurts so much for us. Other schools are used to having ups and downs, good years followed by their own personal 3-9's, but not Michigan. Our time was destined to come sooner or later.
Personally, I feel OK knowing that our time has come now and that we have already made adjustments to our program to prevent this from being a prolonged down era. I believe in RR faithfully, just like I believed in Moeller when he took over for BO, and in Lloyd when he took over for Moeller. When these changes happened, most of us didn't really know these new guys, but we had faith in the M brand, as I do now. RR is the right coach and M will be back on top very soon. Just don't lose your faith.
GO BLUE!
I know this has been stated before, but man, I hate reading through the comments after the M articles on Freep. I can only get through 1 or 2 comments, then i regret it every time. Who are these people? Most of them are an embarrassment to bloggers everywhere...
No offense to the OP, but no one cares about MSU and their program. Like the Other Brian said let them obsess about us--not the other way around. This is a M Blog, why are we talking about MSU?
If we just ignore them, they will eventually go away. Especially after we kick their ASS this year.
That would be cool! If so, i'd put some action on M without a doubt. I think the game will be close in the 1st half (+7 to 10 pts), but M will have the backups halfway thru the 4th quarter. RR will want to send a message to all the nation that UM is back.
I want us to get the LB who wore a M shirt to a OSU camp. Wow, he can play for my team any day. Talk about bringing some "passion" back to the rivalry. Reminds me of D. Gardner and his flaming OSU offer.
I meant to say it is a complicated model to predict beforehand and to replicate. The questions are not pre-ranked based upon difficulty and no one knows which questions will be assigned more (or less points) until after the test is scored.
I give a practice test to the students in my district and it is almost impossible to get an reliable and accurate predictor as to what the actual ACT scores will be because we do not know how the scoring distributions will come out.
Thanks for letting me vent OT...
There are 4 possibilities (A - D) on the ACT Reading, English, and Science portions of the exam. There are 5 possibilities (A - E) on the ACT Math exam.
Also, even if you guessed on all the questions and you somehow got 25% correct, you still would not get a 12 overall. The test adjusts your score based on if it detects you are guessing. It also uses a special top-secret, multi-parameter based scoring model that gives less credit for easier questions and more for harder questions, but this is not determined until after all of the exams are scored. So each question is not worth the same amount of points.
I am an 11th grade Math teacher and also the ACT Testing Supervisor for my district.
Is it just me or has the BTN programming really SUCKED over the past 2 weeks or so? It's like they play those (insert B10 school name here) Programming infomercials constantly on a loop. What happened to all the games that I used to count on to put me to sleep at night?
Don't forget Iowa will be the 1st Night game and 1st true Road game outside of the State in a drunken, hostile stadium for these guys. I don't think anything will work on offense, thus the blowout prediction.
As for Illinois, this team really scares me. I think people are underestimating the effect of a Senior QB in a spread offense such as theirs, especially with all the other weapons around the Juice. (This may be a future Diary topic) These guys are going to be dangerous, and will probably finish 3rd in B11.
I actually can see UM averaging about 30 PPG this year. Correct me if i'm wrong, but nothing in RR's track record ever screamed ball control, run the clock down, try to keep the defense off the field. Although it is a run-oriented offense, the plays occur in big chunks at rapid succession, and each play is a threat to score quick and fast.
I think Blazing Megafuck offense is like he had @ WVU, where they avg. close to 40 PPG. (maybe 2011 when Tate is junior and DG is RS freshman?)
But IIRC a "spinner" is a term used to describe a certain type of well-endowed female co-ed that has a specific and unique set of physical abilities that often leaves you dizzy with amazement.
And nowhere in that description does Stevie Brown come to mind.
Have you ever heard of McFarlin? This guy was a undercover troll (though not a very good one) on this site for a very long time b4 coming out of the closet.
I dislike Tressel, but I do respect the job he's done at OSU. I just don't see how you can argue that RR is a better coach than Tressel at this point. But I'll give you that one. But even if you do believe RR is the better coach, there is NO WAY you can argue that he is 10 WHOLE POINTS BETTER than Tressel.
UM might beat OSU this year, but they do not have a +10 going into that game because of RR's coaching advantage over Tressel.
These two games are the ones that will possibly make our season go from a we're showing improvement (6-6) to a we're definitely on the right track (8-4), assuming we beat ND, of course.
I am fairly confident in the MSU victory, but @ WIS does worry me. I am just glad we have that game towards the end of the schedule, when hopefully the offense has fixed the early season kinks.
But as of now, these 3 games (ND, @ MSU, @ WIS) could all be seen as toss-ups. I just like our chances due to what I am expecting from RR's offense this year. Also, it doesn't hurt that all 3 of these teams usually play it pretty conservatively on offense, so we should be able to outscore them.
Maybe RR is not as opposed to over-recruiting as everyone on this site seems to think he is.
Look at those recruiting classes: 33 recruits in two separate years, and an avg. class size of 26+.
I maybe can believe he had 33 open slots in 2002, being his first year at new program with all the attrition and everything. But you can't tell me that he had another 33 open slots AGAIN in 2005 when his system had been well established.
Again, to clarify, I think that a limited amount of over-recruiting is something that can be useful to a program, and it seems that RR agrees.
Interesting, very interesting...
I think its safe to assume that both D. Robinson and Gardner will both be level 3's (1 run for every 2 passes).
But as for Tate...I think with his above average accuracy, that he will not be called upon to run as much and will be kind of forced into Level 2 (similar to what happened to Juice last year, but for different reasons, of course).
I believe that maybe his freshman year, he will be a level 3 because he is still getting to know the passing routes. But by his 3rd year in this offense, he will be passing more than we ever saw from Pat White under RR and Tate will be a level 2, maybe even a level 1 (similar to Colt McCoy, there's that comparison again!).
Your hard work is definitely appreciated.
But I've always wondered about bloggers such as yourself who travel around and look at future recruits...are you a paid scout for a team or something?? Or do you just do it for your own personal pleasure? I just think it would get expensive, with gas and all.
Whatever the reason, keep it up!! It makes for a fun and interesting read.
Thanks!!
i'd happily take your spot on the season ticket roster, as i'm sure hundreds (if not thousands) of others would as well.
I don't care if we play EMU, Wayne State, Wayne County Community College, or Cass Tech each week. I go to see UM play (and hopefully win), and could care less about the opponent.
Wow. I'm glad this list came out today online. And to think, i already programmed my dvr to record the special ESPN 150 release show on ESPNU this evening. I'm glad i didn't waste my time watching this crap on tv.
GO BLUE!
My idea is the polar opposite to the OP's. He stated his opinion and asked what everyone else thought and I just responded with my own reasons. If you disagree, that's fine, but don't be an a-hole.
First of all, let me say that i'm in favor of over-recruiting, but only if it is done sensibly within reason. But anyway, per the OP's idea, why should we GUARANTEE every recruit a 4 year paid education??? This makes no sense to me. Just because you were an excellent athlete in high school, this should not guarantee you a free education for 4 years.
If I am on an academic scholarship and I get awarded a full ride scholarship to UM, I still have to "prove" myself everyday in classes and such. If I don't maintain the high standards that the program expects, guess what...my scholarship will be revoked and I will have to pay for school myself using other means (Financial Aid, family, get a job, etc). This is the same if a student were enrolled at the school of music or business or law and given a scholarship, but were later found to not be able to meet the high performance requirements of the program. They would not be asked to leave the university, but their scholarship would not be honored for 4 years. There is no way we should ever guarantee a 4 year scholarship to someone just because they can run fast or throw a football in HS. The scholarship standards should be the same across the board, athletic, academic, or otherwise.
Speaking as a "poor, urban kid" from Detroit, I went to UM for 5 years using Financial Aid (grants and loans), just like the majority of other students on campus at the time. Don't have exact figures, but i'm positive that over 50% of the campus used Financial Aid to pay for college at this time (c/o '99). Scholarships are not the only way poor students can pay for school. Just ask a student on an academic scholarship what they do when their scholarship is revoked because they failed to live up to the requirements of the program. They pay for it out of pocket using Financial Aid or they transfer to a local community college. This is a tough lesson to learn, but their life is not over, by any means.
I believe the change will be that more schools will start to take "full" recruiting classes each year, regardless of how many open slots they have. I think it will start at the mid-major levels (if it is not happening already), then move to the BCS 6 schools. When OSU, PSU, MSU, and ND start doing it, it will definitely piss everyone around here off. But soon, this will be a tool commonly used just like not offering some 5th year seniors a scholarship for whatever reasons.
Penn State is really starting to piss me off, with their highfalutin recruitin' and all...
But seriously, am i the only one who is gettin a bit worried about PSU and their high ranked classes. They are going to be loaded for the next couple of years and will be a major challenge to us and OSU for tops in the B11.
Am i drinking the Kool-Aid? I envision Tate's stats this year to be almost as good to Colt's were (less pass yards and TDs, but more rush yards and TDs).
Colt (2006):
Comp% Yds TD INT Rush Yds Rush TD
68.2 2570 29 7 170 2
Tate (2009):
Comp% Yds TD INT Rush Yds Rush TD
65 2000 20 8 500 7
Am i totally off-base here?
I've appreciated all the responses thus far (even the ones calling me the OP let's see stupid, retarded, and possessing no business or sales knowledge, etc.), and I can kind of see your points, howeva...
If I were a talented HS musician or artist, and I was recruited to the Music or Art school at UM (at any other program), and if at the end of my 2nd year, I was not performing up to the standards that were presented to me when I originally arrived, I would be kindly asked to leave. Let's say that I just could not get the steps down on the Marching Band or I just could not get my still-life painting thing down packed, my scholarship would be revoked and I would be asked to pay for school just like any other student. I wouldn't be kicked out of the university, but I wouldn't get a free ride. When you are given a free ride, there are certain stipulations that accompany that and if you are not living up to the expectations of the program, then you should not allowed to keep your free ride.
This is where I believe over-recruiting should be used for. Its not just about replacing the lower performing players on the roster at all times, but it should be used as an extra kick in the ass incentive to keep everyone motivated and on task at all times. If a player knew that their spot was not guaranteed for all 4 years, you would not have 1/2 the issues/problems that occur college athletics these days.
I know this is a sticky and touchy subject for some, but I think that's because the "hated monsters" in the SEC are doing this now. WHEN, and i emphasize when, over-recruiting becomes more popular around more conferences, it will become a common tool and hopefully, we will be able to use it to our full advantage.
A change is coming my friends, just wait for it...
OK I guess I can see your point, if you are looking at college sports from the (ime) purely idealistic student-athlete kind of way.
But what if we only over-recruit to account for the attrition that we all know will happen sooner or later (kids transferring, injuries, kicked off team, etc)? I mean just to cover our buts so we have a full amount of legitimate scholarship players ready to play each year. There is no reason we should ever have to play walk-ons at key positions. It just doesnt seem fair that other schools get to do it, but we are not.
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