michiganprof

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24 weeks 3 days ago There is a very specific exception for graduate students

If you have completed your degree at one institution, and you still have eligibility left, and you are accepted into a program of *graduate study* (Masters or PhD, for example) then you don't have to sit out a year when you transfer.

 

I have no idea what the rationale is for this rule, but it gets used now and then. For example, when Ryan Mundy went to WVU from here he may have done this, though I might be mistaken on that one.
24 weeks 4 days ago Yes - D'Antonio looked very proud after that 2 point conversion

Yes - D'Antonio looked very proud after that 2 point conversion succeeded. And then, subsequent in time, he fell. I have this weird feeling that there's a saying in there somewhere.
24 weeks 4 days ago My favorite bit...

(Partly anticipated by Eve_of_the_rivalry above) was the fact that prior to this the announcers just couldn't shut up about the "riverboat gambler" D'Antonio. "Does that look like the face of a riverboat gambler?" blah blah. After he went for two. After he did the roll out and pass on fourth and short, etc. etc.

Well, there's a reason why more people aren't riverboat gamblers. Sometimes when you take chances it will blow up in your face. The two point conversion worked, the punt block failed in the way that punt block attempts often do. The cautious play would have been to trust his offence, which had been moving the ball and had scored a lot of points. Tell your special teams players not to go near the punter under any circumstances. He rolled the dice, and learned why riverboat gamblers so often end up broke.   
24 weeks 5 days ago You think what we saw in Rosenberg/Snider's...

You think what we saw in Rosenberg/Snider's "Practicegate" hitpieces from the Free Press was "sunshine"? 
24 weeks 6 days ago In theory, perhaps, but in practice news organizations....

In theory, perhaps, if news organizations could be trusted to use the information honestly. But in practice news organizations can distort material very effectively if they are in pursuit of a hit piece. We saw this in the Free Press "practicegate" investigations. It was evident at the outset, and became clearer with every published article, that Rosenberg and Snyder were looking for ingredients to support a hatchet job. They were requesting reams of material including internal emails, and then whatever information they got was presented in a slanted and decontextualized way, creating a distorted impression of the real situation.

See also the so called "Climategate" emails. Pore over thousands of emails from researchers to one another and you'll find some where people say things to one another like "[Scientist X] is up to his old tricks again. I'm never going to accept another of his dishonest articles for [Journal Y]". and "The way you set up the graph doesn't present your point in the most effective way - if you choose scale Z and initial year VVVV the picture is more compelling." My own emails contain lots of stuff like that - there are people in my subspecialty - as with any other - who are just dishonest and incompetent, and you get tired of their antics. [Fortunately or unfortunately, nobody has any money to make or lose from my research, so my emails are safe.] And you give friends an collaborators advice about the best way to arrange their arguments to persuade an audience. But in the hands of unsympathetic news organizations, that becomes "CLIMATE SCIENTISTS EXCLUDE OPPOSING VIEWS AND DISTORT THEIR DATA!!!!"

Don't get me wrong - from a legal point of view (though I'm not an expert) the claim of "protecting student confidentiality" here seems pretty far-fetched and I expect OSU will lose. But if I were a university president I would at least try to keep things like internal emails under my own control. 

 
24 weeks 6 days ago Not so surprizing

I would assume that the issue the amicus curiae brief addresses is the question of whether the information ESPN wants to get from OSU is protected from Freedom of Information requests. You cannot, for example, force schools to disclose student grades, or health information, or other things covered by confidentiality guarantees. OSU is arguing that these confidentiality rules should be interpreted broadly, ESPN that they should be interpreted narrowly. Of course an association of universities is going to argue for less exposure to FOI requests rather than more, no matter how the requested information is meant to be used. 
25 weeks 1 day ago Yes it happened.

I remember it well - 2005 - the only UM-OSU game I've seen in person, there with my son who was about 9 at the time. Michigan had the lead, with a minute and change remaining, OSU had no timeouts, or just one, and UM had a fourth and three somewhere just over the 50 yard line in OSU territory. A first down wins the game, but Lloyd punts instead, preferring to pick up a sure extra 25 yards of field position. OSU storms down the field and wins, the key play being a long pass to a player who had stepped out of bounds and come back in.

OSU celebrates, and then as the Michigan band comes on, the Buckeyes march en bloc into the path of the marching band, block their way and sing one of their stupid songs to their section. (I assume it was Carmen Ohio, but I couldn't hear.) The announcer even asked them several times to get out of the way of the marching band and clear the field, but they just ignored him and kept on preening for their fans. 

So, to echo a common opinion: Buckeyes are the last people who should be complaining about a celebration showing a "lack of class".
25 weeks 3 days ago Yes - If Miller could hit an open receiver

Mattson has done the best he could with the players available. They've improved spectacularly well. But the secondary is not Posey-calibre fast. So you can either leave a huge cushion, and give OSU medium-distance passes for easy short gains (that Miller doesn't have that much trouble throwing) whenever they want one, or you can try to take those away, accepting that Posey will often break open, and count on Miller only hitting a couple of those at best. That's what Mattison chose. And he was right. We gave up a couple of touchdowns on long strikes, but mostly Miller missed them. Including the one at the end of the game. Mattison made a calculated risk, based on the observed strengths and weaknesses of Miller as a QB and our secondary, and it seems to have been the correct decision.

But I'm no expert on football, so feel free to correct me. 

 

 
25 weeks 4 days ago That was his motivational speech.

He kept it simple: Kids, after the year this team has had, people in Ohio will be ecstatic if you win this game. Your gold pants will be worth a fortune. Go Bucks!
25 weeks 4 days ago They have a point....

I really think that meeting their team bus as it pulls in, unannounced and without warning, with police dogs to sniff them all for bomb-making material etc. was an incredibly classless thing to do. A player could have had a phobia about dogs, the dogs might have slipped their leash.... And generally it was a greasy way to get a cheap psychological advantage.

 

Oh, sorry. My mistake. That was the classy Saint Tressel. But calling Ohio State "Ohio" is of course much worse.
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