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Brady Hoke's team going up…

Brady Hoke's team going up against Rutgers for the first time in NJ... Lost and walking out of that stadium to heckling from Rutgers' fans on the shuttle bus back to the parking lot.  Sad day.

Just FYI in case it's…

Just FYI in case it's applicable, if you received an email from Tom Baird (University Development), they are also allowing you to get 4 tickets for the Orange Bowl and Championship Game through them as well.  

The 80/20 roll no longer…

The 80/20 roll no longer applies due to the Trump tax reform.  Note that PSC payments (or priority seat donations) are no longer able to be deducted from taxes (including not 80% thereof, which was the rule under the prior tax laws).

What the AD is trying to do here is to offer the option to convert either the PSC amount or the full amount of PSC + tickets to an actual donation to the Champions Fund, which would then count as a full donation (100% of which would count as a deduction when you itemize).  Note that the effect of that is to economically net you back your marginal tax rate on such amount.

Alternatively, you can roll the entire payment to next year, or you can get a refund.   

Points basically get you…

Points basically get you more priority in terms of upgrading your seats (i.e., you potentially get an earlier start time to pick your upgrade seat).  Also you get some priority in terms of seats to bowl games, etc.

(No subject)

PSC/Season Ticket Donation Options

 

My initial takeaway is this: 

(1) encourages people to at least transfer to 2021 due to the 50 extra priority points (worth $5,000 donation).  [Note that this becomes important since if the majority of other season ticket holders take this option, then it effectively dilutes the ones that don't.]

(2) the fixed priority points bonus amounts helps those who have cheaper seats and fewer seats.  I.e., someone w/ 8 Maize seats will be donating or deferring a much larger amount, then someone w/ 2 Blue seats.  

(3) the donation option is only really useful to those that itemize their federal taxes (and note that after the latest round of tax reform, that is a smaller group of people).  Theoretically, someone can get the 37% federal (plus some state) credit for the donation, and the 20% discount for next year, therefore, roughly a little more than half of the donation could be netted back to you, but in any case, the donations are going to be made by the people who want to donate since the economic incentive isn't nearly as strong for that option.

Sick family member

Sick family member

First of all, Taggart doesn't

First of all, Taggart doesn't lead winter trainings.  That's on S&C coaches.  Also these are voluntary exercises.

That being said, they'll need to work w/ their trainers better in knowing the guys.  Also I assume after a year with DC Brady Hoke, they are probably all out of shape.

He was part of a trio with

He was part of a trio with Artavis Scott and he really blew up out of the three. Would have been a nice trio to have.

I went to the last Michigan

I went to the last Michigan game at Rutgers and I found that the sideline lower rows were mostly Michigan fans.  Like rows 1-20 around the stadium. 

This makes sense considering you have your NYC alums (with big pockets) buying whatever tickets they want on Stubhub.

Ron Johnson was admitted and

Ron Johnson was admitted and he's already enrolled (he shows up on the student directory already) so he's doing ok.

Hopefully Hawkins can clean it up and get back in or find a good landing spot.

 

I always find it to be a nice

I always find it to be a nice surprise when a Top-100 kid commits without waiting until the last month and doing the whole hat dance or other presentation.  I guess we need a little bit of both to keep us interested and excited, but this is a nice relief to have a guy who just wants to sign up and get moving.

God Bless Jim Harbaugh! 
I'm

God Bless Jim Harbaugh! 

I'm sure they're tired though - that amount of flying and not sleeping in your home gets to you after a while. 

I saw an article in the Detroit News (below) where Sarah was saying that they are "worn out", but that they are looking forward to 5 weeks off around July.  Hopefully, they get to power through the rest of the camps, then get some time off before focusing on the actual football to be played in the Fall!

http://www.detroitnews.com/story/sports/college/university-michigan/wol…

OP should clarify it's at

OP should clarify it's at Paramus Catholic and not at Paramus (which is the local public high school). 

 

Story is from a month ago

Story is from a month ago

I dunno.  I always ppl to go

I dunno.  I always ppl to go to the best school possible (if they are choosing a high paying career).  If you are choosing a lower paying career (like pediatrics, etc.) then you should crunch the numbers.

Does Durkin look like

Does Durkin look like Eminem??

Title should be - "Retelling

Title should be - "Retelling Random Tweets"

On phone so can't start new

On phone so can't start new thread, but I think the silent commit is Rashad Weaver instead of Vic. Per the Twitter of Rashad.

Love this time of year when

Love this time of year when people who have no idea how recruiting works think they have figured out something that no one else has figured out.  Haha.  Wake me up when the faxes start running. 

I'm happy with the class

I'm happy with the class either way, but it would be nice to get 4-5 of the guys you mentioned.

I'm expecting we get like 4-5

I'm expecting we get like 4-5 on NSD and I'm pretty happy with that.  Gotta know when to cash your chips.

if it happens it happens; if

if it happens it happens; if it doesn't it doesn't.  Not stressing this one.

Basically Michigan and some

Basically Michigan and some other hat to keep it interesting. 

He's following Drevno and

He's following Drevno and Drevno is following him.  Sounds good.  Let's do this.  Need another OT bad.

I think we still get Murphy,

I think we still get Murphy, Hill, Nordin, Gary and Simmons.

No, PC is not that close to

No, PC is not that close to NVRHS. About 30 min away. I actually know a lot of people at PC, including a number of football players, through my church. Actually, funny story, Gary Nova's cousin goes to PC and I spoke to him about his thoughts about who's coming to Michigan. Won't say it here, but he thought highly of Michigan.

me.  got my tix through psu

me.  got my tix through psu ticket office.

Meritocracy is what I would

Meritocracy is what I would hope for and expect.  A good friend of mine was accepted into MIT, his admissions offer was contingent on maintaining his grades, etc. (fine print in the overall context of an admissions offer).  He had some girlfriend problems senior year (and didn't attack his studies with an EUTM).  He was normally an A+ kid, but ended up pulling a B or B- average in his final semester.  His admissions offer was pulled right before graduation.  He had to scramble and find another school to attend and luckily he got into NYU (although because of how late it was in the process, he didn't qualify for most of the need-based grants and had to take out a lot of loans). 

That being said, he turned out ok and does well now in finance.  But that being said, I wouldn't expect any less from an institution like MIT or Michigan, for that matter.

Are we still in it for

Are we still in it for Asiasi?  Hope so.

Compared to how I felt in the

Compared to how I felt in the middle of our 5-7 season under Hoke, I don't feel bad at all.  For all of you who think we were non-controversial and the media didn't hate us then, just harken back to the Shane Morris Concussion-Gate scandal.  Losing to every team we played AND being in the middle of a scandal. 

Our situation today is dealing with optics and understanding that Harbaugh is a polarizing guy.  First world problems.

Delete this post please. 

Delete this post please. 

I think we all agree that

I think we all agree that substantively this is isn't very different than what most of the big programs are doing.  CFB recruiting is confusing to begin with - commitable offers vs. non-commitable offers; redshirts, greyshirts, prep years, etc.  Bottom line is this coaching staff is doing what they have to do to make our program a contender.  Honestly, I think they did not even expect that the first year would have gone so well and, unfortunately, they were flat-footed in gauging the class size and how many top tier recruits would be interested in Michigan.  Think about it, last year, Harbaugh had trouble getting 14.  I don't think he predicted that he would be double that and telling guys "I'm sorry, there's no more room".

I don't think most of us have

I don't think most of us have problems with being selective and choosing the best athletes for our program.  The primary problems here are (1) optics, (2) communication or lack thereof and (3) getting used to the stark change from the past coaching staff.

1 - Optics - Doesn't look great at first, but substantively not very different than most big programs.  We'll get over it and Michigan fans need to ban together, but this type of stuff could easily be avoided and should be avoided going forward by being more selective initially.

2 - Communication - It would have been better to give a hard "no" during the summer or fall to get this out of the way and not have it linger on.  Once senior tape rolls in, review it, and make a quick decision.  Trying to be nice and letting the kid consider himself a "commit" is not the way to go or, at the very least, ask the borderline kid up front, "are you ok with being a Plan B?"  If the answer is no, then move on. 

3 - Change in Coaching Staff - Gut check in terms of the change from the nice guy (but ineffective) Hoke routine.  Hoke had a policy of (monogamous) loyalty no matter what.  I.e., we took the no visit policy seriously and believed in hard firm "commitments".  Clearly, the current staff is more open-minded about commitments - they see it as somewhat open-ended on both ends.  This is a big change; not necessarily a "bad" change, but every change takes some getting used to.

Lesson learned for next year

Lesson learned for next year is don't offer sleeper recruits at satelite camps.  I don't blame them this year because it was Year 1 and they had no idea what would happen, but now that they know, I hope that they adjust their "yield formula" and be a little bit more selective in order to prevent these situations going forward.

Well, I think it's even

Well, I think it's even dumber for a Michigan fan account to accuse a Michigan recruit of being unethical.  Violates the don't tweet at recruits rule as well as don't tweet riduclous and/or dumb things at recruits rule. 

It's a song.  Some dumb Mich

It's a song.  Some dumb Mich fan account sent him a pic of his tweet with the words "Explain?" and it was obviously just song lyrics. Wish we could ban all of those Mich updates/24/7/nation, etc. accounts that just annoy kids all day long and steal content.

Going to be really good after

Going to be really good after a redshirt year!

Yea, it's bad here in NJ. 

Yea, it's bad here in NJ.  About 1 foot so far, more coming.  Everything is shut down.  I'm eating PB&J sandwiches at home with the kids watching Netflix.

That's good.  I'm hoping Ibi

That's good.  I'm hoping Ibi and Xavier will provide a nice spark next year! 

Three cheers for logic and

Three cheers for logic and reason!

We also have a home and home

We also have a home and home coming up against Washington in a few years so some of these names might be relevant at that time as well. 

No doubt we all saw the 247

No doubt we all saw the 247 crystal balls, etc., but Washington getting filled up at DB is another convincing fact for our collective (pre-)conclusion. 

I got an email invitation as

I got an email invitation as well, but can't attend because of work. 

Truth is always somewhere in

Truth is always somewhere in the middle of the two sides.  Another reason to wait a few days or weeks before reacting or overreacting to any news.

Congrats Lloyd!

Congrats Lloyd!

That's actually not true. 

That's actually not true.  Once a recruit, you're always considered a recruit.  In addition, once a booster, you're always a booster.  NCAA doesn't have specific time periods as to when your status terminates.

Of course Derrick Green could

Of course Derrick Green could have stayed.  The point is that every decision has a cost.  If Derrick stayed another year, that's one less recruit in this class - i.e., Gary, Bush, or whoever you want to picture. 

The coaches are making decisions that they think are best for the program.  In addition, there are direct and indirect results from every decision, including both positive and negative impacts on prospects. [Note - by saying that coaches make a decision, I don't mean they push guys out, they can simply be honest by saying, "I think you are 5th string and you won't see much playing time next year" and if the guy leaves then I don't see what is wrong with that.]

Those of you who think that there are clear-cut win-win situations with respect to every decision are likely mistaken.  There are side effects to even the best-intended decisions.

And that is why I said we

And that is why I said we only heard one side of the story.  Apparently, the degree of explicitness was sufficient in the case of Rashad Weaver and Kiante Enis since they started planning visits right away.  We don't know if Drevno felt that he was being explicit to Swenson nor do we know what was actually said.  

Any miscommunication, in particular verbal miscommunication, is often attributable to both the speaker and the hearer.  Speakers believe they are saying what they intended to say and hearers believe they are hearing what they hoped to hear.

Without the other half of the story, it's near impossible to gauge with any forensic certainty what the actual statements were and what they were intended to mean. 

I'm not any less proud to be

I'm not any less proud to be a Michigan fan today than I was yesterday.  I think this could have been communicated better, but it's not something that will keep me from supporting our coaches and program.  They did what they thought was best for the program, but they might not have done it with the best communication according to one side of the story. 

For next year's recruiting class, the coaches can tweak the formula to assume better yield amongst higher ranked guys.  It's a process guys.  Let's live and learn.  I'm moving on and I know Erik will find a good spot.

The FreeP story says that

The FreeP story says that Harbaugh called and left a message (and you know he was on the west coast).  In addition, I don't think Harbaugh was in regular contact with him - his primary was Drevno, therefore, it didn't seem unusual that Drevno was the one to break the news (even after he told him to take all 5 official visits a month ago).

In addition, that Bobby Kunz kid seems to be sensationalizing this whole thing too much (and I don't think he's even a kid like he says he is because he keeps changing his story as to how old he is, etc.) but thats besides the fact.