psychomatt

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Date	Title	Body
49 weeks 5 days ago	16 Team Conferences	IMO 16 team conferences make sense only if the NCAA rules are modified to permit semi-finals and a final championship game at the conference level. In that case, 16 clearly seems better than 14 and arguably is better than 12 (depending on which schools you add). A sixteen team conference with four divisions of four teams each would allow each team to play its three in-division rivals along with two teams from each of the other three divisions every year without exceeding nine conference games. And if you organize the divisions in a way that avoids guaranteed cross division games, you get to play every out-of-division team in a cycle that is two games on and two games off. The break is never longer than two years. As far as money, the semi-final games would bring in a fortune, probably more than enough to come close to covering the cost of losing an OOC baby seal game for all but three or four schools. Also, FWIW, in basketball you could do exactly the same thing and play everyone on your schedule twice (home and away) every year using an 18 game conference schedule. And the B10 basketball tournament could be a 16 team tourney with seed based on division results (division winners get #1 seeds, runners up get #2 seeds, etc.) Bo-Woody: OSU, UM, MSU, Syracuse Rocke-Paterno: PSU, ND/Miami, Virginia, Maryland Stagg: Wisconsin, Illinois, NW, Minnesota Osborne: Nebraska, Iowa, Purdue, Indiana
1 year 12 weeks ago	Metric system?	Metric system?
1 year 18 weeks ago	J.J. Deman	J.J. Denman 4-star OT 6'6" 310 lbs He is from Pennsylvania, but committed to Wisconsin because of their recent success getting offensive linemen to the NFL. Now that their entire offensive coaching staff is gone, he is looking around along with Kyle Dodson. Scout and Rivals have downgraded both Dodson and Denman to "soft verbals". He and Dodson might visit Ann Arbor together.
1 year 19 weeks ago	Duke	And I'm not saying this just because I hate them. The cult around Coach K is very similar to the one around JoePa. He gets a little more like Bobby Knight every year in terms of being dismissive and even mocking to the press and no one dares say a word. He could cover up just about anything in his program if he wanted to IMO.
1 year 19 weeks ago	Duke	And I'm not saying this just because I hate them. The cult around Coach K is very similar to the one around JoePa. He gets a little more like Bobby Knight every year in terms of being dismissive and even mocking to the press and no one dares say a word. He could cover up just about anything in his program if he wanted to IMO.
1 year 19 weeks ago	Chuck Martin to OC	I also wonder if Chuck Martin's move from DBs coach to OC will have any effect on Yuri Wright's decision. As DBs coach, Martin would have been Wright's position coach at the time Wright visited South Bend. Presumably, he spent time with Wright during the visit telling how they intended to use him, etc. and now Wright will have to build a new relationship with someone different.
1 year 20 weeks ago	Wolverine60614	#5. Had NW in the Insight but they let me down. Where is everyone else?
1 year 20 weeks ago	It's not that special of a deal	People make a big deal about the "top 8" ND rule but, really, what elite program wouldn't get an at-large bid if it ended up in the top 8? We just got one by being ranked #13. If it was an exception offered to BSU or KSU, sure it would make a difference. But there is no scenario that ND would not get an at-large bid if it were ranked in the top 8. In practice, it's a totally worthless rule.
1 year 20 weeks ago	Go do it, then	If it works so well for you, why don't you go do it? Who is forcing you to play B10 teams? You didn't need to wait for the B10 and P12 to cut this deal before rearranging your schedule as you just wrote down. What are you waiting for?
1 year 20 weeks ago	ND has no good options	ND has no good options left. Even the ACC option has major problems, most notably the size of the conference. ND would be the 15th school and the ACC almost certainly will not stop with an odd number so that means someone else will join to make 16. Even if the ACC sticks with its current format of 9 conference games, ND will limited to three OOC games each year. Assuming they elect to keep the USC and Navy games, which are the two they always insist are non-negotiable, they will only have one game a year to schedule. Bye-bye to Michigan, MSU, Purdue and Stanford.
1 year 20 weeks ago	USC and Stanford	It's actually going to put USC and Stanford in a tough situation. They might not want to drop ND, but Larry Scott has said the P12 plans to keep its 9-game conference schedule. That means that if they play both a B10 team and ND every year, they will only have one game left to schedule. I'm pretty sure most Michigan fans would throw a tantrum if we ever boxed ourselves into a situation where we were effectively limited to selecting one different team to play every season.
1 year 20 weeks ago	Double post.	Double post.
1 year 20 weeks ago	Ditto.	Everything isn't always about ND. Who cares what they do?
1 year 20 weeks ago	Two-year hiatus	A two year hiatus is already built into the current contract. I believe it was originally written in for 2017-2018, though Brandon has said they are looking at the contract with ND and the two schools might agree to move the dates.
1 year 20 weeks ago	Ummmm ...	College football makes money for most D-1 schools. Most athletic departments are in the red not because of football but because they support many non-revenue sports beyond football. In fact, football is the funding source for most of the money needed to operate those non-revenue sports. Even in the situations where football itself does not make a profit directly, it can be a valuable PR tool. A successful program on the field (e.g. Boise State) raises the profile of the school in the media and often can be tied to an increase in the number of student applications. If budgets continue to be tight, it is the non-revenue sports rather than football that are the most likely to be cut.
1 year 20 weeks ago	Agree.	When I look at the schedule each season, I look to see how many marquee games we have at home and ND is always one of those games. The thought that we are going to drop them from the schedule and replace them with someone better every season is unrealistic. Brandon will end up replacing ND with another high profile opponent (e.g., Georgia, Texas) about half the time and then stick us with a bunch of additional MAC teams or worse for the remainder. Be very careful what you wish for. Also, the idea that ND would not be able to find another high quality opponent to replace us is equally delusional. They are one of the elite programs/brands that help sell tickets and generate TV ratings. Just like Michigan, they will have no problem getting Georgia or Florida or Oregon or LSU or some similar program to fill the slot if that is what they want. The losers in any concerted effort by the B10 to cut out ND will be Sparty and Purdue.
1 year 20 weeks ago	NSFMFs	My prediction: 1. We have bought our way out of that crappy UConn return game 2. The Great Brandon is revealing our new mascot
1 year 21 weeks ago	Buildings are named after ADs	Michigan has historically named its major athletic buildings after ADs (Yost, Crisler, Canham, Schembechler) not coaches. So unless you want to watch hockey games in Dave Brandon Arena, let's hope Yost is the home of Michigan hockey for a long, long time.
1 year 21 weeks ago	Yes.	The NCAA has an automatic rule that goes into effect with post-season bans. If a player's entire remaining eligibility is covered by a post-season ban, that player can transfer without sitting out a year. That means all seniors can transfer if they want.
1 year 21 weeks ago	Yessssssss!	There is a Santa Claus after all and his name is Mark Emmert.
1 year 22 weeks ago	I was just going to say this	Garnett gives a glowing review of everywhere he visits. Also, FWIW, I asked Justin Hopkins (who Steve Wiltfong got this info from) about two or three months ago whether Michigan had a shot at Banner or Garnett and he told me he would be very surprised if they both didn't stay on the West Coast. Hopkins and Wiltfong don't know any better than we do where these kids are going. They just put out "updates" like this to get more web hits.
1 year 23 weeks ago	Agreed.	And Dunn's decision bodes well for the future in the broader sense. It is the first sign that Urbie might run into some of the same problems that RR had in terms of trying to recruit elite players from the State of Ohio and throughout the Midwest who do not want to play in a spread offense.
1 year 23 weeks ago	Over-rated	Sorry, but I don't see what apparently everyone else sees. He is a good D-1 LB, but certainly not among the best defensive players we see every year. Jerel Worthy is better. Gholston is better. David is better. Still is better.  Our own Mike Martin is better. Mercilous (sp?) of Illinois. Many of the Ohio linebackers we have faced over the past decade, such as Laurenitis, have been better. I even think the LBs that Sparty put on the field this year were as good or better. It's great that Teo wants to stay and get his degree from ND, but beyond that it's a non-event. He will not be the player we are worried most about when we line up against them next year.
1 year 23 weeks ago	OK if limited to HC	I think it would be ok if it was just limited to the incoming HC. In most of these situations, much/most of the existing staff is not being retained so in a way they are at a recruiting disadvantage. But the way I read the NCAA waiver, Ohio could actually hire an entirely new staff and thereby have 10 guys out recruiting full-time while the staffs of most other teams are preparing for bowl games. That is crazy. Well, it would be crazy if it weren't a decision made by the NCAA.
1 year 23 weeks ago	I suppose that's possible	... but even if that is true, this guy isn't Dan Mullen. I think whoever Urbie hires as his DC and the rest of the defensive staff will be more important than the QB coach. Again, with the caveat about recruiting. Some coaches are literally hired more for their recruiting prowess than their coaching ability, so if this guy is some killer recruiter, that would be significant.
1 year 23 weeks ago	Firing of RR	How much do you know about the decision to replace RR? Specifically, do you know if Dave Brandon thought he had Harbaugh locked up and that fell apart at the last minute or did Brandon really wait until after the bowl game to make a decision and ultimately talk to candidates?
1 year 23 weeks ago	Not a big deal	It's not a big deal, one way or the other. Urbie is the brains behind the offense and I think he said he even intends to call his own plays. And this guy is not even the OC, he is the QBs coach. Unless he is an amazing recruiter, this is not the guy we need to worry about.
1 year 23 weeks ago	Clark as WR	I agree on Clark. He is on the tall side for a safety and who's to say he's done growing. Gotta say, though, it's great to be talking about what we are going to do with all the DB talent we have instead of trying to figure out which true freshman we are going to be forced to put on the field.
1 year 23 weeks ago	Not sure about Cam ...	But I wouldn't mind it if Armani stopped by Noah Spence's house and brought him along for an official visit.
1 year 23 weeks ago	Team Effort	Hopefully, all of the returning DL players will work extra hard in the offseason knowing they are going to need to step up as a group to fill some pretty big shoes. It's not impossible, but it needs to be a group effort. The same is true on the OL. We lose a couple of very good players there too, but we have enough talent that the transition can be managed so long as there are not too many injuries and everyone works hard in the offseason.

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