I think they're treating one as a ring for winning the CFP National Championship Game and one for winning the National Championship (the AP). This would be logically consistent and also, man, those are a lot of fun.
Rally House at Arborland has a lot of Nike/Jordan options that M-Den doesn't have, but it's very hit or miss on sizing. Their online store is...well, it's an adventure.
The Mitten State has some fun Michigan stuff that is not available elsewhere, and the shirts are very soft.
And as someone who has successfully bought 33 Nike football jerseys from the 1995-2007 original issue, eBay has a lot of options is you're OK with used.
According to KRACH, Michigan had a 38% chance to beat NoDak, a 34% chance to beat MSU, and a 22.5% chance to beat BC. That they won the first two was a nice reminder that odds are not destiny, but this game just felt utterly like it was holding back the tide for as long as they could until the could not any longer. But given that they were on the outside of the tournament looking in at a very late moment in the season, the way they rallied to even get to this point was remarkable. BC's been the nation's best team this year, and once again they showed last night why people have said that over and over.
I appreciate how self-reflective Juwan is about all of this, which is, of course, easier after it is all over, but I agree with the chorus agreeing with his assessment that he probably should have taken a medical leave this year. I thought it was interesting that he framed it about his concerns about the transfer portal, both feeling like he owed it to the guys who came in this year and worrying about players wanting to leave.
I also appreciated the context of why he went to the WBB game in the tournament at USC. I always believed that Juwan and KBA had a deep "basketball is life" connection and you get glimpses of it here.
I did not realize how much Casey made the power play go, but man, it's really showing out right now. Hopefully they can draw something up in the room and get it to work.
I feel like Michigan was challenged to do the dirty work of the playoffs after the first goal and they traded fancy for gritty. They just need to get that to pay off in the second and third.
The unspoken part about these regional sites is that a lot of arenas no longer want to bid for them because you now are tying your arena up for an extra day because of the rest day between games and because they are money losers. If you went back to campus sites, it at least might make more sense for schools to host.
We could also consider a SuperRegional situation where one building hosts the six games over four days, but that probably would not fly either.
Michigan is up to a 100% chance to make the tournament. It looks like the simulations are giving Michigan a 40% chance of winning in EL next weekend, which, I have to say, that feels about right?
Excellent performance by the fourth line tonight to allow Naurato to roll four deep, keeping his top lines fresher late. It's the little things in playoff hockey.
I just want to record my admiration for the post calling Brian's "what are we even doing here" five minutes before Brian posted a "what are we even doing here?"
Similarly, remember that Warde conducted his own climate investigation into Michigan hockey under Pearson that didn't raise the issues that the Wilmer Hale report found, so perhaps having an outside firm do it at least allows people to feel like they can speak a little more freely?
The three most interesting takeaways for me:
1). The outside firm hired to review the culture, which again is likely to provide cover for a firing.
2). The lack of anything to move the needle to anyone who has been paying even a modicum of attention to this program for the last few years.
2a). The complete lack of discussion of anything in the Michigan AD that is not the MBB program, which the rumormongers and OSU Millerites were insisting was all coming.
3). That Quinn got a nice sitdown with Sanderson's lawyer(s).
We literally had a law firm report detailing the toxic culture that Mel was permitting, so if we're reintroducing facts already in evidence, fine, the finger should be pointed at Warde for a). wanting to stick with Mel, and b). weirdly not keeping Mel from acting like the government in exile on social media last year. Which, again, things people are already pissed off about.
Now, if there's more than that, so be it, but it would hardly be shocking to find out that 1000SSS is letting a whole bunch of horrible ish slide.
No, because I think it might also be in line with other data points we have going back a few years...the Pearson report details went into a lot of this, the Sanderson incident suggests it's not an uncommon thing.
Each time, the department weathered the storm, so it would be interesting to see what people would think might move the needle in this regard about new levels of toxic workplace.
Pairwise predictor moves Michigan to 99.4% as of this morning's 20,000 simulations, which isn't a lock, but certainly feels much better than it did three weeks ago.
I'll be curious to see what tomorrow's numbers say since it will now simulate Michigan/Minnesota instead of Michigan/MSU or Michigan/Minnesota.
Next weekend is a one gamer, so I think the math of only having two potential games left against a quality opponent of either MSU or Minnesota will help.
But even then, it's really not in our control. If we were doing basketball-style scheduling where you're making matchups in the off-season and can have a sense of what kind of team they might have, that would make more sense. But these games are scheduled years out.
(A reminder that as part of the dealmaking to get Texas into the SEC sooner, Michigan and Texas swapped the home games from that 2014 deal so FOX could have Texas at Michigan as Big Noon Saturday in Week 2. Which would have then given Michigan the usual seven home game slate for this coming season.)
Tell Texas in 2014 "Oh yeah, Michigan will be coming off a national title and you'll have made your first playoff the previous season." and they would have laughed at you.
I don't love ESPN's FPI, and I wish I could get the rankings coming out of conference championship week, but Michigan played what ESPN has as the seventh toughest schedule in the country, in part because they played Penn State, Ohio State, Iowa, Alabama, and Washington. Plus UNLV and Bowling Green ended up being better than expected.
It was perceived as an easy schedule because that is how the narrative was set over the long off-season. It was not an easy one by the time every game was played.
I was at Senior Night on Saturday and it struck me that they were recognizing the CoY seniors and I was just thinking "Dang, that would have been very awkward." back in the late 1990s.
If you're officially recognized and sanctioned by the Athletic Department, they have a modicum of control over you. This can be a good thing and a bad thing, but it definitely flattens the presentation a bit, if nothing else.
A friend mentioned to me that it is easier to get into certain schools at U-M (non LS&A) from WCC than it is to transfer between units (because units don't like losing their own numbers.) So if you know you want to be Public Health or Natural Resources, etc, it can sometimes be a very viable plan B.
The money is nice and makes an easier headline to understand while the immunity stuff is better to keep off the main page as to try and avoid a reminder that it's still out there. It's a great bit of messaging.
I also know from my M-Den contacts that they were running three shifts at the warehouse for the last two weeks to keep up with the orders and that the Briarwood store was doing GameDay Saturday levels of traffic from the day after the game through MLK Day (when we were in there.)
Just came in to say the same thing. How could Harbaugh agree to a contract extension that keeps him from talking to NFL teams this off-season if he's talking to the Chargers (reportedly) tomorrow? It is a completely valid observation that doesn't mean anything really.
I don't disagree with folks picking "Jump Around" and stealing Wisconsin's mojo, but for me, I think it was Erick All's game-winning TD in Happy Valley.
They had already lost to Michigan State, they had fumbled and handed Penn State an absolute gift, only to see the defense limit PSU to a field goal, and they needed something, and Hassan is moving them slowly but surely down the field after a big opening run, and then a beautiful play design and Erick All rumbles all the way for the go-ahead TD. Previous iterations of Harbaugh teams don't get that moment; they fold after things go sideways. That was the moment I thought we had a shot. (Though I will say, Ohio State's surgical dismantling of Michigan State the next week did give me some pause, but well, I should have known not to draw any conclusions from a Michigan State game.)
When the real thing comes up, my suggested Michigan donation will be 148.81, which is the combined scores of Maryland, OSU, Iowa, Alabama, and Washington.
($539.56 would be the 538-156 season scoring margin if one wanted to do so.)
I think when April rolls around, Michigan can be the first school to clear seven figures on its own, which is hilarious for a charity drive that could have been won with small four figures just a decade ago.
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Included the score on the B1G Champions ring, which was nice.
I think they're treating one as a ring for winning the CFP National Championship Game and one for winning the National Championship (the AP). This would be logically consistent and also, man, those are a lot of fun.
This is the year of the Michigan Million, we must do it.
Rally House at Arborland has a lot of Nike/Jordan options that M-Den doesn't have, but it's very hit or miss on sizing. Their online store is...well, it's an adventure.
The Mitten State has some fun Michigan stuff that is not available elsewhere, and the shirts are very soft.
And as someone who has successfully bought 33 Nike football jerseys from the 1995-2007 original issue, eBay has a lot of options is you're OK with used.
Lost in all of the CS stuff is this:
What the hell was the Wyoming LLC with Blake Corum that Blake knew nothing about?!?
According to KRACH, Michigan had a 38% chance to beat NoDak, a 34% chance to beat MSU, and a 22.5% chance to beat BC. That they won the first two was a nice reminder that odds are not destiny, but this game just felt utterly like it was holding back the tide for as long as they could until the could not any longer. But given that they were on the outside of the tournament looking in at a very late moment in the season, the way they rallied to even get to this point was remarkable. BC's been the nation's best team this year, and once again they showed last night why people have said that over and over.
I appreciate how self-reflective Juwan is about all of this, which is, of course, easier after it is all over, but I agree with the chorus agreeing with his assessment that he probably should have taken a medical leave this year. I thought it was interesting that he framed it about his concerns about the transfer portal, both feeling like he owed it to the guys who came in this year and worrying about players wanting to leave.
I also appreciated the context of why he went to the WBB game in the tournament at USC. I always believed that Juwan and KBA had a deep "basketball is life" connection and you get glimpses of it here.
The camera work and angles on that goal were...um...lacking.
It was like trying to sort out a decision via a series of impressionist paintings.
You know what happened the last time Michigan won a national title in football...
I did not realize how much Casey made the power play go, but man, it's really showing out right now. Hopefully they can draw something up in the room and get it to work.
I feel like Michigan was challenged to do the dirty work of the playoffs after the first goal and they traded fancy for gritty. They just need to get that to pay off in the second and third.
[sigh] Once again, that's now how endowments work.
The unspoken part about these regional sites is that a lot of arenas no longer want to bid for them because you now are tying your arena up for an extra day because of the rest day between games and because they are money losers. If you went back to campus sites, it at least might make more sense for schools to host.
We could also consider a SuperRegional situation where one building hosts the six games over four days, but that probably would not fly either.
I wish I could upvote this twice.
FYI, CBS Sports Network has both NCHC games today on cable. NESN has the Hockey East games, and everything else, you're out of luck.
Is that why the drum major is the first guy to get to Braylon after one of the late touchdowns in Braylonfest?
The probability matrix updates in the overnight.
https://www.collegehockeynews.com/ratings/probabilityMatrix.php
Michigan is up to a 100% chance to make the tournament. It looks like the simulations are giving Michigan a 40% chance of winning in EL next weekend, which, I have to say, that feels about right?
Excellent performance by the fourth line tonight to allow Naurato to roll four deep, keeping his top lines fresher late. It's the little things in playoff hockey.
The press release, for posterity:
https://mgoblue.com/news/2024/3/15/mens-basketball-michigan-announces-leadership-change-in-mens-basketball
I just want to record my admiration for the post calling Brian's "what are we even doing here" five minutes before Brian posted a "what are we even doing here?"
Similarly, remember that Warde conducted his own climate investigation into Michigan hockey under Pearson that didn't raise the issues that the Wilmer Hale report found, so perhaps having an outside firm do it at least allows people to feel like they can speak a little more freely?
The three most interesting takeaways for me:
1). The outside firm hired to review the culture, which again is likely to provide cover for a firing.
2). The lack of anything to move the needle to anyone who has been paying even a modicum of attention to this program for the last few years.
2a). The complete lack of discussion of anything in the Michigan AD that is not the MBB program, which the rumormongers and OSU Millerites were insisting was all coming.
3). That Quinn got a nice sitdown with Sanderson's lawyer(s).
We literally had a law firm report detailing the toxic culture that Mel was permitting, so if we're reintroducing facts already in evidence, fine, the finger should be pointed at Warde for a). wanting to stick with Mel, and b). weirdly not keeping Mel from acting like the government in exile on social media last year. Which, again, things people are already pissed off about.
Now, if there's more than that, so be it, but it would hardly be shocking to find out that 1000SSS is letting a whole bunch of horrible ish slide.
No, because I think it might also be in line with other data points we have going back a few years...the Pearson report details went into a lot of this, the Sanderson incident suggests it's not an uncommon thing.
Each time, the department weathered the storm, so it would be interesting to see what people would think might move the needle in this regard about new levels of toxic workplace.
Pairwise predictor moves Michigan to 99.4% as of this morning's 20,000 simulations, which isn't a lock, but certainly feels much better than it did three weeks ago.
I'll be curious to see what tomorrow's numbers say since it will now simulate Michigan/Minnesota instead of Michigan/MSU or Michigan/Minnesota.
Next weekend is a one gamer, so I think the math of only having two potential games left against a quality opponent of either MSU or Minnesota will help.
Duluth has rallied to tie it at 5
Good! So we learned from our mistakes, and mistakes, and mistakes.
(It also might be easier to do this kind of thing with a new football administration.) But good!
But even then, it's really not in our control. If we were doing basketball-style scheduling where you're making matchups in the off-season and can have a sense of what kind of team they might have, that would make more sense. But these games are scheduled years out.
To wit: Brady Hoke was still the coach when the home and home with Texas was announced!
https://fbschedules.com/michigan-texas-schedule-football-series-2024-2027/
(A reminder that as part of the dealmaking to get Texas into the SEC sooner, Michigan and Texas swapped the home games from that 2014 deal so FOX could have Texas at Michigan as Big Noon Saturday in Week 2. Which would have then given Michigan the usual seven home game slate for this coming season.)
Tell Texas in 2014 "Oh yeah, Michigan will be coming off a national title and you'll have made your first playoff the previous season." and they would have laughed at you.
I don't love ESPN's FPI, and I wish I could get the rankings coming out of conference championship week, but Michigan played what ESPN has as the seventh toughest schedule in the country, in part because they played Penn State, Ohio State, Iowa, Alabama, and Washington. Plus UNLV and Bowling Green ended up being better than expected.
https://www.espn.com/college-football/fpi/_/view/resume/sort/resume.avgsosrank/dir/asc
It was perceived as an easy schedule because that is how the narrative was set over the long off-season. It was not an easy one by the time every game was played.
Wait, I thought Warde was the one who was floating that comparison?
I was at Senior Night on Saturday and it struck me that they were recognizing the CoY seniors and I was just thinking "Dang, that would have been very awkward." back in the late 1990s.
If you're officially recognized and sanctioned by the Athletic Department, they have a modicum of control over you. This can be a good thing and a bad thing, but it definitely flattens the presentation a bit, if nothing else.
Fix the "fumble through the end zone is a touchback" rule.
If you're willing to spend:
https://www.petermillar.com/c/game-day/mens-collegiate/big-ten/michigan
Concur, there is absolutely no way that number survived Purdue 1995.
We're also still claiming 350+ STRAIGHT games with crowds over 100,000 like 2020 didn't happen, which mean, I get it, but at least contextualize it.
I have bought a LOT of stuff from the M Den (I may have also been the person that suggested they add wedding and baby registries. Which they did.)
Still some years to go for my family (son is in seventh grade)
I am, however, waiting on word from my 17 former students for whom I wrote letters of recommendation and will find out their EA fates today.
A friend mentioned to me that it is easier to get into certain schools at U-M (non LS&A) from WCC than it is to transfer between units (because units don't like losing their own numbers.) So if you know you want to be Public Health or Natural Resources, etc, it can sometimes be a very viable plan B.
The money is nice and makes an easier headline to understand while the immunity stuff is better to keep off the main page as to try and avoid a reminder that it's still out there. It's a great bit of messaging.
I thank you for this. It's a wonderful bit of "let's remember some scores."
I also know from my M-Den contacts that they were running three shifts at the warehouse for the last two weeks to keep up with the orders and that the Briarwood store was doing GameDay Saturday levels of traffic from the day after the game through MLK Day (when we were in there.)
If you ordered National Champs gear, it said the expected ship date would be January 26 when you checked out.
Aww, man, this is wonderful. Well done, Ace, and thanks for giving this a spot to land MGoBlog crew.
Yes, but had it been "Ravens-esque", it would have been incorrect.
Just came in to say the same thing. How could Harbaugh agree to a contract extension that keeps him from talking to NFL teams this off-season if he's talking to the Chargers (reportedly) tomorrow? It is a completely valid observation that doesn't mean anything really.
I don't disagree with folks picking "Jump Around" and stealing Wisconsin's mojo, but for me, I think it was Erick All's game-winning TD in Happy Valley.
They had already lost to Michigan State, they had fumbled and handed Penn State an absolute gift, only to see the defense limit PSU to a field goal, and they needed something, and Hassan is moving them slowly but surely down the field after a big opening run, and then a beautiful play design and Erick All rumbles all the way for the go-ahead TD. Previous iterations of Harbaugh teams don't get that moment; they fold after things go sideways. That was the moment I thought we had a shot. (Though I will say, Ohio State's surgical dismantling of Michigan State the next week did give me some pause, but well, I should have known not to draw any conclusions from a Michigan State game.)
When the real thing comes up, my suggested Michigan donation will be 148.81, which is the combined scores of Maryland, OSU, Iowa, Alabama, and Washington.
($539.56 would be the 538-156 season scoring margin if one wanted to do so.)
I think when April rolls around, Michigan can be the first school to clear seven figures on its own, which is hilarious for a charity drive that could have been won with small four figures just a decade ago.
As was said to me over on BlueSky, "We're not expecting anything mission-critical out of you today, boss, stand down."
Lauren is a Michigan Daily alumna (and one of my APUSH 5s back in the day.)