Future spring break trips: South Africa 2019, Brazil 2020, Cuba 2021
Haven't heard this yet.
South Africa in 2019
Brazil in 2020
CUBA in 2021!
Crazy.
#Michigan is heading to South Africa in 2019, Brazil in 2020, and Cuba in 2021. It's a big part of why the parents of 4-star Florida State LB commit @KalenDeloach are telling him Jim Harbaugh's plan is the best one for him (VIP) https://t.co/5n2roSBUHD pic.twitter.com/a5Wd0FCPkA
— Sam Webb (@SamWebb77) December 6, 2018
December 6th, 2018 at 6:04 PM ^
Awesome, sounds more desirable than a green bay
December 6th, 2018 at 6:06 PM ^
Guantanamo Bay vs. Green Bay - Hmm!
December 6th, 2018 at 7:00 PM ^
Queue the Col Nathan R. Jessup quotes...
December 7th, 2018 at 9:28 PM ^
Tell me why Private Santiago can't run from here to there without collapsing from heat exhaustion. What the fuck is happening in bravo company, Michael? I'm appalled, sir.
December 6th, 2018 at 7:34 PM ^
The Green Bay of Pigs is a tailgate like no other.
December 6th, 2018 at 6:45 PM ^
Well would be good if there are 16-team conferences we’re competing against. If not it’s just weird.
Also, unbalanced schedules would be a huge problem.
December 6th, 2018 at 7:23 PM ^
Add them to the west and give us Illinois or northwestern, it’ll be fine.
Edit: better yet, add Texas to the west, Oklahoma to the east, and boot out Rutgers and Maryland. Then give us northwestern or Illinois.
December 6th, 2018 at 7:28 PM ^
As far as scheduling, as long as they can go to 4 divisions, I think it solves more problems than it creates. Play the 3 teams in your division, 4 teams in another division (rotating), and one rival in the other two divisions for 9 games total. You'd see 6 teams every year and rotate the other 3 out every 1-2 years, which means you'd still be going 4 years without playing certain teams or you wouldn't get the home and home with those 9 teams. The "problem" would be what to do for the conference championship game after. Either you'd need to go with a 4-team playoff from each division, take best two, or take the highest ranked team in either set of two divisions that played a round robin.
December 6th, 2018 at 6:57 PM ^
Color me very skeptical. That sounds pretty pie-in-the-sky.
Obviously such a realignment would not be limited to Texas and Oklahoma and would, once again, seismically alter the landscape of college sports.
December 6th, 2018 at 7:36 PM ^
I read this as the B1G at the least positioning themselves for that inevitable day.
December 7th, 2018 at 12:43 AM ^
Nothing against Oklahoma or Texas, but there are just too damn many teams already. Dump Maryland and Rutgers, maybe we can talk. Otherwise NO.
December 6th, 2018 at 6:06 PM ^
Cuba? Wow.
December 6th, 2018 at 7:54 PM ^
You do realize anybody can go to Cuba.
Go to Cuba for my job, kids will be bored after 30 minutes.
December 6th, 2018 at 7:57 PM ^
did you hear MSU is going to livonia 2019, tawas 2020, and then saugatuck in 2021?
December 6th, 2018 at 8:00 PM ^
Those trips were canceled, and they're just all going to meet at the Jackson State Penitentiary.
December 6th, 2018 at 9:49 PM ^
Some kind of mandatory deal; MSU spokesmen would not reveal details.
December 6th, 2018 at 10:47 PM ^
Or what MSU likes to call “Parents Day”
December 6th, 2018 at 11:31 PM ^
Tawas and Saugatuck are nice areas, as Jim Price would say.
I doubt either town would be willing to deal with that bunch from east landfill and the trash tornado that follows.
December 6th, 2018 at 7:59 PM ^
No, you need a passport :)
December 7th, 2018 at 11:20 AM ^
User named "John Galt" bored by trip to communist country, film at 11.
December 6th, 2018 at 6:08 PM ^
This disclosure just in time to counter the negative recruiting tactics of OSU coaches, fans and alumni. Warde and Jim need to publicize it more!
December 6th, 2018 at 6:13 PM ^
Of course the guys they are recruiting are aware of this..hence the comment about DeLoach and his parents. I'm sure this is a major recruiting tool as it should be.
December 6th, 2018 at 6:09 PM ^
Smart move. Announce them in advance and use them as a recruiting tool.
December 6th, 2018 at 6:09 PM ^
Sign me up Coach. I can play.
December 6th, 2018 at 6:11 PM ^
I'll be interested to see if Cuba sticks. They would...regret...that trip.
December 6th, 2018 at 7:38 PM ^
I recommend glorious North Korea. North Korea is Best Korea.
December 6th, 2018 at 7:50 PM ^
Did you know we have the biggest stadium in the world?
December 7th, 2018 at 5:38 AM ^
Real home field advantage (it helps when the firing squad takes up position behind the visitors bench).
December 6th, 2018 at 7:40 PM ^
I would much rather visit Cuba than South Africa right now.
December 6th, 2018 at 7:45 PM ^
Are you kidding? Cuba is pretty great.
December 6th, 2018 at 8:25 PM ^
Hey who doesn't like seeing cars from the 50's?
Seriously, the girls there!! The hottest girl I ever saw was in a parade at half time of a soccer game in Cuba.
But Cuba is very much sheltered from the outside world. A friend of mine talked to a girl when he was there. They somehow got on the topic of the war in Iran. She had never heard of it, or of the name Saddam Hussein. Very sad.
December 6th, 2018 at 9:26 PM ^
I’m not the smartest person out there...but I don’t think Saddam was in Iran.
December 6th, 2018 at 10:05 PM ^
Had she heard that the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?
December 6th, 2018 at 6:11 PM ^
Brazil...hot, hot, hot...and I'm not just talking about the Samba..
December 6th, 2018 at 8:22 PM ^
Not as hot then - S. Hemisphere thing
December 6th, 2018 at 6:11 PM ^
Cuba is a great Country I’ve been there before
December 6th, 2018 at 6:19 PM ^
Cuba is a shithole (not making a political statement here) with an oppressed and starving populace. It's cute if you're a tourist who can come in, look at the colorful classic cars, pay $70 for a plate of pasta, and dip. It's hell on Earth for the Cubans who have to stay.
December 6th, 2018 at 6:24 PM ^
This is true. Brazil also isn't a particularly fun place for a lot of denizens.
I think it's always hard in situations like this because it's definitely a vacation and will likely ignore many of the larger problems in an area, but perhaps exposing these guys to other cultures and their struggles will make them better world citizens.
December 6th, 2018 at 6:36 PM ^
Yeah, and if that's the angle Jim is taking here, then maybe it's worthwhile. Cuba is a scary place for those who have to live there.
People steal and eat others' farm animals because they're starving, and that animal is sometimes the only thing that person had to make money/produce food.
Staff at restaurants are assigned days of the week where they get to take home the scraps left on people's plates - people are ecstatic over taking home 3 chicken wings for their children.
People wait weeks to get new supplies of things we can buy by the ton at Costco, like toilet paper.
My cab driver wouldn't talk to me about the horrors in his life because he was afraid that he was being listened to, and he knew people that have disappeared.
Cuba is hell, but it can be an eye-opening, learning experience.
December 6th, 2018 at 7:08 PM ^
You must be mistaken. Your account does not match what I saw in the opening of the most recent fast and furious movie.
December 6th, 2018 at 7:10 PM ^
This is a really ignorant take, and it's difficult to imagine that it wasn't influenced by politics. Cuba is a solidly middle income country. It's certainly a much worse place to live than the great wealthy democracies of the West, but if Cuba is hell, so is half of the world.
There haven't been country-wide food emergencies in Cuba since the mid-90's. No one is ecstatic over chicken wings. Your picture of a populace on the precipice of mass starvation is simply not true.
December 6th, 2018 at 8:00 PM ^
You’re wrong. Just take a look at average life expectancy for Cuba. It’s a meager 79.1 years because of their wretched squalor. Compare that to the US which is a healthy 79.3 years, a whole (wait for it) one spot ahead of Cuba in the world rankings.
So... I guess the US is a shithole where people are eating one another’s babies just to get by.
December 6th, 2018 at 8:32 PM ^
Because reported life expectancy is an excellent measure of hunger, poverty, and quality of day to day life. Sure. The government dictates how much beef and toilet paper you can have, but hey, you can live like that for a long time at least.
December 6th, 2018 at 8:52 PM ^
Actually, I can’t think of many better indicators to show a country is not starving as you say than average life expectancy. Believe me, I am no fan of central governments and have spent a long time advocating against them in multiple careers. But your hyperbolic statements aimed at creating a negative view of Cuba’s centrally controlled institutions don’t pass any critical examination. There are MANY ways to show how the country’s policies have failed. Claiming people are starving and stealing one another’s livestock as a means to prevent starvation is not one of them.
Regardless, a trip to Cuba is a great learning experience to show the perils of poor governance and the damage of a centrally controlled economy while also showing a strong people’s will to survive and in some aspects, like healthcare and education, actually thrive.
December 6th, 2018 at 8:08 PM ^
Dude, no offense, but have you been there? I spent 10 days there, living as richly as possible, and it was an absolute shithole. I grew up in China back when it wasn't the modern marvel it is today... I mean fresh off real communist shit China. Cuba was like that but only worse.
While I do think literal starvation may be an exaggeration, it was an highly unpleasant place.
December 6th, 2018 at 8:42 PM ^
It’s been about 12 years since I’ve been there. But prior to that, in a life long forgotten, I worked at the World bank and other development orgs. I spent about 30 days in Cuba over 4-5 trips with WB where we actually looked at how Cuba had positive health outcomes relative to economic wealth. True, it is not a first world country. It is also not a shithole. I’ve been to those places, mostly in Africa, and believe me Cuba is thriving relative to those countries.
December 6th, 2018 at 8:49 PM ^
I went to Cuba once, and probably will never go again. All there was to do was drink mojitos and have sex with prostitutes. You couldn't even buy weed.
December 6th, 2018 at 8:28 PM ^
I’m speaking of interactions I had in Cuba, with actual Cuban people, this year. When you stay with Cubans, travel with Hispanic people, and speak Spanish, and you aren’t just the white tourist in the tourist areas with American money, you get a good taste of the real Cuba.
Solidly middle income is an insane statement. Cuba is hell.