I Like Burgers

February 12th, 2016 at 4:59 PM ^

This is the thing that is perhaps the dumbest thing in this whole dumb panties in bunch southern tantrum: there is so much CONCERN about kids losing their spring break free time. But what about winter break? You know, that time where normal college kids get to go home and be with their families? Yeah, fuck that. Gotta have bowl practices. No one apparently gives a shit about that free time.




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Truthbtold

February 12th, 2016 at 11:20 PM ^

Harbaugh offering all expense paid trips to the beach for spring break for his players, and giving every third recruits Mom/Dad a job in the football program, it appears he is clearly offering illegal benefits and bribes in order to get recruits to play at UM. It's really sad that his integrity shows he believes this is somehow different than just giving the players and their families cars and cash. It is the same thing to any honest person. It obvious Harbaugh has a character defect that prevents him from seeing that a scammer is a scammer, and he is clearly just that, a Scammer !!
What's really sad is that Brady Hoke wasn't a,lot of things, but at least he was honest, and he didn't need to scam and game the system in order to get top 5 recruiting classes.
Harbaugh is so stupid that he thinks this makes him look like genius, worse is most of the UM fan base also thinks the same.
But the complete truth is that among the games true Elite, the coaches that actually play and win the big games, they see Harbaugh as a guy who wants something for nothing, just another wannabe that wants to scam and cheat to try and get recruits that otherwise would choose a school that plays and win championships.. I guess this is what desperate coaches that cannot even win their own division resort to when they can't do it the right way. UM just continues to tumble from grace, every year farther and farther down the shit hole

Hail Harbo

February 12th, 2016 at 7:06 PM ^

And then there are the four weeks during August when young adults spend carefree days sunning, drinking, and screwing.  I'm sure football players, especially those in the southeast, would rather be drifting on the lake with nubile young ladies sharing spirits and spit than working up a lather twice a day in the sweltering heat of Lord Saban's laser like gaze.

charblue.

February 12th, 2016 at 5:57 PM ^

raised his hackles wih the spring football thing on students off-time just flies in the face of the other hypocritial crap spawned by the the college football machine which overlooks all other collegiate athletic programs as drains on the financiai system. He is what he is, a banker with a broker mentality. He talks around the issue and pretends what he's saying has influence.

Soulfire21

February 12th, 2016 at 4:33 PM ^

I have no problem with them moving to ban it, but yeah, just come out and say you don't want to lose your location-based recruiting advantage.  Everyone sees through the pathetic "player well being, cutting into their break" argument.

bluesparkhitsy…

February 12th, 2016 at 4:41 PM ^

He's playing the best hand he has. Saying the SEC shouldn't lose a location-based advantage wouldn't be particularly persuasive, even if everyone assumes that is his motivation.

Truth be told, there are arguments in favor of limiting this sort of thing, and some of them do involve player well-being. (There are also counter arguments based on player well-being, so it cuts both ways.) But from what I understand, Michigan and others have previously used Spring Break for practices, meaning that the only thing new here is Michigan's choice of location. That's why he looks disingenuous; there's no evidence (that I've seen) that the timing ever bothered him before.




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FauxMo

February 12th, 2016 at 4:42 PM ^

I have no problem with it either. This is perhaps the best free marketing and advertising for the Michigan football program one could imagine. If we hadn't just landed the nation's #1 recruit, I would say this is the best thing to happen all year. And even if it somehow does get banned before Harbaugh can follow through this year, he will come up with something new to gain an advantage within the rules that pisses everyone in Johnny Reb territory off. I <3 U JH...

HermosaBlue

February 13th, 2016 at 12:27 AM ^

The thing I can't get my head around is that the trip to Florida for spring practice is apparently fine as long as it doesn't occur during spring break.

So it would seem that Sankey's argument, taken to its logical end, is that Harbaugh should reschedule the Florida trip to conflict with an actual week of classes. According to the SEC, that would be just fine.




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Wolfman

February 13th, 2016 at 5:22 AM ^

when asked if he can deny that the SEC's latest NC involved a demand, not a request, for their entire football team to sacrifice any benefits which might be gained by taking advantage of their built in scheduled break, how, realistically will he be able to counter? . It sickens me to read about some ass hat fuck stick like this espousing the absolute necessity for schools to not even consider infringing on the athlete's free time provided by these breaks not even a month after Alabama used the entire fucking month in preparation for not one, but two fucking nationally televised games. Now how in  the fuck is this less of an infrigement on allowing, ""not demanding" a team to take advantage of its spring break by flying to Fl, on the school's dime, although there is an understanding football related events will occur? This is an opportunity most of these young men have not experienced yet and the opportunity to bond with teammates without the pressures associated with preparation for an upcoming football game is one of the greatest opportunities these young men have been presented to date.

Hey Dickweed, Alabama decidated the entire fucking break, you deem so essential to the welfare of the student to prepare for two football matches and you think this is somehow going to be ignored by those you are preaching to? You are not presenting a case to a group consisting of SEC like intelligence so, sir, raise the level of your fucking game or remove your ass from the venue. Time to get back to business.

The transparency of his agenda is so obvious that a commissioner from an actual conference, one that includes, at minimum, occassional visits to scheduled classes as an obvious and necessary courtesy for nothing more than a token of appreciation for enhancing the likelihood of becoming a mult-millionaire before age 22 could not pull off the act he is attempting. 

Yeah, I think it a very wise idea to shine a light on your conference that has gained its prestige by taking every advantage imaginable of its student athletes, and to do so under the pretense that you actually give a fuck about their welfare is ridiculous. You do understand, don't you, that you were hired for your current position with an understanding that you, under no circumstances whatsoever, were to act in a manner that could conceivably cause those not welcome to look further into the strange occurrences rumored to take place down yonder in SEC country? Given the nature of your comments, I am thinking you acted without the advice of conference coaches, a breach of etiquette so glaringly irresponsible you may have placed your job in jeapordy. You, Sir, are a hole of ass of such large measurement that prior to now have only been rumored to exist.

Optimism Attache

February 12th, 2016 at 6:48 PM ^

The thing is, a reasonable argument to ban it can be made. There is a former college player I follow on Twitter named Michael Felder who made a couple legit arguments against it, and that is from the players' perspective. Fine, I don't happen to agree that banning it would be good for all or even most players, but I see that viewpoint.

But the SEC obviously doesn't particularly care about the players and has co-opted a legitimate argument for its own benefit. What these suckers don't even realize is that it doesn't matter if they ban it. It will go into effect after this spring, and Harbaugh is already on to the next idea. He's already winning, making them look foolish and getting all the media attention in 2017. He's miles ahead.

Leaders And Best

February 12th, 2016 at 8:00 PM ^

Felder & some others pointed out one important issue: there are relatively few weeks during the year where scholarship football players have completely unscheduled free time (no classes and no football). Taking away Spring Break is one of those few weeks.

But I think you will get a variety of opinions from former & current players. Like Jake Butt posted on Twitter, some kids would trade that Spring Break week for a week without football during Finals. But I am sure there are some kids & families that would prefer having that Spring Break free too, and by scheduling this spring break football trip, you are taking that option away from the players.

One thing Felder ignores though: players from the Midwest may enjoy having a spring football trip. Because he played at UNC, a lot of these opinions are coming from players in the South where they never had to have "spring" football in Northern-type conditions. Playing football in those conditions can be tough and sometimes even worse than the regular fall football weather. I think his opinion may be different if he played at a Midwestern or East Coast school.

Optimism Attache

February 12th, 2016 at 8:27 PM ^

Yeah, I found that first point you mentioned the most compelling. I was just thinking back to my college days and as far as free time, my experience was basically the total opposite of what an athlete has to deal with. Yes, they almost universally love the sport they are playing and yes they get a scholarship. But I can empathize with a kid who just wants a week or two a year off from all those obligations, basically wants to live like a normal 19 year old.

Everyone Murders

February 12th, 2016 at 5:04 PM ^

Not all of Delaney's B1G constituency is necessarily going to like Harbaugh's Southern forays.  To Harbaugh's credit, part of his "play" here is that Michigan football is profitable enough to allow him to ship the team to FL for a week of practice.  It's pocket change in the grand scheme of things to Michigan (or to OSU or other very profitable programs).  Michigan's revenue sports are profitable, and it makes sense for them to petition for means to access fertile recruiting grounds.  I'd suspect the "have-got" schools are asking Delaney for support.

But the tremendous profitability is not uniform across the B1G.  Look at schools like IU, Rutgers, Minnesota, etc.  Those schools with less-profitable programs still have to compete with Michigan.  And it may not be "in budget" for them to do offsite camp.  Those "have-not" schools may be well-served to echo the SEC/ACC line. 

Point being, that Delaney may not have a clear mandate from the member schools on this issue.

(Ewwwh, I just defended Delaney.  I feel ... ewwwh.)

 

NittanyFan

February 12th, 2016 at 5:42 PM ^

You are right --- some conference revenue sources ARE shared and that's a good thing.  The B1G does have less variation (as measured by standard deviation divided by average) in revenue between programs vs. other conferences (e.g., the Big XII).  All 14 schools being partners in BTN is the primary reason for the relatively low degree of variation.

But still, the differences that remain are nowhere near insignificant.

Everyone Murders

February 12th, 2016 at 5:56 PM ^

I get that TV revenue is shared.  But that's just a piece of the revenue puzzle.  A big piece, but just a piece.

Put another way, Nike would like to have a word with you.  Now if Rutgers recently signed a huge apparel deal, do spill.  I missed that press release.

 

Everyone Murders

February 12th, 2016 at 7:45 PM ^

Someone on the board (MGrowOld?) relayed an apt parable from Russia or somesuch.  The story is that a Russian peasant is bitter about his lot in life.  His crops didn't grow, his family is malnourished and poor, his children are sick, and he has a neighbor that he despises because the neighbor has two cows while the peasant has none.

One day, while tilling his field, he finds an old lantern.  He polishes it, and a spirit appears and offers him one wish.  The peasant is ecstatic - his big day is here!  "Spirit, grant me this wish - I want my neighbor's cows to die."  Maybe we've got a few Russian peasants in the conference.   

But I think it's not necessarily  irrational for the have-nots' to oppose Harbaugh's Southern camp tactic.  Not for revenue reasons, but for competitive reasons.  Why should Harbaugh, Meyer, Franklin etc. get to go to Florida for camp if my school can't afford to?  Michigan, OSU, etc. are already kicking our asses on the field, the last thing I want is for them to get more of a recruiting advantage by investing in camps.

 

aratman

February 12th, 2016 at 7:50 PM ^

If you have a friend who is a true player, the kind that always has them three deep.  Do you not hang out with him because he gets all the tang or do you buy the beers and hang out all the time for the overflow?  In this case we are the players and Indiana should be buying the beers for the overflow trim.  

BuckNekked

February 12th, 2016 at 5:57 PM ^

It could be argued that this could also indirectly help the recruiting efforts of schools in the midwest who cant afford to take thier team to Florida. Every recruit we take from outside of our footprint leaves one nearby for the lower revenue teams to pursue. IMO this is good for the entire B1G.

bacon

February 12th, 2016 at 8:22 PM ^

How much of that big ten network can MSU or Rutgers justify bringing in? That money is because Michigan and OSU have over a million alumni who live nationwide and demand their cable companies provide the big ten network. They benefit tremendously from being associated with Michigan and OSU.

KungFury

February 12th, 2016 at 4:33 PM ^

Where in the fuck is Delany in all of this and why has he not spoken up in support yet. Sankey is willing to shove his own foot clear up his own ass while our commissioner has yet to make an intelligent response?!?




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