Unverified Voracity Digs In Comment Count

Brian

Full up. The Bama Sports Report says Ivan Matchett has made his grades and will enroll at Alabama shortly. Matchett is the 27th recruit to qualify -- two enrolled early -- and Alabama has now maxed out their freshman class. Three players will have to go by September, and there are still two guys trying to get eligible.

Hello, nurse. Anyone with an interest in viral marketing, branding, or boobs probably knows that JC Penney has been scrambling to control the fallout from a fake teen sex ad that was leaked onto the internet. But everyone's missed the hidden subplot except an alert reader: that chick is a Michigan fan. Check the shirt she's putting on/taking off/putting on:

Thousands of sixteen-year-olds across the country will now find themselves inexplicably fond of winged helmets.

Slightly lame. A large number of departures from the quasi-revenue sports of hockey and baseball:
  • 2010 hockey recruit Jared Knight has signed with the OHL. This is not a huge deal since that class is two years from seeing the ice and Michigan will no doubt secure a suitable replacement, but Knight would have been a first-round OHL draft pick without his Michigan commitment and is a disappointing loss.
  • 3B Adam Abraham, SS Jason Christian, and top reliever Mike Powers have signed MLB contracts and won't return for their senior years. Putnam is still wavering after being selected surprisingly late, though.
Say goodbye. Comrade Rodriguez has declared that Michigan Replay will no longer be taped on Saturday night, which was mildly disappointing. This, however, is the end of an era:
"It was the greatest thing I ever did professionally," said Bob Lipson, who created the show in 1975 and produced it for 33 years. "It's me. That's my identity. I absolutely loved it and worked with three great coaches. Nobody had it better than me. It was a great run." So what's to become of new coach Rich Rodriguez's show this fall? One thing is certain: it will not be called "Michigan Replay." "I own the name," Lipson said. "It's not for sale."
Harsh, man. Likely out the door with the "Michigan Replay" name is the show's inexplicably funky theme song, and you should be sad. No question, Jim.

Feed me, multiply. Stadium and Main emerges from a long slumber with some original reporting:

...the most important thing about the BTN is having access to all of its "overflow" feeds, so you can see all of the games (without having to worry about whether you'll receive your team's game). This is especially important for me, since I live in Washington, DC. So if I only get one BTN channel, my "regional coverage" might be the BTN Game of the Week (which may or may not include Michigan), or worse yet, Penn State (since they're the closest geographically). This short blurb from the Baltimore Sun makes it sound like the BTN will be available on Comcast's Sports Entertainment Package in cities like Baltimore (stated), DC, NYC, etc. (inferred), which was expected. But what about those overflow feeds?!
S&M (...errrr) goes on an intrepid journey to get a comment on the matter from Comcast, finally surfacing with:
We plan to review this situation week by week, and hope to bring our customers as many of these extra games as possible, based on level of interest and available channel capacity. BTN has told us that these details of this opportunity will not be available until August, and that they are quite subject to change, week to week, based on the game selections by ESPN, ABC and NBC.
Bleah. Sounds like this remains in question; head over to Stadium and Main for a fuller parsing of the above.

Snippet. Oddly, I'm an Edmonton Oilers fan (long story involving Chris Chelios and Mike Comrie), which sucks when it comes to actual on-ice accomplishments except during the Pronger year but is pretty killer when it comes to blogging. One of the best Oilers blogs out there -- albeit one of the worst named -- is MC79Hockey, and they've just wrapped up the main problem with the "access" frequently trotted out as the reason you shouldn't read the internet. Former Sioux defender Matt Greene just got traded:

Looking at Matt Greene first, he’s a fifth or sixth guy on a bad team. I had to laugh tonight as Jason Gregor was promoting his upcoming LIVE INTERVIEW WITH MATT GREENE and then explaining that he saw his upside as being a number three defenceman, because he can’t play on the PP. It was a stark illustration of the corrosive effect of access on truth telling.
Not everyone goes that route, of course, but the ones who don't tend to be Sharp/Mariotti types who Speak Truth To Power in a super-annoying way. Access is a double-edged sword. (Also re: Greene: " I’ll always remember him, but mostly because I went to school with the guy who hit him with his truck." ZING!)

Comments

KBLOW

July 1st, 2008 at 12:10 PM ^

"It was the greatest thing I ever did professionally" Now that's just plain sad. Seriously. Michigan Replay had to be one of the worst coaches shows in the country. At least the worst coming from such a big time school as Michigan. The thing had a (I admit rather charming) cable access quality, but from Carr's nonsensical droning as the most important plays of the game rolled by to the lack of any analysis just made it a 30 min waste of time...unless on TIVO.

Anonymous Coward (not verified)

July 1st, 2008 at 12:17 PM ^

Aw, so none of this: "Coming up, we're going to hear about what Brandon Graham thinks... about the mighty UTES' offense. But first we'll talk to Steven Threet about a surprising aspect of his pre-game preparations!" Caption: "THREET LEVEL: MIDNIGHT"

JeremyB

July 1st, 2008 at 12:18 PM ^

Aw, so none of this: "Coming up, we're going to hear about what Brandon Graham thinks... about the mighty UTES' offense. But first we'll talk to Steven Threet about a surprising aspect of his pre-game preparations!" Caption: "THREET LEVEL: MIDNIGHT"

Anonymous Coward (not verified)

July 1st, 2008 at 12:20 PM ^

I just wanted to say that Matt Greene is a bad motherf****er. I had the pleasure of watching him for a few years at UND. He was like a more badass Jack Johnson...minus the offensive upside~

M Go Blue

July 1st, 2008 at 12:35 PM ^

Honestly, the show was absolutely terrible. It had a distinct "Aurora Local Cable Access Channel 11" production quality to it that was downright shameful. I'm actually happy that RR is going in a new direction.

caup

July 1st, 2008 at 12:41 PM ^

I get the whole tongue-in-cheek aspect of dex's site, but at what point does this whole "Comrade Rod" thing start to look to the casual observer like we're a bunch of pinko-loving communists? Should we also refer to RR as "The Fuhrer"? The whole communist theme thing is mildly entertaining but the cost of associating affection with Stalin and his gang of brutal dictators is kinda dumb. And yes, I know dex, the Chief of the Smug Police, is going to rip me a new one for finding fault with anything that comes out of his very witty brain. So be it.

dex

July 1st, 2008 at 1:05 PM ^

First, I hardly think anyone is really associating Rich Rodriguez with Stalin in any meaningful way. Second, The Fuhrer slaughtered communists like McDonalds slaughters livestock. Third, the goal of the site isn't to so much be a "communist theme" (although that is where we are starting from) as it is to be an outpost for "liberation" of M fans, the admittedly niche crowd of M fans who think in a similar manner as I do and don't really feel so beholden to "Michigan Men" or other stuff like that but still like the Winged Helmets. If it's not your cup of tea, I'm not forcing you to go there and read it, and I doubt the 34 people a day who visit are really doing any widespread damage to Michigan.

M2NASA

July 1st, 2008 at 1:05 PM ^

It's too bad they didn't go to this player-centric format before. Just think of all the great footage of Lamarr Woodley's pregame preparation of eating five whole chickens we missed out on.

jamiemac

July 1st, 2008 at 1:23 PM ^

I am sure you have over 40 visitors per day by now!! Seriously, though, kudos to you as I have noticed EDSBS link to you twice in the last week or so. And, I hope this compliment/shout out makes me your favorite non-alum fan......lol.

hat

July 1st, 2008 at 2:51 PM ^

KBLOW / M Go Blue, have you ever watched any other coaches' shows? Dude, Michigan Replay was one of the BEST out there. I'm not kidding. The Big Ten Network airs them during the week and you would not believe the level of cornball crap the other 10 schools put on. Most of them won't even show highlights of the other team scoring. A team will lose 45-14 and its coaches' show will show highlights of only the two TDs. Michigan Replay would not do that. I'm sad to see it go.

KBLOW

July 1st, 2008 at 4:31 PM ^

Maybe it's b/c I grew up watching SEC coaches shows.  

 

 But for all the unbelievable resources and $$$ that UM has for it to have been tied to such a rinky dink operation as Michigan Replay merely b/c Carr was pals with Brandy was certainly not demonstrative of being the leaders or the best of anything.  

caup

July 1st, 2008 at 3:41 PM ^

You're right, I did overreact. It was an off-the-cuff feeling I just "blurted" out there. When our rivals' fans start calling us "commie bastards" I'll know where they've been trolling. LOL!

caup

July 1st, 2008 at 4:28 PM ^

I've always admired the way Gsimm reacts to comments, and I'm going to try emulate his "let's get along" attitude. New site. New start. Here, here! (Well, that oughta get us through the kickoff...)

Bigasshammm

July 3rd, 2008 at 8:08 AM ^

Ah how I remember those days. I used to love the little sneakiness of going down to the basement to fool around and haphazardly having to throw your clothes back on at the slightest sound. Those were the days.