• Big Ten Conference Divisional/Championship Tie-Breakers (2021)

    August 30, 2018 /

    The Big Ten divisional tiebreakers rules in a nutshell: Via bigten.org The Big Ten football championship will be decided by a game played between the two division champions. A team or teams that are not eligible to participate in a postseason football bowl game as a result of NCAA and/or Big Ten sanctions shall not be eligible to participate in the Big Ten Football Championship Game. The winner of the Big Ten Football Championship Game will represent the conference in one of the bowls that comprise the College Football Playoff – the Cotton, Fiesta, Orange, Peach, Rose, or Sugar Bowl. If the Big Ten Champion is ranked No. 1, 2, 3, or 4 in the final College Football Playoff poll, the team will play in a semifinal game. Otherwise, the Big Ten Champion will play in the Rose Bowl Game (when not hosting a semifinal) or the Cotton, Fiesta, or Peach Bowl. The following procedure will determine the representative from each division in the event of a tie: If two teams are tied, the winner of the game between the two tied teams shall be the representative.If three or more teams are tied, steps 1 through 8 will be followed until a determination is made. If only two teams remain tied after any step (or sub-step), the winner of the…

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  • Toasting Yost | October 19, 1940

    October 19, 2016 /

    In 1940 "The Toast to Yost from Coast to Coast" was held at Waterman Gymnasium.  Fielding H. Yost was honored by a host of dignitaries - (Willie Heston, Tom Harmon and Louis Elbel to name a few) in an event that was broadcast on NBC radio around the country. The Bentley Library has the original recording of that tribute. It's a tad choppy in spots but well worth a listen if you have the means. The highlight for me is certainly hearing the voice of Yost as he addresses the audience.

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  • Gustave Ferbert’s Million Dollar Touchdown

    July 22, 2015 /

    Today obviously the head coach of Michigan football team doesn’t have to look beyond campus to hit it big.    This hasn’t always the case of course, especially in the early days of the program.   While Fielding Yost’s contracts compensated him very competitively for the day, it definitely didn’t make him a wealthy man.  Yost spent a good part of the year pursuing his private business interests out of town. Do you know the story of Gustave “Dutch” Ferbert?  He suited up for the Wolverines in the mid-1890s but most notably he was head coach of the famous 1898 squad that delivered Michigan its first conference title.  The championship-sealing victory over Chicago that year inspired Louis Elbel to compose ‘The Victors’. Ferbert coached one more season but then packed his bags and headed north, hoping to strike it rich in the Klondike.   In 1900 he traveled up to Nome and allegedly told folks he would “return rich or not all all.” Well, there was some question whether he would make it, especially early on.  Thanks to Brian at the Bentley for forwarding this over, apparently from 1902: Here’s the opening paragraph: The many friends of “Dutch”” Ferbert, Michigan’s football coach in 1898, and one of the greatest halfbacks who ever carried the ball, have been fearful for some time that something…

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  • Seeing and Hearing Willie Heston

    November 12, 2014 /

    Today marks the 110th anniversary of Willie Heston’s final game at Michigan.  Heston was Michigan’s first superstar, a two-time All-American, who scored (somewhere around) 72 touchdowns.  From 1901 to 1904, Heston’s teams went 43-0-1 and are credited with four national titles. I’ll have more on Heston later this year. Hearing WillieBack in 2012, I posted a short audio clip of Fielding Yost from the 1940 nationwide radio tribute the man titled, ‘A Toast to Yost from Coast to Coast’.   Check it out if you missed it.   In that post I promised to share a few more clips, and thanks to the Bentley Historical Library for passing these along. The man who introduced Yost to the crowd in attendance and the radio audience was none other than the great Heston.   Here are two clips of the great Willie and in the first, we have a surprise.   Before offering up his tribute to his old coach, Heston acknowledges that current student-athletes and national icon Tom Harmon is in the audience.  Old 98 shares the mic & even has a little back and forth with Heston that is all in all pretty priceless. The second clip has Heston delivering his testimonial to Yost.  Enjoy: As an aside, while I’m sure you’ll be hard-pressed to find another audio clip of the Harmon and Heston…

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  • Team One, Game One

    May 30, 2013 /

    [Ed.  In honor of the anniversary of Team One Game One – a repost from last year.] Happy May 30th, the day Michigan football was born.   The month of May you say?  Indeed. Team 1 took the field on this day 133 ago against Racine in game played at White Stockings Park in Chicago. Fittingly May 30, 1879 is also marks the birth of, depending on your perspective, Wolverine fans getting SCREWED BY or whining about the officials.   From a recap of the game as published in the Michigan Chronicle the following day: Despite the blind referee, by all accepted accounts Michigan prevailed 1-0 over Racine.   To this day sources differ, however, on who scored the first touchdown and how it was scored.  The feat is commonly attributed to Irving K. Pond and that will probably never change.  In his autobiography Pond describes his heroic dash to the end zone and you’ve gotta love it: My touchdown was made towards the end of the first half and involved a long distance run to where the ball must be grounded directly behind and between the goal posts … To Avoid being tackled I was forced to mount the bleachers and run eastward along them until I was opposite the goal when I stopped suddenly and — fearing that a touchdown…

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