Two stories related to the Stadium project have made it onto the front page of the Ann Arbor News this week. Today the News reported that some of the concerns over the construction noise were dying down, going as far as to publish a noise readings and on MLive.com, some actual “noise” from the stadium for your iPod: That fine, but I was a bit more concerned in this piece that headlined the Tuesday May 6 Ann Arbor News. The gist is that the University backed off its attempt to close a lane on Main Street to facilitate the renovation project. The thing that caught my eye was a quote midway through the story. The U-M spokeswoman Kelly Cunningham said that the lane closure wouldn’t jeopardize the near-term plan to have the stadium in shape for football this fall, but admitted that the plans to complete the gig by 2010 might be up in the air. Judge for yourself: U-M had planned to have the rest of the work finished in the fall of 2010. Cunningham said U-M is reassessing its construction schedule. “At this point, we’re looking at the construction schedule, exploring options, as to when and how the project can be completed,” she said. University officials had previously characterized the lane closure as crucial to their construction timetable…
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Cool Rod greets Ann Arbor alums
Last night Bill Martin and Coach Rodriguez kicked off their ‘On the Road’ tour to give Michigan alumni a chance to meet the new coach. The Junge family center between Crisler and the stadium was the venue, and props to the Alumni association for running a first class event. Coach Rod worked the room for a little while then signed autographs. Martin gave a brief introduction and Rodriguez spoke for about 20 minutes. He did a real nice job. Some old material, some new, but overall he did a real nice job. Like most coaches, I imagine that he hates this kind of stuff but it didn’t show. The only thing I would have changed? He didn’t take any questions, at least in front of the group. This said, he was very approachable before and after the event so it’s not like he did his 20 minutes and split. A few tidbits: * He made no projections for next season, he said his players will play hard and physical and joked that he can predict that he’ll play eleven guys. He did indicate that he’d be playing quite a few freshman on offense this year. * He touched on the Page Six items very briefly: his lingering WVU issues, the Ann Arbor News investigation, the ‘eroding family‘ thing, the recruiting…
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1933 and the Dickinson Formula
Michigan’s 1932 and 1933 national titles were determined by the most widely recognized method at the time: the Dickinson System. Illinois economics professor Frank Dickinson developed a formula used to rank college teams based upon the quality of their results factoring for the strength of their opponent. The formula was pretty simple. Each game outcome (win, loss or tie) earned a score based on the quality of the opponent. The total of points for a season was then divided by the number of games to arrive at a common rating metric. Dickinson added a factor to adjust for games that involved teams from different parts of the country, which contained a heavy “Middlewest” bias: “differential points” would be factored in for an “intersectional game”, with ratings of 0.00 for East schools, higher points for “Middlewest” (+4.77) and Southwest (+1.36), negatives for the South (-2.59), the Big Six (2.60) and the Pacific Coast (-2.71). The strength of your opponent was a huge factor in the Dickinson system. A loss against a ‘first division’ team earned you 15 points, while a win against a ‘second division’ team earned you just 20. Michigan actually earned more points for tying Minnesota than did Princeton for pummeling Amherst 45-0. I mention the Tigers as they were the only unbeaten, untied team but only received sparse…
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English Professor responds in Ann Arbor News
I recommend you check out the essay submitted to the Ann Arbor News ‘Other Voices’ column by Michigan English professor Randall Tessier. He’s responding to the News investigation and offers that Carty & team didn’t offer a fair voice to the challenge of how to truly evaluate students, given that teaching methods are evolving. Tessier suggests that many academics feel that to truly judge performance in the classroom, weight should be placed upon the progress of a student during the course. In such a model, “less gifted” students are rewarded for attendance, effort and ultimately for improvement. Tessier offers a few examples of recent student athletes that excelled in his classes despite being destined for a professional sports contract. He points the reader to this article in the Michigan Daily on Chad Kolarik as the hockey star mentions the influence his English class. And on Jake Long, Tessier calls the NFL-bound OT “a flat-out great student – smart, conscientious and dedicated.” Finally he offers up a great story on former stand-out M defenseman Jack Johnson, now with the L.A. Kings: Too many students look at the pursuit of a degree as simply a way to make money. Seeing how Johnson addressed his university experience taught them a lesson about the value of an education that I could never impart. Although…
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ESPN’s Eric Adelson on WTKA (3-18 audio)
ESPN the magazine’s Eric Adelson called in to talk about the Ann Arbor News investigation. His thoughts in two parts are posted below. In sum, Adelson praises Carty and company on this project but does conclude that there isn’t a scandal and offers that it’s “not as big of a story as people feared”. He takes umbrage with those who think the News shouldn’t look into these issues just because coddling student athletes “happens everywhere”. Here it is: [display_podcast]
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Do You Care?
You’ve now had seen at least half of the Ann Arbor News investigation. I’ve been trying to gauge reaction from the M masses on this and I basically see apathy. A few data points:– On WDFN in Detroit this afternoon, Stoney and Wojo discussed this in the middle of the show (after talking brackets). They debated not the seriousness of the allegations, but rather whether there still exist Michigan fans who actually think this type of thing doesn’t go on at their precious university. Both thought the findings were not a surprise and didn’t take issue.– On several forums (Victors Board, Winged Helmet, and MLive) the topic of the investigation wasn’t prevalent. What was? Politics, Brackets, T. Pryor, and Spring practice media coverage. Minimal discussion on the News piece.– As I mentioned earlier, the national media hasn’t really picked up the story yet, although they might be holding off for the full investigation to be released. Who knows – Gabe Watson could be on the cover of Sports Illustrated next week. It begs the question, based on what you’ve seen to date, how do you feel about the News investigation? You may have heard Jim Carty and John Heuser on WTKA this morning with Sam Webb, did that change your view? Are you waiting for the full investigation to be…
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National Media mostly Mum on News Story
Day II into the Ann Arbor News piece on the academic policies surrounding the athletic program (can we come up with a word for this? athademics?) and the story hasn’t been quite yet picked up by the national media. Folks seemed a bit wrapped up in brackets, Terrelle Pryor, Tiger Woods and such so far this week. Michigan football was the lead story on today’s ESPN.com college football page, but it had nothing to do with the investigation: Elsewhere The Sporting News just released a post on the story but the lead topic of the day was Ty Willingham. Nothing yet from SI.com or Sportsline. While not quite in the same class, AOL Sports posted on this topic and even used the word ‘Scandal’, and linked to the New York Times Quad Blog reaction. It should be noted that the NYT Quad blog author (who kindly linked to MVictors in the past) is buddies with Jim Carty (not that there’s anything wrong with that).
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WTKA hosts react to News Article (audio)
The first media reaction to the Ann Arbor News article came on WTKA this morning as first weekday morning Sam Webb and former QB Michael Taylor discussed the piece from 9-10am. Those two then joined Jon Bacon (Jamie Morris was off) for Off The Field from 10-noon. Each guy was in lock step on defending the University and the academic programs at Michigan. Bacon was catching up because he didn’t get his Sunday News delivered to his house (memo to Bacs, log onto MLive.com – this is kind of a big deal). Their arguments, and I think you’ll hear this all week, are as follows: – No one is saying there aren’t different standards for athletes for admission to Michigan, it is necessary to maintain top programs. – Having kids from different racial and socioeconomic backgrounds is a good thing, and part of this diversity comes through the athletic programs at Michigan. – There are many reasons that student athletes struggle and need help, whether it be the rigors of their schedule, a high school that didn’t leave them prepared for a school like Michigan or whatever (see ‘late bloomers’). – To all these points above, the athletic department has an obligation to help these kids succeed or at least survive at Michigan. It’s best for the kids and for…
