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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TP a Buckeye
Take? – Expected it, never felt like it was a realistic possibility given Michigan was late in the game – I’m not too worked up over this – I’ve seen too many can’t miss players miss to be too concerned – I think Rodriguez will get his offense going one way or another – Not going to start calling the kid a criminal/loser because he didn’t come to Michigan
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eBay Watch items fetching Righteous Bucks
Two recently profiled eBay auctions are fetching some serious cash, check it out: – The auction for the 1904 sheet music of ‘The Victors’ closed. This beauty sold for $90 despite all of us learning last week that portions of the song were swiped. – That alleged 1930 “”authentic” Michigan football jersey. Well, at least a few folks are sold that it’s the really deal. It’s still up and bidding has exceeded $800.
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Pryor Decision Tomorrow?
A few media outlets are reporting that Pryor is going to announce tomorrow (Wednesday). Thank God this is over.
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MLive blog: Investigation Link-o-rama
Check out Chris Burke’s post this afternoon. He takes a stroll around the internet to find additional coverage on the News investigation. I like link #3. Glad he didn’t put MVictors in quotes as in “this so-called blog”. My other favorite: — Black Shoe Diaries, a Penn State blog, responded multiple times to the Michigan findings – with the general opinion being that there is nothing to worry about other than some embarrassment. Black Shoe Diaries “there is nothing to worry about other than some embarrassment.” – Paterno’s pep talk before every Michigan game for the past decade.
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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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Chuck Woodson: Enter Michigan’s Valhalla
Yes, if you crush Ohio State, win the Heisman and then the national championship you’ve secured your place in Michigan football lore. But to no one’s criticism he left school early to pursue the NFL and that took something away from his standing amongst Michigan’s all-time greats. Now we learn that Woodson decided set up a scholarship for students needing financial assistance. Providing these scholarships puts #2 back up a notch in my book. What’s $150,000 to a guy who’s had a long career in the NFL? A lot. How many other guys have stepped up? To care enough to set this up is a huge move and just like Jalen, he’s showing the traits of a true role model.
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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…