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…
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Results of Academic Investigation released by News
It was the worst kept secret in town: Jim Carty and the Ann Arbor News were investigating the academic practices and policies within the athletic department. What we didn’t know was when or if it would be released. It’s out and it’ll be released in four pieces starting this morning. To get to this point the News spoke “to athletes and former athletic department employees as part of a seven-month investigation that included interviewing 87 people and reviewing more than 3,500 pages of internal documents”. Here’s the full story. The News even produced a little video piece talking about today’s article. It’s pretty funny because they ran it as a Q&A but it is an Ann Arbor News guy “interviewing” another Ann Arbor News guy. It’s like me asking my wife this morning, ‘So what did we have for dinner last night?’. Mrs MVictors: ‘Umm, you were there, numbnuts.’ Early this morning a few Michigan bloggers were even notified by MLive that this went to the presses, welcoming the reaction from the nerdosphere. No major reaction from here yet other than, “Thanks for nothing Rodriguez!”. Here’s a summary of the findings presented in Part I: – Michigan athletes described being steered to [Psychology professor John] Hagen’s courses by their athletic department academic counselors and, in some cases, earning three or…
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Spring Practice Opens: Photos
2008 Michigan football spring practice is officially open and MGOBLUE.com was kind enough to post a few images from the first practice.
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1930 Michigan Football Jersey
In February 2008, an item claimed by its seller to be an actual 1930 Wolverine jersey came up for bid on eBay. The description said that the jersey was previously owned by Francis Cornwell, the right guard on coach Harry Kipke’s squad (see lead photo).
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Coach Rod on ESPN’s First Take (YouTube)
Thanks to user WolverinesFTW who posted the interview between M grad Dana Jacobsen and Rich Rodriguez on ESPN’s First Take this week, enjoy: Elsewhere: * Looks like Michigan Football Saturdays already posted this youtube, nice hustle. * Yost Built on the 10-1 Michigan hockey win in the CCHA. * Autumn Thunder puts down the photoshop and takes a shot at the practice of live blogging.
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Stadium area Residents Fed up with site Noise
The lead story in today’s Ann Arbor News [see Battle brews over Big House noise] it looks like the Stadium renovation project is starting to wear on the local residents. Here’s a few key items raised in the piece: – As a university project, the renovation isn’t governed by local laws. Typically construction can take place Monday-Saturday 7am to 9pm. The stadium construction runs seven days a week from 6am to 10pm in order to meet the goal of completion before the 2010 season. – The city administrator is arguing that noise that carries beyond the bounds of the stadium should be governed by city law. – The Ann Arbor City council will take up the matter on April 7th. Takes: – Ann Arbor is a liberal town, people are vocal and I guess I’d like the process to run out a little bit so we don’t find out that a couple residents are the only ones complaining. – Many if not most homeowners live near some type of noise, be it a highway or major road, train tracks, airport, whatever, and most of us have to deal with some form of construction noise from time to time. I can understand folks getting a little concerned about three years straight of construction. All this said, I’m guessing it’ll be tough…
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Great Win!
Any tournament win is a good one, and congrats to Coach Beilein and company for taking down Iowa and getting out of the kiddie pool into the main draw. Can they challenge #1 seed and Big Ten Champion Wisconsin? They’ve sure given them two decent games this season, first losing on January 2nd at Crisler 70-54 after overcoming a 20 point deficit and getting within eight. Then the Blue led by Manny Harris’ 26 gave Bo Ryan and the Bagders a good scare in Madison, falling 64-61 just three weeks later. Some related links for you: – Check out Michigan Sports Center for a recap of Iowa and for tomorrow’s game they’ll have a Live Blog. – Varsity Blue also did Live blogging, albeit only for the first half. – UMHoops says it was fugly but it’s a win.
