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…
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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…
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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).
