Wednesday’s [12/27/06] Wall Street Journal featured a piece in its Marketplace section titled “Tax Breaks for Skyboxes” [full article here]. The article by Daniel Golden focused on convertroversy around tax breaks that the donors receive for leasing the boxes from universities and it focused on the biggest of the recent college renovation plans: The Big House. Here’s an interesting quote from U of M regent Laurence Deitch, although I’m not sure what this has to do with taxes: Opponents of Michigan’s renovation doubt the university will find enough customers for its luxury suites, where alcohol will be banned. “Why pay a whole bunch of money, drive up to Ann Arbor, sit behind a glass wall and not be able to get a beer,” says Laurence Deitch, one of two regents on the university’s eight-member board who voted against the plan last month. “I think I’d stay home.”
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Lawry’s Beef Bowl Today
Today is the annual Rose Bowl tradition, the Lawry’s Beef Bowl, where the 2 teams square-off in a competition to eat the most beef. Over/under on Michigan’s beef consumption: 615 pounds. Line: Michigan favored by 40 pounds of beef. Rationale? It is well known that the Wolverines take these little bowl competitions pretty seriously so they’ll be going right after it. Also, I have to imagine that the Californianess of USC will result in a few more vegetarian Nancy boys on the Trojan side of the table. Go Blue!
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Gerald Ford, Michigan Man
We all learned this morning that President Ford died yesterday at the age of 93. Many know of his ties to the University of Michigan and of course to some of the great Michigan football teams of the 1930s led by Harry Kipke. The above photo was taken from the 1934 team photo, Ford was starting center on that squad.
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eBay Watch: 1915 Cornell Program
Here’s a real nice item that is being auctioned on eBay. It’s pre-World War I Michigan vs. Cornell program from the game that was held on November 6, 1915 at Ferry Field in Ann Arbor. It looks like a real beauty. The only problem? The dude selling the program set the opening bid price at $2,499.00. Say what? No surprise as the auction is about to end and there are no bids. Here’s what we know about the game.
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Bungle in the Bruin Jungle
What an embarrassment yesterday as Michigan got completely destroyed by #1 UCLA. Was I expecting a win? No way. But you had to expect a little more than this. It was basically garbage time with 10 minutes to go. Good coaches don’t get crushed like that, I’m sorry. Thirty Seven points? Unacceptable!! I’d rather watch Desmond Howard breaking down the Holiday Bowl than suffer through the second half of that game again. The good news? It appears as though the football team, which has arrived in LA, didn’t have to watch this debacle and risk infection. From the LA Times: No special outings were planned, and the team did not expect to attend the UCLA-Michigan basketball game at Pauley Pavilion on Saturday. “We’ve got about 120 players,” spokesman David Ablauf said. “I don’t think there are enough UCLA season-ticket holders who would give us their seats.”
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Desmond Howard’s Holiday Bowl
UPDATE 12/22: This really isn’t going away. The nerd-o-sphere is all over Howard (rightly so). Check out these comments from one of the top blogs, Deadspin
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Alford and Harbaugh: All Hair
College Football News opined this morning on the possibility that Jim Harbaugh, who was named the next Stanford head coach this week, could be a candidate for the Michigan head football job after Lloyd Carr decides to pack it in. Here’s the take: Obviously it is too soon to really start speculating, but do you see Jim Harbaugh as a candidate to replace Lloyd Carr at Michigan when he eventually retires? – KH A: Just like everyone wanted to see Steve Alford become the main man at Indiana, Michigan fans are going to be all over Harbaugh if he has any success at Stanford. Let’s wait a little bit before kicking out Carr, like you suggested, and let’s also wait to see if old No. 4 can handle himself at the never [sic] level. The Michigan job, whenever it opens up, will be one of the premier gigs in all of coaching, college or pro. There’ll be a who’s who of candidates fighting for the job. This won’t be Alabama; the big boys will be lining up. Memo to CFN: I don’t think the email said anything about kicking Lloyd Carr out! How did “after Lloyd Carr decides to pack it in” become a boot out the door? God the national media loves to talk about how Michigan fans want…
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Piling On
The biggest cliche during week one of the bowl season was to dog Oregon’s uniforms. Fine, here you go:
