Hail the Blue team, prevailing 38-30 in a fast-paced, down-to-the-wire game. Captain Jim Conley and his crew had better quarterback play and MVP Alijah Bradley who made several fine catches and runs. In true Michigan form, the game was rife with controversy, from questionable TD calls (players crossing the line without their flags?) and a suddenly frozen clock at the end (Spartan Bob?): A few photos: Jim Conley with QB Spencer Brinton and #7 can still toss it Wow – Jansen cleans up nice. Getting ready for the BTN broadcast Ira and Steve in radio booth “He was down!” Much controversy as usual. Touchdown Big turnout for the alumni game . The MVP trophy – (?) – I hope my man Bradley drives a semi or a Hearse New scoreboards pending Captain Conley – he ALWAYS starts (and did again today)
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Gold Pants and Pawn Stars
One of the Ohio State gold pants charms appeared on History Channel’s Pawn Stars last night. (Finally something related to Michigan football).
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BCS Bracketology (We Still Lose)
Darren “My Main Man” Everson dropped another interesting piece in the Wall Street Journal this weekend. He took the top 64 college football teams ranked via the BCS formula (I’m assuming you can get the data extended out to 64 teams?) and dropped them into an NCAA tournament field. (BCS #1 Auburn was dropped in the slot held by NCAA top seed Ohio State, and so on). Then they played out the tournament seed by seed as it’s gone thus far. Check it out: Even in hypothetical exercises crossing sports we can’t win. Rich Rod’s 2010 team collides in an improbable match-up with, umm, Mississippi State. We lost again. Everson’s a Michigan grad so I’m guessing he chuckled at this one:
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Beilein, Fisher among Highest Performing NCAA coaches
A fabulous resource for the NCAA tournament is over at Pete Tiernan’s bracketscience.com. I interviewed Tiernan, who lives in Saline, back in 2009 and today you can also find him on CBSSports.com dropping tourney knowledge. One interesting tidbit for U-M fans is the following table. Coach Beilein remains among the top coaches in the NCAA tournament based on Tiernan’s ‘PASE’ (Performance Against Seed Expectation’) metric: Tiernan explains how PASE is determined: PASE is a simple concept. Every seed has recorded an average number of wins per tourney in the modern era. The average top seed wins 3.42 games per dance, two seeds win 2.43 (almost exactly one game less), three seeds win 1.84 and so on. When the coach of a top-seeded team wins four games to reach the Final Four, he overperforms by .58 games. If he wins the championship, he exceeds seed expectations by 2.58 games. Not surprising that Coach Izzo is #1 on the list, and Steve Fisher is firmly in the third slot when you factor in the 1989 and Fab Five runs. Of course many fans have reminded Tiernan of the Ed Martin scandal and question whether it should count: (Many have emailed me to argue that he shouldn’t be on the list at all, given that the tainted Fab Five contributed to his overachievement.)…
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The January Effect
I’ve maintained all along that the money involved in Rodriguez’s contract isn’t driving Michigan’s timeline for a decision. I think it was Mike Rosenberg who first pointed out that if Brandon decided to terminate RR and waits until January 1 to formally make that change, Michigan owes Rodriguez $1.5 fewer bucks. Article 3.01(b) defines the contract years: Article 4.01(a) defines the amount U-M must pay Rodriguez if he’s terminated without cause and note the drop in contract year four starting January 1, 2011. However, these terms require Michigan to provide 30 days written notice of the termination: Practically speaking if Brandon fires Rodriguez next week, Rich Rod is not going to hang around for 30 days. But it appears as though the contractual time table on the termination will stretch into January, providing another reason why the $1.5 million “savings” question doesn’t hold water. All this said and even without this 30 day notice clause, these matters are negotiated. Michigan could argue the NCAA violations provide an out “with cause”. If the NCAA finds wrong-doing by Rodriguez at WVU Michigan, per the contract, could again argue termination with cause. Above and beyond all this, there are other legal matters and requests by Michigan that will certainly be in play. Finally, Brandon’s not going to let $1.5 million drive the decision…
