NCAA FB 2023

[sancarlos]

[brian]

Iowa-Northwestern is not disappointing.

[brian]

It feels kind of uncomfortable saying this but if you took the over in this IA-NW game you’re a dumbfuck. Sure the defenses could have forced some points but neither defense has really forced too many turnovers.

[rass]

I guess that wire/cable in the field of view of the main game camera is the cost of playing at a really old baseball stadium?

[brian]

I can’t believe they actually have lights at Michigan Stadium now. It was the last stadium with more than 10,000 seats in the state of Michigan to install permanent lights if you can believe that.

“We put toe to leather at 1 pm every game. If TV wants to be there, that’s fine. If not, we don’t care.” - Bo Schembechler

[Brontoburglar]

it's been 13 years?

[govmentchedda]

[brian]

it's been 13 years?

I don’t know exactly when the permanent lights went in but it was two or three years after Kelly/Shorts which was forced to after the MAC inked the ESPN midweek contract.

[Nonlinear FC]

I mean, the first night game was an absolutely epic win against Notre Dame with Denard at the helm. Kinda hard for me to forget when that took place, just in terms of era.

[Nonlinear FC]

Highly credible source on Mgoblog saying the conference is going to suspend Harbaugh on Monday. Same source, who says he works at the law firm retained by M, says they are going to sue in response.

As I said, this is going to get extremely ugly. M president was on the sidelines last night, which is just another signal they are going to dig and back the football program.

[brian]

I mean, the first night game was an absolutely epic win against Notre Dame with Denard at the helm. Kinda hard for me to forget when that took place, just in terms of era.

Pretty sure that was still using the temporary lights but gonna see if I can tell from the Googles.

[brian]

Google delivered. It was 2011.

[Nonlinear FC]

Highly credible source on Mgoblog saying the conference is going to suspend Harbaugh on Monday. Same source, who says he works at the law firm retained by M, says they are going to sue in response.

As I said, this is going to get extremely ugly. M president was on the sidelines last night, which is just another signal they are going to dig and back the football program.

This is all being tossed into the air because, behind the scenes, MI is floating evidence of other teams basically doing the same thing with in-person scouting. And other stuff.

ETA - I had a longer post that I'm gonna pull back. I'll just say this is going to be a very interesting week for the conference.

[sancarlos]

Maybe one of the lawyers around here would know better, but the "other guys doing it, too" defense doesn't usually work, does it?

[Nonlinear FC]

Maybe one of the lawyers around here would know better, but the "other guys doing it, too" defense doesn't usually work, does it?

There two very different things going on here: The NCAA has opened an investigation and are still, you know, investigating. The B1G, which does not have an investigatory arm/capability, is reacting to coaches and ADs who are upset that "nothing has been done" yet.

The "others are doing it too" is not a response to the NCAA, at all. They will eventually receive formal allegations and then can respond to those.

What is going on now, as I've been saying repeatedly, is a shot across the bow to other B1G coaches and programs. These guys want to throw due process out the window and suspend Harbaugh and vacate victories and postseason ban... over allegations... and MI is saying "fuck around and find out."

[Nonlinear FC]

Joel Klatt is, in my opinion, one of the best CFB talking heads, is right where I'm at on all this:

[Nonlinear FC]

https://apnews.com/article/michigan-sig ... af72fe92ac

[Nonlinear FC]

https://sports.yahoo.com/sources-ncaa-r ... 27599.html

Actual reporting!!

[Nonlinear FC]

[Nonlinear FC]

All the hand wringing about player safety! All of the cries about unfair advantage!

Fucking bullshit, as we knew all along. Fucking hypocrites.

[Nonlinear FC]

Absolutely looks like he broke rules. The problem is that it's being reported with baited breath like ANY sign stealing is illegal. Just listen to the way they are talking about it.

no it's not

Want to circle back to this. You are correct, I over-stated my point.

The larger point I was making is that many outlets, specifically ESPN and The Athletic have engaged in hyperbolic, shitty "reporting" for over 2 weeks.

I have a very good source who knows that MI AD sent the information I just posted to Thamel a few days ago, just to see what he'd do with it. As of today, there's nothing on ESPN's site about it, just another hit piece from (SEC shill) Finebaum and more speculation about just how long the B10 is going to suspend Harbaugh.

The Athletic "conducted" a survey of 50 coaches about their hyperbolic reporting, asking them to respond. Are they gonna put the information about teams colluding and sharing MI's signs out for another round of review?

I highly fucking doubt it.

[brian]

“Tony told Michigan this was the worst scandal in Big Ten history, not including game-fixing,” one Big Ten administrator told SI.

My goodness. This guy has ZERO business being the commissioner of a college conference if he truly believes this.

[Nonlinear FC]

As you can imagine, the Mgoblog folks are absolutely insane over that. Unreal.

It's not even close to the worse M scandal, let alone what went down at PSU and a lot of the known (and unreported) stuff that went down while Urban was there. And, btw, MI has receipts on a lot of the OSU stuff and aren't being to quiet about releasing that if this idiot Commissioner tries to lower the hammer on Harbaugh.

UGLY.

[Steve of phpBB]

And, btw, MI has receipts on a lot of the OSU stuff and aren't being to quiet about releasing that if this idiot Commissioner tries to lower the hammer on Harbaugh.

UGLY.

*letthemfight.gif*

[GoodKarma]

“Tony told Michigan this was the worst scandal in Big Ten history, not including game-fixing,” one Big Ten administrator told SI.

So he's saying there has been game fixing?

[A_B]

“Tony told Michigan this was the worst scandal in Big Ten history, not including game-fixing,” one Big Ten administrator told SI.

So he's saying there has been game fixing?

[brian]

Northwestern had a point shaving scandal.

In all seriousness, I doubt this would be top ten even if everything reported was true. Impermissible benefits (almost every B1G school at some point over the last 50 years) and covering up sexual abuse (UM, MSU, PSU, OSU) are clearly and obviously worse, amongst others.

[Nonlinear FC]

I mean, it's not even an excuse that he wasn't around... The Mel Tucker and Pat Fitzgerald stuff are arguably much worse "scandals" and they HAPPENED months ago.

You can't really forgive not knowing about Anderson, Nasser and Sandusky... But even if you wanted to give this guy lots of leeway, stuff on his watch is way worse in terms reputational and human toll than a dude going ham on signal stealing.*

Fucking clown.

=-=-=-=-

In the spirit of... *waves hands at the last 2 weeks*... I should be fair to the guy: The quote is from and AD restating (allegedly) what he said on one of these "everyone bitch about MI without MI being on the call" episodes.

Knowing what a bunch of whiny and duplicitous fucks they all are (I guess, no one is out there in any way trying to calm this shit down so, major guilt by association)... I can absolutely see a world where someone made this quote up or wildly exaggerated it.

That said, it's been out there all day with no refutation, so... Fuck this guy?

=-=-=-=-==
"Funny" that when SI reported the news of others colluding to share signals from games against MI, they used the word to "decode."

Chedda and I touched on this last week. Nothing here is "illegal" and talking about this as "sign stealing" sure is an interesting way to characterize the act of looking at people's signals and creating a spreadsheet to break it down. I guess that's stealing??

[Steve of phpBB]

Chedda and I touched on this last week. Nothing here is "illegal" and talking about this as "sign stealing" sure is an interesting way to characterize the act of looking at people's signals and creating a spreadsheet to break it down. I guess that's stealing??

Are the allegations limited to looking at signals and figuring them out? Because yeah, that should not be considered sign stealing, unless perhaps there's a well understood unwritten rule against it.

I understand there's an allegation that the guy was on the CMU sidelines. Does that go beyond looking at signals to figure them out?

[Nonlinear FC]

Chedda and I touched on this last week. Nothing here is "illegal" and talking about this as "sign stealing" sure is an interesting way to characterize the act of looking at people's signals and creating a spreadsheet to break it down. I guess that's stealing??

Are the allegations limited to looking at signals and figuring them out? Because yeah, that should not be considered sign stealing, unless perhaps there's a well understood unwritten rule against it.

I understand there's an allegation that the guy was on the CMU sidelines. Does that go beyond looking at signals to figure them out?

You aren't allowed to send staff to away games. Being on the CMU sideline, even if they invited or sanctioned him to be there, is against the rules.

The issue that MI and neutral folks have over this, especially now that it's pretty clear other teams were colluding to share signals from their in-person tracking of MI signals, is that this notion of sportsmanship being what the B1G is using to pre-emptively go after MI before the NCAA is done with their investigation... It's very very thin reasoning.

But you've got ESPN and many other outlets constantly banging the B10 must act! drum. It's pretty maddening.

And, btw, the NCAA has a written document saying sign stealing is a non-issue when they were going to repeal the rule in 2021. But, yes, biggest scandal in league history.

FFS.

[brian]

The CMU part of it is honestly just weird since being on the opposing sideline is arguably less advantageous than just getting seats at the opposite 50-yard line.

My guess? That was just Stallions going rogue since he probably had his own relationship with the CMU coaching staff.

[brian]

If you’re really concerned about “player safety” Iowa’s “rhambdo” outbreak a few years ago was also worse.

[brian]

The CMU part of it is honestly just weird since being on the opposing sideline is arguably less advantageous than just getting seats at the opposite 50-yard line.

My guess? That was just Stallions going rogue since he probably had his own relationship with the CMU coaching staff.

Honestly if this is what it takes to get McElwain fired for cause and save the program a couple million, c’est la vie.

[Nonlinear FC]

Meh.. CMU staff is told Stalions is good and sign "decoding" and they bring him on. Big deal.

[Nonlinear FC]

https://newsletters.yahoo.net/H/2/v6000 ... ce359/HTML

If you want to understand where MI and many neutral folks are coming from at this point, that oped is a perfect distillation.

And the fact that Purdue's coach was out here last week bitching and moaning and barely shaking Harbaugh's hand after their beat down on Saturday... Complete bitch.

[rass]

I think his "this is a dumb rule that everyone breaks" (or is it "UM sucks at cheating"?) argument would be a lot more effective if he didn't repeatedly use "advanced scouts" as the equivalency between what UM and the other schools did instead of what UM actually did which was actually against the rules and at least in the case of the 2022 B10 game, wasn't perpetrated by the other schools.

[A_B]

I think his "this is a dumb rule that everyone breaks" (or is it "UM sucks at cheating"?) argument would be a lot more effective if he didn't repeatedly use "advanced scouts" as the equivalency between what UM and the other schools did instead of what UM actually did which was actually against the rules and at least in the case of the 2022 B10 game, wasn't perpetrated by the other schools.

What? This is the first I'm hearing this!

[Nonlinear FC]

I think his "this is a dumb rule that everyone breaks" (or is it "UM sucks at cheating"?) argument would be a lot more effective if he didn't repeatedly use "advanced scouts" as the equivalency between what UM and the other schools did instead of what UM actually did which was actually against the rules and at least in the case of the 2022 B10 game, wasn't perpetrated by the other schools.

If you are buying what everyone M is selling, you had a low level staffer sending out randos to take cell phone video versus assistant coaches taking their in-game recording and sleuthing and sending that to another team.

You just aren't going to convince me and anyone on the MI side of this that Stalions was some sophisticated operation that trumps actual true football coaches sending around detailed spreadsheets with M's signs.

And there's VERY MUCH an argument that what those schools did violates the B10 sportsmanship clause that the conference was floating it was going to use instead of waiting for the NCAA investigation to finish on the MI side. Why aren't they investigating OSU, Rutgers and Purdue? You can say one thing is somehow "worse" than the other, but as far as the conference goes there's no specific rule about sign stealing/sharing. It's covered under the sportsmanship clause, which is super nebulous.

Sure doesn't add up to being an impartial conference commissioner.

[Gunpowder]

You're not going to convince a Michigan fan that Michigan ever did anything wrong

[rass]

"UM sucks at cheating" it is!