Michigan Friday: That is a Strange PAC 12 Announcement

As you know, the Big Ten took the best teams from the PAC 12 in USC, UCLA, Washington, and Oregon.  With the other teams leaving for the Big 12 or ACC.  Which means the PAC 12 now only has 2 schools in Washington State and Oregon State.   Now the PAC 12 has announced that the former PAC 12 teams will still be tied to PAC 12 Bowl tie ins.  As you know my stance on Bowl Games, these are just scrimmages anyways.  With a 12 team playoff now, either get into the playoffs oor play a scrimmage game.  

• All 7 Spring Transfers have enrolled at Michigan, CJ Charleston was the final person to enroll. 

• RIP Monte Kiffin

• Michigan had 5 wrestlers make the Olympic Team

Michigan Monday: That Escalated Quickly

The Big Ten has been open to expansion for a while now.   Bringing Penn State and Nebraska aboard made a ton of sense.  Some may argue that Rutgers and Maryland were a bit of a reach and the thought they were going to drag in the NY and DC TV markets was not exactly on point.  Now, the Big Ten is a national conference with the introduction of UCLA, USC and just this weekend Washinton and Oregon. 

The PAC 12 failed to get a TV deal and all the programs ran to other conferences.   Arizona, ASU, Utah and of course Colorado are heading to the Big 12.  The PAC 12 now has 4 members Stanford, Washington State, CAL, and Oregon State.  Stanford of course is one of the premier academic and Olympic sports universities in the world, the issue is in their revenue generating sports, which have been down for a few years.  If I'm the PAC 4 commissioner, I'm on the phone with the ACC.  Please take our 4 teams.  They could be the PACC - Pacific Atlantic Coast Conference.  Here is the new logo:

How does this affect the Wolverines?  There will be a ton of really late-night basketball games when the Wolverines travel West.  I will assume with basketball they will set schedules that when a team flies out west they hit a Thursday - Saturday/Sunday game with two west coast opponents. 

I know I have mentioned this before but there are a few things that continue to confound me about Michigan Football.

1. Why the Wolverines struggle playing meaningful games after Ohio State.  (poor bowl and playoff record).  (Please don't count the year when Michigan travelled to Hawaii and the A-Train had like 300 yards.  A 🚄!)

2. Why do the Wolverines struggle so much when they travel West?

Both 1 & 2 are related of course.  Michigan used to travel west all the time to play in the Rose Bowl and even their last game in Arizona had the same result. 

This will at least bring some interesting match-ups and allow Michigan fans to travel west to some new stadiums.   I'm in for a Bandon Dunes - Michigan Football package?  

• Gatlin Bair picked Boise State over Michigan the weekend.  We will see if he sticks with that commitment in 3 years after his mission trip.  Michigan still needs WR's and CB's in this class.

Michigan Thursday: Jimmy's Turn at the Mike

Jim Harbaugh will take the stage today at Big Ten Media Days at 12:30, I assume he won't take questions on the pending NCAA suspension as it has not been finalized or announced.  I'm sure it will be a circus-like atmosphere. 

As a reminder the Michigan players in attendance today will include Blake Corum, Mike Sainristil and Kris Jenkins. 

• Colorado has elected to leave the PAC 12  10 9 to re-join the Big 12 conference next season.  That is one program going through a ton of change.   The PAC #? continues to lose members and can't get a TV deal, which is leading to a slow death. 

• Zavier Simpson has signed a two-way deal with the Detroit Pistons.  I hope he gets more than his fair share of time on the Pistons roster. 

• It seems the TV executives at CBS think it's a good idea to put Gary Danielson on Big Ten games as he spoke at Media Day.   Please put him on Minnesota - NW.

• Speaking of the Golden Gophers, it seems there are some rumblings about player mistreatment.  Too many hours rowing the boat?  

• We knew there would be a ton of Michigan night games with these new TV contracts.  MSU and Purdue are the 2 latest.  What could go wrong with a night game in East Lansing after the tunnel incident last season?

• As I reported earlier in the week, Northwestern 4-star 2023 LB Nigel Glover will be visiting this weekend and could be the first player ever to go from the Big House BBQ to suiting up on the practice field. 

Michigan Tuesday: Did the Big 10 Kill the PAC 12?

If you're old like me, you used to watch Michigan make the Rose Bowl almost every year of your childhood to watch them get beat by a PAC 10 team.  This Michigan Bowl curse has gone on for decades.

Now the Big Ten has cherry picked the conference's two best programs in USC and UCLA and the conference seems to be on life support.  They haven't signed a TV contract yet and folks like ESPN are out.  Coach Prime is winning the off season by continuously over hauling the Colorado roster and playing a Spring game in the snow.   Now, Washington State has to put in some corporate type of pullbacks to save money.  

In the corporate world, when a Pandemic hits or the economy starts to turn, corporations put on a hiring freeze and shut down travel.   Washington State did just that yesterday as its PAC 12 TV money hasn't been what it used to be and some questionable spending. 

Seems the PAC 12/10, ACC, and Big 12 are conferences on the outside looking in to the Big 10 and SEC. 

• The NBA is ending up with a Miami vs. Denver championship instead of Boston vs. LA (if the Heat win tonight) after getting swept.   Not great for ratings.  You know what also isn't great for ratings? Taking over a week off between the series.  

• Papa Kante former Michigan Basketball commit who had his own issues with admissions, has signed with Pitt.

Michigan Thursday: Friday Decisions

Many of Michigan's top targets are announcing their commitment on Friday.  This will be a key tipping point on how the class could finish.  Coming off a Big Ten Championship year, a questionable NIL policy, and flipping over lots of the staff.  Michigan finds itself having a bad recruiting year, one that could be historically bad if the trend continues.    Yes, worse then the RR years. 

The decisions coming:

• Dante Moore, instate 5 star QB will be going to Oregon.  Michigan's QB recruiting is in bad shape.  

• Collins Acheampong, is a 3/4 star DE and will make a decision between Michigan, LSU, and Miami.  Michigan is the expected choice but you never know with Miami and LSU and NIL $$. 

• Jalen Brown, 5 star WR is picking between a ton of schools including Texas AM, LSU, Miami, and FSU.  Hard to call this one as Jalen really looks up to Desmond Howard.  

• Enow Etta, 4 star DE who has been a Michigan lean for sometime.  MSU is making a late run and Alabama and Stanford are also in the mix.   Its clear, academics is important to him and lets hope for a maize and blue decision.  

• Amir Herring, is a 4 star OL from West Bloomfield and his announcement is expected today.  He has a 100% CB's to Michigan. 

The best Michigan can do is 3 out 4 on Friday, my confidence level is only high for Enow and less so for Collins.  Dante is gone and Jalen would be a hail mary (if he doesn't pick the Celtics full time 😎).

The PAC 10/12 is in trouble as the Big 12 is coming for 6 of its teams and Oregon and Washington want to go to the Big Ten.   Both the Huskies and Ducks are in the AAU and Standford and CAL would also be a fit in the Big Ten academically. 

If I was the Big Ten commisioner, I would grab the PAC 12 teams and not wait for ND.  I would then make sure those teams don't schedule ND until they make a conference decision.   If the Big Ten has a super conference there won't be a need for too many (or any) non-conference games anyway.   

The PAC 10 is trying to put together a TV deal to keep its teams in place.  

Michigan Friday: PAC 12 is Back, MAC Next?

The PAC 12 is going to come back in November and the Mountain West is coming back in October, which only leaves the MAC as a the only D1 conference sitting out.   The PAC 12 is going to play a 7 game season.  The MAC is expected to make a decision this weekend on whether they will play this season.  They lose money on football, so they might decide to sit this one out. 

With the SEC starting to play this weekend, we might start seeing real college football.   What I've seen so far, isn't great.  With that said, it seems COVID 19 continues to be undefeated:

• ND has over 10 players test positive and their game this weekend has been re-scheduled 
• Houston has had 5 games scheduled - all cancelled 
• FAU has had two games cancel in a row, the latest is USF who played ND last weekend.  (anyone in South Bend regret playing an out of conference game?)
• Colorado has to shut down practice for 2 weeks for a local ordinance. 
• State of Wisconsin is under a State of Emergency for an up tick in cases from college campuses.  
• ESPN is showing UAB vs. South Alabama on a Thursday night

I'm excited for Michigan Football but I don't think we will know if games are on, until both teams take the field.  

• Purdue's Rondale Moore is back 

• Looks like the win requirement for Bowl Games is going to be removed this year  

Michigan Friday: Applauds the PAC 12's New Policy

With Michigan's camp wrapped up now, there really isn't much to report.  I expect many of the coaches will be taking some time off before Fall Camp starts in about a month. 

So today, I hit a regular topic that I haven't discussed for awhile, concussions.  The PAC 12 will be instituting a new policy in limiting contact in practice.   New research is now showing that not only concussions can cause brain damage but the consistent contact in games and practice can also cause brain damage.

The Big Ten is also serious about concussions, here is a quote from Commissioner Jim Delany: "I know the NFL is down to one day a week [of hitting in practice], and most colleges are down to two," Delany said. "Not by regulation, just by practice. I see where the Pac-12 has suggested two days a week. I think that's actually pretty standard, that not many people are doing more than two. If they are, it's only a few. 

The Big Ten is also in a joint research venture with the Ivy League schools to continue to research concussion and brain trauma. 

Two Big Ten coaches would like to understand the policy a little better:

Northwestern's Fitzgerald:  "Just define for me what contact means, and I can put together a plan," Fitzgerald told ESPN.com. "But I still haven't heard what that means yet. If you put an O-lineman and a D-lineman together with helmets only, do you not think they'll bang into each other? Otherwise, we're playing a different sport.

"I'm just a little worried that the reaction is to take contact away, instead of to use contact constructively to educate and teach guys the healthy and safe way to play the game."

Iowa's Ferentz:  "My experience both in professional football and college football is that most coaches are pretty cognizant and aware and in tune of where their team is health-wise, fatigue-wise, those types of things," he said. "I would imagine a lot of coaches try to be very, very careful and very smart about how they practice. Now we're at 85 scholarships. It's different than the '80s when rosters were bigger, you had more players. When you lose players to injury, it's not good for anybody, so it's a fine line. I would imagine every coach worries about that and spends a lot of time thinking about that, how do we practice intelligently."


I understand how the coaches feel, they need to prepare their teams to win and don't want to be "handcuffed" on rules on when players can and can't have contact.   These coaches are "old school" for the most part and believe they know what's best to protect their players.

The issue how I see it is, they really don't understand how to protect their kids brain and there really isn't a ton of research to show us how to avoid causing these kids issues later in life.   So yes, I'm a 100% in favor of limiting contact in practice to a couple times a week max.    They say playing a college or NFL football game is like being in a car crash every weekend.   These players don't need to crash 3 or 4 more times a week in practice.  

Michigan Monday: A Down Big Ten?

Coming into the year many expected a down year for the Big Ten with two brand names on NCAA probation with Penn State and Ohio State.   It was a safe bet to pencil in Wisconsin to the Big Ten Championship game in Indy.   Who was going to beat them in the Leaders division?  Illinois, Indiana or Purdue?  Not likely.  

Then Michigan preformed the way they did against Alabama in week 1 and then during Week 2 the sky fell on the rest of the Big Ten.  Here are the results from Saturday:

Winners
Michigan beat Air Force
Ohio State beat Central Florida
MSU beat Central Michigan
Northwestern beat Vandy
Indiana beat UMass
Minnesota beat New Hampshire


Losers
Wisconsin lost to Oregon State
Nebraska lost to UCLA
Illinois lost to Arizona State
Purdue lost to ND
Iowa lost to Iowa State
Penn State lost to Virgina


The Big Ten beat two MAC schools (yes UMass is in the MAC now), one service academy from the Mt. West, one team from the SEC, one team from Conference USA and one FCS school.

The losses were to 3 teams from the PAC 12, ND, Big 12 and the ACC.   Not good, not good at all.

-Wisconsin scored one touchdown against Oregon State who won 3 games last year.
- Iowa scored 6 points in a field goal battle with ISU.  (6-9 final)
- Illinois got blown out by ASU
- Nebraska and UCLA played a good game and UCLA is a program on the rise. 
- Penn State missed a field goal to beat Virgina with a few seconds left in the game.  Former Michigan verbal commit and former PSU 1st string kicker Anthony Fera transferred to Texas before the season started.

Seriously, why can't the Big Ten play on the West Coast?  If it's jet lag other teams better consider leaving a day earlier.

I think the most promising news for the Big Ten was the solid play by Purdue at ND.   That game was on during the Michigan game but it seemed Purdue played pretty well against ND.

The current AP rankings have MSU #10, OSU #12 and Michigan #17.  Wisconsin dropped out completely. 

How good is that Michigan State - ND game going to be this week in East Lansing?  The good news for Wolverines fans is someone has to lose this game.   It will also be a good scouting opportunity as Michigan plays ND in two weeks and MSU in 5 weeks.

• After scoring seven points last weekend, Wisconsin has fired their offensive line coach after two games.   The Badgers rushed 23 times for 35 yards against the Beavers.

Update:  Denard is the Offensive Big 10 player of the week and Devin Funchess is the Big 10 Freshman of the week. 

Funchess caught four passes for 106 yards, with a 30-yard TD reception, in Michigan's 31-25 win over Air Force on Saturday. He is the first U-M tight end with 100 or more yards receiving in a game since Jerame Tuman in 1997.

Robinson had 218 yards passing and 208 rushing against the Falcons. He is the only player in FBS history to run and pass for 200 or more yards in the same game three times.

Michigan Friday: RR Love Fest in AZ

As we get closer to 9/1 there is a lot of excitement building around the country for a fresh new start with each college football program.  In the SEC, they are talking about Alabama and LSU re-loading for another title run.   There is also excitement about how good both South Carolina and Arkansas can be. 

In the ACC, they are all about FSU and getting them back on top of college football while Clemson continues to have a solid team.   Virgina Tech seems to be a bit under-rated after a strong performance against the Wolverines in the Sugar Bowl. 

The Big 12 welcomes West Virgina to the league and they will get to fight it out with the regular powers Oklahoma and Texas.   Oklahoma State continues to be a top 20 team and they hope to continue their momentum from a strong 2011 campaign.

The Big East is just happy to be here and looking to sign a new TV contract with NBC's new sports channel. 

The new PAC 12 seems to be a two horse race between USC and Oregon.   Either could play for the BCS Championship at the end of the year.  In fact, USC gets Stanford in just week 3 so we will see early how good USC really is.    Some Michigan fans will be interested to see how Rich Rod does in year 1 at Arizona.   Michigan football fans expect their head coaches to retire vs. getting fired.   Gary Moeller and Rich Rod are exception to that rule.  Gary had a short interim head coaching gig for the Lions and now you can find him most Saturday afternoons walking around the press box at the Big House.  Rich Rod on the other hand is still young and now takes over his 3rd BCS program.   He is 1-1 with his overhauls and this time has the band back together in Tucson.

I took a look at Arizona's schedule and found two games that are pretty ironic.   During RR's first year at Michigan he played both Utah and Toledo.  Michigan lost both games.  The Rockets might have been one of his most embarrassing losses he ever.  It also happened to be the only time Michigan has lost to a MAC team.   Well, RR gets them again and this time it's his first game of the year.  They will also travel to Utah in November.    If RR gets by Toledo in week 1 they will host #19 ranked Oklahoma State in week 2.  Should be fun to keep an eye on Tucson this year. 

Fun Fact:  RR won 15 games in 3 years at Michigan.  Brady Hoke won 11 in 1 year.

• Here is the transcript from another "not much information" Hoke press conference.   Highlights:  Team nowhere near ready for 9/1 yet, no word if Fitz will play in Dallas, Wormley hasn't had surgery yet, but will.  

Update:  Freshman Ondre Pipkins was taken to the hospital this morning via ambulance with a potential neck injury.  He has movement in all extremities and was taken to the the hospital as a precaution.   Let's hope this is nothing serious.

Michigan Thursday: Rumors, Transfers, Injuries and The Pac 12

Let's first get to the Big 10 - Pac 12 news.  As you know by now the Pac 12 and Big 10 has signed a partnership to start playing games against each other in football and in other sports by 2017. 

The news on the partnership has been received very well by most Michigan fans and the media.  It makes sense for both parties because it opens up some nice recruiting areas in the West Coast for the Big Ten and just the opposite for the Pac 10.   Does going to Michigan now look better to Josh Garnett if the coaches can now say we will be playing on the West Coast twice in 4 years?  (assuming the schedule changes that quickly)  I think that would be very good news to Josh and his parents. 

On the other hand, Michigan has not played well over the past few years when traveling West during the regular season.   I can think of loses to Washington and Oregon in recent memory.   We also know the Wolverines record in the Rose Bowl.   So this will only make Michigan's schedule harder and if they keep ND on the schedule, lose one home game every other year. 

What to do with ND?  This announcement could have a huge effect on ND moving forward.  ND has regular season games with Purdue, MSU and Michigan from the Big Ten and Stanford and USC from the Pac 12.   If all those teams dropped ND from the schedule this could be a big issue for Fighting Irish.   If you are NBC how valuable is that TV contract if you lose those match ups?

I am sort of torn if this partnership means dropping the ND tradition and adding say Colorado.  ND would be 100% out if the Big 10 went to a 9 game conference schedule.

• The big rumor that has been floating around for a few weeks is that DeAnthony Arnett (4 star WR from Michigan in the 2011 class) is planning to transfer from Tennessee.   His father is ill and he needs to be closer to home.    Which means he could play at two BCS schools: Michigan or MSU.  Michigan is pretty close to full but I am hearing there could be mutual interest.   MSU fans believe he is a lock to the Spartans.   I think things need to play out here, but if I were a betting man, I would bet if that Michigan has room he would be in the Maize and Blue uniform next year.   One other thing to note is that the NCAA can and could give him a "hardship" waiver that would allow him to play right away (due to his father illness).   His scholarship would not count against the 28 limit in the 2012 class but would count against the 85 overall number.  Arnett had 24 catches for 242 yards and 2 TD's as a freshman at Tenn.

• Michigan is going to be light on the depth chart on the D-line for the Sugar Bowl.  Both Heininger and Brink are banged up and Heininger is questionable and Brink is out for the game.   Looks like it's time for Big Will to step up!  (I am still mad at RR for blowing his redshirt for a couple snaps on extra points in his freshman year.  What was he thinking?  If anyone needed a redshirt it was Big Will!)

• The Michigan Basketball Team opens the Big 10 season tonight at Crisler against PSU. (7:30 BTN)

• Recruiting Note:  Ohio TE Sam Grant was recently offered by Oklahoma.  Though former Michigan prospect Taylor McNamara just committed there yesterday.   Sam was planning a trip to OK but now maybe they are full at TE?