Post-Game Notebook: Stanford - GR3 Is Back Again

Photo Credit: Thomas Beindit

Big win for Michigan tonight:

Post-Game Notebook: Stanford

Preview: Michigan vs. Stanford - Can Michigan Finally Break Through?

Photo Credit: Thomas Beindit

Here's the preview:

Preview: Michigan vs. Stanford

Quick Thoughts: Michigan Basketball Schedules Stanford

Photo Credit: Thomas Beindit

A cool game setup for next year:

Quick Thoughts: Michigan Basketball Schedules Stanford

Michigan and Big Ten Rankings Review--Week 3

The AP rankings of Week 3 are out. It was a hectic couple days of college football. USC lost to Stanford for the 4th straight year, leaving any chance of the national championship on the doorstep. That's not to say USC is a bad team; they're just not as invincible as the preseason analysts made them out to be over the summer. Florida State is looking like a powerhouse team again, reminiscent of the Seminole's teams from the 90s. Notre Dame thoroughly beat the Spartans, breaking their 14-game home winning streak. Even though the Tennessee Vols have improved, they showed they still have a long way to go in their loss against Florida. Wisconsin needed the whole game to put away Utah State, and of course Indiana lost to Ball State.

All in all it was a decent weekend for Big Ten teams, with only Indiana and Michigan State losing their respective games. Yet, Michigan blew out UMass 63-13, and still ended up dropping one spot in the polls. This is where the fallacy of the strength of schedule comes into play. Remember last week when then No. 6 FSU played Savannah St, were up 55-0 in the 3rd when lightning stopped the game? They were moved to the 5 spot after that. Up one spot after beating a team that is far behind even UMass, and they gained a spot. However, Michigan moved down a spot. Needless to say...I'm not happy. Here's the rest of the polls:

Week 3 Notes With Analysis Of The Irish

Are we into Week 3 already? Michigan fans--we have this game against UMass and then Notre Dame, and then we have our conference opponents. Here's just a few thoughts I had coming into this week's slate of games:

1. I'm sure most people have heard of the Notre Dame/ACC decision by now. While Notre Dame is not a Big Ten school, and now probably never will be, this still does affect some teams. Michigan currently has a contract with ND to play them up until the contract expires in 2020, with years 2018 and 2019 not being played. Okay, so Michigan will be playing ND up through 2017, which amounts to 5 more games. Michigan State has a contract with ND that is valid through 2031, so within the next 5 years neither school will be booted from the schedule. By signing this agreement with the ACC, ND will have to schedule 5 ACC games per season in football. ND is not leaving any conference in football, therefore I'm not sure when the agreement goes into effect. For other sports it's a 5 million buyout and they must wait two years...for football that might start as of next year. So think of it...for 5 years ND has to schedule 5 ACC games, Michigan, MSU, probably Purdue; and traditional games against Navy, USC, and Stanford. That's 11 games right there folks.

Joshua Garnett Picks Stanford

It had been a while since a recruit's college decision entranced Michigan fans like Joshua Garnett's has done over the past weeks and months.  Garnett is an offensive lineman out of Washington who has been rated as one of the elite players in the 2012 class.  Most scouting agencies have not only listed him as a 4* recruit, but also as one of the top five players at his position in the nation.

The hype had been building up all week as Garnett announced he would make his decision on Thursday, January 27th @ 6pm.  In fact, one Michigan recruiting site launched a live-blog that had over 4000 viewers at the time of the decision (pretty impressive for a high school kid's recruiting decision).  The last recruit I can remember getting this type of hype from Michigan fans was Mitch McGary, Michigan's 2012 basketball commit who was rated #2 in the nation.

However, as time got closer, Michigan's chances with Garnett seemed to fade and ultimately he decided to attend Stanford instead of Michigan.  Obviously, Stanford is one of the nation's finest schools and has assembled a respectable football program, at least as of late, so nobody can fault his decision.  I think he will do good things at Stanford and wish him the best.  The obvious factors appeared to be location (Garnett's from Washington) and academics. The University of Michigan has some great academics, but Stanford is...well...Stanford.

So, why am I writing a story about a kid who decided to attend Stanford?  Well, the obvious reason is that a lot of Michigan fans cared about this decision, but also because this is a significant development for Michigan's recruiting this year.  As most people know, most recruits have decided or will be deciding in the short future about their college destinations.  With only a few weeks remaining until virtually every major recruit is committed, this development is pretty substantial.

The biggest implication falls with the recruitment of Jordan Diamond, a 4* offensive lineman from Chicago, who will be announcing his decision on February 3rd.  Michigan is in good position to gain a commitment from Diamond, but with Caleb Stacey's de-commitment and Garnett's decision to attend Stanford, this announcement will be crucial.  If Diamond decides to attend Michigan, the team should have some outstanding offensive lineman and depth in a few years.  However, if he chooses to attend somewhere else (likely Arkansas), Michigan's "epic" class could start to fade into just a good class.

Now, I'm personally not one that gets into predicting where a recruit will choose, but I don't think there's anybody out there who doesn't think Michigan has at least a chance with him.  However, with Stacey and Garnett's moves, I believe Diamond has become the most important remaining recruit to this 2012 class.  Certainly, there are players who are probably more talented than Diamond, but if Michigan loses out on another "big time" offensive lineman, it could spell trouble in a few seasons.  Michigan's 2012 recruiting class will be solid, whether Diamond commits or not, but if this team truly wants to stay in that elite status, getting top talent from guys like these will be crucial.

Let's hope he goes Blue.


Photo Credit: CBSSports

A Rose Bowl For All?

In a historic move for college football, the Pac 12 and Big Ten officially expanded their Rose Bowl partnership to the regular season.  Rumors about the announcement had circled for weeks regarding all sorts of things including the Michigan - Notre Dame rivalry, the move of Michigan v Ohio State, and about Penn State's Big Ten status.  Although none of these issues were officially recognized, there is no doubt things such as Michigan - Notre Dame will be impacted with these new games.

These new games have all sorts of implications, but first, let's break down the announcement itself.  While most conferences have been attempting to expand and add more teams, the Big Ten has avoided much of this controversy and has only added one team in more than a decade.  Unlike the Big Ten, the Pac 12 had a significant impact in the conference re-alignments by adding teams like Utah, but never had the massive changes like the ACC or Big East.  Although the Big Ten and Pac 12 haven't been the leaders in conference re-alignment, this new partnership was essentially a re-alignment in disguise.

This was a disguised re-alignment because neither conference wanted to alienate schools and fan bases by changing the regularly scheduled teams, but it still has the same goals and aims of a re-alignment.  This new partnership primarily revolves around 12 Big Ten v. Pac 12 football match-ups by the 2017 season, but does talk about other sports.  Granted, 2017 is pretty far ahead, but this still means that every team in the Big Ten will face a Pac 12 opponent every season and vice versa.  Only one game on each team's schedule will be changed as a result, but it will be the most inter-conference play of any two conferences in college football (assuming no other conferences steal this concept).

I think the concept is a big step forward for college football, but it's essentially a re-make of the Big Ten/ACC Challenge.  The change revolves around a full conference match-up to remove one "cupcake" from the schedule and equalize opponents based on performance.  I say this because the comments from Delaney and Scott (Big Ten and Pac 12 Commissioners) implied that teams with similar performance will be scheduled together.  For instance, Michigan (10-2) is likely to be scheduled against USC (10-2), while Purdue (6-6) will probably get somebody like UCLA (6-7).

Although the advantages are significant, especially for the conferences and college football, there are also some significant problems in this inter-conference partnership.  The loss of a "cupcake" opponent may seem unimportant, but it has significant impacts on both good and bad teams.  For instance, let's look at Purdue and Michigan.  Purdue finished 6-6 this season during regular season play, while Michigan finished 10-2.  At first glance, increasing the strength of schedule would appear to hurt Purdue more than Michigan, but after further analysis, this is quite debatable.

Instead of scheduling a team like Southeast Missouri State (3-8), Purdue would probably play a team like UCLA (6-7) or Washington (7-5).  Obviously, this is a significant increase in opponent quality.  As a result, Purdue 's 6-6 record would have been much tougher to achieve.  Along with this, Michigan would probably be forced to replace an opponent like Eastern Michigan (6-6) with a team like USC (10-2).  Removing a team like Eastern Michigan and replacing them with a quality opponent wouldn't have been that significant to Michigan's chances this season, but Michigan would be forced to play a very difficult opponent, not just a legitimate team.  This would be a very tough game and make seasons such as this year's at-large bid to the Sugar Bowl much less likely.

This is crucial to analyzing this new agreement between the Big Ten and Pac 12 because it's pretty easy to see how quickly it could impact the conferences.  If the new agreement had been instituted this season and Purdue and Michigan lost their match-ups against the Pac 12, the Big Ten would probably have one less bowl team and one less BCS team.  This is pretty unlikely to please Big Ten fans and schools, but the advantages should outweigh these problems.

I believe this because the Big Ten is very unlikely to lose all of the new games with the Pac 12.  In fact, I think the conference will fare pretty well in the long-term against the Pac 12.  Even looking at this season, which was a weak year for the Big Ten, the Big Ten would have had some great match-ups.  Sure, Oregon, Stanford, and USC would have been tough opponents, but I don't think there's anybody that believes Wisconsin, Michigan State, and Michigan would have lost all three of those games.  Along with that, the Big Ten has other teams such as Nebraska (9-4) that could run over teams like UCLA (6-7) or Washington (7-5).

In the long-term, the Big Ten and Pac 12 are probably going to have overall records that are slightly worse than years past, but the increased schedule strength should counter out the losses, especially for teams that win their inter-conference match-ups.  Keeping this in mind, I believe this is a very good change for both conferences and will work to equalize the schedules across conferences.  The only major fallout I anticipate is with the remaining non-conference scheduling.  As discussed in an earlier article, adding tough non-conference opponents in road or neutral environments is not something most schools are going to be excited about.

This concern is one of the major reasons why Notre Dame will be at risk for being dropped from schedules by teams like Michigan, Michigan State, USC, and Stanford.  With one legitimate non-conference opponent guaranteed through this Big Ten and Pac 12 agreement, there is no real reason to keep a team like Notre Dame on the schedule, other than preserving a "cherished" rivalry.  Will Michigan drop the Irish soon?  Nobody can be sure of that, but it at least seems safe for the next few seasons.  However, fans across the country can be excited for every Big Ten team's miniature Rose Bowl during the first few weeks of every season.  While there was typically only one or two match-ups between the Big Ten and Pac 12 every year, there's going to be a lot more from now on, which should make for some great football.

Photo Credit: Danny Moloshok