The Tunnel

The Day is Here.

2006-09-01T23:53:00.000-04:00

Oh, how I have longed for this day. This game day. This inaugural event leading to the greatest 3 months of the year.

Yes, Michigan Football is here.

And I'm not exactly sure what I expect out of this team. Could Michigan very easily go 11-1 or 12-0 this season? Maybe. I think 9-3 is more realistic, and if the chips fall as they may and injuries plague the squad once again, 7-5 is pretty reasonable. I'll go into this more later in another post, after a game or two as to not really give away too much of what I shouldn't be discussing... But I got to watch a little bit of practice yesterday inside Fort Schembechler. I've gotten to do that on a few occasions before through the years, but this practice had a very different dynamic of any I've seen.

Lloyd Carr, as usual, took sort of a backseat approach, letting his assistants run drills and instruct while he walked around adding his two cents here and there. That's not unusual. What did strike me as odd, however, was when time came for practice to be over, it wasn't the team captains who got the team assembled and fired up, but rather Mike Hart. The team seemed slightly unruly and agitated, as if no one was particularly stepping up to get them in line.

Could it just be a bad day? Maybe. I don't know what had happened before or after I was there. But what I do know is that this team is very much Mike Hart's team. And, seemingly, no one else's. Which brings me to a very important point: if Mike Hart is injured again this season, I'm booking tickets for San Antonio rather quickly. This team needs Hart in the game more than any other guy on the roster. It needs a leadership gut check. And it needs to get out of the starting gate better than, well, every year since 1998.

So this is how I see the season progressing. Vanderbilt and Central should be fairly manageable wins (anybody who saw Central's BONEHEAD trick play to close the Boston College game the other night pretty much knows CMU is not only a poor team, but poorly coached as well). I like the fact that we're opening with an SEC team rather than the Directional College du Jour, and I like the fact that Vandy and CMU come before Notre Dame.

Which brings me to South Bend, and vicariously, Happy Valley and Columbus. If Michigan can go 2-1 in those games, and especially if one of those wins is in South Bend, this could be a very special season. I fear a ND loss would start the inevitable wheels-falling-off collapse of this team. It isn't, however, a death sentence. If Michigan is 6-1 going into PSU, or even 5-2, and loses, game over. You can pretty much pencil in a loss at Ohio State. Momentum is so key this year, especially with the fairly murderous stretch of Michigan State, PSU, and Iowa.

I don't like that our three toughest games are on the road, but at the same time, I like that there's a nice, even stretch of cupcakes before the descent into Columbus. But who knows what will happen. This is probably the most anticipated football season in these parts in recent memory- no one knows what to expect out of this team, with every win precariously hanging in the balance on a very, very tough Big 10 schedule. With a few twists of fate here and there, we may be looking at Tempe on January 8, or we may be looking at San Antonio on December 28.

All I know is that tomorrow brings the first football of the year in Ann Arbor. The tailgaters are lined up in their RV's at the Pioneer HS lot, the team is snuggled in their beds at the Campus Inn, the marching band has finished Band Week. It's football season in Ann Arbor. Let the second-guessing and irate phone calls to WTKA and the angry letters to the editor begin. Let the fingernails be chewed to the bone. Let the jerseys be worn and the brats be grilled and the beers go down easy. It's football season in Ann Arbor, the greatest time of the year. And like a little kid on Christmas Eve, I'm having a hard time getting to sleep tonight.

"I don't think I'm ever going to love anything more than I'm going to enjoy bringing you the next sixty minutes of Michigan football. The way we're going, we may not last sixty minutes. But who cares, as long as it's maize and blue at the end of the day. Prejudiced? Partial? You better believe I am today. This is for everything."- Bob Ufer, 1973.

Golden Boy Revisited

2006-08-23T17:50:00.000-04:00

According to Bill Parcells, Drew Henson's time with America's Team is done.

"I just didn't see enough," coach Bill Parcells said Wednesday.

Parcells said Henson hadn't been waived, but the coach wouldn't elaborate when asked if the Cowboys were trying to trade the quarterback who started only one game for Dallas.

"I'm really not at liberty to discuss the situation because I'm not privy to that information," Parcells said. "He's not going to be on our roster. That's all you need to know."

Henson's locker had already been cleaned out when reporters were allowed into the locker room before practice Wednesday. For now, rookie free agent Matt Baker is the No. 3 quarterback behind Drew Bledsoe and Tony Romo.

Has there ever been anyone in recent memory that has been as big of a bust as Drew Henson? He essentially baseball'd his way out of being not only one of the greatest quarterbacks in Michigan history, but being a top-5 NFL draft pick, a probable starter somewhere, the list goes on and on and on. Instead, he opts for baseball, screws over Lloyd Carr, has a batting average less than his weight in the minors, and by the time he wants to give the NFL a try, he hasn't taken a snap in a game situation in over 3 years.

Will anyone else take a chance on the Golden Boy?

Drew Sharp gets sharp

2006-08-20T15:39:00.000-04:00

Drew Sharp from the Free Press, who I usually don't agree with anyway, came up with a pretty pretty absurd article concerning Michigan's success in placing players in the NFL, as opposed to Ohio State.

Ohio State 31, Michigan 16.

No, that's not an early peek into the crystal ball on what will happen in Columbus, Ohio, three months from now. And, no, it's not a first-quarter score from the police rap sheet.

It's the NFL draft score between the two programs over the last four years.

And it underscores more than anything else the wide disparity between the programs. You can't fool the NFL. The Buckeyes have the talent while the Wolverines have the temerity.

The Fraternal Order of Michigan Football Apologists is happily delusional these days, downright giddy that the proper cosmic forces are in place to revisit history this season.

They're thinking 2006 has a great chance of becoming 1997, when the Wolverines began the season residing within the middle of the nationally ranked and finished with a share of the national championship.

Lloyd Carr was under fire then as well.

But the Blue hairs are conveniently forgetting one integral aspect -- all 11 defensive starters on that 1997 team played in the NFL, and one of them happened to win the Heisman Trophy, if you'll recall.

The Wolverines are no longer feared and the Buckeyes are zooming past them. They've lost an average of 7.8 players to the NFL in the last four years and yet they're still ranked No. 1 in the country in the preseason.

Are you kidding me, Drew Sharp? First of all, last I checked, the University of Michigan isn't an NFL program. Who the hell cares if Michigan sends 1 player to the NFL every year, or 11? It's not Lloyd Carr's job to prepare players for NFL rosters- it's Lloyd Carr's job to prepare players for Michigan.

And, let's be honest here, a player can come out of a school as a low draft pick, appearing to have next to no pro potential, and come out with a handful of Super Bowl rings. Tom Brady, anybody? If you had told me in 1999 that by the time he was 30 he'd be amongst the best, if not the best, quarterbacks in the NFL, with a trophy case filled beyond capacity, I'd have laughed. Good college quarterback? Yes. But a probable future Hall of Famer? I would have thought Drew Henson would have had a better shot at that.

Just another stupid Drew Sharp column.

It's schedule time!

2006-08-16T23:44:00.000-04:00

Michigan Basketball has released its 2006-7 basketball schedule. Mmm-mmm! Can you smell that excitement?

Thu., Nov. 2 Wayne State (ex)
Sun., Nov. 5 Michigan Tech (ex)

JOHN THOMPSON CHALLENGE
Fri., Nov. 10 Central Connecticut State
Sat., Nov. 11 Davidson
Sun., Nov. 12 Eastern Michigan

JOHN THOMPSON CHALLENGE FINALE
Wed., Nov. 15 Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Fri., Nov. 17 Harvard
Wed., Nov. 22 Youngstown State
Sat., Nov. 25 Maryland-Baltimore County

ACC/BIG TEN CHALLENGE
Mon., Nov. 27 @North Carolina State

Sat., Dec. 2 Wofford
Thu., Dec. 7 @Miami (Ohio)
Sat., Dec. 9 Delaware State
Sat., Dec. 16 Northern Illinois
Sat., Dec. 23 @UCLA
Thu., Dec. 28 Army
Sat., Dec. 30 Georgetown

Wed., Jan. 3 Illinois*
Sat., Jan. 6 @Northwestern*
Sat., Jan. 13 @Purdue*
Wed., Jan. 17 Penn State*
Sat., Jan. 20 Purdue*
Wed., Jan. 24 @Wisconsin*
Sat., Jan. 27 @Indiana*
Wed., Jan. 31 Iowa*
Tue., Feb. 6 @Ohio State*
Sat., Feb. 10 Minnesota*
Tue., Feb. 13 @Michigan State*
Sat., Feb. 17 Indiana*
Wed., Feb. 21 @Illinois*
Sat., Feb. 24 @Minnesota*
Tue., Feb. 27 Michigan State* OR
Wed., Feb. 28 Michigan State*
Sat., Mar. 3 Ohio State*

OK, let's overlook the Big 10 schedule for a second here. Check out those early-season barnburners! Central Connecticut State, Davidson, and Eastern Michigan. Awesome. And it gets better! Harvard, Youngstown State, Maryland-Baltimore County! And who can contain their sheer and utter glee for that Wofford game? Golly-gee, I can't wait. If Tommy Amaker was any more giddy, his pants would be hiked up to his shoulders.

If Michigan comes into the UCLA games with more than 1 loss, look out. This is a team with a mountain of question marks, and frankly, a cupcake schedule going into what looks like a freakishly difficult Big 10 schedule (that last 12-game stretch looks absolutely brutal), we can use all the wins we can muster up. It's all about padding the record for the inevitable late-season injury/suspension/forgetting the fundamentals collapse. Yeah, we've scraped the bottom of the barrel for what appears to be hopeless opponents. But if that's what it takes to eek our way into the tournament, I'll take it. I've said this each year for the past 3- if Tommy Amaker doesn't lead this team to the NCAA tournament this season, he needs to pack up the ridiculously casual wardrobe and get the hell out of town. Finishing the season with home matchups with Michigan State and Ohio State doesn't sounds too inviting. Then again, neither does sitting through about 4 or 5 40-point wins in a 3/4-empty arena in November.

Christmas Interrupted

2006-08-12T14:06:00.000-04:00

There are certain days of the summer that I consider red-letter days. The Spring Game. Big Ten Media Day. The first day of fall practice. Things like that. But perhaps the most fun of all is the day I get my Michigan Football Media Guide. I love it. It's like Christmas 4 months early. I tear through it digesting every little morsel of statistic, intangible, and tidbit of information. And this year is no different. Today I stopped by the M-Den at Briarwood and picked up this year's edition of the Media Guide. Entitled "Michigan Football Tradition," I flipped it open and gave it a preliminary perusal. And one thing immediately stuck out:

Apparently, 2005 (or as I like to call it these days, 200(7-)5) isn't a part of that tradition as far as the Athletic Department is concerned. No season stats. No game-by-game recaps. No pictures, nothing about the Alamo Bowl. Nothing. Only the customary little box with the game scores, team captains, and the like alongside the other 126 seasons of Michigan football. This was the season that did not exist.

Before last season, the NCAA changed the rules on media guides to restrict the number of pages to a paltry, arbitrary 208. And so schools like Michigan, who were accustomed to putting out Biblical texts of 400 or more pages were forced to decide what to put in, and what to eliminate. Stat hounds like me are now forced to check out mgoblue.com to get bowl recaps, lists of letterwinners, and other things thought too trivial for the guide. Apparently this year, they didn't have a lot of difficulty filling pages, as the guide is now home to pages and pages of filler, including:

-2 pages on the Women's Football Academy (206-7)
-2 pages on Carr's Wash for Kids, with great pictures of football players in t-shirts looking very bored washing cars for C.S. Mott Children's Hospital. (204-5)
-2 pages on the Radio-a-thon the team held this summer at 1050 WTKA (202-203)
-2 pages on the "Michigan football traditions" involving sedate Ann Arbor street scenes and a full page on the Detroit professional sports teams and their venues. (198-199)
-4 pages on the Athletic Academic Center (184-187)
-21 pages of 1/3 to full page pictures of every Wolverine in the NFL today. Who knew that John Navarre's 2 games of NFL action was worth a half of a page? And, for that matter, who knew that Todd Collins was still in the league? And Kevin Dudley has never been on anything better than an NFL practice squad? (62-83)

That's a full 33 pages of pretty useless crap. Yeah, it's something to turn a new page and turn your back on 2005. But to eliminate any trace of the entire thing ever existing? Mmmm-hmmm.

Buckeyes with too much time on their hands

2006-08-01T18:21:00.000-04:00

Must be a slow summer in Columbus. Rivals.com's OSU division has resorted to doing a wee bit of fantasy football. With a Playstation. So far the Buckeyes are 8-0. It even includes some nice sports journalism content to update us on the Heisman race, the polls, bowl rankings, and miscellaneous notes on the team roster.

A bit much, wouldn't you agree?

An addition to the Tunnel team

2006-07-30T17:57:00.000-04:00

I'd like to welcome Rob to the Tunnel writing team. Well, more of a partnership, but I'll call it a team. He knows far more about college hockey than most people I know, so I think this is going to be a really strong addition to my humble corner of cyberspace. So, welcome Rob.

Hockey Update

2006-07-30T11:58:00.000-04:00

It's nearly August first, and if you haven't been following Michigan Hockey over the summer, there are some updates you need to be aware of.

-2006-2007 Schedule released
The schedule for the 06-07 season has been released by the hockey offices, and is rather disappointing. The non-conference schedule is weak, featuring home games against the CHA's Alabama Hunstville, Atlantic Hockey's Connecticut, and Hockey East doormat Northeastern. Michigan will face Michigan Tech in the first round of the GLI, and will face either Michigan State or Harvard in the second game. The Wolverines will once again take part in the College Hockey Showcase over Thanksgiving with tough tests at Wisconsin and Minnesota. This weekend is the saving grace of an otherwise weak non-conference schedule. Last year's home game against Boston College seemed to be a step in the right direction in terms of scheduling tougher, more intriguing match-ups. Playing big games against powerhouse programs is a staple of Michigan Hockey, so why dodge these games year after year in the regular season?

The CCHA side of things has Michigan clustered with Ferris State, Western Michigan, and Michigan State. The conference schedule features a January trip to face Alaska Fairbanks, and 6 tough road games to finish the regular season. Michigan fans will be disappointed to see only 6 home games during the second semester.

-Lewis Bolts for Kings
The most touted member of Michigan's incoming recruiting class signed a professional contract with the L.A. Kings, and will forgo his commitment to attend Michigan in the fall. Lewis was selected 17th overall in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft. His entry level contract will place him in the Kings' minor league system. Lewis was a highly touted college recruit after a breakout year with the USHL's Des Moines Bucaneers. His departure is disappointing to a team that lacked a stand out goal scoring forward, a staple of Michigan Hockey teams over the past 15 years. It is believed that his scolarship has not been filled, and that the coaching staff is pursuing U.S. Under 17 Team standout Patrick Kane. Kane will play for the U.S. Under 18 Team this year while he finishes high school a semester early. If Kane chooses to play college hockey, he will be able to start school for the second semester. Michigan is battling Jack Parker and BU for Kane's services in the NCAA, while Kane considers whether Canadian Junior hockey will better suit his development.

-Alumni Showcase to Feature 1996 National Championship Reunion
The 1996 National Championship team will reunite in Ann Arbor on Friday, August 4th. The festivites start at 4:30 with a game between alumni ages 35-50. The 50+ alumni game begins at 5:30, and the featured game between the 1996 team and the recent graduates will begin at 7pm. Nearly all of the members of the '96 team will return (including Harold Shock, Bobby Hayes, Marty Turco, Blake Sloan, Greg Crozier), and will face some of the more notable alumni of recent seasons (including Andy Hilbert, Jed Ortmeyer, and Brandon Rogers). Yes, Brendan Morrison will be in attendance, coaching the '96 team with Jason Botterill. If you are in the area, turn out and witness some of the greatest players in Michigan history as they lace the skates up for what is sure to be a fun filled evening.

It could be worse...

2006-07-21T15:54:00.000-04:00

Check this out.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/football/ncaa/07/21/huuricane.shot/index.html

Miami's Cooper shot outside home

SOUTH MIAMI, Fla. (AP) -- A Miami Hurricanes reserve safety was shot in the buttocks when confronted in his yard Friday morning by an unknown assailant, who fled after another player returned the gunfire, police said.

Willie Cooper was able to walk after being shot, and the injury wasn't believed to be serious, but he was taken to a hospital for treatment, police said.

When Cooper was shot, teammate and roommate Brandon Meriweather pulled a pistol from his pants pocket and fired three times at the assailant, who jumped a fence and fled with another person in their car, police said.

Meriweather used his gun legally, and it was unclear whether the assailant was hit, police said.

According to their report, Cooper and Meriweather noticed a suspicious car parked outside their home near the campus shortly after 6:30 a.m. When they went outside to investigate, the assailant was crouched next to the house, and he jumped up and shot Cooper.

The athletic department released a statement saying it was cooperating with the police investigation.

"Until the investigation is complete, we will not have any additional comment," the statement said.

The house where Cooper lives is owned by Hurricanes defensive backs coach Tim Walton and rented to players with approval from the school's compliance office.

Cooper, a junior from St. Augustine, has played mostly on special teams for three years. He was listed as a second-team safety on the spring depth chart.

Meriweather is a standout safety for the Hurricanes.

Now that is a classy program. Guy gets shot in the ass, and his teammate is right there to return fire. At least they've got the teamwork thing down.

I'm back.

2006-07-20T20:20:00.000-04:00

Sorry to all 5 of you who probably actually read this, but I was out of the country for a while. I'm back now, and finally somewhat back in the loop on Michigan athletics.

For those of you who get The Wolverine, this month's issue is particularly interesting. There's a very in-depth article with Bill Martin that certainly raised a few eyebrows for me.

There aren't too many large-scale, stunning revelations. It's more of the little things he just kind of tags onto things that cause me to be completely dumbfounded. Here's some excerpts:

I was in [Crisler] for a basketball game and football had some recruits in there... the parents of this kid came up to me and said 'Are you the athletic director?...We want to have our picture taken with you."... What they told me made me feel so great. 'We toured that academic center. If you built that and you're putting that level of resources to academics, we want our son here at Michigan.' I never thought of the academic center as a recruiting tool, but it clearly is.

Um... Huh? Who whudda thunk that a building covered in flat screen televisions and couches specifically made to fit Gabe Watson's ass (yes, they actually used Gabe Watson to gauge how big to make the chairs), filled with tutors and computers and every resource idiots like Brent Petway need to maintain a 1.9 GPA would be a recruiting tool. I've always had a sinking feeling that Bill Martin has zero clue when it comes to the athletics side of being AD, and this only helps to confirm it.

THE WOLVERINE: Do you feel that the basketball program and Tommy Amaker are being held back in any ways by facilities?

BILL MARTIN: I don't believe that's the case. I haven't heard from our basketball staff or any outside sources that so-and-so didn't come to Michigan because of the facility. I'm certain for some kids, that's the case. If they're interested in facilities, then they should go elsewhere. That's my response to it. If softball players were interested in facilities, they wouldn't come to Michigan, would they? First and foremost, we look to see if these kids are coming to Michigan for an education or not. Tommy has been very understanding. We've done those improvements that have been necessary for the team on a day-in, day-out basis- the locker room, the weight room.

Wow. 'If you want a nice, modern facility to play in, don't come here.' Way to keep up with the curve, Bill. Look at the Breslin Center in East Lansing. Or Ohio State's brand-spanking-new professional-grade basketball arena. Then look at Crisler- dreary and dark. A concourse without above-head lighting. Bathrooms that are antique at best. Seats that for the most part are original the building... Yeah, that may not be #1 priority for recruits from a playing standpoint, but remember- a recruit's first experience at Crisler Arena isn't going to be on the court. It's going to be in the stands and in the concourses. They go up the stairs and see dusty pictures of the 1969 Big Ten championship football team and overhead photographs of Michigan Stadium taken in the 1950's half-faded in the dark recesses of the upper walls of the concourse, they're going to wonder just what they're getting themselves into.

Meanwhile, millions and millions and millions of dollars are dumped into the football stadium each and every offseason- now more than ever. Why not Crisler? Bill Martin is saying all the right things- 'We want to do it.' OK, then do it. Enough of the talk. It's been this way for years. Every year Crisler's problems are woefully obvious, and every year they're ignored.

I also don't get Martin's reference to softball players. The response to facilities is clearly going to be different in revenue sports vs. non-revenue sports. I don't know this for sure, but I'd venture a guess that there isn't a whole lot of difference between softball facilities across the country. Same for most other non-revenues. But in football, basketball, hockey, you've got schools like Oregon in football with walls covered in flat-screen televisions in their lockerrooms. In hockey, you've got The Ralph at North Dakota with marble floors and a full-sized hockey rink practice facility attached to it. For revenue sports, facilities mean something for recruits. Remember, in these sports, athletes are coming to colleges and universities looking at it as a spring-board to the pros. This is a million-dollar decision for them. They want the bells and whistles. Is this a bad thing? I think it's certainly telling of the current atmosphere of college athletics, and a negative in the long run, but Michigan has to be able to keep up with the trends.

Elsewhere in the magazine, Martin answers some questions regarding football scheduling that show a bit of insight into the thinking of AD's across the conference:

'My position on the 12th game was that was driven in our conference by revenue. We really didn't support it, but everybody else did. It's permissible, but not required... Lloyd made the point that if we don't play it, and we go 11-0, and two other teams go 12-0 or 13-0, who is going to the national championship?...'

Martin also has other ideas for big schedule fixes in the Big Ten. But he'll have plenty of convincing to do in terms of other conference schools before they could ever go into effect.

'Let's play a round-robin. Let's play 10 conference games and two non-conference games. I was the only vote for it.... My thought for the non-conference games is this- why don't we take one of the Big Ten teams that are off our schedule and play them? It's just a non-conference game... I'm concerned that the guy who sits in row 52, seat 14, wants to come and that we give him a great experience. At the same time, we have concern from teh coaches' perspective. We all know that. We want to win.

I've been saying this for years. I know this would never, ever happen. But ideally, I'd like to see this: Bring the Big Ten back to ten teams. (I know the cat's out of the bag on that one, we can't go back. Penn State is here to stay, but let's be hypothetical here.) 12-game schedule, 9 conference games, 3 cupcakes. It guarantees you play every other team in the conference, you get your 'undisputed champion' (the catchphrase of the modern era, it seems), you get your 3 crap games against Sisters of the Poor A%M, and everyone goes home happy. The concern lies, however, in the teams who need that extra cupcake game to be bowl-eligible (Northwestern, Michigan State, Indiana, I'm looking in your direction). Barry Alvarez up at Wisconsin is also notorious for his love of the South Northeastern Delaware State's of the scheduling world. There's also the concern of the home-away issue. That 12th game, for pretty much every Big Ten school, means a home game. They've all got the staying power to demand a school come up to play them without having to pay a return visit to a 20,000 seat stadium in the middle of Idaho. That means $$$.

So for now we're stuck with the 8 conference/4 non-conference schedule. And of course there's the question of the 12th Big Ten team. Unfortunately, there's no real geographic or competitive fit besides Notre Dame. And not only do they not want the Big Ten, there's plenty in Big Ten country who don't want them. It's already bad enough that Michigan is locked in a hopelessly boring 10-year contract through 2012, forever relegating our schedule to Notre Dame and 3 immensly boring games. The Notre Dame rivalry wasn't a yearly thing for a reason.

It's clear that Bill Martin is a money guy, not a sports guy. He's more than happy to let his coaches do their thing and let himself do his thing, and that can be a blessing and a curse. When's he going to pull the plug on the aimless Tommy Amaker era? How about Cheryl Burnett? Can the athletic program stomach another 24th place finish in the Director's Cup?

Confirmed Bigger House

2006-05-19T16:17:00.000-04:00

It's coming....

WTKA is reporting on their hourly sports updates that the Board of Regents approved today the $227 million plan to renovate Michigan Stadium. Additionally, I believe, there was also a proposal to build a new baseball stadium, which I gather was also approved.

Details about the football stadium renovations here

A rendering of the proposed renovation

What jumps out at me is this:

The favored plan, revealed to The Ann Arbor News on Thursday in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, includes 83 luxury suites and other premium seating in two structures that would dominate the east and west sidelines of the bowl-shaped stadium. The two structures would rise to a height of 82 feet above the concourse, 7 feet higher than the scoreboards in either end zone. The changes would also boost seating capacity slightly, from 107,501 to 108,335.

Think about that. 7 feet higher than the scoreboards. This is going to be monumentally huge.

The article ends with this gem of a quote from Martin:

"The quality of the product and the experience will clearly be enhanced,'' Martin said. "The important thing is that every person in that stadium will feel and experience the difference, whether it's getting up and going to the rest room and getting a hot dog, or whether it's a couple of inches of additional butt room at that November game where everybody's wearing heavy coats and there isn't much room. Those are the things I care passionately about.''

Really, Mr. Martin? Is that what you care about? Or is it the "those folks who want to pay for a premium seat"? This proposal does nothing to make Michigan Stadium and Michigan football games more accessible to those who aren't financially affluent. The seating capacity doesn't significantly increase, thus not matching up with the astronomical demand for season tickets. And the increases seem to only be in the most expensive bracket of stadium seating.

I don't know. I just don't go crazy with joy about this when all is said and done. Construction will not begin until after the 2007 season, and will be completed for 2010, so we're going to have over a year to think about it, and then about two years to watch it go down. I'm thrilled that the basic problems like aisle widths and concessions and restrooms and such will be addressed, but I wish they would address those problems first, and then worry about these monstrous luxury amenities.

What say you, readers?

The Bigger House

2006-05-18T11:15:00.000-04:00

Michael Rosenberg from the Freep had a really great article yesterday about the proposed renovations to Michigan Stadium. This is something I've given a lot of thought to, and in the end, I'm sort of concerned about a number of things. I'm not the world's biggest Bill Martin fan to begin with, and after reading Rosenberg's article, I'm even less of a Bill Martin fan. He's a money guy, not a tradition guy, and not even particularly an athletics guy. In all of my encounters with him, I've gotten the vibe that he says things to appease the alumni and fanbase, but you know he doesn't mean it, and you know he's just going to go for the option that looks better on the ledger sheet. Which brings us to the Rosenberg article.

Luxury-box proponents usually make two arguments. Argument No. 1: Boxes drastically improve the financial outlook of an athletic department. Argument No. 2: Boxes don't affect the average fan. In Michigan's case, both arguments are questionable, but the second one is absurd.

1. I can understand this. And I'm not inclined to hate on people who have the money to pay for a luxury box. If you want to sit in a sterile little room with a nice glass window and have an awful view of the game and be completely removed from the atmosphere of the stadium and watch your ceiling-mounted television and drink your wine and cocktails and pay a fortune for it, go right ahead. That's your loss. And I definitely think that a plan I would endorse and accept would be to integrate such a thing into one side of the stadium only and have it be a part of the press box. More on that later.

2. Yes, in some situations, they do. Let's look at the last set of renovations at Yost. The VIP deck that juts over the student section, as I was told by an assistant athletic director when I asked about it, pays for a significant amount of the hockey team's scholarships. Conversely, it's never full, even for the big games. And it juts down low enough that the students in the back rows of the student section have to duck to see the game. Now, I can appreciate the fact that the deck is a significant financial windfall, and that it's useful for the hockey program as a whole, but it's an atmosphere killer. I've loved Yost since I was a little kid, but in the interest of money it's gone severely downhill in the past 10 years or so. It's losing its charm. I don't want that to happen to Michigan Stadium.

Granted, Fielding Yost designed the stadium with the intention of having a second deck installed on it. So all of these people whining about the loss of the "classic bowl design" need to take a little history lesson. Yost did not, however, design the stadium with the intention of having two absolutely gigantic structures being installed on both sidelines.

How large? Two structures totaling 425,000 square feet. For a comparison: the Palace, with all its atriums and offices, is 570,000 square feet. U-M's proposal is the equivalent of placing a large dormitory on each side of the stadium.

Is that really necessary? I don't see the immediate need to have West Quad built on both sides of the stadium. Ultimately, having these structures on both sides of the stadium strikes me as incredibly wasteful and fundamentally flawed. What I'm most concerned about in a renovation of Michigan Stadium is not significant updates to impact the highest paying ticketholders, but rather to make the game experience better for the guy in row 86 in the endzone just as much as the guy drinking boxed wine in the luxury box. Wider aisles. Better bathroom facilities. Concourses that aren't crumbling asphalt. No chain link fencing anywhere. Let's face it- Michigan Stadium, while large, is pretty goddamn ugly from the outside. Its charm and ambience doesn't come from how it looks, but rather how you're crammed into your seat with 107,000 other people. Which brings me to another point.

As I understand it, there's currently a decade-long waiting list for season ticket requests. When is that going to be addressed? We see so much talk about the luxury boxes, but at the same time, I think it's about time to install at least a partial deck on the stadium. If you've been watching the stadium renovations and the additio of rows onto the stadium since Tennessee and Penn State started rivaling our size, you'll notice a significant notch on the side of the stadium opposite the press box. Now, stay with me here. Wouldn't it be incredibly convenient to install the press box on this side of the stadium and drop elevators down to the locker room levels for the assistant coaching and support staff, and then build a deck where the current press box is? Put luxury boxes in the press box structure, and at the same time, increase the capacity of the stadium to the point where ticket demand approaches available capacity. Let's face it- it's going to sell out. Provided tickets remain affordable and the level of competition on the field warrants it. An argument for which Rosenberg asks a very vital question:

Will people pay more than $250 to sit by the end zone for Michigan-Ball State?

With the BCS system as it is, there's no incentive for a team competing for a BCS bid every year, as Michigan is, to schedule competitive non-conference scheduling. With the advent of the annual Michigan-Notre Dame series, Michigan is going to continually be scheduling lower-tier MAC schools and Michigan directional schools (Eastern, Western, Central) to fill the schedule. And, honestly, for the average ticket holder, paying out the nose to see Michigan have a 30-point lead at halftime when it's 85 degrees outside is only fun for a limited amount of time. There's so much said about Don Canham and his commercialization of college athletics, but I think we're forgetting one thing: Canham did it by marketing Michigan football to families. Bring your family to a game, make an afternoon out of it, have fun, and it's affordable. Nowadays, you want to bring your family to a game, for a family of four you're not getting in for less than 150 bucks or so once you factor in ticket prices, parking, and god forbid you get hungry and want to grab some hot dogs and Pepsis. Michigan Stadium cannot be unaccessible for families, and I really think it's gotten that way. You can take your kids to a Tigers game for a third of the price, if not less. And it will probably be a better competitive experience (especially these days) than watching Michigan beat up on the Michigan School for the Blind in the blistering heat. But that's more of a scheduling issue as well, with the incentive to schedule the easy win rather than the competitive team.

In Rosenberg's interview with Martin, there's two snippets that particularly stick out in my mind as particularly troubling:

Martin said Tuesday he is sensitive to fans' concerns.

"When Lee (Bollinger) asked me to take the job on a full-time basis when I was the interim," Martin said, "I said, 'Only if I can take down the halo. Only if I can take down the halo.' "

That is a great story. It is also a total lie. Bollinger, the former school president, said in September 1999 the halo was probably coming down. The school made the official announcement Jan. 12, 2000.

Martin didn't even become interim athletic director until March 2000.

Whoops! Bill Martin=liar. So, what's the credibility of anything else that's coming out of his mouth?

There is a perception that the luxury boxes will allow Michigan to immediately upgrade other facilities. ("It can help pay for Crisler, which is a major issue we face," Martin said Tuesday.) But any potential help will be many years down the road.

So, we keep dumping into Michigan Stadium to add things we really don't absolutely need, and THEN we can renovate Crisler? When Bill Martin strolls into Michigan basketball games using the tunnel entrance and struts to his courtside folding chair, he apparently misses the dingy, cavernous concourse. The, literally, antique seats in the lower and upper bowls. The horrid lighting. Crisler has all the ambience and charm of the Frieze Building, for those of you familiar with everybody's favorite University soon-to-be-demolished academic building/deathtrap. Why? Because, just like the Frieze, the University refuses to maintain it and update it. Crisler is deplorable in comparison to the Breslin Center in East Lansing, or OSU's brand spanking new professional-level arena. And somehow justifying that more updates to Michigan Stadium will mean a better Crisler arena- YEARS down the road? Come on. I'm not buying that.

In the end, I can understand the need for luxury boxes. But I think the University could integrate it into things we know are needed- a new press box, which is, above all, a priority. And a possible deck addition onto the Stadium.

We all love Michigan Stadium, and that's why there's such an uproar about this. I just don't want to see it get killed by a horrible renovation that will be too large and ambitious and will be a continuous running joke for the next century.

Afraid of the Dark

2006-05-16T11:22:00.000-04:00

Stumbled across this on ESPN today.

2006 ABC Saturday Night College Football schedule
• Sept. 2, 8 p.m. ET: Notre Dame at Georgia Tech
• Sept. 9, 8 p.m. ET: Ohio State at Texas
• Sept. 16, 8 p.m. ET: Nebraska at USC
• Sept. 23, 8 p.m. ET: Notre Dame at Michigan State; USC at Arizona
• Sept. 30, 8 p.m. ET: Ohio State at Iowa or Michigan at Minnesota*
• Oct. 7, 8 p.m. ET: Oregon at California; ACC, Big 12 or BIG EAST (12-day selection)
• Oct. 14, 8 p.m. ET: Michigan at Penn State; Arizona State at USC
• Nov. 4, 8 p.m. ET: UCLA at California; ACC, Big 12 or BIG EAST (12-day selection)
• Nov. 11, 8 p.m. ET: ACC, Big 12 or BIG EAST (12-day selection)
• Nov. 18, 8 p.m. ET: California at USC; ACC, Big 12 or BIG EAST (12-day selection)
• Nov. 25, 8 p.m. ET: Notre Dame at USC
• Dec. 2, 8 p.m. ET: Dr Pepper Big 12 Championship Game

* One game will be on ABC and the other in primetime on ESPN or ESPN2.

Rumor had it that Coach Carr was lobbying heavily against the 8PM start for PSU, and I tend to agree. I'll take PSU at 3:30 over Beaver Stadium with the white-out and the lights. Big games under the lights just seem like an automatic bad-idea. Notre Dame '88, anyone? It's a recipe for disaster. On the road, hostile territory, under the lights... I have a feeling it could be a very, very, very long drive home from Happy Valley.

Is it the pants?

2006-05-14T00:22:00.000-04:00

I was doing some thinking the other day, and it occurred to me that as far as the current state of Michigan football goes, there's a couple things that jump out at me as slightly unnerving, and are as follows:
1. Inability to win the rivalry game.
2. Shaky play on the road.
3. Total loss of consistency when the team bus/plane leaves the Eastern time zone.

Which brings me to an odd observation: Could it be the pants? Stay with me here for a minute.

While watching some vintage game footage this week, I was reminded of a rather odd abnormality during the 1974 and 1975 seasons: On the road, Michigan wore white pants. Now, the only reason I bring this up is because these teams were able to do several things current Michigan squads can’t seem to pull off. Let’s look at the game-by-game results from those seasons:

1974:
Iowa W 24-7
Colorado W 31-0
Navy W 52-0
@ Stanford W 27-16
Michigan State W 21-7
@ Wisconsin W 24-20
Minnesota W 49-0
@ Indiana W 21-7
@ Illinois W 14-6
Purdue W 51-0
@ Ohio State L 12-10

10-1 (7-1) Big Ten Co-Champions (Ohio State goes to Rose Bowl, UM stays home)

1975:
@ Wisconsin W 23-6
Stanford T 19-19
Baylor T 14-14
Missouri W 31-7
@ Michigan State W 16-6
Northwestern W 69-0
Indiana W 55-7
@ Minnesota W 28-21
Purdue W 28-0
@ Illinois W 21-15
Ohio State L 21-14
Oklahoma (Orange Bowl) L 14-6

8-2-2 (7-1) Big 10 2nd place

Now, the first thing that jumps out at you about these two season results is the 0-2 mark against Ohio State. That really doesn’t concern me, as I’m willing to give Michigan the “greatest of all time” pass, as Archie Griffin lined up in the backfield in both games on his way to back-to-back Heisman Trophies. I’m also willing to overlook the Orange Bowl loss by token of the 2004 Rose Bowl pass. Same idea- Freshman quarterback (Rick Leach) starting against team on their way to a National Championship. Also, with the change of the Big 10 bowl rules after the 1974 season, the first Michigan team to play in a bowl other than the Rose Bowl.

But let’s look at the rest of the stats:

18-3-2 (14-2) overall record (.782)
8-1 on the road in the white pants (.888)
4-2 in rivalry games (2-0 against MSU and Minnesota, 0-2 against OSU)
A win against Stanford IN Palo Alto. That’s on the west coat.
0-1 in bowl games.

Let’s look at Michigan’s record in this same general category of stats since 2000, adding Notre Dame into the mix of rivalry games (the series with ND having not been resumed until the 1978 season):

53-21 (37-11) overall record (.716)
17-12 on the road (.586)
12-9 in rivalry games
0-5 on the west coast (UCLA, Oregon, Washington, 2 Rose Bowls)
2-4 in bowl games.

So, what am I proposing here? Was it the pants? 8-1 on the road sounds really nice, actually. As does a win on the west coast. Let’s face it- last time we won out there was (dusts off history books)… January 1, 1998. And, no, I’m not counting the ’98 Cupcake Bikini Bowl against Hawaii into the equation. Additionally, there's that little indisputable fact that Michigan has gone 0-for-the-Holy Trinity in South Bend since Remy Hamilton's game-winner on September 10, 1994. Does the psychological edge of the goofy white road pants give Michigan the edge? I’m not sure. I’m thinking out loud here.

Basically, I’m at the point where I’m looking for any intangible oddity to give us a shot on the road. Just imagine rolling into South Bend on September 16. The Domers are donning the green jerseys, Michigan is donning the all-white Purity Pants. Honestly, I like our odds in that kind of a matchup. I mean, it’s either that, or figure out a way to re-enroll Remy Hamilton and Todd Collins for one last hurrah of eligibility… On that note, what’s Rick Leach or Dennis Franklin doing these days? Think either can still run the option?

One last tidbit of evidence. Pictured in this post are two Michigan running backs who sported the #5. Gordon Bell, 1973-5, and David Underwood, 2002-4. Career stats for Bell? 2902 rushing yards, 53 touchdowns. Underwood? 612 yards, 6 touchdowns. It's gotta be the pants.

Long live the pointless intangible.

Welcome!

2006-05-10T22:42:00.000-04:00

OK, so. Welcome to The Tunnel. I guess you can say I'm a long-time blog reader, first-time blogger.

And so I've created for myself a little corner of the internet from which to rant and rave about Michigan athletics. I've been a Michigan fan since, literally, the womb. The day I was born, my dad placed a plastic Michigan football in my hospital crib, and our neighbor across the street hung a gigantic bedsheet banner on our garage door: "Call Bo- It's a boy!" While my football skills never materialized, I did well enough academically to currently be a University of Michigan student. My passion in life is Michigan football. That's all I really need to say. Although you'll probably see me posting at times about M hockey, basketball, and maybe even a little volleyball. Who knows.

That pretty much covers the whole awkward introduction thing. This is The Tunnel, and welcome to it.