You Thought That Was The Only House Today? Ramzy over at Eleven Warriors continues to dominate the writing game, this time with a piece on a different view of Ohio State and Michigan. Also, he continues the house-theme today, with Tom Brady's super mansion. Also, if you haven't seen the fight of the century, it's way better than anything Pacquiao and Mayweather could do.
"The reason that Michigan has been isolated instead of, say, Northwestern (most Wildcats, like Buckeyes, are Communications majors) is because with Rich Rodriguez no longer in Ann Arbor, Michigan is back to recruiting the same players as Ohio State once again. There simply is no offseason in college football's greatest rivalry.
The likely reverberation will be Michigan coaches having to explain, again, why so many of its players end up as General Studies majors. It's an extremely answerable question that passes the red-face test without any challenges. That's not really the intent, though. This is a simple, short-attention span rebuttal to Michigan's value proposition."
To echo Ramzy, this rivalry really doesn't have an offseason. Let the hate flow.
Gee Drops Another Bomb. Again. It's been repeated time and time again: Gee needs to learn to shut his mouth when it comes to athletics. Don't get me wrong, I love the guy as our president when it comes to fundraising and all the extra hoopla but this is getting out of hand. Here's what he had to say, courtesy of The Lantern (which by the way the NCAA CAN see this stuff)
"On Dec. 20, the NCAA announced its penalties for OSU football. Months later, Gee told The Lantern he still disagrees with the NCAA's ruling.
"First of all, the NCAA — if we would have given up five bowl games, they would have imposed the sixth on us because they were going to impose a bowl ban. This was Ohio State. This was (the NCAA's) moment in time, and they were going to impose a bowl ban no matter what we did."
Gee, who focused his comments mostly on the bowl ban and not the reduction of nine scholarships over the next three seasons, said the university's communicative efforts with the NCAA indicate that OSU has been and continues to be "overly compliant in some ways."
"I'm a lawyer," Gee said. "I take a look at precedent. There's no precedent for a bowl ban for us."
In a Sunday email to The Lantern, Stacy Osborn, the NCAA's associate director of public and media relations, said, "The committee stands by the report it issued.""
Sigh.
Where Does The B1G Stand Nationally? KennardHusker of Off Tackle Empire took a look at the state of the Big Ten conference from a national standpoint. There has always been much debate on where the conferences rank among the best, with the SEC normally dominating the rankings. The B1G usually isn't far off of them, but 2011 was a complete different year. Using some well thought out stats and notes, KennardHusker goes on to say that the conference is right around 3rd as it stands.
"For what it's worth, I think the new Big XII will be slightly better off with their two new additions in West Virginia and TCU, but it's a marginal change at best. That is, of course, assuming those teams don't implode. The only question that remains is what do you do with all this? Most fans who watched football from sunup to sundown on Saturdays last season probably knew the B1G was trending around third place among the major conferences, but what good does it do to recap?
Well, as a fan of the B1G, I think it is necessary to look at these numbers and say that something has to be done to be more competitive on the field. The Buckeyes hiring Urban Meyer was a good step forward. The improvements at the lower end of the spectrum at places like Minnesota and Indiana are hopefully going to pay off as well."
That's all we've got for your Bits today, although if you're feeling down for whatever reason, our friend KegsNEggs has you completely covered to provide the laughter you need to cheer you up.
