When did Michigan hire Joe Lieberman...
...as their head football coach?
I just heard blowhard Dan Patrick interviewing Lloyd Carr on ESPN radio. Talk about a cure for insomnia. Anyway Patrick asked Carr exactly what I had been hoping someone would ask him: what exactly did Urban Meyer say that offended you so much?
Carr's answer is that two weeks ago Meyer made some comments about Michigan and the he should have just talked about his own team. That's it. No further explanation. Now I'm obviously a Florida fan but I've been observing Meyer for two years and I can't say that there's been a time that Meyer has ever been disrespectful of anyone. The only time I can remember Meyer saying anything about Michigan was a remark to the effect of "they got their crack at OSU and lost." So now it's disrespectful to TELL THE TRUTH?
Michigan fans are bending over backward with their arguments to try to make people forget that they lost to OSU already. Time to move on. I'll be rooting for USC in the Rose Bowl, as much as it pains me, just so Michigan fan can shut the hell up.
Mentioned in Austin Murphy's book 
3 comments:
Michigan fans aren't bending over backwards to conjur reasons to forget the OSU loss. Michigan fans are upset because we feel like the reasons Florida overtook us had more to do with people's preference to not have a rematch than anything else. Meyer was sounding off on the spectre of a rematch beginning two weeks ago before it was even a real possibility. Why shouldn't Michigan have been considered equally among the other 1 loss teams? The thing is, having lost to a team already is irrelevant, it has nothing to do with whether you should be in the title game. The whole point of the BCS is to pit the two best teams, regardless of whether or not they won their conference or had lost to the other team previously. The committee certainly considered these possibilities and decided not to make them a prerequisite. Gator fans should be thankful having lost to a team before wasn't a prerequisite under the old Alliance bowl system, or your program would have 0 national champtionships. Any college football fan can conceive of an elite conference having the two best teams in a given season. It could be any combo of SEC teams, the UM/OSU rematch (maybe throw Penn State in there if they can ever find a way to beat Michigan), or the Big 12 if Oklahoma and Nebraska return to their turn of the century form. That shouldn't be a factor, but it clearly was. Its only natural that Michigan fans feel we had the best squad and Gator fans would feel it was them. Michigan fans feel cheated because across the nation it seemed like people were conceding that Michigan probably had the better team, but decided it was the right thing to do to give Florida a shot for reasons that don't have to do w/ who should go to the BCS title game. Personally, I also think its ugly when coaches start campaigning, I didn't like it when Mack Brown did it two years ago, and I didn't like when Urban Meyer did it this year. Honestly, I don't think it changed the outcome though. The truth is, you can't lose a game under the current system and then whine when you don't get into the title game (although I'm sure Urban Meyer would have tried considering he started two weeks before Florida's season was over). Michigan knew what the stakes were going into the OSU game, and the Rose Bowl matchup will be a good one. It was just painful to know we might get in after the UCLA victory, and then have the same wounds reopened when we didn't. Florida is a deserving team, and the SEC is definitely the country's deepest conference (not that Michigan doesn't dominate the SEC, I've seen Michigan beat Florida, Alabama, Auburn, Arkansas, Ole Miss, and Vanderbilt in person, there is no talent gap between big blue and any of those schools). But Michigan fans have a legitimate gripe, just as Florida fans would had they been left out. At least we can all agree on one thing, however, this game needs a playoff. I'm not as bitter as you Gator fans, and will be rooting for you on the 8th, although I think Michigan had the better team, mostly because we actually have a running game. Sincerely, a heartbroken Michigan fan who will spend all of his time searching the internet for college football content until the pain of this season recedes.
Anon,
Thanks for checking in. I'll try to tackle your points one at a time.
First of all as long as I can remember a team that loses drops in the polls and the teams immediately behind it move up. This did not happen with Michigan. Why? I think that's the first question that needs to be answered. Normally losing the last week of your season disqualifies you from consideration for the MNC. But the talking heads talked up the match-up between OSU and Michigan so much and the ABC/ESPN pundits were lobbying as hard for the rematch as Danielson later did for the Gators.
The day that Michigan lost to OSU the Gators were playing their weakest opponent of the season (Western Carolina) and Cal made USC look pedestrian through 3/4 of the game. The voters didn't drop Michigan but there were still huge match-ups ahead for Florida and USC.
The reason 3 of the computers in the BCS had Florida ahead of Michigan in the last week is because the strength of schedule changes as each game is played not because of any bias against a rematch. After playing WCU the Gators SOS improved by beating a down FSU program and Arkansas in the conf. Championship game.
I agree with the idea that the two best teams should play. But the problem is that we have no idea who those two teams are. Everyone has OSU as the consensus number 1 but that doesn't mean they are invincible. The idea that Michigan is the number two team because they had a narrow loss to the number one ranked team is based on faulty logic. If Michigan played the same exact game against OSU but had stumbled somewhere else on their schedule you wouldn't be arguing the point.
Since we don't get a chance to see big intersectional match-ups very often it's really hard to say who is better than who. I think we'll agree that playing actual games is better than looking at stats. By that measure we know that OSU is better than Michigan. What we don't know is if Michigan is better than Florida or if OSU is better than Florida (but we are going to find out).
The fact is that I think you were sold a bill of goods by the pundits. They were talking about a rematch before you even played OSU. And for a while people bought it. But it's hard for them to keep buying it when other teams are out there playing and Michigan is at home waiting. I think if Michigan had lost to OSU in week 6 the outcome might have been different. But that's the system as it is. It penalizes you for losing late and that's exactly what Michigan did. It didn't catch up with them in the very next poll but it eventually did.
I'm sure you agree with me and just about every other fan of college football that the only way to end this nonsense is to compel the top teams to play each other in a play-off.
As far as politicking goes, as distasteful as you may find it, what do you expect? When a national title shot hinges on basically something akin to an election, how are you going to avoid campaigning. Nothing Meyer said was factually wrong. He said the Gators played a harder schedule than Michigan, which they did (both the NCAA and the BCS computers say so).
Michigan better beat USC or all this talk will be moot.
Meyer said he wouldn't recognize Michigan as the national champions if the Wolverines beat the Buckeyes in a rematch.
"If I'm Ohio State, I go get a bunch of rings picked out and say, 'We won the national championship,' " Meyer said. "That's not right."
Link
It's obvious that he meant that if he were Tressel that he wouldn't recognize it. Besides what do you care?
Oh Michigan lost close. Michigan lost close. Give me a break already. Let's talk about who you beat not who you lost to. I love how all of a sudden Auburn is a bunch of bums. The 9th ranked team in the country is a bunch of bums. Right. Whatever. See you in Glendale. Oh that's right, you won't be in Glendale.
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