The Game Is About To Change...Continued

On the ESPN spin off editorial blog “Grantland”, CharlesPierce penned a really good entry along the lines of a train of thought that Ihad been thinking about for a while.  If you don’t have time to read it, I can summarize it here:

If you are on the side that everything is “FAIR” in college athletics and the money that student athletes receive in the form of scholarship money is fair compensation for the product they put on the field for the 3 or 4 years that they play…Than what about the time and activity post graduation where the NCAA and the associated Universities use that athlete’s image and likeness in order to promote the NCAA or the University’s agenda?

You know…Denard Robinson’s image on 110,000 tickets for the home opener?  What about Nick Stauskas all over the season opening program?

Yeah…that stuff.  Not to mention the video games and whatever else the NCAA or University can license, sell or make a buck off of. 

This is where Wilkensen is really digging in…Which is her area of expertise:

…Whether NCAA athletes like the plaintiff, former UCLA All-American Ed O’Bannon, have signed away the rights to their names, images, and likenesses to the NCAA based on its purported code of amateurism, and whether, by enforcing that purported code — even after athletes’ eligibility has ended — the NCAA has been acting in restraint of trade and in violation of antitrust laws. Wilken was curious about one point.


“Are you saying,” she asked Heckman, skepticism edging every word like a razor, “that being paid for your name, image, and likeness is the same as being paid for the activity itself?”


If Wilken believes that payment for an athlete’s name, image, and likeness is something different from being paid simply for playing the game — that it constitutes something not in violation of the rules regarding amateurism, but rather something outside of them — then that’s the ballgame.

In short, you can’t take a person or their image for the “Rest of their life” if they’ve given you 3-4 years in the athletic arena.  Not only that, but if Wilkensen rules that the individual owns their own likeness….That person should be able to take that image and make money on it whatever way they can – period. 

Which, if you’ve been paying attention to the MMQ:

THAT’S WHAT I’VE BEEN SAYING!!!  LET THE KIDS MAKE MONEY WHERE EVER OR HOWEVER THEY CAN!!!  Whether they are playing or long after they leave....

In fact, I think the NCAA and the Universities simply haven’t thought it through, which is really sad.  What I mean is, if you let the athlete use the “Image” he created at your university (jersey) and he makes a Nike shoe ad, the University will be getting a lot of free advertising from that student athlete.  And per DB, who doesn’t want free advertising?  This could be the easiest "Win-Win" no brainer out there.....

This ruling is going to dramatically change the way athletes are dealt with in Division 1 College athletics, especially Football and Basketball.  And the Universities better start figuring out a way to get on board with it.  The NCAA may already be gone and they might not know it yet. 

It’s going to be an interesting summer….

And Here They Are!!! Step Right Up and Buy a "Package"

This irks me on SO MANY DIFFERENT LEVELS that I’m not even sure where I want to begin….However, in the spirit of being objective, I will take DB’s side on this to show why this is an absolutely wonderful thing for the university of Michigan (having un-sold season tickets) and how they can leverage this “opportunity” to their advantage.

I guess I will fall back to the old numbering system to logically lay what Brandon has to believe is a “great marketing opportunity” and I in turn will spell out my perturbed-ness of this mess….

1.     “DB” Pro - So, packages of tickets are now being put together with shirts and refreshments for particular games.  The casual fan now has the opportunity to see the Michigan Wolverines live and in person.   This is great for the many Michigan Fans that never, ever get a chance to come and enjoy Michigan in the Big House!!!  MMQ Con – Well That’s Fantastic…The LOYAL long time ticket holders get screwed by having to pay not only for PSL’s and season tix with the likes of App State as part of the season package, but we also get to fight the university on any potential re-sale of our tickets for individual games we can’t attend or don’t want to attend…    RESULT:  Pissed off loyal fans that will quickly figure out that it’ll be better to just dump the regular season tickets and buy packages for games you want to go to, if for no other reason than to get out of the PSL’s….

2.    DB Pro   - Michigan will get to market itself to potentially new, loyal season ticket purchaser’s and other fans that they haven’t had a chance to ever sell to before due to the long waiting list that Michigan used to have….This will present a great opportunity to bring new money and fans into the Michigan Fold and let them see what the Big-House has become…

      MMQ Con   - My guess is that casual fan will see the product on the field and what they have to go through to get in and out of Ann Arbor on Football Saturday and without the tradition of “The Tailgate” and something to do before and after the game, they will quickly figure out that going to catch the Wolverines live simply won’t be worth it and you will see them once and they will be happy to stay home and watch them on their 60” screens…

3.    DB Pro  - We will have a whole new mailing list to send fans requests for contributions and possible season ticket opportunities… 

     MMQ Con – Yeah…Sure.   You think that a casual fan that is buying a package that includes a free shirt, hot dog and a coke is going to pony up a minimum of $150/seat for the “right” to buy season tix and then throw down another $500 for a single season ticket?  Exactly which casual fan are you hoping to entice with this?

So, you can see how I believe this will be the beginning of the end for Michigan’s “Continuous Sell-Out” record.  Granted, attendance figures have always been fudges and I’ve attend a couple of “less than 100K” games in my lifetime, even though Michigan still claims that is a running record due to Season Ticket Holder sales…

Maybe Hoke and company can turn it around and all of this becomes a moot point…the product on the field has always sold tickets and kicked up demand.  That’s just the way it is and will continue to be for any sporting event or sports team.

The FMQ

Yikes…Early lines are out…They are depressing, but sadly, probably very real. Michigan as a dog against Michigan State (they are +7.5) and Ohio State (+8). They're only +3 at the domers, which domer home field and all….

Michigan is a touchdown favorite against Penn State and –3 against Northwestern.  As for the rest…if they are anything less than double digit  favs against what remains of the schedule(well, except Utah – I expect a tough one at home there)…it will be a sad year indeed…

The NCCA – O’Bannon Trial

This continues to draw my interest and while I haven’tbeen following as closely as I would like, some of the stuff coming out of itjust makes you shake your head and wonder “who” the entitled people in thisoutfit are…Emmert was making arguments that if you lose “amateurism” in college athletics, the very fabric that makes college athletics possible by competing on a level playing field will be gone…and Alabama and SW Louisiana State are level playing fields????  And this coming from a man whose salary is $1.6 million annually and he’s making money off these “amateur” athletes?

Please…I want to throw something at somebody.  Of course…that’s probably why I’m not a judge.

Here’s another quote from Emmert:

 The lawsuit and other efforts targeting the NCAA have already had some effect, with the biggest five conferences moving quickly toward giving athletes more money and benefits. Emmert said he supported those moves, but said giving athletes more than the true cost of attendance would cause a free-for-all in recruiting and force many schools to give up smaller sports…

Excuuuuuse me…But isn’t college “about” studying and getting an education?  It’s only been about additional sports for men and women since Title IX came about…and who said any university “HAD TO HAVE” a sports program for field hockey just because someone else in the conference figured out a way to support one?  If the sport can’t pave it’s own way through ticket sales or private donations…welcome to the "Field Hockey Club" and the pay to play model. 

And the judge also got into the act with Emmert on the stand.  As the plaintiff’s attorney was wrapping up his questioning, Judge Wilken intervened with some of her ownquestions.

"If the money was held in trust until the athletes graduated," she asked, "would that have the same effect?"   The last thing the NCAA wants to hear mentioned in this trial is a post-graduation trust fund. It's an idea that makes a lot of sense. The money would come from merchandise manufacturers and television networks, it would not affect college budgets and it would make no changes in the players' lives on campus. It's also an idea Emmert and the NCAA will not consider…

…The judge was not done. A few minutes later, she again turned to Emmert, asking him to explain what he meant when he talked about the "exploitation of athletes" by commercial enterprises .

"I am talking about third parties who would take advantage of them, like agents and financial advisers, people who would use them as shills for products," Emmert replied.

Any payment to an athlete would be exploitation, Emmert said. (Judge) Wilken, obviously perplexed that additional resources for a college student could be viewed as "exploitation," was clearly incredulous.

"Do you think it's exploitation of them or something you don't want happening?" Wilken asked.

It didn't get any better for the NCAA when Isaacson produced several images of current and past NCAA athletes appearing in promotional materials for the NCAA men's basketball tournament and other NCAA-sanctioned events. A photo of Wisconsin's football players appearing at a Rose Bowl news conference -- in front of a Vizio logo -- also was presented into evidence. So was a photo of Texas A&M's football players celebrating a bowl victory in front of a table featuring the Chick-fil-A and Kia logos.

"And that's perfectly fine?" Isaacson asked Emmert.

"That's fine under the rules," Emmert replied. "It's not something I'm personally comfortable with."

Back to the MMQ:  The NCAA is sooooooo......F’d here.  I’m surprised they are going to go through with this all the way to the end vs. getting a directed verdict.  But with a ruling, the NCAA can continue to appeal and drag this mess out and continue to “waste” money that could be going to student athletes.  A lengthy appeals process would go so much further to protect the NCAA’s little kingdom.  Frankly, I hope Wilken’s ruling is so sound and logical that any appeal will be automatically thrown out on the grounds that any appeal is in fact ADDITIONAL EXPLOITATION by the organization that claims it’s protecting the student athlete FROM exploitation. 

That….would be perfect.

The Game is About To Change "IV" and Potpourri

Today’s Word:  Potpourri – Extensively used in Jeopardy to signify a category that can mean anything…Today’s entry is kind of a big bag of crap with no one main topic…just stuff that’s happening around collegiate athletics and Michigan.

The O’Bannon vs. NCAA Trial started this week without a whole lot of fanfare, I think only because the issue has been openly debated for so long in the mainstream media and the blogosphere that everyone is simply waiting for the NCAA to make whatever impossible or lame argument it’s going to make and the judge is going to slap them with a “You’re so full of BS that I’m baffled you can stand there and make that statement” verdict.  O’Bannon took the stand and did not mince any words.  He openly stated that he was steered into curriculums that made it easier to keep his eligibility and he was a student in “name only” and was there to primarily play basketball.   He also stated he spent 50-60 hours a week performing that duty and took final exams in a hotel while at the NCAA Tourney.  Well, surprise, surprise.  I think we all saw that coming.  The question becomes, what can the NCAA possibly throw at the plaintiffs and who can they put on the stand that can somehow demonstrate that a “Student-Athlete” is more of a student than….An Athlete.  It’s not going to be easy (in fact, I think it’s impossible) and the idea of amateurism and a level playing field are going to become insurmountable issues to defend.

In fact, Washington’s AD is making statements that are going to be difficult for the NCAA to explain away in any closing argument, no matter how brilliantly contrived.  From the Seattle Times, here’s a quote that more or less directly contradicts what the NCAA stands for:

“If you’ve got a $6 million athletic budget, you shouldn’t be worrying about what I do,” Young contends. “You’re never going to compete with us. We don’t recruit the same players. We don’t even play on the same field. It just doesn’t matter.”

So, I expect the NCAA to bring a parade of former players and or coaches/AD’s in (including Brandon and Hollister from MSU) to make the case that the college “experience” has some value to it on top of the scholarship money.  Well, sure...  But how on earth do you put a monetary value on that?  And where’s the cash that goes along with it?  On top of that, DB, why not say that the experience is better due to the fact that fans value it more because they are paying high ticket prices?

Speaking of Ticket Prices

Mgoblog.com did a little research and was able to come up with the following student ticket prices for all the B1G schools. 

Ohio State -- $252 for 7 games
Penn State -- $218 for 7 games
Wisconsin -- $188 for 7 games
Iowa -- $175 for 7 games, $165 with future alumni group discount
Michigan State -- $175 for 7 games
Nebraska -- $166 for 7 games
Purdue -- $119 for 7 games
Illinois -- $99 for 7 games
Rutgers -- $99 for 6 games
Minnesota -- $90 for 7 games
Indiana -- $60 for 6 games
Maryland and Northwestern -- tickets free with full tuition and student fee payment

(get a load of Maryland and Northwestern…I remember when Michigan Hockey, Track Baseball and probably a handful of other sports had the same policy – show your student ID and come on in!!!  Sigh…It must be hard to be a student fan nowadays…)

Is it any wonder WHY the student season ticket renewal is DOWN at Michigan, much less the average ticket buyer?  Michigan student tix are $50 higher ($277 for the season) than OSU and Michigan is barely 0.500 in the last decade….Michigan used to have a general population waiting list for 30 years to buy tickets because fans thought it was a good value and hey, you could always scalp a couple of games for more than you paid…Now when you try to scalp, it feels a little bit like visiting the proctologist.  You are absolutely tickled if you can get $20 for a pair when the opponent is the likes of App State.  And you’re happy because you “only” have to eat $150 for a game you can’t attend…John Bacon also pointed this out and his blog entry is worth the read…

Brandon attributes the 68% student renewal to be about the same as the no-show rate for certain games.  Uh, Dave…The kids that are “no-showing” are going to be the same group that $300 doesn’t mean crap to because Mommy and Daddy are footing the bill from some far-off locale and the kids are telling them, “Oh, yeah…I was at the game!!” while they are partying at the frat – dorm – apartment, whatever.  My guess is the no show rate stays about the same for lousy games and next year’s renewal might improve a little, but once you lose the good student fans and they find “fun alternatives”…well, they might be gone forever.  When is all of this going to sink into DB’s little BB brain and it’s going to hit him that this is not his kingdom…It’s history that is built by the team and especially…by the fans.

Brandon’s legacy is getting worse by the minute…He’s pissing off many loyal fans and has gotten me to the point of wanting to take some sort of action – and that’s pretty hard to do.  I should have recognized that IMMEDIATELY when he canned Jamie Morris-a more loyal Michigan Man you will never meet.  I want to stand in front of DB and ask him if he remembers how his former coach openly argued against noon and 3:30 start times because College Football was meant to start at 1:00 PM on SATURDAY!!!  Yeah, I know invoking Bo’s words don’t have much effect in today’s television driven market, but this ain’t the Super Bowl, DB.  It’s Michigan.  And your loyal fans have a long relationship with that school and the game day mystique.  You keep screwing that up and more importantly, charge too much for it and, well, it’ll be easy to stop writing the season ticket check – and don’t expect many athletic donations, either, at least not from the average joe.  I’ll keep my parking pass just to enjoy the pre-game festivities with friends and family, but taking a walking tour of Ann Arbor or finding a local pub to watch the game in might become the new tradition for even the most loyal of fans.

Big Brother Might Say, "Not So Fast, Isaac…"

Ty Isaac, a heralded and successful TB from USC is transferring to Michigan due to family health issues.  (His mom went deaf).  According to the NCAA (JEEZ I HATE THESE GUYS!!!) Ty may not be eligible to play immediately under the Family Hardship Rule and he may have to sit out one season.  Frankly, anything and anyone that can come in and help the offense is welcome…leave it to the NCAA to screw stuff up.  But, what else should I expect these days?

Don’t Get Rid of That Harris Jersey Just Yet, Sparty….

With a HUGE switcheroo, the coveted WVU transfer Eron Harris, who everyone thought was going to the run and shoot offense of the Wolverines, is actually going to the land of the Jolly Green Giants after talking with Beilein about playing for the Maize and Blue.  I guess Beilein and Harris didn’t see eye to eye on what his role would be.  While this is a loss for Michigan, Sparty fills up some more offensive minutes that they lost and is looking more and more like a quiet contender for a run at the B1G Championship…  Nuts…But at least Sparty has a Harris jersey laying around…albeit they may have to change the number.

And Finally:

Congrats to my high-school Alma Mater and their Women’s Softball Team winning the Regional Championship and making the State Championship!!!  They have already defeated Grosse Pointe in the first round of the State Tourney and play Unionville Sebawaing on Friday in the Semi’s!!!  (Here’s a link to the bracket in case you have an office pool and need to fill one out!!)

 

Good Luck Redskins!!!

Michigan Season Renewals Down For Football...But STUDENT Season Renewals REALLY SUCK!!!

In what can only be described as an "THE MMQ TOLD YOU SO!" moment, it seems the "backward bending for anyone but his own fans" Brandon has finally seen what the students and general fans think of a season where you don't have at least one of the following at home in the regular season:

Domers
Sparty
ohio

19,000 Student tix last year down to 13,000 - 14,000 in 2014?  That's a serious problem.  These are tomorrow's fans that are attending the university.  And moreover, they're tomorrow's big donors, too.  You are NOT LISTENING to the students or today's fans and making the game day experience worth what we have to shell out for it.  Expect to see a lot of "Marketing" of Michigan in the near future with "Family Ticket Packages" to cover that 5K-6K gap that students have left open.  And those packages will probably include a hot dog and a "Small Beverage", but not a Big House Souveneir Cup (which would be the thing you SHOULD give away to the casual fan to improve their experience).  And no parking.  That you will need to figure out on your own....

How did this Home Schedule get so bad?  I'm not saying there's anything that could have been done about the Domers.  That one was out of his control and it's obvious to anyone that's been paying attention that the domers had been looking for the first exit door that they could find that would get them out of the Michigan game.  And they took it.

But why did Brandon "fold" to the AD at Sparty and give in to their "schedule" needs and ignore his own fans?  That part I just don't get.....It's not that hard.  You're Michigan and you should be able to throw your weight around with the B1G to a certain extent and simply say, "Hey, we need one of you clowns in the even years to be our HOME GAME." 

There, was that so hard? 

I did a little digging when to figure out why this happened and as I recalled it had more to do with Sparty than ohio.  ohio didn't change anything, but we somehow ended up with two straight up in East Lansing and now everything is out of sync...and will be for the foreseeable future. 

Recalling the "Puke Factor" that I sometimes use to rate the Bowl Games on a scale of 1 to 5, please see the attached chart to help understand why if you were a student looking for an 3 extra C-Notes a semester to spend on books, partying, whatever, you could see where it would be justifiable to cross "Student Football Tickets" off the list....The "PF" Average alone is really all you need....

1.8 Road Schedule is actually pretty good with the only unsatisfying game at Rutgers.  However, when the overstated PF of App State is added to the home schedule, the Home PF drops to a miserable 4.  And with three 4's on thie list in Utah, Miami and Maryland...Well, it's not a good thing to be raising ticket prices and PSL's.  People will find another way to enjoy the game.  Namely, at home in front of a new 60" or 70" HD broadcast and a party they can throw with the money they saved on the tickets!!!

Sadly, I'm not sure the Athletic Department gets it or even cares.  Brandon will just use this as an excuse to add to his "Marketing Budget" because people don't know "How much fun it is to spend an entire day in Ann Arbor fighting traffic and watching a poor product on the field." 

But this is what it means to be a fan of the Wolverines, lately. 

This Can't Go Under the Category, "Once a Sparty...Always a Sparty", 'Cause He's Not One Yet....

I hate to report news on our rivals that makes them look bad (Well, technically...NOT!), but I would be re-miss if I didn't share this tidbit of news with you:

Jayru Campbell Sentenced to 60 Days in Jail For Body Slamming School Security Guard.

I get that sometimes stuff gets out of hand...but Sparty has too good of an image at this point to tarnish with a 3-star with attitude and anger management issues. 

A word of advice from the MMQ:  Dump this guy faster than a goose craps green grass on a fertilized lawn and be happy you did it.

It's time to move on from this image issue, Sparty.  And this is the perfect time.

Of course, it may have already happened...

Michigan, Minnesota and Nebraska Make the NCAA Softball Super Regionals!

Over the weekend, Michigan in dramatic fashion, beat ASU in a win or lose 2 game series with two come from behind wins that include last inning heroics by Sierra Lawrence and Taylor Hasselbach (from Clarkston, MI!).

Down 1 run with two outs in the top of the 7th, Sierra jacked one out to tie the game!  On the very next pitch, Taylor jacked one out of the park that allowed the Wolverines to take a 1 run lead into the bottom of the 7th.  Back to back homers when they absolutely had to have them....

As I tell my daughters..."If there was ever a time for something good to happen, this would be it!!"

But it wasn't over.  The ASU Sundevils tried rallying themselves and with two outs, they had the tying run on base with the go ahead run at the plate.  The ASU batter Freeman jacked a long fly ball to center fielder senior Lyndsday Doyle, who climbed the wall and with a long reach, stole what would have been the game winning homer and clinched the region for the Wolverines!!!

With the win, Michigan advances to the Super Regionals (The Sweet 16) in Florida for a best of three games battle with FSU and a chance to appear in the College Softball World Series.

Congrats to the Women's Softball Team!!!

In addition, Minnesota made it our of their regional and into the Super Regional but in a bit of a surprise, the Nebraska Cornhuskers upset the higher ranked Mizzou to advance as well!

 

Go Blue!

 

Go Gophers!

 

Go Big Red!

The Game Is About To Change - III

    
Sophistry: the use of fallacious arguments, especially with the intention of deceiving.

I love each and every opportunity that presents itself to expand my lexicon of the English language.  I heard this word used the other day in a discussion about the Federal Reserve and I had to look it up.

What a great word…and is there a better situation to apply that word to than the term “Amateurism” and how the NCAA wants to portray it to the common masses?

I think not.

In fact, I think Mark Emmert could be described as a “Sophist Extraordinaire”.  He (and others  - College AD’s, etc.) wants everyone to believe that each of the 420,000 athletes that plays at any level in a college setting is of amateur status.  And while I believe that’s the case for 95% to 99% of the athletes that compete at the college level, it certainly CANNOT be applied to every athlete out there competing.  Not when there is over $10.6 Billion (that’s with a “B”) of revenue generated by collegiate sports annually (There was $1Billion in ad revenue from the NCAA tournament alone!) that everyone in the pipeline, Television execs, University AD’s, coaches, etc. gets to enjoy and profit from…with the exception of the actual revenue generators.  Want Proof? Here’s a Great link to Statistic Brain that runs it all down…

 

As I watched the NFL draft unfold this year, I was wondering exactly WHEN does a player, in the NCAA’s eyes, lose their “Amateur” status and become a “Professional”?  Clearly, it’s when there is an exchange of money or value for a given performance.  Again, I had to look up “professional” just to be sure of the definition:

“Professional - engaged in a specified activity as one's main paid occupation rather than as a pastime.”

Huh….That sounds a LOT LIKE what some (but not all) Division I and II college football players are doing on fall Saturdays and college basketball players spend the winter doing…And if you don’t believe that, what do you call a scholarship???  Is that or can it be defined as payment in exchange for services rendered or in this case, a future occupation?

The NCAA is in trouble and they know it when it comes to getting this under control.  They are too slow to react and are not nearly as pro-active as they need to be as the college ahtletics landscape changes around them.  Now it’s just a matter of time to figure out how to make it all work and the NCAA is lagging in that regard as well.  And even though the NCAA is an organization “By the People, For the People”, I’m beginning to think that the “People”, the large D1 schools, are probably going to thumb their collective noses at the organization that was created as an oversight institution and more or less agree to self-govern with respect to College Football and Basketball.  And that will include looking at collegiate athletes generating their own revenue in the form of endorsement deals or other endeavors.

And that will be a good thing.

In yet another front the NCAA is fighting:

The plaintiffs in the O’Bannon lawsuit at the last minutehave chosen to forego individual damages/claims against the NCAA and agreed togo together as a class.  Why is this important?  It would remove the jury from the equation and allow a judge to rule on the anti-trust portion of the case.

And the NCAA is filing a motion against the plaintiffs forming a class because they know they’ll lose. 

Again, why doesn’t the NCAA just recognize that they are in a losing fight?  They’ve already made the fatal mistake of separating from EA sports.   They have admitted (unofficially) that they MADE MONEY off of former athletes by receiving money from EA.  Why fight it?  What can possibly come of this but a ruling against the NCAA?