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How do you feel about professional athletes from a region showing up at tourney games and rooting for local college teams that they didn't play for? Say, for instance, Aaron Rodgers being a big Badgers supporter or Matthew Stafford at MSU's game last night? As a Spartan I'm happy to have the Lions QB support the team, but as they beat the Bulldogs in the first game of this run I'm not sure I'd be quite so cool with it if I was a Georgia alum.

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How would an EMU alum who roots for Michigan feel about the Eagles upsetting the Wolverines at home last night? Conflicted?

Quote of the Day

College basketball game of the month tonight: #1 Kentucky v #2 MSU.

"Kentucky has a bunch of freshman, Michigan State has guys that have been there FOREVER. I think there are some guys on the team that played with Magic Johnson they've been there so long."

 - Mike Greenberg on Tuesday mornings "Mike and Mike Show."


Is tonights game good for the sport? What is better: A college football game in August between #1 and #2 that could determine National Championship opportunities, or a college basketball game in November between #1 and #2 that won't mean ANYTHING at the end of the year?

Hypocrisy

With the court cases going on, the Johnny Manziel autograph story, and the beginning of the college football season you're sure to hear plenty of sports writers and personalities (Jay Bilas and Michael Wilbon come to mind) opine on the "hypocrisy" of the NCAA making millions of dollars but not paying the players. I think there's plenty to be said about that, but it strikes me that all of these guys seem to have no problem working for businesses that derive a significant amount of their income from college sports and spend lots of time discussing them. You think Bilas hesitated for a second when he cashed his last paycheck from ESPN? Why not? Doesn't it make him complicit in the whole system he's railing against? It seems like cheap self-righteousness to me if these guys will criticize every chance they get but won't actually take a principled stand.

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Is it just me, or is the NCAA tourney 50% commercials this year?

2012 Tourney Pick 'Em

If you missed the email, the 2012 Cass City Monkies Tourney Pick 'Em group at Yahoo is now available. The group ID is 672 (that's right, under 1000) and you all know the password.

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You know how I said UM vs MSU in basketball didn't excite me much? Turns out when I actually watch the game that's not true at all. Victory for MSU!

"Not one bit."

I'm in total agreement with Coach Izzo on Michigan: "Do I like them? Not one bit."

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Did anyone seriously think Denard Robinson wasn't going to return to Michigan? Sure, the guy has some real athletic ability, but he's never even managed to have stranglehold on the position in college. NFL secondaries would eat him alive. He can probably be an NFL player, but not an NFL QB.

Thoughts on the Carrier Classic

-It's disappointing to see the Spartans lose, but that was still very, very cool.

-Mark Hollis deserves a lot of credit for actually making this thing come together. It was a crazy idea that ended up working fantastically.

-The presentation of the evening colors was a great inclusion to the broadcast. I'm glad they showed it instead of running commercials.

-While MSU and UNC were excellent choices for this game, I wish it had happened when they were a little closer together in talent and experience. It's tough to start the year against a team that everyone is ready to give the trophy to in November.

-And Duke next. You certainly can't fault MSU for playing a soft schedule.

-At least the Spartans actually looked like an MSU basketball team. I'm less and less of a basketball guy all the time, but I sure love watching MSU beat someone on the boards.

-I'm no fan of the President, but I was willing to listen to him until he started talking legislation and turned his comments into a campaign speech. Was that really necessary?

-I'm pretty tired of hearing the media, even Dick Vitale, talk about how attractive and glamorous Michelle Obama is. Come on. I'm sure Brooklyn Decker was drawing many more glances than Mrs. Obama.

-Is the U.S.S. Carl Vinson available as a venue in a video game yet? I would play every game there.

Camouflage

MSU will be sporting special uniforms for the Quicken Loans Carrier Classic. The Spartans will be sporting home whites with a gray camouflage pattern. The uniforms also feature an American flag and will say USA on the back rather than the player names. Unfortunately the much-hated (by me at least) bronze numeral border is also featured. North Carolina will also wear a camouflage uniform which you can see here. The game will be played 11/11/11 on board the U.S.S. Carl Vinson in San Diego.

UPDATE: Pics:

37-31

The win against Wisconsin might not be the most exciting MSU game ever, but it's darn close. I didn't even expect them to be in the game, so I'm thrilled to see them win, even if it took the most exciting play you'll see all year. The best (or worst) part? There's a really good chance these teams will meet in the first Big Ten Championship Game.

Paying College Athletes?

The new sports blog at National Review, Right Field, has an interesting post up about whether college athletes should be paid. There's a number of arguments noted which are mostly familiar, but one was presented that I hadn't heard or thought of previously:

In other words, a significant chunk of top-level FBS programs are losing money. Should those programs be obliged to pay their football and basketball players, even though they aren’t actually producing a net profit? Or should only moneymaking programs be forced to offer player salaries? Would it be “fair” to have a system in which roughly half of all FBS schools paid their players while the other half didn’t? Do we really want blue-chip recruits picking a college based on financial compensation? Wouldn’t the wealthiest programs just scoop up all the best talent?

Meanwhile, would each salaried player on a given team be paid the same amount? If not, who would decide whether the All-American linebacker deserved more money than the All-American wide receiver, or whether the star point guard was more valuable than the star power forward? Would 18-year-olds be negotiating “contracts” with officials in their athletic department? Would they be hiring agents before high-school graduation? And how would all this affect those sports programs that depend on football and basketball revenue to stay afloat?

Can you imagine how much of a mess it would actually be to pay players? What most sports journalists seem to mean when they talk about this is that schools in the FBS should pay their players, possibly major basketball programs too. But how would you end up not paying the women's field hockey team or other equivalent? Can you imagine the mess this would turn into? Granted, that doesn't mean the idea couldn't be considered, but I can't imagine a more unenjoyable drain on college sports than this would surely be.

Why We Watch

After MSU's win over Purdue yesterday in the Big Ten tournament I got to thinking about the unpredictability of the college game. MSU and Purdue played three times this year, here are the results:

1/22 MSU 76, PUR 86
2/27 MSU 47, PUR 67
3/11 MSU 74, PUR 56

Obviously Purdue had less to play for last night since they are already guaranteed a spot in the tournament, but it's still striking to me just how much intangibles can change the outcome of a game.

Forgotten

Ump commented:

Is it possible their struggles have anything to do with Mr. Izzo being courted all summer by the Cavs and the possibility of coaching in the NBA? He strung the Cavs and MSU along. Maybe he lost some focus and that trickled down to the players losing some focus, maybe thinking about playing in the NBA rather than having a good upcoming season.

I don't actually think Izzo lost focus. But, the players probably got caught up in everything, not completely knowing Izzo's intentions.

There's no way he was going to the Cavs, but the players could have had a little uncertainty.

It sure seems like a possibility, even though they should have had plenty of time to get focused again before the season started. But when you're dealing with expectations of competing for a national title maybe it doesn't take much to throw things out of whack.

One thing I've seen commented on is a lack of leadership from the seniors. MSU is a team that, for whatever reason, doesn't tend to have many super-talented (one and done) underclassmen, so the leadership provided by the seniors is very important. In the fifteen or so years I've paid attention to MSU basketball this is almost always the case. Mateen Cleaves is the obvious example, but there's one or two guys every year. Summers and Lucas, Lucas especially, aren't getting the job done. But it's bad enough that, according to FSN Detroit, former player Tim Bograkos has posted an open letter to the team on his blog. A notable excerpt:

At this point I find myself straddling a very difficult fence. On one side, I am extremely proud alum of Michigan State and our basketball program. On the other side I’m very disappointed in some of the things that seem to be happening this year. It appears that, in some sense, this team has forgotten what kind of program they signed up to play for. I prided myself as a player who protected the core values that our program stands for every time I stepped on the court. At this point, I’m far less concerned with wins and losses and all I can hope is that we finish the season with the same intensity as Scotty Skiles, with the swagger of Steve Smith, and the true grit of Antonio Smith and Mateen Cleaves.

Bograkos was a walk-on who eventually earned a scholarship because of his hard work and intensity. This team could take a lesson from him.

The Plan

Obviously MSU needs to cancel the scholarships of everyone on the team, kick them all out of school, and start the whole thing over because losing to Michigan in a must-win situation is unacceptable.

Preemptive Strike

To head off some ribbing later, I totally expect MSU to lose to Duke tonight. The Spartans always play a tough early season schedule, and they mostly suck doing it. I probably won't even check in on the game, though that's as much because of how late it's being played.

I think this does make a notable point about college football vs. college basketball though. The equivalent football matchup in Week 3 of the season would be a huge deal, likely having a major impact on the national championship picture. The basketball matchup will be a footnote when the tournament comes around. I don't think that's better.

Wolverine Victory

The Wolverines beat the Spartans today. The South Carolina Upstate Spartans. Yes, that's a real school, though you'd be hard-pressed to tell since they only scored 35 points. I hope UM enjoyed it, because that first sentence isn't going to be written again this season.

Durrell Summers Will Return

You never know what to expect in a college basketball season, but my anticipation for next season has increased exponentially now that Durrell Summers and Kalin Lucas will be back. A factoid the News adds (that unfortunately probably doesn't mean anything): "The last time a pair of Michigan State standouts chose to stay in school instead of turning pro, the school won a national championship."

RE: Must Be Tough

A few thoughts:

1. It might be an "easy" path, but Kansas, Syracuse, Ohio State, Kansas State, Georgetown, and Pittsburgh couldn't manage it. Can't blame the Spartans for that.

2. I admit that I don't think MSU would still be in it if the sequence had been New Mexico - Maryland - Kansas - Ohio State instead of New Mexico - Maryland - UNI - Tennessee.

3. This is actually one of my problems with the Tourney. MSU could make it to the final game without playing a team seeded higher than fifth in their region. If they were to win I expect you would hear lots of squawking from Duke/West Virginia that it wasn't fair. But fairness has nothing to do with it.

4. This is also why I'm not a fan of a football playoff. People accept a 5 vs. 5 semifinal in basketball, it would cause a riot in football. And people wouldn't watch.