COACHES HOT SEAT BLOG

This past week Michigan offensive lineman and two-year starter Justin Boren left the Michigan football program claiming, “Michigan football was a family, built on mutual respect and support for each other from [former] coach [Lloyd] Carr on down. We knew it took the entire family, a team effort, and we all worked together. I have great trouble accept[ing] that those family values have eroded in just a few months.” We are guessing that a lot of Michigan fans, and football fans for that matter, are scratching their heads over why a proven player like Boren, whose father had played football at Michigan would leave the school and make such an stunning statement on the way out the door.  What a lot of college football fans do not realize is that there are dramatic differences in the way that coaches handle their football teams, and Michigan just happens to be in one of the most dramatic coaching changes situations in recent memory.  Before we deal directly with the changes that are going on at Michigan, lets look back into history a few decades and see how we got to where we are today.

Anyone that is older than 40 years of age and played high school football can probably identify with a very particular style of coaching.  That style of coaching can be summed up in one word:  FEAR!  Most high school coaches in the post World War II era took their cues from the leading coaches of the day, Paul Bryant, Woody Hayes, Darrell Royal, Bo Schembechler, and others, and those coaches style of was based on the idea that you had better damn well perform or I am going to put you through a living hell.  Adolph Rupp at Kentucky, and of course Bobby Knight at Indiana imposed this “Fear” style of coaching as well on their players, and it was generally accepted that only if one’s players feared the consequences of not performing, would they perform at their highest level.  Fear of course stirs all kinds of emotions in people, and most people are willing to accept the fear of not performing and accept the consequences, if they believe that their bosses, coaches in this case, really care about them and their futures.  It doesn’t take one long when istening to former players of Bryant’s, Hayes’, Schembechler’s, and the other great coaches of the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, to understand that they not only respected those coaches, but that they also loved them for asking so much of them when they were in college playing football.  Football began to change though in the early 1970s with first John McKay at Southern Cal, and then Tom Osborne at Nebraska, who still demanded a lot of their players, but coached with a style that was not based on “Fear.”  McKay and Osborne asked a lot of their players, but they also treated their players more like adults, expecting that not only that they would act like adults in all phases of their lives, but that as adults they will perform at a high-level when playing football, because that is what adults do in life.  We really doubt that the practices at Southern Cal and Nebraska were that much different than what was going on at Alabama and Ohio State in the decade of the 70s, but there was certainly a different tone and approach by the teams respective head coaches, and that difference was obvious for anyone that bothered to pay attention and see what was really going on.

By the time the early 1980s rolled around, Paul Bryant was telling his friends and fellow coaches that, “I just can’t coach them anymore.”  Woody Hayes removed himself from the coaching world by punching a player at the Gator Bowl, and the rise of the Miami Hurricanes, first led by Howard Schellenberger (a Paul Bryant protege’, but with a much different approach to coaching the game), and then Jimmy Johnson and Dennis Erickson won a boatload of National Championships, which dramatically changed the game of college football.  Clearly, there was a new style of coaching and a different type of player on college campuses, and some head football coaches changed their coaching styles with the times.  Some coaches did not, Pat Dye, Jackie Sherrill, Charley Pell, Woody Hayes, and John Mackovic come to mind, and they paid for their lack of ability to change with the loss of their jobs.  To understand a coach that was trained in the “old school” method, but adapted very well to the new age, look no further than Gene Stallings and his 7 year tenure at Alabama in the 1990s.  Stallings was one of the “Junction Boys” at Texas A&M under Bryant, but after failing in head coaching jobs at Texas A&M and with the NFL St. Louis/Arizona Cardinals, Stallings arrived at Alabama in 1990 realizing that the old ways would just not work with the players of this generation.  That is not to say that Gene Stallings asked any less of his players at Alabama, but that he went about demanding a lot, but always stressing that the underlying idea that made Paul Bryant a great football coach.  Coach Stallings would probably describe it as something like, “We are demanding a lot of you (the players), because we think you have a lot in you, and if you are going to wear an Alabama football uniform then we expect you to play at the highest level possible.  Just because we yell at you doesn’t mean we don’t love you, but it does mean you are not performing at your highest level.  We are not going to ask anything of you that you cannot do, and if you trust us as coaches, then we will trust you as players.  Now lets go win some football games.”  Stallings overall approach to the game is not much different than Bryant’s, but the tone is much different, and that brings us back to the arrival of Rich Rodriguez at Michigan.

We have never seen Michigan practice under Rodriguez, but we have seen Rodriguez’s practices at West Virginia and we have talked to players that played for Rodriguez.  Before we describe what we have been told about Rodriguez’s coaching style, let us first look at where Rodriguez learned how to coach and the impact of people he has worked for influences how he coaches today.  First of all, a very clear line can be drawn between Paul Bryant and Rich Rodriguez, and that line runs through Bobby Bowden who counted Paul Bryant as one of his best friends, down through Tommy Bowden, who Rodriguez worked for at Tulane and Clemson.  In total, Rodriguez worked for Tommy Bowden for 4 years (Tulane and Clemson), before taking the head coaching job at West Virginia, and no doubt Rodriguez’s general approach to conditioning and practicing comes from Tommy Bowden, which is straight out of what Bobby Bowden has done during his career.  Another very important ingredient into Rodriguez’s approach to coaching that cannot be discounted was the time that Rick Trickett spent on the staff at West Virginia.  Rick Trickett is now the offensive line coach at FSU, arriving with Jimbo Fisher before last season, but for 6 years at West Virginia Trickett was a key cog in helping to build the spread offense that Rodriguez ran in Morgantown.  Now, we have not seen the current Michigan offensive line coach, Jeff Frey at practice, but we have seen Rick Trickett in action, and although we could launch into a long analysis of how Coach Trickett handles his linemen, lets just say that a few of us here at Coaches Hot Seat that have been through combat in the US military, would probably not last for more than half-a-day with Trickett coaching us.  If you talk to former players that played for Trickett, the gamut of emotions runs from hate to grudging respect, but the one theme that runs through many conversations is how “personal” Trickett was towards the players and their ability to either play or not play the game of football.  Since Trickett is not on the Michigan staff and we have never seen Jeff Frey coach, we have no idea what is going on at the Michigan spring practices, but if you read the entire statement by the former Michigan offensive lineman Justin Boren, it is easy to understand from our point of view exactly what he is talking about.  Rodriguez’s style of coaching, which is a lot closer to Paul Bryant than Lloyd Carr, surely must be quite a shock to the Michigan players who have been accustomed to a far different style of coaching in recent years.  Although we are not extremely familiar with Carr’s style, we would certainly place him in a camp similar to Gene Stallings tenure at Alabama, where a lot was asked of his players, but that there was a very clear line between demanding a lot and personal attacks when a player is not getting the job done.  Of course, one doesn’t have to look hard to see the major difference between West Virginia under Rodriguez in recent years, and the West Virginia team that Bill Stewart took to the Fiesta Bowl and beat Oklahoma.  The quotes in the papers by the West Virginia players at the Fiesta Bowl that they “were having fun” for the first time during their careers were fascinating, and the general feeling around the WVU program at the Pittsburgh game last season and the Fiesta Bowl was like night and day. 

We were not surprised at all with the departure of Justin Boren from the Michigan program, and in fact we have been expecting a few players to depart Ann Arbor once spring practice began.  Rodriguez has a very direct and specific way he is going to run his football program, and the type of players he wants to play at Michigan.  Much like Nick Saban at Alabama, Rodriguez has very little patience for players that do not buy into his system, and the change from Mike Shula to Nick Saban was certainly as large as the change at Michigan from Lloyd Carr to Rich Rodriguez.  Getting to the bottom line of what Boren’s departure from the Michigan program really means, we fully expected a handful of players to not adapt well to the Rodriguez style of coaching, and Boren is just one of the guys that thrives under a different style than what Rich Rod has brought to Ann Arbor.  Certainly, Boren will probably find Jim Tressel’s style of coaching at Ohio State to be a lot closer to what he expects in a head coach, and we would not be surprised to see Boren end up in Columbus.  We have no doubt that Rodriguez, who has already been through two major coaching changes, first when he arrived with Tommy Bowden at Clemson, and when he took over at West Virginia, believed that a handful of players would not react well to his style of coaching, and that it would take a few years to implement his system at Michigan.  That is to be expected, but lets hope that the people doing the hiring and firing of football coaches at Michigan realize that by hiring Rich Rodriguez they have departed down a path that is much different than Michigan has traveled on since the very earliest days of Bo Schembechler’s arrival at Ann Arbor.  We believe Rodriguez will win at Michigan, but the path between today and the winning program that all Michigan fans want and demand is going to be a lengthy one, and it is not going to be wine and roses along the way.

From a more personal point of view, we here at Coaches Hot Seat debated recently on who we would want our sons to play for if they were hot shot high school football players and had the choice to attend any school in the country on a football scholarship.  After seeing most of the major football programs play and practice in the last 18 months, there are some very clear coaches and schools that stand out from the others, and after a vote from the group, here are the top 12 coaches/schools that we would recommend that our sons play for, that is they would listen to us at all!  We picked these coaches on two main issues:  1.  The head football coach and 2. The opportunity to win championships.

1.  Pete Carroll/Southern Cal
2.  Jim Tressel/Ohio State
3.  Mark Richt/Georgia
4.  Bob Stoops/Oklahoma
5.  Mack Brown/Texas
6.  Frank Beamer/Virginia Tech
7.  Nick Saban/Alabama
8.  Urban Meyer/Florida
9.  Gary Pinkel/Missouri
10.  Jeff Tedford/Cal
11.  Ron Zook/Illinois
12.  Jim Grobe/Wake Forest

We will be watching the Rich Rodriguez situation at Michigan closely, not only to see how the transition is going, but also how this lawsuit over Rodriguez’s buyout at West Virginia shakes out.  Just in this last week lawyers for Rodriguez and West Virginia have been accusing each other of acting in bad faith, and as we have said from the start, it is in the best interests of both sides, but especially Rich Rodriguez to settle this issue out of court.  The contract that Rich Rodriguez signed is very clear, and in the end whatever West Virginia told or promised Rodriguez is going to be irrelevant in the court of public opinion, and even more importantly in the minds’ of potential Michigan recruits and their parents for that matter.  The damage that is being done to Rodriguez over this buyout issue with West Virginia is incalculable, and for what, a few million dollars?  If we were advising Rodriguez, and we certainly don’t imagine he would take our advice, we would tell him to personally call the president at West Virginia and settle this entire matter, which could probably be done in about 15 minutes.  There has got to be an amount between $1.5 million and $4.0 million where this buyout issue can be settled, but a settlement assumes that their are mature adults handling this problem, and that is most certainly not the case here.

Now back to the NCAA Basketball Tournament, and what a joy it is to watch a tournament that determines a legitimate National Champion!

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In 2007 Al Groh and the Cavaliers won 6 games by a combined 12 points, but there are just so many times you can dodge close calls like that.  We see trouble ahead for Virginia in 2008, and with the natives restless in Charlottesville this could be the end of an era at UVA.  Here is out analysis of the 2008 season:

Al Groh and Virginia in 2008

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What has happened to Kirk Ferentz and Iowa since the 2004 season?  That is a very troubling question, and it is one we attempt to answer with our latest:

Kirk Ferentz and Iowa in 2008

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If you ever have a free hour with nothing to do a good diversion is to get a hold of the NCAA Rules Book for intercollegiate athletics.  The first thing that will strike you is how many rules there are, but what most of them seem to boil down to is don’t do anything you wouldn’t want on the front page of your local newspaper.  There are plenty of NCAA rules that we here at Coaches Hot Seat would consider changing, but we are going to focus on 4 Rule changes that the NCAA really needs to take a hard look at, and in our mind needs to get about changing ASAP.  Here are our NCAA rule changes recommendations (and 1 US law change):

1.  Move up Signing Day for college football- If there is one thing we agree with the BCS Boys and the presidents and chancellors at our universities on it is that a must is to make sure that college football is a one semester sport.  To us that means playing the conference champoinship games the first Saturday in December, followed by National Signing Day on the next Tuesday, then take one week off before the new NCAA Football Tournament, which would be a 16-team 4-week playoff for the NCAA National Championship (Until a college football team hosts the NCAA Championship trophy won via a playoff they have not won a National Championship).  If a NCAA Football Tournament was created and played in the above way the National Championship game would be played on the weekend (early January) before classes for the winter term begin for most of our colleges and universities.  Relative to really making college football a one-semester sport, we believe it is in the best interests of the game, but really in the best interests of the high schools recruits, to move college football’s Signing Day up to the first Tuesday in December, which would be the Tuesday after the conference championship games.  It makes little sense to drag college football into the month of February and to further stress both the colleges that are doing the recruiting and the high schools players that are getting recruited through the holidays each year.  By moving Signing Day up to the first Tuesday in December, it would free up teams to fully focus on the college football postseason, and not allow teams not in the postseason to get an upper-hand when they are sitting at home doing nothing.  In addition to moving Signing Day up to the first week of December, the NCAA should also institute a “quiet period” for the next year’s recruits that would run from Signing Day (in early December) until around the first of February of the next year.  There is no reason that high school students should be recruited through the holidays, and we cannot imagine that college football coaches wouldn’t mind actually having the time to spend with their families during that time of the year.  For the 16 teams in the NCAA Football Tournament and in bowl games, moving up the Signing Day would allow them to prepare to play football games, while not worrying about recruiting.  Most importantly, the high school kids being recruited could get Signing Day done in early December, focus on their final exams for the fall semester and be able to start their final semester of high school without people haranguing them about what college they are going to sign with.  Moving up the college football Signing Day to the early December makes sense, and it should be done ASAP.

2.  College Basketball starts to soon and plays too many games- Talking about making sure that college football is a one-semester sport, how silly is it that college basketball starts right in the middle of football season?  College basketball starts about a month to soon, and there is no reason for it, other than to extend the college basketball season and to play some meaningless games to jack-up everyone’s win/loss record.  Midnight Madness should not be in the middle of October, but rather in the middle of November, and the first college basketball games should begin around the first of December.  The out-of-conference games could be played in the month of December/early January and the conference games could begin soon thereafter.  There is no way college basketball is ever going to be on center stage with the college football season in full-swing, and if the people running intercollegiate athletics really care about these student-athletes they will shorten the college basketball season.  One benefit of moving up the college football Signing Day is that college basketball would have center stage once the NCAA Football Tournament National Championship Game was played the first week of January, and that would be a huge benefit to the game and the athletes that play it.  College basketball season starts too soon and is too long and this rule change should be made ASAP.

3.  Head Football Coach takes another job or retires, student-athletes with 3 or more years of eligibility can transfer without sitting out a year – The area of the NCAA rules that do not allow a student-athlete to transfer without sitting out a year are some of the egregious on the books, but we do understand the basic logic behind these transfer rules.  If student-athletes could transfer without penalty, it would encourage kids to not only leave schools for silly reasons, but also for coaches to recruits kids from other college football teams, and we believe college coaches would recruit like crazy to try and get players to transfer.  Within the transfer rules, we believe that a new rule needs to be put into place that allows student-athletes at a school where the head football coach either takes a job with another school or retires, which allows members of that athletic team that are on scholarship with at least 3 years of eligibility remaining, to transfer to another school without sitting out a year (that was a mouthful!).  This rule change makes sense in so many ways, but mainly because a student-athlete with 3 years of eligibility remaining could easily transfer to another school and pick up his studies without much trouble.  The main reason that this rule needs to put into place is that when a kid signs with a school he often does because of the head and assistant football coaches, and it is just not right that a coach can just suddenly take another job without penalty, but the student-athlete is penalized for transferring.  This transfer rule which allows student-athletes with 3 years of eligibility to transfer without sitting out when a head football coach either moves to another job or retires should be implemented by the NCAA ASAP.

4.  Bad APR (Academic Progress Rate) = Lost Scholarships so Good APR should = More Scholarships- You have to applaud the NCAA’s efforts to not only raise the standards of recruits entering college, but also to set up a system with their Academic Progress Rate that measures the success of student-athletes once they get to college.  The Academic Progress Rate uses some kind of formula that we cannot quite decipher, but the NCAA does come up with a number that is assigned to each school, and if the APR rate falls below a certain number then that school can lose athletic scholarships.  We believe that the inverse should also be true, in that a school that achieves an ARP above a certain number should receive additional scholarships to award to student athletes.  Even one extra scholarship means a lot in college football, and can you imagine the focus that a Nick Saban, Mark Richt, Pete Carroll would put on academics if they could gain one or two additional scholarships if they graduated more players?  If the NCAA is going to penalize schools that don’t do a good job of graduating players, then they should reward schools that do graduate players, which is really the point of going to college isn’t it?  A rule that reward schools for graduating players by rewarding more scholarships to those schools should be passed ASAP.

5.  Change the drinking age back to 18 – The last rule change that we recommend is actually a change in state and federal law.  The law we are talking about is the age that one must be to drink alcohol, or rather the “You have to be 21 drink a beer” law.  It is outrageous that our young Americans can serve in the military (where they can drink on military bases at 18!), vote for the President, go to college, but they cannot drink alcohol.  For colleges and college towns, having the drinking age at 21 creates all kinds of havoc, because young people being young people, will try and they will find a way to drink alcohol.  In particular this causes all kinds of problems on sports teams, because half the team is able to go out to bars with friends, but the other half is on the outside looking in, unless of course they have a good fake ID.  How silly, and how very unfair for our society to require our 18 year old men to register for selective service, but to deny them the right to a beer.  We are not the only ones that understand the absurdity of having the drinking age at 21.  The police chief of the city of Boulder, Colorado recently appeared on 60 Minutes advocating a return of the legal drinking age to 18 (Boulder police chief:  Consider returning legal drinking age to 18).  Also, a former president of Middlebury College, John M. McCardell, has put together an organization (Choose Responsiblity) that details the terrible public policy of a 21 year old drinking age, and the very valid reasons that our young Americans should be able to either choose or not to choose to drink at 18.  Of course, people will argue that by lowering the drinking age, “X” number of more people will die in traffic accidents, and that our young people will start drinking earlier.  We have some news for people that would make such arguments, the 18 year olds that want to drink are already drinking, both in and outside of bars, and there is not a damn thing a million man police force could do about that drinking.  We know that our young people will drink if they want to, because several of us at Coaches Hot Seat got caught up in the raising of the drinking age 25 years ago.  Even though we were not of legal age, if we wanted beer there were always plenty of people around that were old enough to buy it, and as for getting into bars near campus, well, it wasn’t that hard is all we are going to say.  The inverse of the argument that by raising the drinking age more people will die on the road is of course, that if you raised the drinking age to 25 or 30 or even 50, then there would “X” number of less deaths on our roads, but if you take that argument to its logical conclusion you have Prohibition.  If a country is going to demand that their 18 year olds go to war if necessary, then dammit they should be able to walk into a bar and drink a beer.  If a student is mature enough to leave home and go to college, then dammit they should be able to walk into a bar and drink a martini.  It is time to return the legal drinking age to 18, because the current drinking age is an absurdity and not fair to our young people that we expect to act like adults when they arrive at boot camp, enter the work force after high school, or arrive at a college campuses for that matter.  If you can fight, and you can vote, and you can go to college, then you should be able to have a drink.  The only thing we ask is that our young people drink responsibly.  Have fun, have a few drinks, but make damn sure you don’t get behind the wheel of a car or stagger out into the road on the way back to the dorm.  America needs to bring our 18 to 20 year olds out of the shadows, out of their apartments, out of hiding and let them drink like adults, in bars and in public.  America also needs to quit acting like prudes when it comes to drinking and just face facts that our young people will drink and party at college, and let’s just hope the parents out their taught their kids well enough so that they know when it is okay to act like an idiot, and when it is time to go home.  The legal drinking age should be 18, and the sooner the better.

Well, there you have it, 4 NCAA rules and 1 US/State law that we believe should be changed ASAP. 

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Lots of things went wrong for Cal last season and most of the fault can be laid at the feet of Jeff Tedford.  From continuing to play a clearly injured player to an inconsistent and unclear disciplinary policy, mistakes were made in 2007 and those mistakes added up to a 6-6 regular season record.  Tedford has overhauled his staff and the Cal players say that discipline is back in the program, so will 2008 be a bounceback year for the Golden Bears?  Here is our analysis:

Jeff Tedford and Cal in 2008

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Just when we thought it couldn’t get any better than the annual Miles/Saban match-up, here comes Petrino/Tuberville in the SEC West to top it.  A few years back no one could have predicted that Petrino would have ended up at Arkansas, but a foolish job move to the Falcons left Petrino looking for the best available job, and Arkansas just happened to be the best job in the cue.  Bobby Petrino has made a very good living by people underestimating him, and opposing coaches in the SEC would be smart to try and stop the Petrino train before it really gets up and rolling, because if it does, Arkansas football will be very hard to stop in the coming years.  Bobby Petrino is the type of guy that is not going to waste any time talking about what might happen two or three years from now once he gets his system into place, and if the Arkansas players buy into what Petrino is selling, 2008 could be a pretty good year in Fayetteville.  Here is how we think it will shake out:

Bobby Petrino and Arkansas in 2008

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The Ann Arbor News has been out this week with a hard look at the academics of Michigan athletes in a series of stories, Academics and Athletics, that lays bare forever the idea that Michigan is running a something different than every other state university or college in this country.  Actually, there are a handful of public universities that do hold to very high academic standards and ask a lot of their student athletes, Virginia comes immediately to mind, but this series does end the idea that Michigan is any different than say, Alabama, which means that both are the flagship public university’s of their respective states.  Michigan has always claimed they were above schools like Alabama, but that case cannot be made anymore after this series by the Ann Arbor News, and that is the real backstory here.  Michigan is a very good school, but this series by the Ann Arbor News on the academics of Michigan athletes raises a lot of questions that need to be answered by the leaders of the school, but lo’ and behold the president (Mary Sue Coleman) and athletic director (Bill Martin) at Michigan do not even have the guts to sit down with their local newspaper of record.  Just as a general matter it is outrageous that the president and athletic director of any public institution like Michigan would refuse a legitimate interview request, especially on a subject matter like the one The Ann Arbor News is working on which strikes at the heart of the credibility and worth of a Michigan diploma.  Please, don’t tell us it is none of our business because we do not live in the state of Michigan.  Michigan students receive million of dollars in Pell Grants and US Government guaranteed student loans, and since the president and AD at Michigan are working for the taxpayers, they both have an obligation and a duty to address these very important issues straight-forward and above board with the local newspaper.  By refusing to be interviewed on the subject of academics within the Michigan athletic department, we are of the belief that Mary Sue Coleman and Bill Martin have something to hide.  What would the Michigan president and AD have to hide, or is it they know the basic facts here, like the latest one in this morning’s story that although “Michigan athletes make up less than 3 percent of the undergraduate population, athletes account for 49% – 87-176 – of those enrolled in the General Studies major.”  That strikes us here at Coaches Hot Seat as very odd that so many athletes are in the General Studies major, unless of course the athletes are being pushed toward or even steered into this major.  Today’s story and the other stories that the Ann Arbor News have done this week are very troubling, and there is no way this series of stories can pass without a direct comment from the president and AD at Michigan.  If they have nothing to hide, then both of them should step forward and defend the University of Michigan, because to not do so would affirm these stories as the truth, and we certainly don’t would not want to hear either of these people say anything in the future when people point out the hypocrisy of claiming that Michigan is something that it is clearly not.

Last summer the head football coach at Stanford and a Michigan grad Jim Harbaugh, made some very pointed comments about academics at Michigan, and Pat Forde of ESPN.com last fall followed up by taking a look at the number of Michigan athletes that were in the General Studies major.  Pat Forde was way ahead of the Ann Arbor News on this story, but The News has added a lot of depth and information to the basic set of facts, and both Forde and the Ann Arbor News have affired that what Harbaugh said was true.  After Harbaugh made his comments last year, of which we have come to learn were very accurate and dead on, several people at Michigan, Bill Martin the AD, Lloyd Carr the former football coach, and even a football player Mike Hart, derided Harbaugh and called him things like, “elitist, arrogant, and self-serving.”  Really?  I think we all now know who was arrogant and self-serving, which would be the current AD Martin and the former head football coach Carr, who certainly had to know there were some very odd things going on with Michigan athletes, but of course this time around these men are to afraid to step forward and address the very serious issues that the Ann Arbor News is raising with their series of stories.  Throw in the president at Michigan, and you quickly realize that when courage was being handed out the current leadership at the University of Michigan were in hiding, which is exactly the place that they are right now. 

The very sad thing about the issues raised in this Ann Arbor News series on academics and athletics at Michigan is that none of these shenanigans are necessary.  There are very few courses on a college campus that are so difficult that almost any kid that graduated from high school cannot deal with those courses if he/she applies oneself.  Yes, there are areas of study where many people will struggle, mathematics, statistics, advanced science courses, upper-level business and engineering courses, etc., but it is very easy for a student to design a 4-year course of study these days, where only a handful of the courses will end up being so challenging that a lot of extra studying or tutoring would be necessary.  Core math courses, and maybe some English or foreign language courses would strike many as difficult, but with all of the help that athletes can get from tutoring and in study halls, there really is no reason for so many student-athletes at Michigan to be in the General Studies major.  Frankly, we find it hard to believe that so many athletes would have such little interest in other subjects and majors, and it is the job of the educational people within athletic departments to help student-athletes pursue courses of study that not only engage and interest them, but also challenge the student-athletes to stretch their skills and reach their true capabilities.  If people within the Michigan athletic department have been pushing or steering student athletes into certain majors or courses because they are easier and will allow the student-athlete to stay eligible, then shame on the University of Michigan.  Don’t tell us this goes on everywhere, because that is the refrain of a 4-year old.  A college education is not only a valuable commodity in our world today, it is a precious commodity as well, and there is no reason that any student-athlete should arrive at any school, especially a school like Michigan where we have to believe most undergraduates work hard to earn their degrees, and be pushed into a certain direction to remain eligible to play on a sports team.  A student-athlete should be getting a well-rounded education that is in a field that the student is interested in and sees as a course of study that he/she would like to pursue.  A college degree should not be like getting a train ticket punched, and it is time for the leadership of the University of Michigan to address the very serious issues raised in this series by the Ann Arbor News.

We here at Coaches Hot Seat have been planning on addressing the state of journalism as it relates to the coverage of college athletic programs in the upcoming summer, but this series by the Ann Arbor News is a great example of the type of journalism that should be being done by newspapers across this country that cover college athletic departments.  The quality of the writing has probably never been higher, but the actual journalism and news reporting by too many of our newspapers lacks depth and stories that go to the heart of the major issues at our universities as it relates to athletics, academics, and other important issues.  So much of the reporting is boilerplate, asking the coach what he thinks, interviewing players, recruiting coverage, etc., and there is so very little deep background reporting work being done so that the public can find out what is really going on with the athletic programs at our college and universities.  To a great extent at most universities what the head football coach says is almost completely irrelevant, because so much of what the coach says is programmed and full of “coach-speak” that it makes little sense for local reporters to waste a lot of time with what the coach is doing.  The real stories are going on in the background and in the trenches, and if the head coach does not want to be forthcoming about what is really going on within his program, then reporters are obligated to dig in and find out just what in the hell is going on.  At many schools, reporters will find that there are a hell of a lot of really good things going on behind the scenes, and those stories should be reported as forcefully as bad or negative things that might be found to going on.  We will address more issues relative to the coverage of the athletic departments at our colleges and universities later this year, but the Ann Arbor News should remind all of us that great reporting takes a lot of work, and that there are a lot of stories out there that all of us could be covering a lot better.

As for the facts laid out by this Ann Arbor News series, there is no way a president and AD at one of the largest public universities in this country can allow such a series to be published, with no comment from the leadership at that university.  To not comment would be to forfeit one’s role as a leader, and to not address the issues raised in this series directly would call into question the integrity of the institution and degrees that it awards to its students. 

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The hypocrites gathered in Indianapolis, Indiana and they have picked 65 teams that will now play for a legitimate National Championship in the NCAA Basketball Tournament.  Where are these same people when college football is floundering around with one of the most asinine ways to determine a champion (the BCS) since man started drawing pictures on the walls of caves?  These men and women, and their enablers in the media are jamming the BCS down the throats of college football fans everywhere, when even a first-grader can understand the utter hypocrisy of this group of people and the BCS system.  Stupid?  Yes.  Dumb?  Yes.  Will be here forever (the BCS)?  Not a chance! 

Before we get to the final Game Championship Series (GCS) Rankings we must first announce the dates that the 5 GCS Games will be played.  No, the GCS Games will not be played a week after the end of the regular basketball season.  No, the GCS games will not be played two weeks after the college basketball season.  No, the GCS Games will not even be played three weeks after the end of the college basketball season.  No, in order to fully understand the incredible absurdity and lunacy of the Bowl Championship Series, the Game Championship Series will tell all the teams picked for the GCS to go home for several weeks and then report for 1 GCS National Championship Game and 4 meaningless GCS exhibition games.  That is what the BCS does every year, and if there is still a sane person on the planet that can defend the BCS, please step forward and let us shine the light of stupidity upon your face.  The GCS is an absurd idea, and the BCS is an absurd reality, and in the end the BCS will be eliminated and replaced with a legitimate way to determine the college football National Champion, because something so absurd as the BCS cannot be allowed to stand in the United States of America.  Alas, we digress….

Dates for the Game Championship Series (GCS) Games:

The Moron Game- Los Angeles, California (with a parade!) - Friday, April 18, 2008, 7:00 PM EST
The Idiot Game – Phoenix, Arizona – Saturday, April 19, 2008, 7:00 PM EST
The Really Stupid Game - New Orleans, Louisiana - Friday, April 25, 2008, 7:00 PM EST  
The Asinine Game – Miami, Florida – Saturday, April 26, 2008, 7:00 PM EST
GCS Championship Game- Los Angeles, California (without a parade!) Monday, April 28, 2008, 7:00 PM EST

There you have it, the dates for the Game Championship Series (GCS) Games!  Does that sound really stupid to suspend the basketball post-season and to give teams playing in the GCS over 4 weeks off before the games are played?  Yes, it is incredibly stupid, and that is exactly the point! 

On to the Final Game Championship Series (GCS) Rankings!  No, we do not have a committee drawn from people all over the country to pick the 16 teams in the Final GCS Rankings.  No, we have a group of buffoons voting in a poll, we combine that with a coach’s poll, and then we throw in computer rankings for good measure to emerge with our final GCS Rankings.  You say that sounds stupid?  Yes, it is stupid, but that is exactly the point!

On to the Final Game Championship Rankings (GCS)!

1.  North Carolina
2.  UCLA
3.  Kansas
4.  Memphis
5.  Tennessee
6.  Duke
7.  Wisconsin
8.  Texas
9.  Georgetown
10.  Notre Dame
11.  Xavier
12.  Butler
13.  Louisville
14.  Pittsburgh
15.  UConn
16.  Gonzaga

There they are, the Final Game Championship Series (GCS) Rankings!  Since all of us have been a victim of the BCS during these past 10 years, we all know exactly what the above rankings mean.  Even though there are several teams who have a claim to the top spot, and that there are at least another 15 to 20 teams that could win the NCAA Basketball National Championship, the GCS will do exactly what the BCS does and call an abrupt and incredibly stupid end to the post-season right now.  The top two teams, North Carolina and UCLA will play in the GCS National Championship Game, and then we will pick 8 other teams to play in meaningless GCS exhibition games.  Yes, this is the STUPIDIEST system ever devised by man, but THAT IS THE POINT!  Here is how the GCS games shake out!

The Moron Game - Notre Dame vs. Wisconsin
The Idiot Game – Texas vs. Georgetown
The Really Stupid Game- Tennessee vs. Duke
The Asinine Game – Kansas vs. Memphis
GCS Championship Game – North Carolina vs. UCLA

There you have it, the Game Championship Series Game Match-ups!  This is pure genius pairing the top two teams, and then playing 4 meaningless exhibition games!  Yes, this is what man has come up with 40 years after he first walked on the moon!  Yes, the brightest minds in the world have dreamed up this GCS and we will fight like hell in defending it, even though we know that it is indefensible.  Yes, we are arrogant, we are selfish, and we would destroy the game of college basketball and the legitimacy of its National Championship, just so we can keep our cushy jobs running a series of meaningless exhibition games.  We are bigger than the game of college basketball and everyone else can go to hell, especially the players, the coaches, and most especially THE FANS!  Yes, the fans can go to HELL, as we hold our fancy parties and laugh as they buy up tickets like fools to watch meaningless games and a joke of a game for the National Championship.  Hold it, this is college basketball, not college football, and we will actually get to see 65 teams playoff on the court to determine the champion on the field of play!  That is the American way, that you win championship on the field of play.  From Little League baseball to the Super Bowl, there is only one way to raise a championship trophy, and that is by earning it on the field of play!  All of course but for the disaster that is college football’s post-season.  Yes, these adults on the NCAA Basketball Committee. many who claim the BCS is the only way in football, give a damn about college basketball, the players, the coaches, and the fans, and thank goodness for that.  As for the BCS crowd, shame on every one of you, because you are everything that is wrong about sport and in our country, because you most of all put your selfishness above the game, and history will note who has stood by the bankrupt and incredibly foolish BCS.  The BCS is a fraud and will always be a fraud and there is not a damn thing that anyone can do to change that fact.

Of course, if we suspend disbelief again, we can all forget about college basketball for 4 weeks, because it is that long until the Game Championship Series are played.  Sound stupid?  It is, and that is exactly the point!

Thank goodness for college basketball and the NCAA Basketball Tournament.  As for the BCS crowd, watch and learn in the coming weeks and learn about what winning a championship is all about.

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News out of Baton Rouge is that Les Miles has gotten a new contract and that his pay is set to be $1,000 more than Nick Saban in 2008, which put Miles right at the top of the game salary wise.  $3.751 million is a lot of money, but Miles has earned that kind of salary because as Arnold Palmer says, “You must play boldly to win” and Miles certainly did that in 2007.  With the LSU football program on track to take in around $55 million in revenues in 2008, $3.751 million is less than 7% of total football revenues and that is certainly in line with the salaries of most head football coaches in the country.  Coaches Hot Seat only goes back to January of 2007, but most of us here have been skeptical of Miles and his ability to win big at LSU, but he has proven us and a lot of other people wrong on that front.  Miles is to be congratulated on a great 2007 and LSU is as well, because not only did they do their best to honor Miles’ contract, they rewarded their most public figure for a job well done.  Les Miles is worth every penny of $3.751 million, and it will now be up to Miles to prove that he can keep LSU at the top of the college game. 

With the Rich Rodriguez/West Virginia lawsuit moving ahead in the courts (a court date was set for April 3 to hear motions on the case) it is time for the two parties involved to get together and settle this silliness.  With Michigan set to begin spring practice on Monday, March 18 and West Virginia only two days later, it is time to put the Rodriguez departure from Morgantown behind everyone so the two football programs can move forward without this cloud hanging over them.  Whatever Rich Rodriguez claims, the contract that Rich signed says that he will pay West Virginia $4,000,000 if he left WVU before August 31, 2008.  The contract could not be clearer, and even if Rodriguez can claim that WVU didn’t live up to its end of the contract in some way, does Rodriguez really believe litigating this issue is going to anything but continue to remind the public (and potential recruits) that something is not right here?  It makes no sense for this case to continue, but it really makes no sense for Rodriguez to continue this case.  The mechanics of the contract call for Rodriguez to pay 1/3 of the $4,000,000 buyout within 30 days of termination, which would be $1,333,333, which was due in mid-January; the second 1/3 ($1,333,333) one year from termination, and the last 1/3 ($1,333,333) two years from termination.  Due to the lawsuit, Rodriguez had already missed the first $1,333,333 payment (it was due in mid-January ‘08) to West Virginia and no doubt Rich’s lawyers have convinced him that the cost of the litigation and the value cost to Rodriguez’s personal reputation are worth more than fulfilling the terms of the contract.  We doubt that conclusion, and if we were in Rodriguez’s position we would want to put the “departure from WVU” debacle behind us and put all of our focus on our new Michigan football team.  There has got to be an agreeable meeting spot between the West Virginia’s demand for the entire $4 million buyout and the $1.5 million that Rodriguez has offered to WVU to buyout the remaining years on his contract.  A simple future value of money calculator tells us that by West Virginia taking the buyout over 2 deferred lump sums, that the real value of those two $1,333,333 payments is somewhere in the neighborhood of $200,000 less than if they got the money today, so with that $200K taken out of the WVU side, that leaves the difference:  WVU $3.8 million – Rodriguez $1.5 million = $2.3 million difference.  If both sides, and this is where Rich Rodriguez should really be paying attention since his attorneys are not working on the state of West Virginia’s dime, there has got to be at least $100K of attorney’s fees on each side with the way attorneys add things up these days.  With another $100K taken out on each side, that now leaves the difference at $2.1 million.  That now brings us the most important determining factor in the settlement of a lawsuit, “How much I am willing to pay to see this bullshit end.”  We estimate that West Virginia would be willing to pony up $500K on the “bullshit factor” and that if we were Rich Rodriguez we would also be willing to put up an additional $500K to see this lawsuit with WVU disappear.  That now leaves us at:  WVU:  $3.2 million – Rodriguez:  $2.1 million = $1.1 million dollar difference.  Now by applying the Ronald Reagan, “Why don’t we just split the difference for general good will” philosophy to the settlement talks we would come up with a nice round number of:  $2,650,000.  Rich Rodriguez should pay West Virginia $2,650,000 to buyout the remaining years on his contract.

There is it is, Rodriguez pays $2,650,000 to settle with West Virginia, which would be a fair amount for everyone involved.  The damage that is being done to both institutions and their college football programs is not even worth the entire $4,000,000 dollars, and it is time for adults to act like adults and get this issue resolved.  Even if Rich Rodriguez does not have $2,650,000 in the bank (who does?), Rich could very easily go to a bank in Ann Arbor and borrow $2,650,000 at a very good interest rate and turn a $2.65 million dollar settlement amount into a very manageable monthly payment.  Rich Rodriguez is a very good football coach and since he is only 45 years old it is very conceivable that he will coach 20 years at Michigan, where no doubt he will earn well north of $50 million dollars during his career in Ann Arbor.  We know that $4.0 million, or even $2.65 million dollars seems like a lot of money to a guy that grew up in a small town in West Virginia, but looking at the big picture it is practically nothing.  It is time to end this foolishness between Rodriguez and West Virginia, so that both schools can move onto the future of their football programs.  Continuing this case in a courtroom will only do untold damage to both sides, and will also tell us a lot about the maturity of the people involved in this debacle.  $2.65 million is a small price for Rodriguez to settle this mess, and if Rich is smart that is exactly what he (and West Virginia) will do.

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One of the fascinating stories in college football is Nick Saban at Alabama.  From Saban’s out-of-control and somewhat neurotic press conferences to the expectations at a place like Alabama, one thing is for sure, Saban’s tenure at Alabama is not going to be boring.  After a 7-6 record in first season coaching the Tide, Saban is facing a very daunting 2008 schedule, and the SEC West only got that much tougher in the latest offseason.  Nick Saban is a first-class recruiter, but we are about to find out how good of a “football coach” that he really is.  Enjoy.

Nick Saban and Alabama in 2008

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