Harbaugh Follow-up

Of course, right after I publish my post on the Harbaugh situation, MGoBlog comes out with a outstanding analysis that takes Harbaugh, ESPN's Pat Forde and other critics to task for proclaiming something that is plain as day to anyone with half a brain as if it were earth-shattering news.

MGoBlog also takes all of us to task for our narrow definition of education, and of intelligence:

I find the lazy, stupid athlete stereotype irritating, and always have. Is intelligence a simple vector that you have or do not? I have always been very, very "smart" and felt that I got far too much credit for an aptitude for standardized tests and memorization when I knew that the guys truly marked for success didn't have truculent attitudes towards people that were slightly different from them. There is a certain sort of social aptitude that I lack that, a particular sort of empathy and intelligence far more important in the world than the ability to sort out the Pythagorean theorem in no time flat, but how do you measure that? I'll tell you: find my salary and that of class president Tom O'Neill, a man the entire world liked, in ten years and get back to me. I'll lose. So who's to say that Mario Manningham isn't "smart"? I've watched him perfectly set up cornerbacks time and again, burning them deep when they know what's coming. Even if Manningham couldn't spell his own name -- something I am not asserting is true, for the record -- he would still be a particular sort of genius.

The point being that one of the primary goals of a university education is to prepare students for life after they leave. In that sense, pushing athletes into majors that fit our narrow sense of intelligence doesn't make them any more prepared for the future than their participation in big time athletics does.

The Harbaugh Brew-ha-ha

First of all, most of what Harbaugh said is true. Michigan does admit football players that wouldn't get into the school if they weren't athletes. Michigan does steer those that are less academically gifted (like Harbaugh) into certain majors so that they can concentrate their academic support resources.

In other news, the sky is blue, the sea is wet, and Charlie Weis is fat. What Michigan does is no different than what every division one university, including Stanford, does. Anyone who believes that all of their favorite team's players are academic superstars is fooling themselves.

The real question, in my mind, is does the university make a good faith effort to educate their athletes, or do they do only enough to keep them eligible so that they can play. Do the athletes respect their fellow students who are not athletes enough to take their own education seriously?
Admittedly I'm bias, but I think the answer to both of those questions for Michigan is yes.

So is Harbaugh out of the family? Not for me. I understand the anger of Jamie Morris and Mike Hart. Harbaugh didn't have to single out Michigan. He could have made the same point and used Cal, USC, or some other regular opponent of Stanford as an example. I think that Harbaugh is still upset about not getting the UofM QB coach job a few years back. Scuttlebutt around town at the time was that Harbaugh had asked Bo about the job, and Bo had asked Lloyd to interview him. Harbaugh did get the interview, but Lloyd chose to go with Scott Loeffler, who was a grad assistant at the time and has been outstanding so far (ask Tom Brady). I also think that it is no accident that these comments came out after Bo passed away. I think on some level Harbaugh is still trying to cope with the same sense of loss all Michigan fans and former players feel. For that reason, I would have no problem if he was a candidate for the head job if and when Lloyd decides to retire.

Rankings and other geeky stuff

June 19, 2008 Note: This is a post that originally appeared on Golden's Football Rankings and is reporduced here for posterity.

As some of you may know, I have adapted a version of the Golden rankings for college basketball. I have also maintained my own database of the Golden college football rankings, with a slight modification in the guidelines. Instead of not counting the wins over I-AA teams, I count them, but do not record any bonus points for opponent’s wins, opponent’s opponents’ wins, margin of victory or road wins. I do penalize teams for losses to I-AA teams by counting them as losses to 10 loss teams with 40 opponents’ opponents’ losses. The rationale is that the average I-AA team would finish at or near the bottom of most I-A conferences. Teams should get some credit for winning those games, but not much.
So my rankings have been slightly different than the ones published on the website most of the year. For the most part, the difference in the rankings has been one of degrees, with little variation in the order of teams. So I found it interesting when the “official” Golden rankings ended up with Florida as the #1 team, followed by Ohio State and Michigan. My version of the rankings, which gave teams points for beating I-AA teams had Florida #3, behind OSU and Michigan. Why would Florida have less points in relation to the other two, in my system, where they got points for their win over Western Carolina, and all of the SEC wins of over I-AA teams? I went back and double checked all my entries to make sure I hadn’t entered anything wrong for the three teams.
As I did this, it occurred to me that the difference came in the fact that the poll is based on the average points per game, not total points. Florida was ranked lower in my version of the rankings because their Western Carolina win was their lowest point total of the season, outside of the Auburn loss. Put it another way, the reason Florida’s schedule appears more difficult in the Golden rankings is that their weakest opponent is dropped from that calculation. If you removed Michigan’s win over Ball State, or Ohio State’s win over Illinois, their average points per game would shoot up past Florida’s. It’s the same reason Auburn was atop the 2004 Golden rankings, their win over I-AA Citadel was not factored in. Essentially the Golden rankings as they are configured now unfairly reward the high level teams that play I-AA opponents by not counting those weak teams in their schedule strength.

-Speaking of basketball rankings, doing the rankings for the first time, I have been struck at how the Missouri Valley Conference has jumped up the conference rankings. They’ve done it by creating strength throughout the entire conference. The league is 62-18 out of conference, all teams are over .500 and they have wins over Big Ten, Big Twelve, Big East, SEC, and ACC teams. They’ve also beaten other strong mid-majors, like Butler, who won the preseason NIT, and last year’s Cinderella, George Mason. If they keep this up, they might bring home another four bids to the big conference.

-I was happy to see Greg Schiano and Rich Rodriguez turn down big money to stay in the Big East. There are some things more important than money (although both will be rewarded handsomely for staying). Soul and heart, and being a part of a tradition. Rodriguez is an alum and is setting himself to be a big part in the history of Mountaineer football. Schiano could be the lynchpin of a new history in Rutgers. That’s not to say that Alabama and Miami don’t have a history and tradition of their own. It’s just that those two coaches are not a part of those histories in the same way they are in the current locations.
-Alabama, in particular, has really lost the soul and heart of a once great program. By firing Mike Shula, and alum who came in under challenging circumstances, the Tide has become the same sort of mercenary program that swiped their last good coach, Dennis Francione. Now that they have left at the alter by many of the big names out there, they are hoping they can get lucky, ala Ohio State in 2001, and hire a little known coach who can recapture the essence of Bear Bryant’s program.
-Tom O’Brien’s move didn’t make any sense to me. Boston College to NC State? Not only an inter conference move, and inter division move. He has really established a strong program at BC, one that looked like they could be a serious player in the ACC for some time. Was the money in Raleigh that much better?
-The hot rumor around these parts is former UofM quarterback, Jim Harbaugh to Central Michigan to replace the departed Brian Kelly. Harbaugh spent the last year at non-scholarship, I-AA San Diego and led them to an 11-1 record. A lot of people around here would love to see him back in Ann Arbor, where he grew up.