So, just a little more off-season quantifying and quibulating for those of contemplative minds…just a question from my ponderings…

What is the single most impactful consequence of the cheating scandal for our northern neighbors?

What stands out to you?

Some would say it is the unceremonious dismissal from the snoot club of arrogance…doing it “the michigan way…with the michigan man”.  So a michigan man shown to be a blatant cheater is a good rebuttal to their “high and mighty” argument…and the loss of the prideful Michigan boast of “doing it the right way” will tarnish and stain on an already dubious reputation as it stands.

Think about it…the ONLY reprieve for a pitiful and beaten down fan base, starving for the sniff of a win…in twenty years…came with the advantage of cheating…from the head coach and his subordinates, right down to the players and analysts on the sidelines.  This is what it took…a concerted effort…by all…to beat Ohio State.  By hook or by crook, it just didn’t matter.  Michigan was rife with connivers, con men, and Connors, all who sucked on the scandalous teats of a man and men…who would not be denied.

The NCAA will likely go out in a blaze of glory by excoriating Michigan athletics and university leaders (they are ultimately responsible) for the “Harbaugh Experiment”.  Vacations, in this sense, are not good for them, but they are necessary.  And they are coming.  Vacating games does not mean the opponent gets to add a victory!  Crappy, but true.  So three years of wins will be vacated (likely ALL games for three years), along with a national championship.

Ouch.  A fan base will have to come to grips with that eventually.  Or maybe they never do.  The hammer really is coming, but yes, it is and always was…a v.e.r.y. slow hammer.

My personal favorite as an impactful consequence for them is a simple pleasure…the change to TCUN.  Not only does the word LOOK appropriately offensive, but brilliantly captures the heart of the tale of tragedy for the Wolverines.  The “C” could mean so many things, all delightful and worthy of both prose and poetry.  We used to recognize them as “that Team up north”, but they bastardized the concept of “team” by teaching teenagers to be complicit in a scheme they ALL knew to be illegal from the start.  Perhaps it all goes softly away, which would be a compounded tragedy, but the NCAA must act decisively or be relegated to eunuch status sooner rather than later.

The forever change to TCUN-those CHEATERS up north-is one of the most delicious morsels to emerge from this cornucopia of scandal (for me), for it will immortalize that change and forever brand the Michigan brand as the sleazy underbelly it had become under Harbaugh.  “Those Cheaters up north” is a filth that doesn’t wash away.  For Michigan fans, there’s just “not enough rain in Oklahoma to wash the sins out of that house”…you can plead for mercy when the time comes, but I believe the eventual judgement will strip the legitimacy from those three years of on-field success, and lead to a (temporary) decimation of a long and storied football program.

What is your favorite impactful consequence of the scandal?  I know the final chapter isn’t inked yet, but given all we do know, there are multiple consequences appearing already!  
 

Go Bucks!