Sunday night is always better when there's good TV. Just feels right. I won't see Shameless' finale until later today, but Arya Stark über alles.
If you liked Game of Thrones' season four premiere, there's an encore of the Hound and Arya's scene tonight at 9:10 on CBS. My main man John Calipari will be playing the Hound and dagger-driver Andrew Harrison will be playing Arya Stark.
It's another Monday, folks, because it's like a man once told me: Time is a flat circle. So let's do this.
MEYER WANTS STUDENTS TO TAKE OWNERSHIP OF TEAM. Saturday was Student Appreciation Day for Ohio State football. (Eleven Warriors' Jordan Wagner and John Brandon have a full breakdown of the "festivities" over here.)
As top college programs continue to see declining student attendance numbers, this is all part of Urban's outreach to the students. It's a skill he acquired from his days rustling students to show up for his Bowling Green team. From Dave Briggs of the Toledo Blade:
While more fans than ever attend NCAA football games, student attendance is no longer a given in a changing entertainment landscape. At Michigan, for instance, ESPN reported that 26 percent of the 19,850 students who bought season tickets stayed home for an average game last season. The student no-show rate was even higher at Oklahoma (28 percent), Georgia (28.8 percent), and Iowa. (Figures were not immediately for Ohio State, which, like Michigan, sells out all of its games.)
Meyer does not want a generation to slip away.
"The one group of people that I think often get overlooked are the students," he said. "That's why we always do something for them. We want students to take ownership of this team. That’s real important."
Crazy numbers regarding no-show students, but then I remembered I no-showed a couple games during my Ohio State days.
It's hard to sell a three-hour stand in the upper-reaches of C-Deck during a routine dismantling of Minnesota when there are campus parties and bars with high definition TVs and more liberal alcohol policies to be found outside the Horseshoe's lovely confines.
TATGATE COULD COST TRESSEL AKRON PRESIDENCY. This is stupid. From CrainsCleveland.com:
The notion that a football coach could wield so much power over a university angered many, but now Tressel may get his shot at running the whole show, as he's among a group of 19 individuals who formally have applied to succeed Luis Proenza as president at the University of Akron. Some even call him the frontrunner.
However, some legal experts suggest Tressel — now an executive vice president at UA — still could be saddled by sanctions levied by the NCAA, even if he isn't calling plays from the sidelines.
At issue is whether the show-cause order issued by the NCAA in late 2011 and that runs through Dec. 19, 2016, applies to roles outside of coaching. The show-cause order isn't exactly clear, as it notes the NCAA restricts “athletically related” duties of the former coach.
Did Jim Tressel lie about kids trading memorabilia and receiving discounted tattoos or was he injecting elementary kids with heroin? Because this is getting a bit ridiculous.
LET'S PLAY A GAME. I like to call it juxtaposition. Here's Mark Emmert, who made north of $900,000 in 2009:
"To be perfectly frank, the notion of using a union employee model to address the challenges that do exist in intercollegiate athletics is something that strikes most people as a grossly inappropriate solution to the problems," Emmert said Sunday. "It would blow up everything about the collegiate model of athletics."
And here's a report from ABC News:
"Revenues derived from college athletics is greater than the aggregate revenues of the NBA and the NHL," said Marc Edelman, an associate professor at City University of New York who specializes in sports and antitrust law. He also noted that Alabama's athletic revenues last year, which totaled $143 million, exceeded those of all 30 NHL teams and 25 of the 30 NBA teams.
*Strokes beard while puffing on a corncob pipe and processing a hot take* Hmm.
Cynics would say it's grossly inappropriate and paternalistic for a million dollar man to shit on a group of kids who risk their bodies and pay his salary.
(Do you see what I did there? I cloaked my own opinion with that of an unidentifiable, ambiguous third-party. Thanks for that lesson in bureaucratic double-speak, Mr. Emmert.)
And Dan Wetzel asks an important question: why must footballers and basketballers support wrestlers, fencers and rowers?
GARDNER ALREADY IN MIDSEASON FORM. Let Devin Gardner tell it, and it's a three-man race for Michigan's starting QB job. Welp, during Michigan's spring game on Saturday — which featured the latest Adidas abominations — Devin Gardner threw the gauntlet down on the competition:
Gardner struggled in the passing game, completing just two of 10 pass attempts for 53 yards (44 of those yards came on one play).
Crazy to think Gardner isn't still 100%, but he's already putting up mid-season numbers. Astonishing, if you think about it. I'm now nervous about what Doug Nussmeier, Brady Hoke and Devin Gardner are cooking in their kitchen up in Ann Arbor.
In other big Michigan news, anonymous NFL front office staffers (awful people) criticized Taylor Lewan (awful person):
Scouting director: "There are question marks there. He's one of those love/hate guys. He worked out well, but he's not that tough."
Scout: "I'm not sure about him. He's not as physical as you would like."
Personnel executive: "Real inconsistent. You see some games, and you think he's another Jake Long. Then, you watch him struggle. He'll go first round; I'm just not sure where."
If I could invent a Michigan football player, Taylor Lewan would be who it would be. He's the perfect character on which to unload a frothy batch of #sportshate. He will be missed in that way.
Who's his heir? Kyle "Blood on the Field" Kalis?
SO WHO WAS THAT GUY? This is why I love Twitter:
Lol I appreciate the love but that's not me. RT @j__baz: Ran into @ArianFoster at Pub Fiction last night! ... pic.twitter.com/FoViIxzCmF
— Arian Foster (@ArianFoster) April 6, 2014
THOSE WMDs. Columbus leads for growth in Ohio in 2013... I don't like those quotations either... “U Want Me 2 Kill Him?” A teenager orchestrates his own attempted murder... How the CIA Used 'Doctor Zhivago' To Undermine The USSR... Every tornado in continental US since 1950... How a sunken nuclear submarine, a crazy billionaire and a mechanical claw gave birth to "can neither confirm nor deny"... North Korean funeral process explained... That's impressive, kid...
