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Some Choice Reading

  • Bruins Nation spent most of this month rightly pissed off about the NCAA's obvious unwillingness to enforce its own rules. Welcome to life as a Michigan fan, guys, one in which your chief rival is almost celebrated for its known indiscretions as a steady chorus of empty suits sing the disingenuous song of faux indignation.
  • I generally attempt to enjoy the summer, seizing upon the trite though true notion that during the warmer months, stress should be avoided and the living should be as easy as possible. This generally entails avoiding anything written by Sports Illustrated's Stewart Mandel, as Stewpot (you like it? Don't steal it) is usually only good for the poorly reasoned, ill-informed, or disappointingly thoughtless. This strategy is almost wholly antithetical to my instant-gratification obsessive-about-college-football lifestyle, though, so sometimes I can't help myself. That's been the case lately, although Stewmanji and I have finally found common ground on something: He thinks that Lloyd Carr blows, too.

    A few weeks ago, Stewart took a stroll through his mailbag and answered a question about Michigan's routine refusal to play night games, unlike some programs that pursue smart, aggressive marketing campaigns, such as VaTech. Said the wannabe sage one:

    I agree that night games -- particularly weeknight games -- have been tremendously beneficial to upstart programs such as Virginia Tech and Louisville, but do you really think Michigan is hurting for exposure? The Wolverines are on national TV every week. They sell out a 110,000-seat stadium. I'm pretty sure the coaches don't have any trouble getting in the door of most big-time recruits. While there's no question Michigan's program is stuck in the stone ages in a lot of areas (sorry to break it to you, Lloyd, but the Rose Bowl is not your fans' ultimate goal anymore), I don't think refusing to play night games is doing any kind of disservice.
    I added the emphasis because I wanted to point out the right answer.

    Stewart kind of indirectly did my work for me again this week when he listed his top-ten coaches. Notice anyone conspicuously missing from the list?