Power Dynamics & Chickens

A lot has already been written regarding Brady Hoke's comments on Notre Dame's "chickening out" of their series with the Wolverines, but something caught my ear on Tuesday and I'm just getting around to beating this dead chicken. During the Tuesday episode of ESPN's Around the Horn, the chicken subject came up and Pablo S. Torre said...

The reality of the situation is the power dynamic is so tilted in Notre Dame's favor. Notre Dame doesn't need Michigan; they have a nine-figure T.V. deal with NBC. They are big brother; Michigan, in this case, is unfortunately little brother.

What?! I don't care if Notre Dame had a bazillion-figure deal (I'm pretty sure that's a real number) with some network, the power dynamic is on the field, not on television or in your ability to work out some half-assed way to get into a bowl when it's undeserved; let me remind big brother (and Pablo S. Torre) that the all-time record has Michigan in the lead at 23-16-1, and has won five of the last seven. So, Notre Dame can have their television deals and their ACC teams, and keep their series with Michigan State and Purdue. That's power dynamics at its finest, I guess. It's also convenient for the Irish to be giving up a series against the one team that has owned them. It sounds like big brother just wants to take his ball and go home. I never had a big brother, but I was one; I don't recall picking on my sister and then hearing her claim to be superior and older while walking away. Maybe I just don't understand the power dynamics of sibling rivalry, or maybe I just don't understand chickens.