gehringer_2

Interesting. You can make a case that Hillary lost in 2016 exactly because non-Hillary primary dems didn't come out for her in sufficient numbers in the general. If Trump doesn't hold the non-proTrump repubs as well as he did in 2016 or even 2020 he is almost certainly toast.

One reasonable explanation is that Yzerman is hoping to get something by moving one of the current Dmen so he doesn't want to cut someone for nothing. He holds his cards so close to the vest we'll never know until after the fact. But OTOH, I don't believe Holl and Petry are doing much to burnish their value in the ice time they are getting.

disagree, all I've ever been talking about is a decision not to spend money or compete hard - to de-emphasize . The other is just the 'out there' possibility that I don't think is unique to M but to college football in general if they manage to completely screw it up for everyone, which I agree I do think is possible while you don't. And TBH, I think you may overestimate the difference between a semi-committed UM and a NW. How big a step is it from R Rod/Hoke (7-6/5-7) to NW (8-5)? That doesn't need much of a ladder! My bottom line is that it always will be about the money - they will stay in the game as long as it's profitable, but if the profit goes away, things will change. You can call that an apocalyptic view if you like, but I'll stand by that part. And I make no claim to know what will happen with the profit except that it's pretty obvious the players are going to get more of it.

Pretty impressive turnout for a primary. It looks like about 300K votes cast in the GOP primary. Trump totaled 365K in the 2020 general election. The unknown is how many of the 400K that voted for Biden in 2020 crossed over for Haley. OTOH, another way to look at it is that 365K voted for Trump in 2020 and only ~175K came out for him today. I suppose whether that is good or bad depends on how it compares to historical NH primary vs general total ratios. But the Trump voter is supposedly highly motivated.

What do you suppose UM or OSU spends on their NIL program? I don't mean the NIL money itself, that (at least supposedly) all comes from outside sources, but schools have to be putting time and resources into organizing, recruiting donors and managing the show.

I don't think a team owes the other team anything on the use of time outs or in game deceptions in general, but OTOH running a play from victory formation is different and pretty despicable, because as noted, the idea there is be sure no-one is hurt on *either* side when the intention is just to run the clock.

It's not a matter of like or dislike - he's a highly capable coach, but he's an institutional nightmare who you can't trust be be with you after he swears he will and who thinks he's bigger than the rules in a highly rule bound system. IOW a highly mixed blessing. I think it's a little ironic that after as much as you have chided me for saying I'm not sure if M wants to keep playing with the big boys as this weird future unfolds, that you now are arguing more or less along similar lines. 😉 And it may well be that a contributing reason Harbaugh goes back to the NFL is that he sees a window closing on his being able to run a winning program at Michigan. Big universities are under tons of pressure from a million different directions, demographics, on-line ed, managing a huge Med center, and not the least from some of their own poor decision making. In the end sports is just one constituency among many battling for priority from the admin. In the past, the rule has been as long you net bring in $$ the U is happy to stay in the game. And it's the money that makes it all go. The future is murky to say the least, and should a prospect arise that either under NIL or direct pay the income stream gets diverted and the net to the University falls, you know there will a lot of sudden soul searching about the role of athletics.

But there is no sure thing. Say they give Harbaugh the moon, and then in 3 yrs he's bored and feels trapped. I remember he was coach that was running the team in '17, '19 and '20. He had to make big changes to get to now. We assume if he stays he will 'keep up', but while that is probably a better % play than a new coach, it's still no guarantee either. And he has still only brought one competent QB into the program in 9 yrs. To me that's a potential red flag.

Harder to get hurt when you are constantly chasing behind the play..... Seriously. Once you get past Seider and Walman, Wing Dmen in general do not pursue and challenge hard on the boards, as often as not they hang back, wait for the shot and hope to get possession on the rebound or miss.

as bad as the 2nd was the difference in the game still came down to the TMMOTI penalty. Mickey has been harping on the sloppiness of their line changes all season. I've seen enough of this team in its current configuration. If I never see Joe Veleno's 'signature' drive-up-the-left-boards-just-to-be-erased-on hip check-and-turn-over-the-puck, or a Wing Dman blindly dumping the puck directly to an opponent skater's stick at the red line, it will be too soon.

UM consumer survey, which everyone has been fixing on, is finally starting to turn upwards ~10 point jump in Jan.

Some analysts say Trump's support actual consolidates better when he is out of the public eye as much. Given his recent performances, keep him campaigning and feeding the "he's losing it" narrative with the uncommitted and independents.

This is politics - I'm sure that statement will be fully operative right up to the moment that it's not. 🤮

Well hope so - no matter who emerges the more bruising the GOP fight the better for the remaining sane party. Trump is probably on the phone offering her VP right now. Seriously, if you are Haley, given Trump's age and increasing evidence of decline, that might your surest route to the WH.

the question is who will pay the bill? The small money goes to Trump and big GOP donors are probably scared to piss him off since he might win and come after them. Plus they've already staked DeSantis to a big pot of $$ and have zero to show for it.

And the comedy is that one of things they are the worst at is that when they do get back, they invariably end up with 4 or all five guys too deep and constantly leave trailers wide open in the slot. It's ridiculous a pro team can't figure out how to man up returning to their own end.

this. Party wise Trump is an incumbent president. Winning narrow sank LBJ in 1968.

Sad to face that Edvinsson's stock has dropped so low he not a candidate to replace one of the current turkeys.

It's not even that life changing, he's been an NFL head coach before.

Yzerman has to make some kind of move for a defenseman. This crew is the Keystone Kops.

LOL - Wings D.

yeah - the too many men penalties are getting to be a sore point. Somebody needs to take a little responsibility for so many unforced errors.

Direct payments are coming. Then how will they handle that?

Worst case would be Venezuela - where the Charismatic ruler breaks down the walls then dies, and that lets a talentless thug succeed him and really drive things into the ground.

yeah, this is a tough call when it comes to hitters - can you actually help them or better to leave well enough alone? I sort of agree that the 'control the zone' mantra could lead to guys being tentative and that is certainly fatal for a hitter. I would prefer they change their phraseology to put the onus off the player and on the org - "it's up to us to will work with you/give you tools to better control the zone", which is what I hope they really mean because I just don't believe there are many hitters who are not trying to swing at strikes, they just can't tell which pitches are going to be strikes in the time frame their mechanics allow. With Javy the theory would be if you can get him shorter to the ball his pitch recognition could - again, in theory - improve. And with Javy's base ability to track and hit pitches outside the zone you'd want to believe it's possible he could barrel up more pitches. But hitting is such an incredibly finely balance capability that there is always the risk that you just can't find a combination that is overall better for the player than what he was doing. An effective hitting coach is probably one of the rarest animals in sports.