Unverified Voracity... A NEW CAR!

Whatever. There were reports over the weekend that Michigan had been eliminated from the decision process of the plinko machine that is Alex Legion, but reports of our demise were at least slightly exaggerated:

Legion, a 6-foot-5 senior guard out of Oak Hill Academy in Mouth of Wilson, Va., who visited the University of Kentucky from Thursday through Saturday, told Rivals.com he’s down to Kentucky, UCLA and Michigan.

(KU is out of the running since they want Legion to wait on Brandon Rush's NBA decision. Rush entered the draft but has not retained an agent and may withdraw.) Wait... UCLA? One of the two teams that an enraged Official Mom of Legion said her son would most certainly not attend, Tim Green be damned? Yes. UCLA. Alex Legion is less decisive than Charlie Weis at Baskin Robbins. So it's with the strongest hesitation that I offer any prediction whatsoever, but it sounds like UK is his probable destination:

“With UCLA, I’ve always been a fan,” Legion said. “I always thought it would be nice to play there. They have great tradition like Kentucky. With Michigan, it’s still home. I’m still going to give them a shot. I just don’t know how I’d fit in with what coach (John) Beilein wants to do. I was excited about playing for coach Amaker (Tommy, new coach at Harvard), so that kind of changed my feelings about Michigan.

“I’m real comfortable with Kentucky right now. It’s only five hours from home, not too far at all.”

+1 to the Lawrence Journal-World reporter for laconically mentioning that "It should be noted that schools have reappeared on Legion’s list after getting sliced." Indeed.

A no-doubt insane Todd McShay puts together a mock draft of not 12345 or 6 but 7(!) rounds for ESPN. Michigan players in his latest:

• #10 Leon Hall
• #11 Alan Branch (behind the Louisville guy, which is completely insane)
• #35 Lamarr Woodley (one pick after he has the Lions taking Trent Edwards with Stanton still on the board)
• #52 David Harris (crazy low)
• #191 Steve Breason (mid-sixth round)
• #204 Prescott Burgess (towards the end of the sixth)

NFL.com's Gil Brandt -- who I almost call "Gil Thorpe" whenever I type his name; who's called "Gil" in this day and age anyway? -- has Harris his #2 inside linebacker:

He had a very good workout at the Combine, running better than people thought he would, and looked good in drills. He has good strength for the position. He's smart and will compete on every down. He's good, but not a great athlete. His best position most likely is at inside linebacker in a 3-4 defense. He uses his hands well and has been well coached.

Well, that's totally unexpected. Scott Dreisbach's life has been a weird one, but I don't know if this can be topped. He's currently in the Arena Football league. In Columbus...

3) I think Columbus backup QB Scott Dreisbach is probably the only backup signal caller in the League truly ‘playing’ for his paycheck (that was until Andy Kelly and Tony Graziani went down forcing backups Steve Bellisari and Juston Wood into the lineup).

... playing linebacker:

Instead of holding a clipboard on the sideline and charting plays, Dreisbach plays a handful of series at ‘jack’ linebacker on defense (6.5 tackles on the season) and covers kicks on special teams for the Destroyers.

His role has expanded as he gets used to it:

Again, the whole team gave a full effort. This included two late stops “Jack” positioned-reserve QB Scott Dreisbach, who played defense and special teams.

“Scott made very crucial stops in the 4th,” Columbus Head Coach Doug Kay explained, “We have been working on that all week; we need to stick to the (opponent’s) quarterback with every play. David Saunders is excellent, too; at that position.”

Dreisbach made five tackles.

I got nothing here. It's just weird, that's all.

I hope to have more on this later, but the Big Ten Network is rapidly morphing from a cool idea into a disaster waiting to happen. They're reportedly asking for $1.10 per subscriber in the local area and trying to get placed in the same price band ESPN does. They should ask the NFL network (70 cents a subscriber and placement in areas of cable it takes a sherpa to reach) how well that's going to work.

No big deal as long as the football games are of the Northwestern-Illinois variety, right? Unfortunately, the network is going to have some weeks that they have the second or third pick... before ESPN, so there's a possibility that several Michigan games could be yanked off national TV and shoved onto a tiny cable network no one gets in a power struggle.

The answer to all of this is a la carte pricing for cable, which will come as soon as Congress passes a law demanding it. IE: not by this fall.