Unverfied Voracity Points

EVENT! RBUAS posting!

Several helpful readers provided tricksy ways to unearth the pictures at the official site, so I can now provide you that super picture from the women's academy for those too lazy to dig it up themselves:


What's with the smiling chick in the upper right? Where's your intensity, lady? Barwis! Eat her!

But what about the SUPER-SUPERCONFERENCE? When the Wizard of Odds threw out a post on this a few days ago, I shrugged, but the Wiz has now linked to this nut from the Orlando Sentinel twice more and the disease has started to spread outward.

His name is Tim Stephens, and he is a very stupid man. He proposes that college football is moving inexorably towards four sixteen-team superconferences and a four-team playoff between the winners. Nevermind that the WAC was briefly a creaky sixteen-team "superconference" before all its members decided that was an incredibly stupid idea and broke off. Nevermind that it's just a matter of time before the creaky sixteen-team Big East basketball "superconference" splinters. Nevermind that he actually titles a post "could five dollar gas spur the playoff debate" (his answer: yes!) and then, like, in the very next post about his incredibly stupid idea puts Notre Dame in the Pac-10. Nevermind that every team past 12 dilutes the financial impact of a championship game.

These are all reasons that Tim Stephens is a man propounding a very stupid idea and wasting everyone's time, but the main thing is this: at the absolute most, teams will play nine conference games. When you have a "super conference" that's basically two eight-team divisions in which you play seven games and then two games against the other division, which is not a conference at all, really, and is the main reason the WAC exploded.

What a waste of time.

Precedented. A reader forwards along a Chronicle of Higher Education piece on new ADA regulations($) that would about halve the number of handicap-accessible seats stadiums are required to provide. How is this related to Michigan?

The new regulations, if unchanged after a public comment period, would be roughly comparable to the terms of a recent settlement between the federal government and the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. This spring, in response to a lawsuit over handicapped-accessible seating in its football stadium, the university agreed to provide 329 spots -- or a third of a percent of its 107,000 seats -- for fans in wheelchairs.

So even though this rough halving of the number would seem to put Michigan under the microscope again, apparently the settlement is being used as a model and we should be okay.

From the same article:

No Ferrets

Service animals are another focal point of the new regulations. The proposed rules distinguish service animals from "emotional-support animals," which they say are not covered by federal disability law. ...

Support animals, like ferrets and snakes, have been a sticking point for colleges, where students have asked to keep them in residence halls and take them to class.

That is all.

Defcon 4. Max Pacioretty is the only potential departure who hasn't publicly stated his intention to return. This is probably why:

Heard it from a very good source that he would like to sign and that Montreal wants him but the family will have none of it. At this point, put the chances of him returning for his sophomore year at about 80%.

That's the Wolverine's Mike Spath, so that's legit. I'll take 80% but the news that Patch wants to sign is unwelcome; he was telling teammates he'd be back a month or so ago. He'll be one to watch until September.

(Via Michigan Hockey Net.)

Aw, come on. Notre Dame/Halloween candy blog Rakes of Mallow is providing an overview of ND's oppnents and though they're advertised as "nearly prediction free" there is a little numerical difficulty number applied to each. North Carolina, 4-8 a year ago, warrants a 7. 4-9 Washington gets a 6. Purdue is a 5, Michigan State a 6.

Michigan? 3. The same as Stanford. I know every Notre Dame fan out there yearns for Michigan to have the same sort of Hindenberg season Notre Dame did a year ago, but... uh... not likely. Notre Dame had the second-worst offense of the decade, and outliers, probability, bell curves, binomial distributions, etc.: Michigan replicating that is highly, highly unlikely.

Etc.: I knew those fake-o new jerseys running around had boobs. Boiled Sports interviews yrs truly. Jemele Hill is sitting in timeout for comparing the Celtics to Hitler; shouldn't she be in timeout for not being interesting? Maize 'n' Brew takes issue with the preseason magazines... which is why you should by HTTV 2008!

Pateryn Opening Update

A couple sources are suggesting Michigan fans breathe easy about this potential academic casualty on the hockey team. Michigan Hockey Net:

Not true, according to a source who said there are not going to be any departures from the hockey program due to academic reasons. He did confirm Pateryn will join this fall, but “it’s not because we need him to fill a roster spot of a player not performing well in the classroom.”

Mike Spath:

As of now, no one is out. Red made a comment to Blais about bringing Pateryn this year more as a precaution than a realization that they're going to lose someone. There are a few kids that are not stellar students, but as of this morning there had been no academic causalities. Mitera and Summers are definitely coming back. Pacioretty we're still awaiting word on but feel confident he will return.

Spath would later add that everyone should "relax" and there's "no need to panic," with an explanation pending in Rivals' premium Inside The Fort on Thursday.

I'm still a little leery. I doubt Pateryn would want to give up a year of eligibility to be the eighth defenseman, and I doubt Michigan would want him to spend a critical development year getting scratched. On the surface it makes little sense to bring him in this year unless someone taking a regular shift is departing. We'll see. The one scenario that does make sense: Pateryn is sick of waiting and wants to go to college now.

Yeah, Mark Mitera

MGoBlue:

Head coach Red Berenson of the University of Michigan ice hockey team announced Friday (April 18) that rising senior defenseman Mark Mitera (Livonia, Mich.) will be the captain for the 2008-09 season.

Red's lost his captain once before: Mike Van Ryn skipped town before his junior season in an attempt to circumvent the NHL's draft regulations by playing with a CHL team. He even had his own loophole named after him until the NHL's new CBA did away with it. You'd think he'd be wary enough to get a clarification on Mitera's status, and there is indeed a premium Rivals article($) with highly encouraging quotes. He's staying. Please don't shoot me if he goes.

Update: The Daily confirms:

Berenson said he gave Mitera the captaincy after the defenseman assured him that he had decided to return for his senior year. Mitera confirmed that he has made the commitment to return in an interview.

w00t.

Maybe Mark Mitera?

Received two conflicting opinions on whether Mark Mitera will stay or go. Western College Hockey's Chris Dilks:

I think the odds of Mitera leaving are probably better than 50/50. Pretty much everything I've ever heard is that Mitera would leave Michigan after three years, even before his freshman season. I kind of discount the midseason chatter about him staying. You hear that from a lot of players who get caught up in the camaraderie of the team during the year, and don't want to make it seem like they're bailing on their their teammates as soon as the season as is over. But once the season is over, they sit down and look at it and decide it's really best for them to sign. Personally, I think Mitera is ready to go. I'm not sure what else is left for him to prove at the college level.

Is it best for Mitera to sign? Gabe Nelson, currently at the Michigan Daily, provides some insight into Mitera himself...

He is a junior biophysics major who takes his studies seriously. My friend was his lab partner and said always worked hard and cared about his education. He's one year from that degree. Considering he's the only upperclassman hockey player in a legitimate major, don't you think that indicates a determination to stick it out?

...and the situation of the Anaheim Ducks:

The Ducks are likely to get knocked out of the playoffs by the Stars, reducing their immediate need for a rookie defenseman, and already have a stacked defensive core in the NHL.

Francois Beauchemin
Marc-Andre Bergeron
Joe DiPenta
Kent Huskins
Scott Niedermayer
Sean O'Donnell
Chris Pronger "C"
Mathieu Schneider

They have six legitimate top-six defensemen on that list. They are not hurting immediately for another. And would Mitera leave Michigan so he could go play for an AHL affiliate and probably not make the Ducks right away? Another year at Michigan, with visibility as the captain, gives him a better shot at making the team right away and gives him better leverage for a contract.

Just a thought. I'd personally be shocked if Mitera decided to leave. He has very little to gain.

Nelson's right about the Ducks' D corps. All but DiPenta are signed next year and all but Huskins are solid NHL defensemen making 1.2 M+. There's no room at the inn for Mitera and no chance he'd make the team. He's also right about Mitera's degree program:

Personal... Enrolled in the College of Literature, Science and the Arts, majoring in biophysics ... Graduated with honors from Ann Arbor Pioneer High School in 2005. ... Drafted in the first round (No. 19 overall) by the Anaheim Ducks in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft.

No independent study there.

Not to unduly insult someone who's weighing whether to take the NHL millions now or later, but I also question Chris's assertion that Mitera has no developing left to do at the college level. He was indeed lights out early in the season, but as soon as he deflected a Notre Dame shot into the top corner of the net in January there was a significant wobble to his game: turnovers, turnovers, turnovers. There were several games in which Mitera was directly responsible for opponent scoring chances and goals via sloppy passes or turnovers along the boards. At no time did he seem to be above the level of competition like Mike Komisarek or JMFJ.

He's clearly very good and could go if he wants, but if he's serious about school -- check -- and is going to be developing at Michigan or in the AHL, -- check -- I think he might stay. Lord knows Michigan's lost kids with no chance of making the show for years, and by merely floating the idea of a return I have singlehandedly guaranteed he'll depart August 15th immediately after tearing everyone's ACL in fit of pique. But the indicators here are not all bad.