Ivan Maisel's not a Ranger

You may or may not remember that President Bush's major fundraisers were called Rangers. It is pretty clear that ESPN's Ivan Maisel is not one of them.

Maisel recently posted an article discussing the ongoing Arkansas coaching fiasco. This fiasco, which has led to the a series of amusing posts over at EDSBS, includes the cell phone records of Arkansas coach Houston Nutt being FOIA'd. These records showed a number of calls to a female television reporter, and insinuations were made that Nutt was committing adultery, which is all a setup for this beauty from Maisel:

Nutt's detractors have put him in the impossible position of proving a negative -- he must have cheated on his wife because there is no proof that he did not.

It is a maneuver borrowed from national politics, Rovian in style and execution. Karl Rove, the chief political advisor to President George W. Bush, made his career on attacking an opponent's strength. In the 2004 presidential election, the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth eviscerated Sen. John Kerry's stature as a war hero. Kerry's candidacy never recovered.

Rove had no visible affiliation with the Swift Boat Veterans, except that a tactic he made famous benefited his candidate.

Given that the Nutt situation is in Arkansas and involves a charge of adultery I might have made a different presidential reference, but that's just me.

Urban Meyer is a caring, compassionate man

The question of an early signing period was discussed today at the SEC coaches' meeting. The recruiting year typically ends in early February.

Leading the charge against an early signing period was Urban Meyer, who made out like a bandit during the end of the 2006-7 recruiting year by poaching a number of other teams verbal commitments. Meyer stated that "I think we should know their families. I think they should meet my family. That's when you usually get a good deal going. If you have an early signing period, that's not going to happen."

Color me skeptical. Meyer coaches Florida. Florida, unlike places such as East Lansing, Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, and South Bend, Indiana, happens to be warm in January and February when many highly rated football prospects are making their decisions. An early signing period would negatively impact this current advantage. (I haven't really thought about whether such a period makes sense otherwise).

So maybe, just maybe, getting Shelley's input isn't really the foremost of Urban's concerns.

The TV gods

In the bi-partisan spirit of this blog, I offer a pair of proposals that both Spartans and Wolverines can support...

Michigan vs. Michigan State... under the lights?

Thus far, this year's Michigan vs. Michigan State contest in East Lansing is listed with an official start time as "TBA." A look at the ESPN/ABC listings for the day reveals a potential regional yawner of UCLA/AZ on ABC for 3:30, and a curious option of ABC or ESPN2 for the 8pm Oregon State vs. Southern Cal matchup. Meanwhile, the ESPN schedule for the day shows no games yet nailed down for any spot on the network.

Translation: If Mark Dantonio can create a good jolt out of the gate for the Spartans, and if Michigan doesn't jinx its "longest streak in the nation without a losing season" run, then there could be a real reason to hope for a late kickoff and national broadcast for this game.

And that's something that tailgaters from either fan base should hope for. At a minimum, there must be a few Michigan fans who'd like to experience a late kickoff for a change (though the Michigan AD said last year that late games go against the "early in, early out" mindset of the fan base). For Spartan season ticket holders of long standing, the magic of kicking off under the lights needs no explanation.

Comcast and the Big Ten Network

Speaking of reasons for Spartans and Wolverines to both lobby the TV gods, herewith is a suggested letter to Comcast's Michigan affiliates if they elect NOT to carry the Big Ten Network as part of their basic lineup of stations at the beginning of the season:

Dear Comcast:

Please be advised that this is NOT a letter to request that you carry the Big Ten Network this football season. Instead, it is an advisory. The first time that <Michigan / Michigan State> plays on the Big Ten Network and does not appear on my home TV's basic cable package, you will have my cable box delivered to your offices at 8 am the following Monday morning and I will have a DirecTV dish (or another competitor that does get the Big Ten Network) wired up before the kickoff of the next Thursday night ESPN game.

Dear Leader Plaza

Dangerous totalitarian regimes and more benign banana republics are easy to spot by their tell-tale sign of naming public spaces after political actors who are still alive and still in office (Cuba, Iraq, North Korea, Wayne County, etc...)

This past Friday, Michigan State's Board of Trustees voted to place the glorious name of Dear Leader George Perles and Mrs. Dear Leader atop a plaza in His honor, due to a $500,000 gift that the royal couple donated to the university. It will provide a "public gathering place" next to the Duffy Daugherty Football Building -- a spot where the grateful may pay homage to DLGP and Mrs. DLGP, with the added option of sometimes seeing His immense majestic self in person. Gathering at Dear Leader Plaza will seemingly be free of charge, but His Super Bowl rings and more remote anatomical locations may be kissed for a small fee -- take note Golden Domers.

Students of 1980's political history in either South America or the MSU Athletic Dept will easily sense a familiar storyline. DLGP isn't just your typical "most favored school celebrity," showering cash on the spot of his past glory and justifiably expecting some form of public recognition. No, he is a brand-new voting member of the very board that arranged for Him this honor. Michigan Democrats everywhere must still wet their pants in giddy bursts of laughter and vandalism at what happened in a pre-convention smoke-filled room when they decided to re-enact Caligula's appointing of his horse to the Roman senate and nominated Dear Leader to be their candidate to the MSU Board for the 2006 elections. On Election Day, as some guy said, history repeated itself a second time as farce.

Dear Leader Plaza will likely mention His majestic and glorious Rose Bowl victory of 1988. Will it also mention His subsequent manipulating of the very elective body on which he now serves and how this led to the absurd exile of His then main rival, the (admittedly pathetic) MSU el-presidente John DiBiaggio? How about the cloud of NCAA sanctions that followed in the wake of His own ouster a few years later at the hands of el-presidente McPherson? Or His threats to file lawsuits against the place He is now entrusted with caring for?

An old Spartan Stadium cheering section needs its voice back: Fire George!

Vacation? We're 1-5 versus Ohio State

Lloyd Carr is on a one-week jaunt to Australia as a guest of Russel Crowe, who starred in 2005's "Cinderella Man," which Michigan used as a motivational theme for the 2006 season. Crowe owns a rugby team that Carr visited.

Apparently, given this quote, the Daily Telegraph lacks quality sports editors:

"As head coach of the University of Michigan Wolverines since 1995, Carr is the 'winningest' college football coach in the States and as big a name as they come."

No word on whether Jim Hermann has booked on Qantas yet.