2018 Michigan Season thread

[Temp430]

Michigan picked up a couple more yesterday:

2019 CB DJ Turner, Suwanee, GA

2019 Athlete, George Johnson III, FL

[Temp430]

Michigan picked up a commitment from 2019 RB Eric Gray of Memphis, TN yesterday.  

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/sports/college/university-michigan/wolverines/2018/07/01/nations-no-1-all-purpose-back-eric-gray-picks-michigan-wolverines/749996002/


And 2019 DE David Ojabo of Blairstown, NJ just now.

[Temp430]

Michigan gets commitment from 2020 DT Denver Warren of Aurora, IL.

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/sports/college/university-michigan/wolverines/2018/07/03/michigan-lands-four-star-defensive-tackle-denver-warren-2020/753874002/

[Temp430]

Michigan picks up a commitment yesterday from 2019 safety Quintin Johnson of Washington DC.

[ELA]

One of the WTKA (Ann Arbor) personalities saying he's hearing Nebraska at UM, UM at MSU and PSU at UM will all be night games

[FearlessF]

I like night games.  Makes for good TV ratings

[Anonymous Coward]

It's that time for baseless rumors about Week 1's Game Day location. I may have watched the show two or fewer times across the last twelve years, but because hype has utility I'll admit I continue to hope they pick Michigan games.

This time, I'm guessing the top options are either Auburn-Washington (neutral: Atlanta) or ND-Michigan (South Bend). The former will have better combined AP/Coaches ratings. The latter will secure more eyeballs.

Meanwhile, while I don't believe the past predicts the future when the matter is of such small sample size and the mechanism this indirect, I also don't hate that Michigan is 5-1 v. ND with Game Day present (Ws: 1994, 99, 03, 11, 13; Ls: 1998) and would be glad to tack another on.

[ELA]

It's that time for baseless rumors about Week 1's Game Day location. I may have watched the show two or fewer times across the last twelve years, but because hype has utility I'll admit I continue to hope they pick Michigan games.

This time, I'm guessing the top options are either Auburn-Washington (neutral: Atlanta) or ND-Michigan (South Bend). The former will have better combined AP/Coaches ratings. The latter will secure more eyeballs.

Meanwhile, while I don't believe the past predicts the future when the matter is of such small sample size and the mechanism this indirect, I also don't hate that Michigan is 5-1 v. ND with Game Day present (Ws: 1994, 99, 03, 11, 13; Ls: 1998) and would be glad to tack another on.

Looking at the list, I'm surprised Notre Dame hasn't hosted it more.  8 times, tied for 11th with MSU and Wisconsin.
Granted that's not the weirdest part.  Some schools that have actually hosted it less?  Oklahoma (7), Penn State (6), Nebraska (6), Texas (6), Virginia Tech (6), Clemson (5), Georgia (3).
OSU (16), Alabama (13) and Florida (12) have hosted the most, followed by UM, FSU and LSU at 11 each.

[Anonymous Coward]

That led me to learn that Michigan does a lot better when Game Day is in Ann Arbor  (8-3, 0.727) than when away from (7-10, 0.412).

Makes sense. 

50-50 at ND.

[Anonymous Coward]

Also, although ND has hosted surprisingly seldom (8), they have been hosted a lot (20), for sixth in the rank.

[ELA]

Also, although ND has hosted surprisingly seldom (8), they have been hosted a lot (20), for sixth in the rank.

Actually, maybe not so surprising, considering those Notre Dame home games are likely NBC games, and ESPN is less likely to promote a game they won't show (which is also working against this one).  I know SEC fans complained about that for a long time, although once ESPN and the SEC tightened their relationship through the network, they became more willing to take the show to a CBS game.  Not so for NBC.
I think ESPN really upped that corporate synergy once the whole ESPN on ABC thing happened, making the 8:00 ABC game a permanent thing in 2006, which would line up with all of those South Bend trips except one happening in 2005 or earlier.

[Anonymous Coward]

I considered that, but only qualitatively (sometimes Game Day does attend Fox, NBC and ABC games). I don't doubt you're correct that even if they do show games they won't air, they do it less often. 

Of course it would have to be normalized for the fact that ESPN airs more modern CFB games than anyone else to begin with. Guess Id like to see a side-by-side of, e.g., Top 25 games since 1993 by broadcaster and see how the GameDay breakdown by broadcaster compares. No doubt it's tilted. But a quick search showed that it would be challenging to assemble the data, so...I won't.

[ELA]

I considered that, but only qualitatively (sometimes Game Day does attend Fox, NBC and ABC games). I don't doubt you're correct that even if they do show games they won't air, they do it less often.

Of course it would have to be normalized for the fact that ESPN airs more modern CFB games than anyone else to begin with. Guess Id like to see a side-by-side of, e.g., Top 25 games since 1993 by broadcaster and see how the GameDay breakdown by broadcaster compares. No doubt it's tilted. But a quick search showed that it would be challenging to assemble the data, so...I won't.

I'd also be curious to break it down by year.  My take is that early on it was truly the best game.  That over time it became the best game on ABC/ESPN, which was very ingrained from 2006-12 after they made the ABC Primetime Game an weekly occurrence.  Then I suspect it tilted back a little bit beginning in 2013, after the announcement that spring, of the ESPN-SEC Network.

[Mdot21]

RB Kareem Walker has long been suspected as a guy that was transferring. Well, it's officially official now. Kareem Walker transferring to Fort Scott Community College in Kansas.

He came into Michigan overweight and had to redshirt because of academics. There should've been red flags about him. He was a 5* and #1 RB at one point and then his play as a Sr was pretty bad and he just kept falling in the rankings. Hopefully for his sake he gets his stuff together at this community college.