1. Ohio State (4)
2. Oklahoma (2)
3. LSU
4. Georgia
5. USC
6. VT
7. Mizzou
8. Kansas
9. Hawaii
10. Florida

Posted under BlogPoll

Illinois will face off against USC in the Rose Bowl, meaning that Michigan will be in the Capital One Bowl, typically reserved for the #2 team in the Big Ten (this year, it will be the #3 team, as the conference has two BCS teams). The Wolverines will face off against the Gators of Florida, likely giving Ron English one last chance to stop a spread offense.

Posted under Misc.

Posted under BlogPoll

What a day.

The take-home point from the Les Miles debacle is not “LSU offered more money, so Les is going there.” Sure, that may be true, but something much more important happened. A completely unexpected turn of events notwithstanding, Les Miles will not be coming to Michigan. Not next year, not ever. Miles knows this. By treating Michigan the way he did, he officially torched any remaining bridge he had to Michigan.

The most interesting part of this, is that Miles has made no secret of his desire to end up as the head coach at Bo’s school eventually. It’s been his goal ever since he played under Schembechler. So maybe Miles doesn’t love Michigan as much as he says, or maybe he really does just value money more than the loyalty he’s been preaching about since his days at Oklahoma State.

If Les Miles loved Michigan as much as he says he does, he still might not be the next Wolverines head coach. What he did, however, was prevent himself from ever being the coach here. Enjoy your $35 Million, Les.

Posted under Coaching

Jim Carty reports that Les Miles has reached a deal with LSU for a contract extension, keeping him in Baton Rouge. No further details on who will be the next Michigan coach.

http://blog.mlive.com/annarbornews/2007/12/les_miles_to_stay_at_louisiana.html

Posted under Coaching

As many experts predicted, Michigan’s bowl game for this season will be played in Orlando – though it’s not yet clear which Sunshine State bowl will feature the Wolverines. The Capital One Bowl, on January 1st, and the Champs Sports Bowl, played on December 28th, are Michigan’s two options. How did it get here?

Illinois and Michigan tied for second in the Big Ten, with Wisconsin in fourth, and Penn State tied with Iowa for fifth. The Big Ten’s bowl tie-ins (in order, excluding BCS bowls, which have first choice) are: Capital One, Outback, Alamo, Champs Sports, and Motor City (with a host of eligible teams, a Big Ten team may also garner an at-large bid to another bowl). With Michigan tied for second, it would follow that they would likely be selected to either the Capital One or Outback Bowl.

However, Wisconsin has already accepted a bid to the Outback Bowl, and Penn State has done the same with the Alamo. This leaves Illinois and Michigan alone near the top of the Big Ten standings, with the Capital One and Champs Sports Bowls between them. Illinois will be selected before Michigan, but that selection may in fact be for an at-large BCS bid, allowing Michigan to get into the Capital One Bowl. However, if the BCS does not select Illinois, Michigan will be left to the Champs Sports Bowl. This means that Michigan fans should be rooting for Illinois to make it into the BCS.

What has to happen for the Illini to get their first such bid since 2001? Let’s examine the current BCS situation. There are 5 BCS bowls, meaning ten bids. BCS conferences all have a minimum of one (conference champion) and a maximum of two (conference champion plus one at-large) teams that will go to the BCS. At large bids are available to teams in the top 18 of the BCS rankings.
1. Missouri 11-1
2. West Virginia 10-1
3. Ohio State 11-1
4. Georgia 10-2
5. Kansas 11-1
6. Virginia Tech 10-2
7. LSU 10-2
8. USC 9-2
9. Oklahoma 10-2
10. Florida 9-3
11. Boston College 10-2
12. Hawaii 11-0
13. Arizona State 9-2
14. Tennessee 9-3
15. Illinois 9-3
16. Clemson 9-3
17. Oregon 8-3
18. Wisconsin 9-3

Big Ten and Big East – 1 or 2, 1
Ohio State and West Virginia, champions of the Big Ten and Big East respectively, are guaranteed BCS berths. The Big East will not send a second team, and the point of this exercise is obviously to see if the Big Ten can. Illinois will be the second Big Ten team.

Big 12 – 2
If Missouri beats Oklahoma, winning the Big 12, they will go to the BCS championship game, and Kansas will get an at-large berth to the BCS. If Oklahoma wins, they will get the Big 12 auto-bid, and either Mizzou or Kansas will get an at-large. Either way, the Big 12 sends two teams (remember, they cannot send three).

SEC – 2
Georgia, idle this week, is high enough in the BCS rankings to be guaranteed a BCS bid. The winner of the LSU-Tennesse SEC championship game will get the conference’s auto-bid. The SEC will send 2 teams to the BCS. Florida, while ranked ahead of Illinois, will be shut out from the BCS due to the maximum of 3 teams per conference.

ACC – 1 (or 2)
Virginia Tech and Boston College play for the ACC title in Jacksonville on Saturday. The winner of this game will get a BCS bid. If Boston College wins, VT may stay high enough in the rankings to be considered for an at-large bid. If VT wins, Boston College will certainly drop from consideration. Either way, it is unlikely that the ACC gets more than one bid.

PAC-10 – 1 or 2
USC is a shoe-in to the PAC-10 title, unless rival UCLA pulls a massive upset (don’t count it out – they upset USC last year, and Stanford(!) managed to pull it off this year). Also under BCS consideration is Arizona State, who faces rival Arizona this week. Arizona State is ranked two spots ahead of Illinois, and it would certainly be possible for them to get a bid over the Illini – assuming they get past the Wildcats. If both teams lose, the Oregon Ducks have a chance to go to the Rose Bowl by beating Oregon State.

Others – 1
Hawaii (ugh schedule ugh) is ranked 12th in the BCS, which is the cutoff for non-BCS conference teams to get an automatic bid to the Big Dance. Therefore, if they defeat Washington on Saturday, they will earn the right to get pasted in a big time bowl.

Add up those totals, and there are 12 teams that have BCS potential. Clearly, they can’t all make it in. Thus, the Illini (and, by extension, Wolverines) will have to cheer for a select few teams this weekend to end up where they want. The best case scenario is VT winning the ACC, either USC or Arizona State falling (or both, for that matter), and Washington beating Hawaii. If all those things happen, look for the Illini in the BCS, and Michigan in the Capital One Bowl.

(…and to think, I started this post with the intention of noting that Wisconsin and Penn State had already accepted bids…)

Posted under BlogPoll

(Thanks to MGoBlog, among many others.)

Internet rumor of the day comes to you courtesy of TigerDroppings, an LSU sports/recruiting site (a la Scout or Rivals, but to the best of my knowledge, unaffiliated). Various members of their message board claim to have heard directly from LSU players that Les Miles has announced to his team that he is leaving LSU to become the head coach at Michigan.

Of course, this is internet rumor until a source other than anonymous message board members confirm it.

Posted under Coaching

At this point in the coaching search, a lot of information has become available, and a lot of same information has ceased to be relevant. So where does the search stand now?

1. Les Miles appears to be the #1 candidate, with no clear #2 after the elimination of Kirk Ferentz from contention.
2. LSU has granted Michigan permission to talk to Miles about the coaching job. This permission isn’t necessary, but it shows Michigan’s willingness to do things the “right way.” The permission is also a good indicator that Miles will be the next head coach of Michigan, as information of this nature typically doesn’t leak out unless something is imminent.
3. Carr has been against Miles for a while, but if nothing else, it seems as though he is resigned to the fact that Miles will inevitably be the next UM coach.
4. Les Miles’s LSU Tigers play Tennessee for the SEC championship on Saturday. Assuming the Miles-to-Michigan rumors are a done deal at this point, Michigan fans will likely be rooting for the Tigers.
5. After this game (again, assuming Miles has reached an agreement with Michigan), it is unclear whether Miles will stay on to coach LSU in the bowl game, or (perhaps more likely), cease head coaching duties at LSU immediately, and begin some of the head coaching duties at Michigan. An announcement may be made as early as next week.
6. What duties would Miles be responsible for? First and foremost, reaching out to recruits to establish a stability on that front, as well as assembling a staff. Then, being around the current team during their bowl preparation (without actually being involved), will assist him in getting accustomed to his personnel, their strengths and weaknesses, and what schemes will work best for them, etc.

More on the Miles story as information becomes available.

Posted under Coaching

Per ESPN.

Posted under Coaching

Courtesy of the Detroit News.

The News reports that the coaching search committee is believed to have seven members, including Desmond Howard (former Heisman winner and current ESPN analyst), Ted Spencer (director of undergrad admissions), Percy Bates (athletic faculty representative), and 4 mystery members.

Thus far, however, Martin has conducted the interviews without the search committee.

Although it still is relatively early in the search process, Martin already has conducted two interviews for the vacancy.

He interviewed Ron English, Michigan’s defensive coordinator, on Monday, and Mike DeBord, the offensive coordinator, on Tuesday.

Martin conducted both interviews.

Posted under Coaching