SimonOnSports

Which Big Ten schools are leading the way in NFL player development... Not surprisingly the Buckeyes and Wolverines lead the way for the Big Ten. Also not surprisingly the Buckeyes are starting to put some distance between themselves and the pack. Also Northwestern narrowly tops Minnesota for 2nd to last but both easily eclipse dead last Indiana. The position distribution which with the Big Ten provides the NFL The Big Ten churns linebackers towards the NFL. This is not a surprise. One of their universities is nicknamed Linebacker U. Between Penn State, Ohio State, Purdue and Michigan the NFL has found 30 active linebackers. Team by Team NFL Distribution... HELLO AFC EAST and HELLO NEW YORK JETS. For whatever reason the New York Jets are very Big Ten centric. Over 1/4 of their roster is from the Big Ten. The Dolphins aren't too far behind as well. Meanwhile their NFC EAST counterparts care not for the Big Ten, especially Washington with just two players from the con...

Terrelle Pryor should have chose Michigan . I've seen this thought bandied about multiple times over the past few seasons. The thought process goes like so: Michigan's offensive schemes are more aggressive and better suited to Pryor. At Michigan, Pryor would likely put up better numbers and be a more dynamic player. The thought process states that Michigan would be a better team with Pryor and that Ohio State would be a better team with a more prototype quarterback. As a result the conclusion is that Pryor made the wrong choice. This conclusion is completely bunk. As a Michigan fan I was eagerly awaiting " The Decision 08 " hoping that Pryor would choose the Maize and Blue and lead the university as quarterback for four seasons. When he made his choice I was annoyed A) Because he didn't choose the Wolverines and B) Because he chose the blond with herpes . Looking back 2 1/2 seasons later, it's obvious that he made the right decision. Why? Winning....

Watching this video makes me fully realize that I could not handle Sky Diving.

As we all know by now the Big Ten is going to be the Big 12 but still be named the Big Ten. As a result of them gobbling up Nebraska come next year they are discussing how they will change the conference around to morph into the cookie cutter twelve team conference. Two divisions of 6 teams with the winners of the divisions playing in the Big Ten title game to set the trip to the Rose Bowl and make a shit load of money. With this potential useless divisional alignment there have been ample rumors of bending tradition over and shoving a giant rod up its tail pipe. The tradition I obviously speak of is the final game of Michigan and Ohio State's regular season being against each other. Perhaps led by the president of Ohio State , the conference is contemplating both splitting up Michigan and Ohio State into different divisions as well as moving their game, aka possibly the biggest rivalry in college sports and hands down the biggest rivalry in the midwest, to a more pedestrian a...

Before we get off to the actual post lets get off to a light hearted start courtesy of Ryan Parker ... Hoop Ok with that out of the way let's start with Michigan's initial WVU pilfer, John Beilein. While at West Virginia Beilein ran a clean program which had some exciting spurts and almost made the Final Four in 2005. Two years later after winning the NIT, Beilein left for greener pastures i.e. more money at Michigan. At Michigan in three seasons Beilein has accomplished something no coach in a decade accomplished, he got the team to the NCAA tournament losing to Oklahoma in the 2nd round, but he also had a massively disappointing 3rd season with the Wolverines as they were ranked preseason top 15 and failed to reach even the NIT. Meanwhile at WVU, Bob Huggins returned to coach his alma mater. In his first year at WVU he guided the Mountaineers to the Sweet 16 after an upset of 2 seed Duke. In his second year he got WVU back into the tournament only to lose in the ...

I was perusing ESPN's main page and came across this overly confusing ad for their tv broadcast tonight. Illinois vs. #5 Michigan? As a Michigan fan I sure as hell know that the Wolverines are not ranked 5th in the Nation in basketball nor in hockey. So what could this ad be for? Are the Wolverines ranked 5th in Womens hoops? Nah, and that wouldn't be played on ESPN. Is Illinois actually playing Purdue and they just botched it? Nope. Apparently they just gave Michigan the #5 rank despite their .500 record. Not really sure how they made that slip up, but if you tune into ESPN tonight and are looking for the 5th best team in the country well I can guarantee you that you will be heavily disappointed.

Of all the people in the world to become an Athletic Director at a major university, CEO of a Major Corporation would probably be amongst the most shocking but likely rewarding. Meet David Brandon, former backup quarterback at Michigan in the late 70s, turned business man, turned CEO at Domino's Pizza since 1999 and now turned Michigan Athletic Director. Color me pleased. As a Michigan Fan I think you have to be at least somewhat excited about this news. The man has run a major and complicated franchise structure for a decade, running an athletic program should be a much less daunting task. He obviously has incredible love for the school as he served as a Regent for 8 years and now has moved from CEO to AD because of his love of the school and the opportunity. Finally, Ann Arbor's Domino's Pizza Franchises will now deliver your pizza in 10 minutes or less or your money back.

Here's a simple chart of my two football teams of choice and how their records have looked throughout the 2009 fall. It's like the decided to take a sled down the big slope starting in October. Any room left on all those Cincinnati bandwagons?

Going into monday nights game one of the medias biggest talking points was whether Chad Henne could handle the pressure the Jets were going to throw at him. How someone with so little experience would deal with the Jets elaborate blitz schemes. Well he did handle the pressure, he handled it to the tune of 20 for 26, zero turnovers and 2 touchdowns. After the game, some Jets weren't exactly gracious in defeat: Calvin Pace on Henne: “Against a second-year clown quarterback, we didn’t affect him enough. I guess you have to give him credit. The defense lost the game today.” If Chad Henne is a clown than Mark Sanchez is a _______? Why do I bring Mark Sanchez up? Because there is a rift that is illogical between the expectations of Chad Henne and Mark Sanchez. Let's take a quick look at the resumes of one Chad Henne vs. one Mark Sanchez. College Experience: Edge Henne Henne was Michigan's starting quarterback for 4 full seasons. He played in 4 bowl games which included two di...

Today is a good day to be a Jet fan. Our offense which had a glaring hole for the entire season just saw the hole theoretically patched up. Braylon Edwards has the potential and skill level to give the Jets what they need, a constant deep threat. Someone that can stretch the field and make opposing safeties and defensive coordinators think twice before stacking the box. Braylon puts Cotchery back in his old roll of 2nd wideout and should help him avoid any double teams and help him succeed, same goes for Dustin Keller. All in all this is a good day to be a Jet fan and a good move towards challenging the AFC powerhouses for conference supremacy. Outside of just being a Jet fan and being happy that this move could potentially be the move that moves the Jets to contender level, I'm mostly pumped with this move because Edwards is my second favorite Wolverine of all time, behind Charles Woodson of course. To celebrate this acquisition I give you video of Braylon dominating in colle...

I just got my hands on the Official Wolverine Offseason Practice/Workout Schedule. It's clearly mostly optional. Click On the Pic to Enlarge

Back in the late nineties when Vinny Testaverde was throwing interception after interception while Chad Pennington sat watching with a clipboard, I had a philosophy. My philosophy was that if Chad could not start over Testaverde than in all likelihood the former 1st round pick wasn't all that great. In the end it could be argued that I was wrong given the success that Chad has had since, but I still think this philosophy holds in many circumstances. If you can't start over someone that flat out isn't good, than in all likelihood you are either ludicrously unready to play, or you just aren't that good yourself. In the past few days there has been an uproar in Ann Arbor that Rich Rodriguez just might play all three quarterbacks in the opener. In reality he was simply saying he really doesn't know who's going to start . The problem is that the fact Rodriguez has yet to rule out Nick Sheridan makes me wonder about freshman recruits Denard Robinson and Tate Forcier. ...

This isn't really news worthy, but buddy mentioned how UVA hasn't beaten VaTech in 1994 days so I decided to see just how long it's been since the Wolverines have beaten OSU. And well today is the 2000 day anniversary . UGH...

So I've been out of the loop for a few days having been on vacation (quick notes will follow soon) and this morning I turn on the radio and here, "Greg Paulus traveled to Ann Arbor, watched a Wolverines practice and is contemplating transferring there and competing for their starting quarterback position." This sparks the, " Ahhhhhhhhhh no fucking way, ahhhhhhh, I'm in hell, ahhhhhhhhh, Greg Paulus? Ahhhhhhhhh ", reaction. My hatred towards Greg Paulus is well chronicled on this here site. I inducted him to the Hall of the Overhyped . I celebrated many Duke losses, here , here and here . He even won a Waste of Oxygen Award . Anytime the words Greg Paulus have been uttered by or around me, hate has spewed from my lips and now there is the potential that he might quarterback the Wolverines. Seriously? I understand he was once a top rated high school quarterback, but seriously? Greg Paulus? I couldn't have possibly ever contemplated rooting for the kid...

It's PhotoHunt Time. Take a look at the pictures and see if you can figure where the 5 differences are. Click on the Image to get a larger view if needed. Then when you are done check out the answers linked below. ANSWERS

~Adios Cinderella, all of the little boys and gals have been put to bed. And if anyone claims Arizona is a Cinderella they should be slapped in the mouth. ~How Chalklity is the bracket? A couple of upsets in day 2. A 12 seed in the sweet 16. But really when someone tells you they have the entire sweet 16 it's not surprising. It's just umm, so you went with Arizona, good for you. ~Of the #1 seeds Pitt, Louisville and UNC were challenged while UConn dominated. Of all the 1 seeds I still think that UConn is most likely to go down in the next round. Followed by Pitt. I feel as if Purdue is one of those teams that can get lights out from beyond the arc and beat anybody, will they do it against UConn? Probably not, but its possible. In all likelihood the Chalklity bracket will let the 4 1 seeds move on. ~The Wolverines fought well against Oklahoma but were completely done in by foul trouble to both Manny Harris and DeShawn Sims. The fact that they were able to stay in th...

~One thing that I've realized today is that I filled out way way way too many brackets. I'm in one pool for money and all of last night I thought I had picked Michigan in the pool as a homer pick and I thought I was on my way to a day of 16 of 16. Alas, I look this morning and well I was 15 of 16, with one miss. Michigan. Oh well, I guess that's the price to pay for this weeks boredom and constant bracket filling out. ~Also, I thought I just ported my pool picks to the "Picks on the site" but um, not completely. ~If you listened to me (aka Grutt) and picked against Michigan because I said they aren't good (they really aren't), well then I'm sorry. At least you know I got it wrong too. ~Speaking of Michigan, was it their goal to try to give their fans a heart attack? I mean they had the game in the bag until they decided to not score for essentially the last 5 minutes while allowing Clemson to bury 3 consecutive threes. Now they get Oklahoma which ...

It's PhotoHunt Time. Take a look at the pictures and see if you can figure where the 5 differences are. Click on the Image to get a larger view if needed. Then when you are done check out the answers linked below. ANSWERS

It's PhotoHunt Time. Take a look at the pictures and see if you can figure where the 5 differences are. Click on the Image to get a larger view if needed. Then when you are done check out the answers linked below. ANSWERS