I love to hate the BIG 10 Conference…. it’s easy to do. I have nothing personal against any particular school in the BIG 10… I just don’t care for any of them (with the possible exception of Joe Paterno’s Penn State Nittany Lions). I perceive the conference to be arrogant and overrated…. plus, the BIG 10 commissioner Jim Delany is one of the primary reasons we don’t have a college football playoff… truly a horrendous shame (I am sure to blog on this topic more in the future).
So this September its been rather delightful to see the fall of a once proud Michigan Wolverines program. Just ten months ago Michigan was in the chase for the National Championship… now they are the laughing stock of the the nation after losing to a team in a lower division (imagine the Chicago Bears losing to Northwestern University). Michigan will surely rebound… they shut out Notre Dame last weekend… but their fall from glory has left a sweet taste in the mouth of many college football fans.
I read a splendid article in Forbes Magazine written by Rich Kaarlgard. He writes about the link between the struggling state of Michigan’s economy and the University of Michigan football team. If you like football, automobiles, and economics (as I do) it’s a great read…. Here’s the link:
Abbreviated version:
http://blogs.forbes.com/digitalrules/2007/09/tackling-the-mi.html
Full Version (sign up required)
http://members.forbes.com/forbes/2007/1001/027.html