The Other Side of Spartan Sports

I was browsing the web when I found your web site....

2011-12-01T14:38:56.118-06:00

I was browsing the web when I found your web site. I wanted to ask if you would please consider placing a link to my website called S & T Sports Fan Outlet?

We offer fan gear such as college banners, college flags, logo drinking glasses, sports throw blankets and more.

If you think it would be of use to your visitors, would you please consider adding a link to my website on your page. We are happy to offer a 10% discount on sports throw blankets in our team fan shop if you do so.

Here is the link you could add for our sports fan shop:

http://stfos.com/
stsportsfanoutlet.com - a one-stop shop for sports fan gear!

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks!

I hope you get the pic. It really is special. My...

2010-10-26T12:02:43.569-05:00

I hope you get the pic. It really is special. My wife got one with her mom, grandmother and Evie. I wish I could have done the same with my grandparents.

Enjoyed the post. It brings back my own memories v...

2010-10-11T23:54:06.106-05:00

Enjoyed the post. It brings back my own memories visiting my grandparents over the summer growing up. They didn't involve a caboose, but still are remembered fondly.

Likewise, I grew up watching Bobby Cox and Leo Mazzone rocking back and forth on TBS as a kid growing up and cheering for Glavine, Pendleton, McGriff, Gant, Sid Bream, Maddox, and Smoltz make their way to the playoffs every year.

Thanks for sharing, Derek. It sounds like you have some great memories to share and pass on. Blessing and prayers to your family and that all four generations get to spend an inning together soon.

The problem here (and, once again, I am frustrated...

2010-09-10T18:26:04.471-05:00

The problem here (and, once again, I am frustrated with Mark Hollis) is that we can blame this on FAU and their pricing scheme all we want, but it's going to be MSU that ends up with egg on its face after we are unable to fill up Ford Field. Not fair? Certainly -- but too bad, Mr. Hollis. Why did we ever agree to a home-and-home with a piss-ant program like Florida Atlantic in the first place? Why did we publicly cooperate in securing Ford Field as the venue without first exploring what FAU's pricing scheme would be, to see whether exorbitant rates were going to end up embarrassing us in our own State with low attendance?

The Big 12 also tried this with trying to produce ...

2010-08-24T05:57:24.126-05:00

The Big 12 also tried this with trying to produce Oklahoma/Nebraska title games. It didn't work. Maybe Tom Osbourne can talk some sense into David Brandon and explain to him the difference between college football and selling crappy pizza.

http://www.vcstar.com/news/2010/aug/21/breaking-fr...

2010-08-22T13:11:15.445-05:00

http://www.vcstar.com/news/2010/aug/21/breaking-from-tradition/

Pac-10 Commissioner: “My bias is for coming up for something that’s easy to understand for fans. I want an easy narrative to follow and it’s important that we have competitive equilibrium. Those are the two things I’m going to emphasize.”

Why does the Big Ten place no value on "something that's easy to understand for fans" and "an easy narrative to follow"?

When I wrote that, I had the following tiers in mi...

2010-08-22T13:02:01.033-05:00

When I wrote that, I had the following tiers in mind:
Very Good: Ohio State (106 wins), Nebraska (98 Big 8/12 wins), Michigan (94), Penn State (86)
Pretty Good: Wisconsin (79), Iowa (71)
Middle Class: Purdue (63), Michigan State (63), Northwestern (59)
Crummy: Illinois (45), Minnesota (44), Indiana (33)

I don't consider all-time results relevant. No...

2010-08-22T12:54:59.622-05:00

I don't consider all-time results relevant. Nothing that happened before about 1990 matters all that much. In recent decades, scholarship limitations have evened the playing field, and the universal availability of games on television has made recruiting a more democratic process. Historic league and national championships make the fans proud and keep them coming back for more, but have nothing to do with what the competitive dynamics are like today.

Since 1993, when Penn State joined the league (and the point from whence most of the statistics have been aggregated), Minnesota has 44 league wins to MSU's 63. That's a clear trend. Minnesota has been more aggressive in scheduling I-AA/I-FCS teams than MSU (we just played our first-ever I-FCS team last year) so I don't know that overall records are a very good way of comparing the teams.

I think you're letting your bias show through ...

2010-08-22T12:41:12.269-05:00

I think you're letting your bias show through a little with this statement:
"Penn State never misses one very good team and one middle class team (Ohio State and Michigan State), but Wisconsin never misses only a pretty good team and a crummy team (Iowa and Minnesota)."

By all metrics, Michigan State and Minnesota are comparable and by most estimates, Michigan State is worse, especially since the Gophers beat MSU in 2009, 42-34. (Although it would be fair to count both as "crummy" teams.)

Counting from 2000 (rankings are AP Poll/Coaches poll):
2000 - Minn - 6-6 (bowl loss to NC State), MSU 5-6 (no bowl).
2001 - Minn - 4-7, beat MSU 28-19, MSU - 7-5 (bowl win over Fresno State)
2002 - Minn - 8-5 (bowl win over Arkansas); MSU - 4-8 (no bowl)
2003 - Minn - 10-3, ranked 20/17 (bowl win over Oregon); MSU - 8-5 (bowl loss to Nebraska)
2004 - Minn - 7-5, (bowl win over Alabama); MSU - 5-7 (bowl loss to Hawaii)
2005 - Minn - 7-5, (bowl loss to Virginia); MSU - 5-6
2006 - Minn - 6-7; (bowl loss to Texas Tech); MSU (4-8, no bowl, one conference win, set the record for the greatest comeback from a deficit in college football in getting that one win.)
2007 - Minn - 1-11 (no conference victories, worst season on this list for both teams); MSU - 7-6 (bowl loss to Boston College).
2008 - Minn - 7-6 (bowl loss to Kansas, Minn ranked highest 20 during year); MSU - 9-4 ranked 24/24 (bowl loss to Georgia, ranked highest 17/15 during year).
2009 - Minn - 6-7 (bowl loss to Iowa State); MSU - 6-7 (bowl loss to Texas Tech).

Other notable matchups: MSU blew out Gophers in 2004, 51-17; but Minn returned the favor in 2005 with a 41-18 victory.
Gophers: six national championships, 18 Big Ten championships. MSU: six national championships, six Big Ten championships.

In my mind, Matt, a division that had Wisconsin, I...

2010-08-22T12:37:39.715-05:00

In my mind, Matt, a division that had Wisconsin, Iowa, and Nebraska, with a protected inter-divisional game against Michigan, would be just as attractive, no?

You can write to your school's leadership as follows:
Dr. Robert H. Bruininks
President, University of Minnesota
202 Morrill Hall
100 Church Street S.E.
Minneapolis, MN 55455-0110
upres@umn.edu

Mr. Joel Maturi
Director of Athletics, University of Minnesota
516 15th Avenue S.E.
Minneapolis, MN 55455-0130
icaadmin@umn.edu

Mr. Clyde E. Allen, Jr., Chair
Board of Regents, University of Minnesota
600 McNamara Alumni Center
200 Oak Street S.E.
Minneapolis, MN 55455-2020
allen190@umn.edu

Even though it probably won't happen, as a Gop...

2010-08-22T07:37:28.818-05:00

Even though it probably won't happen, as a Gophers fan in Mpls, I'm salivating at seeing a division that includes the Gophers with UM, MSU, OSU, WI & IA. Those are must-see games on the schedule every year and could help with recruiting knowing the team gets to visit the Big House & the Horseshoe every couple years.

Very well-thought out. Since you fixed this, how about the playoff next? I have my own thoughts on that (16 teams). Too long to get into here.

The funny thing about Adam's point is that the...

2010-08-22T05:41:16.366-05:00

The funny thing about Adam's point is that the ACC basically tried to do the same thing with Miami and Florida State when they split their divisions in 2005. Since then, only once has either of them even made the title game and instead Virginia Tech has made it the most often. Set the divisions geographically and things will work themselves out.

The other thing that chafes me about this is that ...

2010-08-21T23:19:16.175-05:00

The other thing that chafes me about this is that splitting OSU and UM is obviously intended to produce an OSU/UM rematch in the championship game. There's something I find inherently distasteful about gerrymandering the divisions to produce a rematch, and I find it particularly distasteful when it's these two teams that they're doing it for. It is the rare sort of act that is both disrespectful to the league's traditions AND disrespectful to the other members in the league, whose rivalries apparently are not important enough to gerrymander the divisions to produce a rematch. Are the rest of us chopped liver?

Hi, I work for Underground Printing we have a reta...

2010-07-08T13:06:44.491-05:00

Hi, I work for Underground Printing we have a retail and custom printing store in EL, wanted to talk to you about possible advertising or sponsoring your blog, please contact me at dustin97@gmail.com

I'm only coming up with 970 days. I think we h...

2010-06-30T08:13:40.039-05:00

I'm only coming up with 970 days. I think we have to wait another month.

nov07 27
dec07 31
2008 366
2009 365
jan10 31
feb10 28
mar10 31
apr10 30
may10 31
june10 30
total 970

I really am sorta meh it isn't one of the scho...

2010-06-10T00:34:45.634-05:00

I really am sorta meh it isn't one of the schools I wanted but it isn't one of the ones that didn't make sense to me. It sorta just seems okay.

I remain unconvinced. What relevance is there to t...

2010-06-09T17:10:39.897-05:00

I remain unconvinced. What relevance is there to the supposed "deadline"? Say Nebraska "commits" to the Big 12 on Friday. Why can't they change their mind later? Because they're going to pay some financial penalty? If they are doubling their conference payout that isn't going to matter.

The three football jerseys are actually two homes ...

2010-04-23T23:00:42.467-05:00

The three football jerseys are actually two homes and one away. We've now got an alternate home jersey, though no one has said yet when we'd use the alternates.

how much does the type-nerd in me hate the way the...

2010-04-23T22:48:41.726-05:00

how much does the type-nerd in me hate the way the Ts connect to the other letters? SO MUCH.
i am not really opposed to, or offended by, any of the other aspects of the redesigns except the bronze (i just think green looks classier next to silver) and the omission of the spartan helmet (i think it should be on all the fronts instead of numbers). also, why are the two football away jerseys different? is one for a captain or something?

2010-04-23T22:46:23.826-05:00

This comment has been removed by the author.

Did anybody do this? Was it even remotely worth t...

2010-04-22T08:01:09.536-05:00

Did anybody do this? Was it even remotely worth the money?

Now we need to make it a condition of apparel lice...

2010-02-12T19:52:05.334-06:00

Now we need to make it a condition of apparel licensing that manufacturers _actually_ use the Pantone color. I'm sick of seeing kelly green crap.

No. Just no. Do we REALLY need another school full...

2010-02-12T14:01:20.987-06:00

No. Just no. Do we REALLY need another school full of arrogant a-hole fans coming in here? We already have two of the most arrogant fanbases in the country, I don't think we need another. I know, ND would be one as well, but the difference is they're only "good" at football... which basically amounts to them whining about how they used to be good at football. I could handle that, if they came. But Texas? Texas might legitimately be contenders in ever single sport. I don't think we're ready to deal with that.

"The S is fine in Michigan, but no one in Mar...

2010-01-28T12:17:45.729-06:00

"The S is fine in Michigan, but no one in Maryland will know why you've got a big Green S on your plate".

1. I know it's Maryland, but give the people here a litte credit...Will all know what the S is for? No, but a lot will.

2. The words, "MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY" appear on the plate.

3. I,(and the alumni who joined me) didn't do this for the people in MD, we did it for ourselves. We did it to show our Spartan Spirit.

I know you live in the area, I commented here before asking if you wanted to join us in the quest to get plates. It's fine if you don't, but was the dig against the idea of plates here necessary?

Thanks.

Forgot that one. Seriously, what the heck is up wi...

2009-12-23T14:10:37.761-06:00

Forgot that one. Seriously, what the heck is up with that?