Michigan Cheated – How the Rest of the B1G Did Too

Photo: Sports Illustrated

The Big Ten has a cheating problem; but who doesn’t?

If I have to hear the name Connor Stalions one more time I’m going to go full Vincent van Gogh. Yes, the entire saga is hilarious. He’s a total dork who is obsessed with Michigan football to potentially unhealthy levels. Each day the evidence continues to pile up that he went all out to help Jim Harbaugh and his coaching staff cheat.

My question is…who isn’t cheating?

If you’re involved in big money sports, with your and others jobs and livelihoods on the line, of course you’re going to gain whatever competitive edge you can get to win. Michigan definitely went overboard with it, but there’s a lot of glass houses throwing stones in this whole scenario.

So, how could each team in the B1G have maybe “bent the rules” to find any type of advantage they could?

Illinois – Brett Bielema showed Iowa recruits his tattoo to get them to de-commit from the Hawkeyes and come to Champaign.

Indiana – made empty promises to players in the transfer portal that if they came to Bloomington they’d automatically get a spot on Shark Tank.

Iowa – confirmed fair and balanced decision making on playing time; denounced nepotism in all its forms.

Maryland – claimed that there is more to the state than crab cakes and football.

Michigan State – forged documents into showing Sparty the Spartan has never taken PEDs.

Minnesota – assured us all that PJ Fleck definitely isn’t a cult leader.

Nebraska – wondered aloud why the other 132 D1 football coaches don’t wear very cool smocks.

Northwestern – continued to swear, under oath, that they are Chicago’s Big Ten team, despite four other conference team’s alumni being in the top 10 in Chicago’s population.

Ohio State – Ryan Day persisted in his vow that he doesn’t color his hair and beard.

Penn State – promised their fanbase that it’s totally normal for a giant cat to be completely naked other than wearing a tie.

Purdue – leaked text messages from Ryan Day asking Coach K about his hair care routine.

Rutgers – “would be a real shame if you didn’t let the Knights cover here…”

Wisconsin – shut down any investigations that they’re working in an underground lab on another batch of high-motored athletic freaks using a certain family’s genes.

It’s really that simple, everyone cheats. It’s a widespread misdemeanor that is prevalent in big time college sports. Anyone with a few minutes and access to Google could find out all of the above-mentioned elusiveness of NCAA bylaws.

Sunday State of Mind: August 10th-August 16th

Photo: Shifaaz shamoon on Unsplash

Hello, and welcome to this week’s SSM.

The NBA playoffs are ready to go
The postseason tournament starts tomorrow
The champions will pop some champagne bottles
Big loss for the players though, no Instagram models

We already know The Masters have been pushed back
But come November, golf fans will be jacked
Unfortunately, Augusta announced this week
No fans due to COVID this year, not one in-person peek

The COVID ravaged Cardinals actually played a game!
Their first since July 29th, what a shame
They swept the White Sox in a double header
Hopefully lesson learned, and the players will be better

Ohio State QB Justin Fields, not a quitter
Started a MoveOn.org petition, asking the B1G to reconsider
A continued push of the #WeWantToPlay movement
If this petition goes anywhere, we could see some college football improvement

I’m in a Glass Case of Emotion

College football fans, we all knew this was coming. The Big 10 and Pac 12 have officially cancelled their football seasons for this fall. At the time of this blog, leagues still moving forward are the ACC, AAC, Big 12, Conference USA, SEC, and Sun Belt.

Mixed emotions here. I love college football as much as anyone, and was really hoping there would be some way to make it work. But, at some point it seemed like a logistical nightmare to try and get a season in with the pandemic. The #WeWantToPlay movement on Twitter has been received loud and clear, but I also understand the university president’s and conference commissioner’s hesitancy to try and make this work.

I think this timely, very recent GIF should sum up how I feel.

RIP to the 2020 college football season.