Michigan's academic situation

Do football players deserve to schedule easier classes? Michigan's "General Studies" major has been the subject of scrutiny for years, now one Michigan newspaper is attacking the university head on. If this is true, and Michigan has been passing football players regardless of academic performances, what does this mean for Michigan, and the Big Ten?

Who's been saying for years now that Michigan gives its football players a free academic ride? Yes, I'm raising my hand. Actually, I'm jumping up and down waving both arms high in the air. I guess the Michigan paper which is doing the series wanted to wait until Lloyd Carr left. After all, he did manage to beat PSU for all these years.

But I just don't understand how anyone is surprised by all this. Michigan fans have buried their heads in the sand, while the rest of the conference pretty much turned a blind eye. If Michigan goes down, then what would be left? Penn State? Wisconsin? These teams are well known--PSU more so--and could garner national ratings every football week, but Penn State is not the face of the Big Ten. Wisconsin is up there, but can they be the second bell cow next to Ohio State?

I'm not accusing anyone at Michigan of doing anything, as I have no way to back it up. However, are those in Ann Arbor really that dumb to what was going on inside the football academic advising offices? I've already read on message boards, Michigan fans defending their school by saying the newspaper had no real substantial evidence to back it up. That's like saying Joe Paterno doesn't make every, single decision regarding Penn State football. It's just a fantasy.

When you have the complete support of those in power, you can get away with anything. Michigan did that. I'm sure the Big Ten and Michigan officials will deny they knew anything about this. On that, I'll call preemptive shenanigans. If the powers that be deny anything looked funny, it's a flat out lie. They're going to tell us that this didn't throw up red flags? I probably shouldn't get so worked up over this. Penn State has its own issues right now. I'm not going to pull the "well, at least..." comeback, either. The Chris Bell thing just ruined everything for PSU this spring, and unless things move forward quickly, it's not going away soon. It's nice to see the conference working hard to improve its image, from PSU players packing machetes to half the Iowa football program going to jail, and Ohio State being well, Ohio State to Michigan maintaining the academic standards of Boobie Miles. This is a bad time for the Big Ten, and it deserves every bit of it.

--On a side note, and completely unrelated to this Michigan bash fest, I found this absolutely hilarious post by one of the fine UM bloggers out there. Take a read. It's worth your time.