Posted by Jerry Hinnen

Troubled Michigan wide receiver Darryl Stonum has been dismissed from the Wolverine program after another recent run-in with the law, Brady Hoke announced in a statement Tuesday.

"I love Darryl and wish him nothing but the absolute best," Hoke said.  "However, there is a responsibility and a higher standard you must be accountable to as a University of Michigan football student-athlete.  That does not and will not change.  It's unfortunate because I believe he has grown a great deal as a person since the beginning of the season.  My hope is that maturing process continues."

Hoke suspended Stonum for the entire 2011 season after a drunk driving arrest last May, Stonum's third incident involving law enforcement since enrolling at Michigan in 2008. Stonum was then ticketed Jan. 5 for driving on a revoked license, a violation of his probation and likely his third strike with Hoke.

"I appreciate everything the University of Michigan, [athletic director] Dave Brandon and Coach Hoke have done for me," Stonum said in the statement.  "I look forward to continuing my football career down the road, but more importantly, right now I'm focused on graduating from Michigan this Spring.  I understand only I am responsible for my actions. I'm sad about how all of this turned out, but I completely understand.  I love this school and my team and will miss them all greatly.  But I'll always be a Wolverine."

Despite his absence from the Wolverine receiving corps in the team's triumphant return to the BCS ranks in 2011, Stonum's dismissal remains a substantial blow for Al Borges' offense. One of the major prizes of Rich Rodriguez's well-regarded first class in Ann Arbor, the Stafford, Texas product broke through in 2010 with 49 receptions for 633 yards, good for second on the team in both categories. He also developed into a weapon on kick returns, setting a school record with 1,001 yards to go with a critical return-for-touchdown vs. Notre Dame.

The Wolverines are also now looking at a depth chart shy on the tall, rangy deep threats Borges prefers to use to stretch the field. Leading receiver Junior Hemingway has graduated, taking his Sugar Bowl MVP trophy with him and leaving the 5'8" Jeremy Gallon and 6'0" Roy Roundtree as the team's leading returning receivers. No other returning Michigan wide receiver caught more than 9 passes in 2011. Had Stonum returned, he likely would have played a major role in the Michigan offense.

But he won't, so Borges and Hoke will have to look elsewhere. If they can't find someone to fill the hole left by Hemingway, they (and Stonum) may regret Stonum's off-the-field choices even more than they do already.

For up-to-the-minute updates on Michigan football, follow Jeff Arnold's CBSSports.com Michigan RapidReports. 

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Posted by Adam Jacobi

Next year, Michigan is set to play Alabama at Dallas' landmark Cowboys Stadium, a state-of-the-art facility that is home to the Dallas Cowboys on Sundays and routinely hosts college football games at other times -- both in the regular season and in the Cotton Bowl every January.

That much is well-known.

Now, according to documents obtained by AnnArbor.com, we find out that one of the prime benefits to Michigan agreeing to that game is a $4.7 million paycheck:

According to a contract among ESPN, the Cowboys Stadium and the University of Michigan, the game will take place on Sept. 1, 2012. AnnArbor.com obtained the contract through a Freedom of Information Act request.

In addition to $4.7 million, U-M will receive 200 tickets, two luxury boxes and one field-level suite. The U-M marching band will receive free entry and reserved seating. U-M cheerleaders, dance team and mascots will also receive free entry.

Officials will provide approximately 25,000 tickets for Michigan to sell. 

This is the mother of all sweetheart deals, basically, and if AD Dave Brandon had declined the offer he would have deserved to be thrown into Lake Michigan. Here are the four things the deal has going for it:

1) It's like a major bowl game, with that kind of payout. The $4.7 million paycheck for Michigan is thrilling, because it's basically the most money anybody not running a BCS bowl is giving out for one football game. Currently, the biggest non-BCS payout in college football is $4.6 million, courtesy of the Capital One Bowl (no big surprise there), but even that's understating the importance of this payout, because... 

2) It's not a bowl game, so there's no bowl revenue sharing. Sharing may be caring, but greed greases the wheels of capitalism, and for Michigan to be able to keep all $4.7 million of its payout from the Alabama game is a huge deal. So yes, it's better than a typical bowl game, but more than that...

3) It's not the bowl game, so Michigan can still have one of those at the end of the year anyway. Remember, this is a season opener, so it doesn't replace anything about Michigan's postseason options. It's just basically a huge bonus that doesn't upset anything about the normal schedule of a season. Also...

4) It includes guarantees that bowl games just don't offer. Bowl games offer payouts, but they generally come with significant revenue-sapping restrictions; band members' seats have to be paid for, for example. Not so here, with all of the tertiary members of the football program (band, cheerleaders, etc.) getting free entry, plus an extra 200 seats. Y'know, for whoever. Pretty sweet.

Now, it's also worth noting that for as road games go, this is a mammoth payout, but it's not going to be enough to convince Michigan to do this instead of hold home games very often; keep in mind that from ticket sales alone, Michigan gets about that much from every home game, and that doesn't even factor in concessions, parking, and every other revenue generator centered around Game Day in Ann Arbor. So it's not really in Michigan's best interests to start looking away from the Big House very often, especially in seasons like 2012 when it "only" has two home games of the three remaining non-conference games (Michigan is at Notre Dame that year).

As "changes of pace" go, though, especially when it comes to putting your program on display in a vast but unusual market, this is just about exactly the way Michigan should do it.

Posted by Tom Fornelli

It turns out that Dave Brandon isn't the only athletic director in the state of Michigan who has had to deal with some fan backlash in recent days. It seems tradition and mascots are merely peanuts when it comes to reality television stars.

On Friday Michigan State athletic director Mark Hollis tweeted that Jersey Shore "star" Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino would be coming to a Michigan State game this season, and that he was a Spartans fan.



As you might expect, this caused quite a bit of backlash amongst Spartans fans that don't really want to be associated with The Situation or anybody who likes to spend their days tanning, drinking and fighting. So much so that Hollis had to get back on Twitter a little later to make sure that everyone understood that Sorrentino was coming to Spartan Stadium on his own, not as a guest of the school.



I also find Hollis' spelling of humorous to be humorous as well. As for The Situation, why he wants to attend a Michigan State game, I have no idea. 

Posted by Tom Fornelli

Last week Michigan athletic director Dave Brandon mentioned the possibility of Michigan having a new mascot, something that the school hasn't had since 1937. It turns out that having living and breathing wolverines can be dangerous, as they aren't exactly the most cuddly creatures. Well, as you'd expect there's negative feedback when somebody in a program with as much tradition as Michigan's mentions making a change. After all, having a college kid wander the sidelines in a furry costume would tear the tradition of Michigan football apart from the seams, and a great curse would be unleashed upon Ann Arbor.

Well, don't worry, Michigan fans. Dave Brandon made sure to do a bit of backtracking on the mascot on Friday. He says that while the school is considering the idea, it's not an active project.

Michigan athletic director Dave Brandon says the school has discussed the possibility of a mascot for the Wolverines, but that it's "not an active project."

There was a bit of a stir when Brandon was quoted in the online magazine Michigan Today saying the university is "interested in doing a mascot but it has to be something that fans love."

Brandon tells The Associated Press that a mascot is something Michigan has discussed because the school wants to connect with younger fans. However, he says there's "no timetable" and no current project to come up with one.

(wipes brow) Phew, that was a close one, wasn't it?

I hope Brandon tables this idea for the sake of his own job. If former Michigan defensive coordinator Greg Robinson taught anyone anything while at the school -- and it wasn't defense -- it was that bringing a mascot to Michigan will only lead to losing your job.

Posted by Tom Fornelli

Yesterday Michigan athletic director Dave Brandon talked about plans to expand Michigan Stadium to 120,000 seats, but that wasn't the only information about Michigan football that he shared on Thursday. Last week we did a post about the throwback uniforms that Michigan would be wearing in its annual meeting with Notre Dame this season as reported by the Detroit Free-Press. The jerseys were about as throwback as throwback gets, but according to Brandon, those aren't the uniforms that Michigan will be wearing.

Michigan athletic director Dave Brandon was asked during an interview on WTKA-AM (1050) this morning if that was an accurate representation of U-M's uniform.

"No," Brandon said.

Brandon said Michigan's uniform would combine "elements of a couple different eras," but emphasized that the final product has not been revealed.

"We're excited about rolling them out" at the appropriate time, Brandon said. 

Which is fine by me because, honestly, those things are ugly. Not to mention, they're not actually throwbacks since Michigan has never actually worn those uniforms. Those were apparently just Adidas' interpretation of what Michigan throwbacks should look like. And of course, since it's Adidas, you've got to throw some stripes on those things for no reason. If Notre Dame will be wearing actual throwback jerseys in the game, then Michigan should be too.