WHY DOES MICHIGAN KEEP TRYING TO COUNT THE HILLSDALE COLLEGE BASKETBALL GAME AS A VALID DIVISION-ONE VICTORY?

Next week is "Shembechler Week"

THIS IS "BEILEIN MONTH"

(Originally published on 3-5-15)

Okay, let's face it, times are tough for University of Michigan Basketball. Their women's team just got bumped from the league tourney by Michigan State, and their men's team is still digging into their own heads to discover just how they could blow a six-point lead with 16 seconds left at Northwestern. They probably feel like conjuring up an extra win or two out of thin air.

That's exactly what they are doing by counting their men's game against Hillsdale College as if it were a regular-season victory. That should always have been regarded as an "exhibition game". Folks everywhere are forced to constantly rectify the UM season record by subtracting that "win".

Hillsdale College is not a D-1 school.

As usual, we now move forward to prove our point with factual information. MSU played a game against Hillsdale College in the 2011-2012 season, and it was considered by all to be an exhibition game. Here's the proof:

M-Live Story on MSU vs Hillsdale EXHIBITION GAME

MSU Sports Information Official Release

on Hillsdale College EXHIBITION GAME

ESPN Season Schedule Shows No Game Against Hillsdale College

Because it was an EXHIBITION GAME

Wikipedia Web Page About 2011-2012 Season

Listing Hillsdale College as an EXHIBITION GAME

Hillsdale College is a Divsion-2 school with less than 1500 students, and when Division-1 schools play them, it is known as an "exhibition game". There is no reasonable explanation for why the University of Michigan is trying pass off one of their exhibition games as a regular-season contest. It seems likely that they are just padding their record, trying to pump themselves up without cause. As usual, right?

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MICHIGAN TAKES LOSING RECORD INTO B1G TOURNEY, NO MATTER WHAT THEY SAY

THIS IS "BEILEIN MONTH"

Next week is "Shembechler Week"

(this article was originally published on 3-12-15)

The final focus for the Michigan basketball team is to raise their season record to at least the ".500" mark after finishing play in the B1G Conference Tournament. To do so, they must win at least two games, as they are currently one game below .500.

But they keep wanting you to believe

that they are already at .500 based on

their exhibition-game victory over

Hillsdale College in mid-November.

What's truly amazing is how the sports-media takes their Bright Shining Lie and eats it right up. Nearly everybody is reporting the UM season record as 15-15, but the farther away you get from Ann Arbor, the more likely you are to find the truth.

For example, check out the Sagarin Rankings, published for the past several decades by USA Today. According to Sagarin, the Wolverines are 14-15 right now:

CURRENT SAGARIN RANKINGS - MICHIGAN @ #77

Did you see their season record listed at 14-15? For a close-up view, look here:

MICHIGAN SEASON RECORD OFFICIALLY 14-15

You can also check the Hillsdale College athletic web site, where their recap of their game against UM includes the following language:

"The Chargers made the Wolverines work and sweat in a game Michigan pulled away to win in the second half 92-68 at Crisler Arena. Hillsdale gets its season officially started Tuesday, Nov. 25 in a non-conference game at Cedarville."

It looks like Hillsdale College didn't consider the game to be "official" on their end. If you look at the Hillsdale College men's basketball schedule/results page, you will see 14 total losses on the list, but an "official" season record of 13-13. EVEN HILLSDALE COLLEGE DOESN'T COUNT THE GAME ON THEIR SEASON RECORD.

Once again, those "amusing" folks down at the University of Michigan are trying to artificially pump-up their public reputation, polishing up their image by creating the illusion of dominance. Or in this case, mediocrity.

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GREAT JOB BY BRENDAN QUINN OF M-LIVE.COM

David Brandon knew things could get tight this year for the Michigan men's basketball team. John Beilein told him he needed some help with the schedule this year, and Brandon cooked-up one more doozy of a deal before he self-terminated from UM.

Michigan took an exhibition game and turned it into

a real contest, right in front of everyone's eyes.

They hoped nobody would notice, and so far,

it has worked out real well.

Excepting us, of course, we definitely noticed. We saw the Hillsdale College game on the schedule and we called it like it was, an exhibition game against a Division Two school. We didn't carry that banner all through the season, as it wasn't clear how much of a difference it would make at the end of the year, if any. As it turns out, Michigan is banking on everybody believing in their little trick play in order to qualify for the National Invitational Tournament.

So we are beating the drum of reality, asking only for fairness in how the sports media and the major athletic institutions treat that school in Ann Arbor.

When Michigan State played Hillsdale College in 2011,

it was counted as an "exhibition game."

When Michigan played Hillsdale College in 2014,

it was counted as a "regular season game."

We don't like to call-out the individual sports reporters by name when they pay off their shadow-employer with media bias (although eventually, in this case, we will). But for now, let's recognize at least one reporter for acknowledging the unavoidable truth, that Hillsdale College is a Division Two school.

BRENDAN QUINN of M-Live made an accurate reference to the Hillsdale College game in his post-game article Friday. It's the first reference we've noticed in the sports media that describes that game accurately.

Congrats to Brendan Quinn for keeping it real*.

*Okay, he still listed the UM record as 16-16, rather than the true 15-16, but at least he noted the season record includes a "win" over a Division Two team.

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MICHIGAN BASKETBALL PLAYS DIVISION TWO TEAM, COUNTS IT AS REGULAR SEASON WIN

The Michigan Basketball team just played its regular season home-opener last night, beating Northern Michigan, 70-44. Bully for them, right? Except for one thing:

Northern Michigan is a "Division Two" Basketball Team!

Why is UM calling this a regular-season game?

This seems like a case of "Deja Vu all over again". John Beilein had his Wolverines host Hillsdale College last season, and called that one a "regular season game" as well, despite the FACT that Hillsdale College - - - - LIKE NORTHERN MICHIGAN - - - is a Division Two basketball team. It was that "victory" that allowed Michigan to claim a 16-16 record last year, rather than the actual 15-16 (losing) record recognized by the NCAA.

Are they kidding themselves yet again? The NCAA now recognizes the University of Michigan as a perfect 0-0 for this season, since they have yet to beat, or even play, a Division One team.

For those of you thinking I'm nit-picking here, let's be clear about one comparative fact:

Michigan State also played Northern Michigan

in basketball, just last week, winning, 94-53.

But the Spartans called that contest

an EXHIBITION GAME!!!

For the record, MSU also played Hillsdale College in basketball several years ago, and that contest was also called an EXHIBITION GAME.

Why is Michigan playing lower-division teams and counting the "wins" on their regular-season record?

How can UM pull such tricks and get away with it?

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THE MICHIGAN BASKETBALL TEAM IS NOW .500 FOR THE SEASON WITH A 15-15 RECORD

Great job by the Wolverines today, they really let Illinois have it. Bully for UM. And "good luck" to them tomorrow against Wisconsin.

But they are only 15-15, not one game above .500 at 16-15.  The winning record that's being reported counts a Division Two opponent (Hillsdale College) on par with Northwestern and Kentucky. That's ridiculous, but the Michigan-loving sports media is all too quick to swallow whatever is handed out for lunch in Ann Arbor.

IF they beat Wisconsin on Friday, THEN they will be 16-15.

Why Does Michigan Keep Trying To Count The

Hillsdale College Basketball Game As

A Valid Division-One Victory?

Michigan Takes Losing Record Into

B1G Tourney, No Matter What They Say

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MORE FAKE UM FOOTBALL WINS? HOW ABOUT THE ENTIRE 1909 SEASON! (ineligible player)

Seems like we keep hearing about "fake-out" attempts by the University of Michigan. They faked the attendance numbers for their football games, they faked an exhibition basketball game into a regular-season game (Hillsdale), they faked a "Senior Night" for a player who was not a senior and whom they may still "re-sign" for his second "senior season" (Max Bielfeldt), and they faked a college basketball career for a player whom they dropped like a hot potato as soon as better players appeared on the horizon (Austin Hatch).

We've been reporting on the faked-out nature of their so-called "All-Time Wins" record for college football. UM claims 915 "victories" and the top-spot amongst Football Bowl Subdivision schools, yet we've shown how dozens of their claimed wins were against pick-up squads of high-school age kids.

But the 1909 season may be the most

egregious claim of them all.

Michigan blatantly used illegal players

to win six games that year.

They even admitted to cheating.

The non-college-student who caught most of the attention was James "Joy" Miller, arguably the best player on the UM team in 1909. Turns out he barely attended any classes, and he was never actually enrolled as a college student at Michigan. In other words, he was a professional player.

We don't need to make things like this up,

we just report on stuff that's glossed-over by 

the UM-loving mainstream sports media.

Here is the link.

Here is a preview of what you will find in the story if you click on the link:

"In early December 1909 the Michigan Daily reported concerns over whether newly elected team captain James ‘Joy’ Miller was properly registered as a U-M and if he actually attended enough classes during the fall 1909 to be eligible for the football team. While an official decision had yet to come down on the incident, Chairman of the Board in Control of Outdoor Athletics Geo. W. Patterson had heard enough and started firing off letters of apology to Michigan’s 1909 opponents. The U-M Bentley Library holds a copy of the apology sent to Minnesota in its archives. The one page missive, dated December 22, 1909, explained the situation:

"The facts of the case are that Mr. Miller returned to college late this fall, registered in the Engineering Department but neglected to enroll in his classes, although he did attend some of them."

"On Christmas Eve 1909 the New York Times broke the news to the world with a headline that howled “FOOTBALL SCANDAL IN MICHIGAN TEAM”. Miller’s colleagues in the School of Engineering recommended that he be kicked out of school. After ignoring several requests to return to campus to face the charges, Miller was officially expelled on January 14, 1910."

So there goes another six (6) "football wins" swirling down the drain-pipes of history. And along with it, the mythology that Michigan never cheats at football. Looking over the historical record, it's not so hard to understand the roles played more recently by players like Taylor Lewan, Brendan Gibbons, and others.

Combined with our other articles on this topic (links below), that makes 27 undeniably bogus football wins for UM, leaving them a mere eight (8) games ahead of Notre Dame on the all-time list. Can we find more fake victories? Yes we can, stay tuned to this web site!

Five "Wins" Claimed Against a Modern Banquet Facility

Five More Bogus Wins Claimed by UM

Five More Phoney-Baloney "Games Won" by Michigan

Games Against Surgeons, Soldiers, and Cricket-Players

Michigan's Most Stupid "All-Time Win"

- - - Research credit for this article goes to MSUSpartan76 - - -

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UM STILL TRYING TO GET 20th WIN OF SEASON

If you look up Michigan Men's Basketball in the standings you will see their season record listed as "20-10". So it appears as if John Beilein has followed-up from last year's "16-16" record with a 20-win season, right? NOT SO FAST, MY FRIENDS!

The Wolverines are  misrepresenting their season record for the second year in a row. You may recall that last year, UM played Hillsdale College and counted their (inevitable and unimpressive) win as a regular-season victory. But we have exhaustively shown that any game played by any Division One team against Hillsdale would have to be counted as an EXHIBITION GAME since Hillsdale is a Division Two program. That move tricked the sports media into reporting the Michigan season record last year as "16-16", rather than the accurate count of 15-16.

John Beilein is up to his old tricks again. His team played an exhibition game in November against Northern Michigan, another Division Two program. Of course, they won. But they counted the game as a regular-season victory, allowing them to now claim 20 wins instead of the actual 19 games they won against Division One teams. They may yet win 20, but they haven't at this point.

Don't believe me? Look at the screen-shots below, taken from a variety of legitimate sports-media web-sites that respect the NCAA's view of the matter. According to ultimate the ruling body, Michigan has 19 wins right now, not 20.

ESPN "DAILY RPI" Rankings List (3-1-16)

"REAL TIME RPI" Rankings List (3-1-16)

"SAGARIN" Rankings List (3-1-16)

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JOHN BEILEIN CONJURES UP THIRD LOSING SEASON IN EIGHT YEARS AT MICHIGAN

(July is "Beilein Month" - - - originally published on 3-16-15)

The curtains have closed on the Michigan Wolverines men's basketball team for this year, wrapping up their third losing season in the past eight years. All three bad seasons included losing records in the league and overall. All three years included watching the post-season from the living room couch.

We maintain our assertion that UM finished 15-16 this year, and we have exhaustively made our case to that point in the past two weeks. There is simply NO WAY that a contest with Hillsdale College should be counted as a regular season game.

Apparently, the experts agreed. Remember, it's USA Today that publishes the Sagarin Ratings, not exactly a shabby second-rate media outlet. The NCAA knows that Michigan's final record this season was 15-16.

In fairness, this should stifle the wild claims

about the old apple-picker being Hall-of-Fame material,

much less being "better than Izzo".

Beilein is a good coach. He's had some great seasons and some stinkers, at every place he ever worked (except Richmond). He took a big chance in his current job on some great players who were not likely to succeed in college, they left him in the lurch, and he got caught with some injuries. He had plenty of time to create his program, and he did it in a way that emphasized risk, and he got burned by his risk-taking (on player selection). Plus, some guys apparently don't really want to play their whole career for him.

Coaches have a lot of things to consider when offering scholarships to high school players. Immediate impact versus long-term stability is one such issue. Beilein rolled the dice, won some of his gambles, but ultimately has crapped-out.

He will likely have some success in the future, but when that day comes, could we please tone-down all of the "Beilein-is-God" rhetoric? I mean, it's not like he's Jim Harbaugh, right?

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UM BASKETBALL WINS FIRST GAME OF SEASON

The Michigan Basketball team defeated Elon last night, 88-68, raising their season record to 1-0. Wolverine officials have convinced the sports media that their season record is actually 2-0, but they are counting a win last week over Northern Michigan University as a regular season game.

The Wolverines played Northern Michigan last week in what must have been an Exhibition Game, since NMU is a "Division Two" basketball program. It's the same team that played Michigan State on November 4, losing to the Spartans, 94-53, in an EXHIBITION GAME.

UM pulled a similar stunt last season, playing Division Two Hillsdale, and counting it as a "regular season victory" to record 16 wins against 16 losses. Their true NCAA record was 15-16. They avoided the "losing season" designation in the sports media by portraying their overall record last year as 16-16. But to do so, they counted the win over Hillsdale. The sports media has generously (or ignorantly) allowed them to report themselves as a .500 team for 2014-2015. Now they're kicking off the 2015-2016 season by injecting a fake win into their record.

MSU has played both Hillsdale and Northern Michigan several times each over the past couple of decades. Every time the Spartans play them, it's an "exhibition game". The reason is because those schools are Division Two basketball programs.

There are well over 300 Division One men's college basketball teams each year, most with programs that span many decades, many willing to play pre-conference games against major college teams. It would be no problem for any B1G school to fill up their schedule with actual Division One teams. Michigan is counting the NMU game as a regular season victory despite the fact it will not count towards post-season eligibility. Why would they do that?

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MICHIGAN WINS SEPTEMBER NATIONAL TITLE

The NCAA has released football rankings for the month of September, and just as predicted by everybody in the sports media, the University of Michigan has won the National Title with a perfect 3-0 record.

Critics of the ruling point out that other teams were also undefeated in September, but NCAA officials have explained that victories by UM "count more than" victories by other teams, and that everybody should have known by now "that's the way it works".

Utah fans have complained that their team actually beat the Wolverines on the field of play, but the NCAA has re-classified that contest as an "exhibition game". NCAA officials point out that if the Michigan Basketball team can count an exhibition game against Division Two Hillsdale College as a regular season game, then UM can also turn the Utah game into a meaningless exhibition.

Two Wolverine players also won the "September Heisman Trophy", though their specific identities have not been released. The NCAA has advised fans wondering who won the coveted award to just check the Michigan Football statistics and pick the top two guys in any category and assume they are the award-winners.

The rest of the college football season is now meaningless, though most previously scheduled games will still be played. One exception is the UM game against Ohio State in November. Buckeye Coach Urban Meyer has requested to opt-out of that contest, on the grounds that his team "stands no chance" against Michigan. When asked the reason why, Meyer said it was because Utah beat Oregon, and walked away looking down and shaking his head.

It remains unclear whether UM will show up for any more football games this year, since their season goal has already been accomplished by "winning in September". But rumors are growing that Jim Harbaugh's son and John Beilein's son will be holding a series of contests in which they both take off their shirts while shot-gunning beers and sending tweets to teenage girls.

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TODAY IN chUMp HISTORY: MARCH 12, 1883

Wolverine Nation woke up this morning with the hope of seeing their men's basketball team win at least one game in the conference tourney, ostensibly so that their season record will remain at or above ".500". They consider themselves to be 15-15, but they are counting their exhibition game against Hillsdale College as an actual, regular-season victory, despite the FACT that Hillsdale is a Division Two school.

Oh well, those folks are always counting up numbers and throwing them around at people. The paragon of their numbers-games is the so-called "All-Time Wins Record" in football, a sport that used to be successful in Ann Arbor. In order to stay on top of that vaunted list of really old schools, they have to count up events that took place just after General George Armstrong Custer met up with Sitting Bull in a major upset defeat. Without those rugby games counted as "all-time wins", the UM numbers drop off considerably.

But you have to admit Michigan was very good at

playing rugby in the days before electricity!

But not necessarily in 1883, when the University of Michigan Rugby Club won their only game of the year on this date in history, March 12.

Wait, March? For "football"? Who plays football games in March? Nobody does, but back in the covered-wagon days, the rugby players had an exhibition scrimmage, reportedly attended by zero spectators. And they won the game, 40-5, over the "Detroit Independents". There is no recorded information available about the "Detroit Independents", leading us to believe that they were a very independent group, indeed! So independent that they really didn't exist beyond that field on that day.

The proto-wolverines badly needed a win,

as their "all-time wins record" at that point was 2-3-1.

So they lined up a group of bodies and got the win.

Hail to the victors, eh?

It would be neat to say that they won one for their Coach, but there was no coach of that team. They like to keep track of the "event" as a football win, but there was no tackling below the waist allowed, and no forward passes, either. Those five points by the nobodies was probably a field-goal, which was worth more than a touchdown on that day and for two decades to come.

The rest of their season was played eight months later, with three games between November 19 and November 27. They lost to Wesleyan, got pummeled by Yale, clipped by Harvard, and finished off by Stevens Institute. So they were 1-4, with only that one memorable triumph over the motor city nobodies.

Of course, this was before there was a "Motor City", because there were no automobiles. No cars, no coach, no fans, not really football at all. But the Michigan faithful ardently believe that it was a football game, and a victory, no less. Um, okay, whatever.

Keep this one in mind the next time you see one of those yellow shirts with the silly "all-time wins" claim.

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