Jim Harbaugh to Michigan

Fulfilling Michigan's own most inflated conception of itself: an alumnus who has enjoyed incredible professional success leaves what is widely considered to be the peak of his field to return to his alma mater for less money than he would have gotten elsewhere. The hiring rather changes the narrative about Michigan and its success in creating football coaches: there is every reason to believe that Harbaugh and LSU's Les Miles would have accepted any serious offer from Michigan to return home, possibly any offer, period.
The hiring also exposed (again) the significant different between college sports fans, professional sports fans, and those uninterested in sports. Michigan creates tremendous alumni loyalty by making itself into a distinct identity in spite of the large number of students, and the football team is one of the most important parts of that identity. I love living in North Carolina, and cannot really picture leaving, but for a good job offer in Ann Arbor, I might well do so.

FC Barcelona 0-1 Real Sociedad

I watched through the Jordi Alba own goal, and then realized the same thing all the other Barça fans had realized: this team is a mess, and it's the manager's fault. Desperation is built in to football: all the games count and all the goals count because one can never quite predict what the rest of the league will do, and this accounts for the tension that ratchets itself up throughout every game that's not Brazil-Germany at the past World Cup. Desperation that shows up earlier than that, earlier than, say, the 60th minute, is bad. Luis Enrique put out a bad starting XI, mismatched in such a way that all the needed players could not be added later, they made one mistake early on, and every move after that reeked of panic. Add to this the increasingly loud reports that Enrique is fighting with Messi and Neymar--and that their benching was a punishment for questioning his authority--and everything looks a mess.

Tottenham Hotspur 5-3 Chelsea

The flip side of Barça is Spurs, who are coming together at the right moment. Sports is about schadenfreude as much as loyalty to one's team, and in the Premier League there is no joy to be had that surpasses Chelsea losing, except perhaps the attendant thrill of Jose Mourinho losing. When it's your team that does it, it's even better. Spurs always lose to Chelsea, pulling a win in four or five of the last 40 meetings. Nor was it a fluke: Spurs were the better team, building the attack through strong midfield play (I even saw some tiki-taka make an appearance as they drew Chelsea out of defensive shape), and Harry Kane continued to prove that he can do whatever he wants. There's a plan, the team is excited, and they're rounding into form at just the right time.

I get that "white people solve racism" is an annoying thing in Hollywood movies, I really do. But sometimes it really was the case that white people of character actually intentionally chose to make a difference in the field they controlled, and Branch Rickey was one of those people: he signed Jackie Robinson out of business sense and idealism. The business sense doesn't cancel out the idealism, which was significant and showed up in other areas of his life, too. Which you would know if you bothered to learn any of the story, as the author of the above-linked post obviously did not.

Excuse me: University of Michigan alumnus Branch Rickey.

The University of Michigan: leading the way in getting people to realize the humanities are a better philanthropic investment than the sciences. HAIL.

Glorious trollery from beginning to end.

Michigan in what dubiously qualifies as the news:

Madonna, who spent one year in Ann Arbor, wants her daughter to go to U of M, and shared what I can only assume is the most awkward "Go Blue" ever with Rich Eisen.

It was pointed out on Facebook yesterday that architecture school alumnus and all-around fantastic person Raoul Wallenberg is one of seven people ever to have been made honorary citizens of the U.S.

Shameless political pandering, University of Michigan edition: the man's got my vote.

"Nothing going on... except talent." A brief and fawning evaluation of Michigan basketball and our awesome point guard on Grantland. And we're bringing in a top-5 guy next year--this isn't even a season we're supposed to be particularly good. The gradual transition of Michigan to pretty good team that mostly makes the NCAA tournament is pretty much the one thing I never thought I'd see way back when I was an undergrad. 2012: epic year so far.

Excellent in all respects: Advice for freshmen from former freshmen, the University of Michigan, 1921:

Be a good mixer. Like young Babbitts, the writers of "Advice" preached the value of broadening your circle of acquaintances (but only of the better sort) and making friends (but not too many).

"There are many places you will meet people, men mostly. Women at Michigan are not, by far, to be looked down upon but men are important. There will be dances, mixers, smokers and other functions. If you can break away from your studies for a few minutes, your time won't be wasted…. By the end of the first semester you will call many by their first names or nicknames, but not too many. Often calling a man by his first name on a short acquaintance is regarded as an imposition and is resented."

And the whole thing.

I Love My Alma Mater, an ongoing series:

Michigan football's offensive coordinator is named Al Borges. For us, this automatically sparks associations to Jorge Luis Borges. The first was a post on mgoblog that (correctly, and insightfully) used the subject matter of "Funes, the Memorious" as the basis for an in-depth look at offensive playcalling tendencies under Al Borges. The second is a full-blown parody on "The Aleph". As Brian says: "only Michigan blogs would turn Jorge Luis Al Borges into a running joke."

Well, maybe Chicago would, if they still had a football team. But that's pretty much it.