IlliniKat91
- Chicago, IL
You are not. The Michigan's women definitely played on 2/11
AD Josh Whitman open letter on the Big Ten regular season title
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So the big ten just allows teams to choose who they play? Weird. Is that in writing somewhere?
At this point, we are taking the sour grapes to 1000. People need to give it a rest. It’s embarrassing, particularly if our AD voted 3 times to affirm the rules.
It is really making us seem desperate at this point. Like we know it’ll be another 15 years before we have a team this good again. Which historically speaking, is accurate.
If, for nothing else, it creates an "us against the world" and continues to allow us to play with an edge I'm all for it.
Care to show me where your comment is verified to be true? Why would the big ten allow teams to pick what games they play and when? Show me please.
You know what else is verifiable? Whether or not our AD voted for winning % on February 26th. If so, this is a complete joke and we need to shut our mouths immediately. Hope everyone forgets about this embarrassing tantrum.
Seriously, if the team flames out early in the coming weeks, I will be pointing to all this pointless whining as one of the causes. It achieves nothing and is a distraction. We look desperate to the extreme.
1. Co champs was the obvious choice. Win-win, no losers... so of course the BIG screwed it up.
2. They didn’t screw it up because of an anti-Illinois bias. They screwed it up because they are incompetent morons.
3. I don’t think the letter and all the complaining is a great look. I would’ve preferred, “it was a strange year. I don’t agree with how it was handled but that’s ok, we will celebrate a season where we led the BIG in wins just as we have any previous time. How the league office chooses to sanction our season isn’t important here, what’s important is celebrating this team”
2. They didn’t screw it up because of an anti-Illinois bias. They screwed it up because they are incompetent morons.
3. I don’t think the letter and all the complaining is a great look. I would’ve preferred, “it was a strange year. I don’t agree with how it was handled but that’s ok, we will celebrate a season where we led the BIG in wins just as we have any previous time. How the league office chooses to sanction our season isn’t important here, what’s important is celebrating this team”
The fact that their women's team played the SAME NIGHT their men's team was to play us verifies they chose NOT to play us. Pretty transparent.
Like the true fan you are. As has been repeated several times, their women's team played when they decided not to.
But they did still play us. So what is the argument again?
Also, no one is talking about their last game against MSU. They had already been declared outright champs at that point, so the game is meaningless. How can anyone possibly hold that against them when making some argument about the standings? And I would have said the same thing if we had lost to OSU. The rules cannot be fairly changed after the fact, and I don’t care about football. That was dumb too!
Here are the indisputable facts. It was decided that winning % was the metric to be used. Michigan had the highest winning %. Therefore they are champs. It’s really that simple. Whine about make up games all you want, but it changes nothing. The conference did not require the additional games, so it is what it is.
Let’s focus on the next few weeks and try to enjoy the ride! Have a good night!
The verification is right here in this thread. They were cleared to play 2 weeks after January 23rd which meant February 6th. They chose not to. This isn't complicated and the fact that you want to make excuses for them is remarkable.
A reasonable fan could adopt the position that we shouldn't be complaining about this. I think it's wrong, but not wholly unreasonable.
It's totally unreasonable to look at how Michigan handled coming off quarantine and not seeing how they received preferential treatment.
Wow, this post is all sorts of wrong.
The argument is that they postponed a game they shouldn’t have. Proven by the fact that their women’s team played the same day we would have played them.
Postponing the game against us not only put us on a collision course with a really tough schedule, it helped them avoid having to make up any of the 3 games they didn’t end up playing.
If they play us on the scheduled date, then the date we ended up playing them would have been open. I’m sure the B1G office could have at least gotten one more game in and probably more if they had the stones to actually reschedule Michigan aggressively like they did us.
Michigan gamed the system to their advantage, and the B1G allowed it. THAT is the problem. If you as an Illini fan can’t see that then you’re intentionally being naive.
And the “facts” of winning % being the sole metric came with an understanding that every team would do their absolute most to make sure they played as many games as possible in this crazy year.
There is no way anyone can look at the “return to play plan”, the women’s team playing the same night, ducking Illinois/causing more reschedules, the fact that they could have gotten at LEAST 1 more game in even while ducking Illinois (and maybe all of them had they played us on time) and then with a straight face say “Michigan did everything they could to play as many games possible.”
UM came out of their COVID pause, figured out how to avoid a compressed schedule, and then sat back as the B1G did nothing other than accept it/take it.
When one member school has that much power that the conference can’t/won’t tell them “too bad, here’s your schedule”, there is a problem.
JFGsCoffeeMug
BU:1 Trash cans:0
- Chicago
And if they go on to have wild success, will you give our AD credit for voicing his full support of our team and giving them extra motivation to attack the postseason? Seems only fair since you're willing to preemptively trash everyone involved.
Want to talk facts? Let's talk facts.
On 1/19/21, we played our 9th conference game. We played 11 more games after that. During that same period, our team went two stretches (9 days between games [1/19/21 to 1/29/21] and 5 days between games [2/6/21 to 2/12/21]) without games to play. We wanted to play, but we weren't able to. Sounds kind of like a pause, huh? Dare I say a "two-week pause?" So between 1/19/21 and 3/6/21, we played 12 games in 33 days (subtracting the 14 day pause).
On 1/19/21, Michigan played their 8th conference game. On 1/22/21, they played their 9th. Then they went on a two-week pause beginning on 1/24/21. We know it was a two-week pause, because everyone repeatedly stated it was a two-pause. Then they inexplicably went another week without playing games, calling it part of their "return to play planning." Other teams came out of their pauses playing games nearly immediately, so the issue wasn't due to some inherent difficulty with rescheduling. Michigan would go on to play another 8 games. So between 1/19/21 and 3/7/21, Michigan played 10 games in 34 days (subtracting the 14 day pause).
So what, pray tell, is Michigan's excuse for playing two fewer games than us during the same period of time? If Michigan had played 19 games, this thread wouldn't exist. Again, for those keeping track at home:
20 games: 8 teams
19 games: Neb + Pur (because Neb ran out of time despite playing an "NBA schedule"), PSU + IU + NU (because Michigan never rescheduled)
18 games:
17 games: Michigan (because they never rescheduled PSU + IU + NU)
Other teams had similar pauses (MSU and UI) but were able to play a complete schedule. PSU had a similar pause and would have played a complete schedule if Michigan had allowed them to. Neb had an even longer pause (3.5 weeks) and they were still able to get to 19. The reason Michigan didn't play a full schedule was because they didn't want to. It was calculated, it was intentional, and it was in bad faith. Michigan considered itself better than the rest of us riff-raff and they told us so publicly.
These are the facts.
I’d like to address the issue of why, in my opinion, some Illini fans won’t simply let this issue go and move on.
When college basketball players of prior days reminisce or return to their alma maters, what is something they invariably remark with pride upon ? Banners in the rafters ? (“Why, we were conference champs in . . . .”) And it would be all the more memorable, wouldn’t it, being a Big Ten season championship during one of the most competitive years of basketball within any conference ?
Ayo and Kofi (and because we don’t know the future, perhaps all of the present members of the basketball team) won’t be able to do that, will they ? And that's something that will be denied them the rest of their days.
That’s what they have been denied. And that’s why it is important to some of us.
When college basketball players of prior days reminisce or return to their alma maters, what is something they invariably remark with pride upon ? Banners in the rafters ? (“Why, we were conference champs in . . . .”) And it would be all the more memorable, wouldn’t it, being a Big Ten season championship during one of the most competitive years of basketball within any conference ?
Ayo and Kofi (and because we don’t know the future, perhaps all of the present members of the basketball team) won’t be able to do that, will they ? And that's something that will be denied them the rest of their days.
That’s what they have been denied. And that’s why it is important to some of us.
iLL 89ers
- Dallas,TX , Born and raised in Alton,Illinois
100 % Truth TC ,,,,, as the ole` saying goes "The Truth Hurts"..... if it doesn't bother them , then why you bothering us ?
mattcoldagelli
- The Transfer Portal with Do Not Contact Tag
Another supportive article from the Chicago media
Cannot believe this trope has not been stamped out yet. Chicago media has been writing our program feature-length love letters all season.
iLL 89ers
- Dallas,TX , Born and raised in Alton,Illinois
Nice Post ! ENOUGH SAID and ya what JFGsCoffeeMug just posted !
100% wrong.
pruman91
- Paducah, Ky
I commend josh on his letter...that's what leader's do.....We all know that scUM manipulated the system to gain a fake trophy, especially after the BEATDOWN on their homecourt that the Illini administered to them.....Juwan Coward and the scUMmies know deep in their minds and souls who the beast of the B1G is...
To walk the path of righteousness one must be pure of heart.....To avoid competition for the sake of a meaningless prize demeans the prize....to be the best, you must beat the best.....to relinquish your infinite wisdom for earthly rewards thwarts one's walk on the path to a higher dimension...........
Ransom Stoddard
Ordained Dudeist Priest
- Bloomington, IL
One comment I want to throw out there--Michigan's claim to the championship, or at least part of the championship, is 100% valid. Their players played the games that their DIA agreed to play, and they wound up with an exceptional record in those 17 games. There's nothing fake about that. Illinois' claim is every bit as valid, IMO, despite what the media is saying about pre-agreed upon conditions. Michigan's athletic department (and probably Juwan Howard) very likely gamed the system to limit who they played and when, but the kids in those ugly maize and blue uniforms did everything they needed to do to back their claim.
This isn't an Illinois vs scUM issue. This is an Illinois vs BigTen Conference leadership issue. We already beat Michigan on the court, let's not fight them on message boards and in the media, it makes us look whiny and like the jealous little brother. The fight is with Kevin Warren and conference leadership.
This isn't an Illinois vs scUM issue. This is an Illinois vs BigTen Conference leadership issue. We already beat Michigan on the court, let's not fight them on message boards and in the media, it makes us look whiny and like the jealous little brother. The fight is with Kevin Warren and conference leadership.
Mic drop
- Status