Couldn’t resist writing the headline.

Link.

That intermittent cacaphony of clicks you’ll hear tonight is the collective sound of millions of remote control buttons being pushed as the eastern US switches back and forth from My Name is Earl and the Office to the Thursday night ESPN game.

Like it or not, the winner of tonight’s game controls its own destiny, and (if still undefeated) will meet the winner of the OSU/UM game OSU in Glendale.

The knee jerk reaction of most fans is to complain about the Big East’s strength of schedule, and compare it to the SEC’s, for instance. It doesn’t seem fair to most that an undefeated Big East team would get a title shot ahead of a one-loss SEC team.

To counter that, others argue that just because a conference has a lot of parity, doesn’t mean that it’s the “best” or the “strongest.” The Mountain West conference has a lot of parity, as does the Sun Belt. Doesn’t make them superior. Just because Arkansas, Tennesee, Florida, LSU, and Auburn are going to beat themselves senseless this year doesn’t make the SEC the “best” conference.

Having said that, I think most reasonable people think a Tennessee or Florida would crush WVU or Louisville in a match up. However, most reasonable people thought Georgia was going to crush WVU in the Sugar Bowl earlier this year… but it didn’t happen, even though GA had the homefield advantage.

So, what say you? Who would you prefer to have the opportunity to play against lose to OSU in Glendale this January? Most likely victims candidates include West Va., Louisville, Florida, and Auburn. Give us your opinion in the comments.

Note: I know that some will point out that UM and Texas are also possibilities, but IMO would be a slap in the face of college football. Texas had their shot, as will UM. I’m not a fan of the rematch. If you don’t like the results the first time, you shouldn’t get a “do-over.” The only occasion in which I would support a do-over type of rematch is if some external factor affected the first ballgame’s outcome, like a major officiating screwup (a’la Oregon and Oklahoma earlier this year).

Columbus television stations are reporting that Prescott Burgess, linebacker for UM, may be wanted by Columbus Police.

As of this post, no specific details are available. Internet threads, however, are lighting up with a story about Burgess burglarizing a now-defunct electronics store in Columbus several years ago.

The mighty Prescott Burgess, getting knocked on his tuckus for the bajillionth time by Stan White, Jr, allowing Pittman to score the winning TD

We’ll reserve an opinion on Burgess until all the details are revealed.

It’s disturbing, though, how a lot of UM blogs and fans in these threads are already complaining about the C-bus police, generally taking the position that even if Burgess is guilty, it was a long time ago and the store no longer exists, so it shouldn’t matter. That’s kind of a dangerous way to think, but the story is young.

I say this honestly: I hope it turns out to be nothing. Like most true OSU and UM fans, I want all players on both sides to be there and healthy when the game comes around. UM’s best vs. OSU’s best – the best spectacle in the sports universe.

There’s something interesting about the Adrian Arrington situation that no one has yet seemed to realize.

Arrington’s girlfriend called 911 on the night of October 12th/13th, yet Arrington was not arraigned until the 18th. In between that time, Arrington travelled to State College, Pennsylvania, for the game against Penn State, and returned to Ann Arbor.

It sounded a bit fishy to us here at MotSaG. You’re a famous football player, everyone in the state knows you by name, and you’ve been accused of violence, underage drinking, and auto theft; yet the police decide to wait for over five days before bringing you in?

So we called our sources in that State Up North (they are underground, mind you, for their own safety), and managed to get the following transcript^** of the infamous 911 call:

[DISPATCHER]: “Ypsilanti 911. What’s your emergency?”

[FEMALE]: “My boyfriend is drunk, just roughed me up and stole my car, and is driving around.”

[DISPATCHER]: “Could you describe him, ma’am?”

[FEMALE]: “Yes, sir. African American, about 6 foot 3, just under 200 pounds, 20 years old.”

[DISPATCHER]: “You say he’s 20?”

[FEMALE]: “Yes, sir.”

[DISPATCHER]: “And drunk?”

[FEMALE]: “Yes, sir.”

[DISPATCHER]: “And driving around in your car, which he took without permission?”

[FEMALE]: “Yes, sir. He roughed me up pretty good. I tried to keep the keys from him, but he was too strong.”

[DISPATCHER]: “What’s his name, ma’am?”

[FEMALE]: “Adrian Arrington.”

[DISPATCHER]: “The Adrian Arrington? Plays for the Wolverines?”

[FEMALE]: “Yes, that’s him.”

[DISPATCHER]: (Pauses) “He’s starting tomorrow, covering for Manningham, right?”

[FEMALE]: “Yes.”

[DISPATCHER]: (Pauses again) “We’ll send a black & white by, say… Wednesday next week. Is that good for you?”

I’m sure the Ypsilanti police don’t have block-M’s hanging in their headquarters, or anything.

** Of course this transcript is fake. But you knew that.

It turns out that UM wide reciever Adrian Arrington’s legal situation is “more severe than originally thought.”

In case you’ve been under a rock, Arrington played on Saturday despite Internet rumors of him having been booked for domestic violence late last week. The initial DFP article that discussed the situation quoted:

I do not think the allegation is supported by the facts,” Carr said. “This is just in the last few days.” Carr went to great effort to say that he was “very careful” when investigating the facts.

So Carr took it upon himself to investigate the situation “very carefully,” and determined that the allegations did not merit disciplinary action.

But today, details of the situation are coming to light. In short, Arrington was supposedly drunk, roughed up his girlfriend, took her keys, and stole her car. This all occurred on the early morning hours of October 13, a day before the Penn State game.

Even though he investigated the situation — very carefully — now Carr is saying something a bit different:

“I was first informed that there was an issue mid-week” last week involving Arrington, Michigan coach Lloyd Carr said Monday through athletic department spokesman Bruce Madej. “This is a new issue and if he was drinking, I have to find that out and it is a team issue. And we handle team issues internally.”

We wouldn’t be a very good OSU blog if we didn’t point out the interesting “coincidences” here:

Context:

• Mario Manningham and Tyler Ecker get injured, are out for the Penn State and Iowa games (at least). As a result, UM is very thin at receivers. Arrington and Breaston will have to step up if UM has a chance to make it to Columbus undefeated.

• Penn State and Iowa are the two biggest games on the UM schedule leading up to OSU. Penn State in particular is a potential trap, being an away game at night in Beaver Stadium.

• After PSU & Iowa, UM has three cakewalk games leading up to the big showdown against OSU.

Sequence of events:

1. The day before the Penn State game, Arrington’s girlfriend calls 911 (Ypsilanti police respond).
2. Arrington plays at Penn State, getting 83 yards and a TD in a very close game against the Lions.
3. Arrington is arraigned.
4. Carr is “first informed” of the situation, during preparations for Iowa.
5. Carr “very carefully” investigates, determines that “the allegations are not supported by the facts.”
6. Internet threads and blogs break the news, with people wondering what Arrington was doing driving around drunk the day before the Penn State game, and questioning why Arrington is being allowed to play at all.
7. Crickets are heard chirping in Ann Arbor.
8. Arrington plays against Iowa, getting 8 catches for 79 yards in another close game.
9. 48 hours after the Iowa game, about 10 days after the initial call to 911, Carr says that the details regarding the incident are “a new issue,” and that it “will be handled internally.”
10. UM takes a breath, begins preparing for the weakest part of their schedule.
11. Arrington pleads not guilty, court date set for November 1.

Note that we’re not concluding anything, here. Feel free to make your own conclusions about the sequence of events. There are numerous odd “coincidences,” especially regarding all of this happening when (1) Manningham is out and (2) UM can’t afford to be thin at WR for two tough games. However, it is just as likely that Carr did not know what was going on, or that Carr somehow wasn’t aware that his star WR was driving around drunk the morning they were supposed to travel to PSU. Time will tell how much of the story is true and how much is overblown.

However, MotSaG was able to obtain the following clip of the phone conversation between UM’s athletic director Bill Martin and Carr, and it’s clear he’s not too happy with Carr’s handling of the situation:

“Caaaaarrrrrr!!!!”

Let’s state the obvious: Carr should have benched Arrington for Iowa’s game, at least.

Consider the following: The week of the OSU/Texas game, Tarell Brown, the Horns’ starting CB, was arrested on drug and weapons violations. Just like Lloyd Carr, Mack Brown investigated the situation “very carefully” and determined that the charges against Brown were likely to be dropped.

But he still suspended him.

Coach Brown suspended his starting CB on the eve of the biggest non-conference game of the year — the kid who was supposed to cover Ted Ginn Jr. — even though he was confident that his CB was not going to be charged with a crime.

Mack Brown did that because, even though his player was going to get off the hook legally, he was still behaving in a manner that was unacceptable to the standards of the football program. Even if that meant risking a shot at the national title, it was the right thing to do. Div. I-A football players shouldn’t be out getting drunk, high, (or hanging with people who are getting drunk and high), violating team curfew, rules, etc. To do things like those shows (at the very least) that you do not have your team’s best interests in mind, because any absence that results from your discipline could hurt their chances.

Even if only part of the allegations surrounding Arrington are correct, it’s clear that he didn’t have his team’s best interests in mind, either. In fact, his offense is worse, because he was asked to step up and play for Manningham. His team was depending on him, and he was perfectly willing to put them in a bad spot.

At any rate, how convenient it is that the timing of these events works out just perfect for UM. At least now, if Arrington gets suspended, it’ll only be for Ball State or Indiana. And Manningham & Ecker will probably be back by then, anyway.