Matt hums the theme music—it’s very professional. 

• Forever Sat Pod is recorded from the Balkans! 
• Harbaugh announces his plan to start Cade week one and JJ week two. 
  • Does this mean Cade has lost the job? 
• There are too many starters on defense to take his quotes about starters entirely literally 
• What would it take to deem this season a success? 
  • Serena is adamant that a win over MSU is non-negotiable. 
• Will Michigan have a successful season by whatever metric we've chosen? 
• Previewing Colorado State 
  • Could be a nice early test for the DBs because CSU runs an air raid 
  • But, they also trot out a QB in his first start and a brand new OL so, yikes. 

• Matt and Serena pat themselves on the back for being generally right about how it appears the Big Ten is going to handle re-alignment 
  • No word on the Championship Game structure yet 
• What's the Big Ten going to do with the TV contract? 
  • Would you lock the conference in for decades right now? Probably not
  • CBS might be desperate to retain college football now that it lost the SEC, if it outbids ESPN, do you close the door on ESPN entirely? 
    • Does that hurt you for the CFP?
    • Do you lose out a lot on highlights, College Gameday appearances, etc.? 
• The Michigan Athletic Department's budget is fake, because all athletic department budgets are fake 
• Warde Manuel's recent comments about Bo: yikes 
  • Take down the statute and re-name the hall (obviously) 
  • If we won't get rid of all the Bo stans, the least they can do is shut up and stop valorizing the guy 
  • How do we work through our continued support of Michigan and Michigan athletics? 
  • Michigan is so much more to us than football or athletics 
  • Now more than ever we can support the players directly, so withdrawing our support mostly harms innocent people 
    • Is that maybe rationalization? Sure, but it's probably still true 

• Ryan Day says it will cost $13M to keep Ohio State's roster intact 
• Day also says that the going rate for QBs is around $2M, and top end edge talent and OTs are around $1M 
• That seems in line with the whispers that we've heard about what top end QBs have gotten 
• James Franklin responds and says it will cost "more" than the numbers we've heard 
• What does the actual number look like for Michigan's roster?
• We try to extrapolate based on the (admittedly few) data points we have to determine what the going rate is, then compare to Ohio State
• Matt tries to index the value of every position on the roster to the QB position (the position we have the most data about) 
• One of the difficult issues is deciding when a player transitions over from getting paid on potential vs. paid on production 
• We talk about the "Champion's Circle" NIL collective launched by Valiant 
• C.J. Carr's commitment to ND (are we happy? No. Can we blame him? Also no.) 

Ground rules: 

• We flip a coin -- winner gets to draft first and they select a week (i.e. - Week 13, the week of Michigan/OSU) to get the first game picked 
• Second person has to pick a consolation game in the same week as the person who gets to pick first
• We alternate and see who ends up with the better schedule 
• Serena is a closet Penn State fan 
• Serena's schedule depends a lot on whether Purdue remains fun
• The Big Ten West merry-go-round is kinda meh 
• Nebraska could really make things more interesting
• Who ends up with the better schedule? We'll let the people decide

The Big Ten takes down its future schedules, signaling a change in alignment and/or scheduling is coming sooner rather than later.  

• We have our preferences, but they will inevitably find a way to mess this up
• Serena is mad about the scheduling changing right when OSU gets stuck with Wisconsin for a half-decade 

• The NCAA says goodbye to divisions 
• What might a division-less Big Ten look like? 
• Pods? 
• Matt proposes a system of locked-in rivals 
  • One thing we can't have is Michigan getting OSU/PSU/MSU and functionally guaranteeing itself the hardest schedule in the conference always. 
  • We're supposed to be making it better, not worse. 
• The Big Ten Championship Game is a mess 
  • We could get a repeat of "The Game" in the next week 
  • Does it cheapen "The Game?" 
• Who would you wake up at 4:45 am to slander? 
  • Its not slander if its true!! 
• Early betting lines on Michigan's games 

• Jordan Addison transferring from Pitt was triggering for all of us.
• About a third of college basketball players and a fifth of college football players entered the transfer portal this year.
• We've also seen 7 all-first-team Power 5 or All-American players enter the portal in the last year.
• Anyone who says "this has always happened" is wrong -- maybe at the recruiting stage, but this level of poaching from active rosters is new. 
• As always, Twitter is not the best place for nuanced conversations. 
• A lot of the conversation is very "if you don't like the changes to the sport, then leave" and both Matt and Serena think this approach is very shortsighted. 
  • It is no way to run a sport to act like that sport is inevitably going to maintain its popularity. 
  • It seems possible to us (though unlikely) that missteps at this stage could be bad for the overall popularity of the sport in a way that's worse for everyone because it can shrink the size of the pie. If you alienate fans, the money could dry up in a way that the players (and the fans) end up worse off overall. 
• Can you shut the transfer door? 
  • There isn't a sport in America that doesn't have rules or restrictions about how and when you can move teams. Would it be the worst thing if you went back to requiring players to sit out? 
  • In professional settings those restrains are bargained for, which makes them more fair than the NCAA dictating these changes from on high.
  • Is it even conscionable to change these rules now? 
• Can you curb NIL? 
  • Matt and Serena both think the horse has left that barn on this one and that NCAA efforts to turn the NIL faucet off are futile. 
• Collective bargaining seems to be the only way forward (they might try to resolve it by individual contract, but unclear if that will work) 
  • But even a CBA has problems -- each sport probably has to bargain separately.
  • For sports like hockey, are there even enough profitable teams that schools like Michigan will have opponents? Will compensated players be playing against de facto club teams?
• Does whether the players continue to be students impact the product? 
  • For Serena, the players continuing to be tied to the university and the community at large is part of the appeal. 
  • Can you get the schools to agree to require that as part of a CBA? 
  • Does Title IX even allow this type of arrangement? There are more questions than answers.
• Gene Smith's proposal for the CFP to act as the governing body of college football -- this is an alternative potential structure that could work but also needs a lot of fleshing out and alignment.

To the good stuff:

• Had to cover the flip side after subjecting everybody to all the depressing memories in our last episode
• The frontrunners:
  • 2021 Ohio State (not much detail needed here) -- Matt's #1
  • 2011 Notre Dame -- Serena's #1, and the game that made her (a student at the time) really fall in love with Michigan/college football
  • A few candidates at #3, including a couple Michigan State games (one of which you might not expect) and '97 Ohio State given the obvious Big Ten/national title/Heisman implications
• These are the games that get you hooked (although if you're old like Matt, that may have happened even earlier)
• Other topics:
  • The addition of Cam Goode from UCF will be extremely helpful for rotational/depth purposes on the interior D-line
  • A few early top 25 rankings came out this week, with Michigan a consensus bottom-half-of-the-top-10 team -- does this seem right?
  • In non-Michigan observations, every one of these rankings has at least one top-10 team that's extremely iffy -- we debate whether Texas, USC or Michigan State is the most/least believable

We can't help but re-traumatize ourselves after Michigan Hockey's heartbreaking loss in the Frozen Four, so we naturally drifted to football comps. Matt and Serena identify our most painful Michigan Football losses:

• Recapping the hockey loss in the Frozen Four
  • Michigan has had almost impossibly bad luck in overtime Frozen Four games (or games to go to the Frozen Four) 
• Obvious frontrunners on the football side: 
  • 2006 OSU - Matt's Number one. A de facto semi final game in what was perhaps the last time Michigan was a true national championship contender. 
  • 2016 OSU
  • 2018 OSU  - Serena (perhaps controversially) takes 2018 over 2016.  
  • 2015 MSU 
• Honorable Mentions: 
  • 2007 App State 
  • 2000 Northwestern 
  • 2003 Iowa/Oregon  
• Spring Football Notes 
  • JJ Back!! 
  • An emergence at DE 
  • A crowded room and developments at safety 

• Check @ForeverSatPod on Twitter to take a look at the alignment chart so that you can keep track of where we have put everyone 
• Lawful Good 
  • No one is lawful good, though Serena argues for Paul Chryst 
• Lawful Neutral
  • Schiano 
  • Bielema 
• Lawful Evil
  • Fitzgerald 
  • Ferentz 
  • Allen
• Neutral Good
  • Ryan Day 
  • Mel Tucker
  • Don't say we're too hard on our rivals 
• True Neutral
  • Paul Chryst 
• Neutral Evil
  • James Franklin, or is it Frames Janklin? 
• Chaotic Good
  • Jim Harbaugh
  • Jeff Brohm 
• Chaotic Neutral
  • PJ Fleck
• Chaotic Evil
  • Scott Frost 
  • Mike Locksley 
• Michigan Basketball loses to Villanova in the Sweet 16
  • They are who we thought they were: talented and deeply frustrating 
  • The misses at the rim were killers 
  • Was the season a disappointment? 
• Michigan Hockey advances to the Frozen Four
  • Game against Quinnipiac was on cruise control until it wasn't 
  • Serena fixed the juju 
  • Is the season a success no matter what happens in the Frozen Four? 

• What makes a Blue Blood? 
  • Part history, part success -- you know it when you see it.
• Can you become a Blue Blood?
  • Definitely -- Serena uses Duke Basketball as a case study 
• Can you lose Blue Blood status?
  • Matt argues that you can by picking on a Big Ten foe 
• Who are the indisputable Blue Bloods? 
  • Michigan
  • ND 
  • Texas
  • Oklahoma
  • OSU 
  • USC 
  • Alabama 
• Most people include Nebraska -- not including them is a hot-ish take 
• Who is on the cusp? 
  • Serena takes up the mantle for Tennessee
  • Auburn
  • PSU 
  • LSU
  • Georgia 
• Michigan Basketball goes to the Sweet 16 
  • Win over Tennessee is gravy 
  • Impressive stuff from Eli Brooks and T. Will 
  • This team could beat Villanova or lose by 20 -- who knows? 
• Michigan Hockey hangs a banner
  • Number one overall seed is as much as you can ask for 
  • Defense coming along just in time for the tournament 
  • The draw is about as good as you could hope for  
• Michigan Women also advance to the Sweet 16 
  • Naz is a monster 
• Michigan is an "everything school." 

We play a game of good news, bad news from Harbaugh's first media availability of this spring session:

• Interpreting coach speak is a  difficult endeavor 
• Bad news is largely limited to injuries 
  • JJ out -- hard to see him overtaking Cade during the offseason under the circumstances 
  • Rod Moore out -- this is less impactful because he: 1) doesn't have an experienced starter he needs to win the job from; and 2) he probably is the most experienced guy in that role, but nonetheless, missed time when he could really grow into the role kind of sucks 
  • Is no news good news or bad news on the linebackers? 
• Good News 
  • The praise of Mazi Smith is really encouraging, especially with his size and our need to replace a whole bunch on the DL 
  • Harbaugh made some pretty emphatic comments about Mike Morris, we're happy to hear it but still skeptical; McGregor also appears to be getting work in at one of the DE slots 
  • Trente Jones is currently the leader at RT; we both think this is an encouraging sign. He was a pretty solid player to begin with, but if he's seizing the job maybe that means he's taken a step from solid to good, and given that his spot is the only vacancy on the OL, that's good news 
  • Freshman WRs are a "freak show" 
• What does it mean that Harbaugh is so emphatic with his words? "Freak show" and "scary good" are certainly departures from how tight-lipped he has been in the past. 
• Reporters are a little mean to Harbaugh about having to give up ever winning a Super Bowl 
• Matt goes on a soap box about the stupidity of coaching "rankings" 
• Michigan Basketball is going dancing! Avoid the play-in game and will face Colorado State. 
  • Colorado State only has one player taller than 6'8. Could be the Hunter Dickinson show.
• Michigan Hockey FINALLY knocks off ND 
  • This team has win-it-all potential 
  • One win away from a Big Ten Banner going into College Hockey's Selection Sunday 

We're too reasonable for hot takes: 

• Hot Take #1: Georgia is five star Iowa 
• Hot Take #2: Offense is too advantaged 
• Hot Take #3: Michigan is not a top 10 job 
• Hot Take #4: Abolish replay 
• Hot Take #5: Abolish the CFP 
• Hot Take #6: Clemson is over 
• Hot Take #7: The Pac12 might not ever win another national championship 

Michigan Basketball beats Ohio State 

• DeVante' Jones coming on is huge for Michigan's chances to make a run
• Shades of Derrick Walton 
• Stringing two wins together seems important in a single elimination setting 

Michigan Hockey stuffs MSU in a trash can

• MSU hockey is sad 
• Michigan hockey can win it all, but single elimination hockey sucks -- hold on to your butts. 

• #5: The new Spring Game format 
  • Will we actually be able to see the draft?
  • Interesting that Clinkscale and Moore are coaching as opposed to Minter/Weiss
• #4: The crowded WR room
  • Lots of weapons, lots of speed, interested to see if someone separates themselves as a no. 1 WR 
• #3: The corners 
  • Floor seems reasonably high 
  • Hellooooooo Will Johnson 
• #2: Defensive Ends
  • Uh, somebody? anybody? Plz fill the Ojabo and Hutchinson sized holes in our defensive line 
  • Can't even imagine having to replace that kind of production, but we have to try 
• #1: We took the bait 
  • McNamara vs. McCarthy 
  • The floor at this position is SO high
  • We don't think anyone is going to really seize the job during the spring 
  • Neither of us would count Cade out 
• Bonus Topics: 
  • Harbaugh's contract 
    • The buyout stuff is silly. No amount of money is stopping a billionaire from hiring your coach if that's what they want to do 
  • CFP Expansion 
    • Not quite yet but probably still coming
    • Big Ten, Pac12 and ACC vote against, all for different reasons 

• The Juwan thing is unfortunate
  • Neither of us thinks he should have been fired, but it also wouldn't have been unreasonable for him to be fired
  • The punishments mostly make sense and seem fair
  • It can't happen again
• The NLRB Labor Complaint
  • This has the power to reshape college sports as we know them
  • College players want to be regarded as employees entitled to wages under the Fair Labor Standards Act
  • The inclusion of UCLA in the suit is a way of testing the waters on jurisdiction because the NLRB usually only has jurisdiction over private employers
  • Discussing the feasibility of the joint-employer theory
  • Neither one of us wants to see college sports become full of 24 year olds who flamed out of the NFL or NBA - there's something magical about knowing these kids are in your classes and "just like you"
  • Do any of the benefits college athletes currently receive count as wages? There's a good argument that room and board do, but perhaps not tuition
  • What happens if they win?
    • Nonrevenue sports could disappear or become club sports
    • Maybe not much changes? It might depend a lot on what the players bargain for
    • What of women's sports? There are some Title IX implications here
    • Could they adopt a grad student model?
    • Might Congress just change the law to exempt college athletes from the FLSA?
  • We could talk about this for 1000000 years and not assess all of the possible outcomes, so we have to wait and see

WVU Law Review Article: https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=6307&context=wvlr

• Minter has a good but not great resume
  • We like the playcalling experience 
  • It's hard to translate the Vanderbilt defense to what Michigan athletes are capable of 
  • This feels like a continuity hire, but its hard to see the continuity because what Vandy ran under Minter is so different than what we were running 
• Matt wonders why there weren't bigger names attached to the job
  • Last year Harbaugh took a risk (and he probably had to, because no reputable DC with options is falling over themselves to take a DC job with Michigan while Harbaugh is hanging by a thread) 
  • This year is significantly different circumstances. So why no big names? 
  • Perhaps the timing in the cycle? 
• Gattis is still salty 
  • We try to reconcile reports that Gattis was going to be named head coach if Harbaugh left with the way he behaved in his departure
  • Something doesn't make sense, but the truth is probably somewhere in the middle 
• Matt Weiss/Sherrone More get the nod 
  • Again, a totally expected continuity move 
  • Just hoping the offense can take a step forward 
  • Please don't take 30 seconds to get the play call in, we're begging 
• Michigan launches an NIL portal
  • Serena wants to form an LLC just to drop bags 
  • Seems like OSU and Michigan are taking similar approaches at this stage 

• Every podcast is an emergency podcast 
• It certainly seems like Josh Gattis did not get the head coaching nod based on his reaction 
• This kind of makes it seem like Gattis wouldn't stay regardless of how the Harbaugh NFL flirtation played out
• Is this Harbaugh's fault?
  • Probably not. Gattis was probably only going to be around one more year anyway (he was already getting head coaching interviews), so this probably just accelerated the timeline a bit
• Candidates? 
  • Internal - Moore/Hart/Weiss 
  • Joe Brady? 
  • Tom Brady is a pipe dream 
• Having to replace both coordinators is less than ideal but at least we have a veteran coach doing it 

• Putting together the timeline
• Balas' report sends the drama into overdrive
• Serena thought this was a done deal and spent last night coping like she just got dumped.
• Matt remains skeptical as always
• Who said no to whom?
• Discussion of other candidates is moot, thank goodness because we weren't sold on any of them
• Talk of firing Harbaugh should have been fired for taking this long nonsense for a lot of reasons: 1) the optics are terrible to your employees in the athletic department coming off of Covid layoffs and salary cuts; 2) sending a message to a future coaching candidate that Michigan is willing to oust a coach for even looking at another job is crazy
• We want coaches to feel a weird  amount of loyalty to their employers. They're not fans. Its their job
• Still need a DC
• Let the younger guys on the staff marinate and grow in their roles

• Still no Harbaugh news 
• Mike Macdonald departure was not at all unexpected, but was probably sooner than expected
• PLZ hire someone capable of stopping spread passing attacks -- no one wants to get Don Browned again 
• Internal candidates include Mike Elston and Steve Clinkscale
• External candidates? Jon Heacock, Larry Foote, Derek Mason, Vic Fangio 
• Caleb Williams to Wisconsin -- Does Paul Chryst even know what to do with a Caleb Williams? 
• Big Ten realignment scenarios 
  • Whatever you do, don't make it worse 
  • Kind of feel like Michigan can't really win in this scenario because its guaranteed to have two of the better teams in the current Big Ten East as its "locked" rivalries
• Serena campaigns for Kevin Warren's job 

• What the Mike Elston hire means (if anything) for Jim Harbaugh's future at Michigan 
• Whether the Ravens' DC opening is another thing for Michigan to worry about on the Mike McDonald front

Discussing:

• The odds that Michigan hires an internal candidate in the event of Harbaugh's departure.
  • Mike McDonald vs. Mike Hart vs. Josh Gattis 
• External candidates 
  • We hope you like soup! 
  • Luke Fickell has an Ohio State tattoo. That seems like a bad idea. 
  • Dave Aranda? 
• Following up on lingering NIL questions 
  • What happens in states where there are no NIL laws 
  • What if a state repeals their NIL law (like Alabama is threatening to do now) 

• The NCAA's (borderline nonexistent) NIL regulations
• The Michigan NIL Law
• Whether Michigan's policy imposes additional restrictions on UM Athletes beyond what the law imposes
• How does Michigan's NIL policy stack up next to MSU and OSU?
• MSU's policy might be a little more permissive on alcohol and gambling NIL deals, but otherwise the policies are substantially similar
• MSU and OSU completely ban their staff/coaches from procuring or developing NIL opportunity for their athletes - Michigan's does not. The institutions seem to disagree about whether a university can take on the role of procuring NIL deals for their players. MSU/OSU must think they cannot assist players in procuring NIL deals, or else it makes no sense to impose that type of restriction on your staff. 
• Even if UM could set up an in-house team dedicated to finding NIL deals for its athletes, would that move the needle? Or is the only way forward to go full Texas A&M?