I'm sure Michigan and WVU fans are probably relieved that this is over, but I'm terribly disappointed.

West Virginia University says ex-football coach Rich Rodriguez has agreed to pay a $4 million buyout clause after breaking his contract.

That would settle WVU's lawsuit that had been set for trial this fall. WVU attorney Tom Flaherty says the tentative agreement was reached late Tuesday night.

The past few months have been a fun time to watch -- as long as you are on the outside. The depositions being taken then released to the public for mocking. Rodriguez's lawyer equating the buyout to "slavery" even as Rodriguez's present contract with Michigan just happens to have a $4 million buyout. Good stuff.

FanHouse never even got a chance to mock discuss the deposition of outgoing WVU President Mike Garrison talking about "Product Rodriguez." Instead it ends with a whimper. Not all depositions taken. The chance for more legal filings to accuse each other of broken promises, misused cell phones, shredded documents, and good vitriol dressed in legalese.

It remains to be seen if Rodriguez is paying the money himself or if Michigan and/or a wealthy donor is ponying up the money to end this before training camp opens in Ann Arbor.

UPDATE: It appears that Michigan will pay at least part of the money owed.

Sources today said Rodriguez will pay $1.5 million over a three-year span that begins in two-and-a-half years, with $500,000 due at the end of each 2010, 2011 and 2012.

Michigan will pay $2.5 million immediately, and additionally is expected to pick up Mr. Rodriguez's legal fees.

Pop quiz, hot shots. The phrase "half past dead" refers to which of the following:

A) A lyric in The Band's classic song, "The Weight;"

B) Steven Seagal's timeless cinematic treasure "Half Past Dead," co-starring noted thespian Ja Rule;

C) Kevin Grady's state of being early Wednesday morning.

If you guessed A, you're over 40 years old. If you guessed B, you are a fine connoisseur of cinema. For everybody else, yes, C is the right answer. The Michigan tailback, one of several looking to take over the departed Mike Hart's carries, was arrested on "suspicion" of DUI. We say "suspicion" because Grady blew a .281, which is more than three and a half times higher than the legal limit in Michigan and most other states.

Just for the sake of further context, .080 is legally drunk. .200 will absolutely ruin your weekend. .400 is enough to kill people.

So, if anything, Grady is lucky in that he didn't kill anybody--or himself. Again, he blew a .281. He does, however, find himself in the unfortunate position of being incoming head coach Rich Rodriguez's first serious disciplinary case, which makes it unlikely that he'll escape with anything less than serious punishment. As first offenses go, OWIs almost never result in dismissals, but the mind-blowing particulars probably mean Grady's not seeing the field in any meaningful action until at least October.

"Old School" is the College Football FanHouse's irregular look back at the rich history of college football, usually through the medium of embeddable flash video. Check out the Old School archive for more famous plays and infamous hair.

Before Tim Brewster was Minnesota's head coach, he coached tight ends in the NFL. Before that, he coached tight ends in college. And before that, he was an Illinois tight end with a killer Buckstache and coachspeak down pat:



About two minutes into the video, Thomas Rooks scores the game's only touchdown in a 16-6 Illinois win over Michigan, Illinois' first since 1966. Illinois would go to the Rose Bowl for the first time since 1964.

The Illini were, naturally, cheating their asses off, though Mike White's wikipedia page completely omits mention of that.

With Rich Rodriguez taking over the Michigan football program from Lloyd Carr there are going to be plenty of changes made in Ann Arbor. Obviously, the biggest change the team and Rich will have to make is implement ing an entire new offensive system with a bunch of players who weren't recruited for it. That's not exactly the easiest thing in the world to do, but luckily the Wolverines early season schedule consists of cupcakes like Utah, Miami (OH), and Notre Dame. There isn't an Appalachian State in the bunch, so the Wolverines will have some time to adjust.

Another big change will come on Sunday mornings, as Rodriguez has no plans to appear on "Michigan Replay", a popular postgame show that's been running for 33 years.

The Michigan football coach's show, which reviewed the previous game and looked ahead, will no longer be on the air Sunday mornings.

Rodriguez has said he's not interested in hanging around after games to tape a show because he would rather use the time visiting with recruits and spending time with his family.

Not to fear, Michigan fans, just because "Michigan Replay" is going the way of the single wing formation doesn't mean there won't be a new show. Instead of having a weekly show taped after each game to review it and look forward to next week's game, the school is going to produce a weekly preview show.

What it's going to be called, or when and where it will be aired have not been announced yet.

When Michigan embarked on an ambitious renovation of Michigan Stadium this winter it exposed itself to ADA regulations that didn't apply to the 1927 edfice. One Paralyzed Veterans of America lawsuit later, Michigan had a mandate to build over 200 wheelchair-accessible seats over the next four years.

Eighty-four of those go in next year, and only 14 have been sold. They're in areas of the stadium that require PSLs -- which means they're good seats -- but the University has waived the PSLs on them for the next three years. Michigan Stadium has a season ticket waiting list longer than Notre Dame's bowl drought (zing!), and that goes double for actual schmancy PSL seats.

And the kicker:

"We're going to be getting the word out to work with the disabled community," Bodnar said. "There are different groups we can contact. Under the consent decree (in the settlement), they are only available for individuals in wheelchairs."

Keep this in mind if you see a headline like "UNEXPLAINED RASH OF AMPUTATIONS ACROSS MICHIGAN" sometime in the next couple months.

FanHouse is counting down the ten best, ten worst, and ten weirdest moments in the history of Big Ten football.

"Bowls, to hell with bowls. I'm not interested in bowls."

That's what Bo Schembechler said in 1981 after losing to the Iowa Hawkeyes 9-7 in the Big House. It was Michigan's second conference loss of the season, putting their hopes of yet another Rose Bowl in serious doubt. But really, the Hawkeyes did him a favor that day.

There's no question Schembechler was a dogged competitor who hated to lose. If the football season ended in November, he'd have to be remembered as one of the five best coaches of the modern era. Unfortunately, it doesn't, so any sober assessment of the man's accomplishments has to include a look at his bowl record.

In 21 seasons as Michigan's coach, Schembechler never had a losing season. His Wolverines finished first or second in the Big Ten in 16 of those years. His 96-16-3 record for the decade of the 1970s was the best of any coach in Division 1. Schembechler also led his Wolverines to 17 bowl games, including 10 Rose Bowls--more than any other Big Ten coach. And how did he do in those games? Michigan fans would rather you didn't ask.

... as the knives are sharpened in Bristol ...

In an interview with the Detroit News about ESPN's botched "Les Miles to Michigan" call:

[Herbstreit's report] was wrong on so many levels. As a former player, unless I spoke to that coach and he told me it was cool, I would never have done that because he was still coaching a team that's about to play in a (SEC) championship game. ... His team, the first thing they saw when they woke up was that report. It was not fair to him and not fair to the players.

He's got a point given that he's on Michigan's search committee and literally spends every Saturday with Herbstreit. All it would have taken was a simple call to a well-placed colleague to add another layer of proof.

Are Howard's days at ESPN numbered after this? Who knows, but Maize N Brew nicely outlines the college football zeitgeist at Bristol ca. 2008.

I'll be curious to see if there's any fallout from this one. Herbstreit really is the face of Game Day at this point and is clearly being groomed to take over as ABC's lead commentator for college football, if he isn't already. He's the golden boy and Howard just took him to task.

The World Wide Leader in Sports is known to have an itchy trigger finger when it comes to dissent. Desmond is a good, but by no means irreplaceable commentator. It will be interesting to see if Desmond's comments do more than just kick a dead horse.

Michigan Coach Rich Rodriguez, in his tireless effort to weasel his way out of paying his buy-out, has reached the point which even casual observers will recognize as the beginning of the end: he's just making stuff up now.

A Fox Sports column today asserts that, in a deposition, Rodriguez claimed that he was "coerced" into signing his contract. Coerced. Into signing a multi-million dollar contract. Somehow, it seems, that Rodriguez wants us to believe that the powers that be at West Virginia are powerful enough to intimidate him into signing on the dotted line, despite his ready access to legal counsel, agents, financial advisors, and really any other sort of assistance he could ever want.

This is, in a word, nonsense.

FanHouse is counting down the ten best, ten worst, and ten weirdest moments in the history of Big Ten football.

Oh, like you didn't know this was coming. Come on. How could the single most disastrous game in the history of the conference not be the next item on this list?

You know the particulars already. Michigan was #5 in the country; Appalachian State was supposedly just another Division I-AA Football Championship Subdivision tomato can who was only supposed to be in it for the money. You know the game came down to a last-second blocked field goal, and you also know that Michigan was doggone lucky that they were ever in a position to win this game. The block happened, though, so the chants of "Down goes Frazier!" spread across the college football world. Appy State had pulled off the greatest upset of all time, being the first Not Ready For Prime Time Player to drink the milkshake of a top-5 team.

The day after, the Grave Dancers Union got a record number of applications for membership. "Overrated!" "End of an era!" "Fire Lloyd Carr!" Gosh, it's hard to argue with people when they're right.

My concern, though, is not with what this game meant to Michigan. My concern is with what this game meant to college football in general.

Cleveland Browns receiver and Michigan alumnus Braylon Edwards caused a minor internet meltdown in Michigan-land recently when he said he was mad at new Michigan head coach Rich Rodriguez for giving the #1 jersey to an incoming freshman defensive back. Edwards had endowed a scholarship for the jersey, traditionally given to god-like wide receivers, that specifically prohibited any freshman from wearing the #1.

Every newspaper in West Virginia has three guys working the Rich Rodriguez beat; Bob Hertzel is one of them. And Bob Hertzel is very confused:

[The number #1] has belonged exclusively to a wide receiver since 1979, dating back to Chris Carter.

There is something wrong with this sentence: it's "Cris Carter." Oh, and here's a picture of the Wolverine legend donning the precious #1:



Oops.