Thought #1

The University of Michigan has decided to slap itself on the wrist before the NCAA could drop the hammer on them for violations involving practice time and coaching activities. Some of the punishments include cutting future practice time, self probation, and of course a stern letter of reprimand to Rich Rodriguez and his staff.

This is like the kid who gets in trouble at school and just knows hes going to get his tail whipped as soon as his dad gets home. The kid obviously needs an exit strategy, so what does he do? He decides to punish himself and as soon as his dad busts in the door, ready to do his duty as a father, the kid says, "Dad, don't worry about it, I've already taken care of this. I punished myself. That's right, only non-frosted pop-tarts for a week, no video games before 3 pm, and if I'm going to have my eye on myself. If I do this again it's going to be even worse."

Is that what Michigan is trying to pull here. Is this kid trying to punish himself before the NCAA gets home and here's that message from the teacher on the machine? Yeah, it doesn't exactly, or at least shouldn't work that way Michigan.

Seriously, could you walk into work, get busted for stealing staplers, and then say, "you know what that was wrong. I'm going to write my self a mean letter and then watch myself very closely for the next two months." Could you get away with that? No way.

The way you know a punishment isn't severe enough is the day a person doesn't avoiding taking it. The moment they volunteer for it, you have to wonder if it's all that bad.