Rich Rodriguez, Michigan’s head football coach, seemed to tear up while talking about the football program during the weekly news conference he holds in Ann Arbor.

He opened his Monday weekly news conference stating that he would discuss the report from Free Press in which many former and current players stated that the University of Michigan had far exceeded limits of the NCAA for practice time as well as other types of football related activities on a consistent basis. Rodriguez spoke about the topic for 15 minutes, choking up several times.

When he had finished he stated that he had taken longer than he wanted to and then asked if there were any questions about Saturday’s opening game against Western Michigan.

Michigan announced on Sunday that an investigation had been launched to address the allegations. The NCAA and Big Ten have been notified.

Rodriguez said they knew the rules and go by the rules.

Rodriguez is in his second year as the head coach for the University of Michigan. He praised his team’s players for all of their hard work during workouts and practice as well as the classroom. He stated that the team from last year had the highest GPA in the team’s history.

He stated that it was a privilege and honor working with longtime conditioning and strength coach Mike Barwis whose very rigorous workouts are now one of the program’s trademarks. Rodriguez added that the seniors had been over to his house on Sunday and had said that they were committed to getting things right.

Rodriguez fielded a couple of questions from the media concerning the allegations before the subject was switched to the Broncos.

It appeared that he was choking up for the first time when he made the statement that the thing that bothered him the most about the things that had been written or said recently or during the last 18 months was that there was a perception out there sometimes that they didn’t care that much about their players, their welfare, and that was disheartening. He paused, appearing to tear up. He added that it was inaccurate, misleading and went against all he had ever believed about coaching.

Rodriguez stated that he wouldn’t ever do anything that would compromise the welfare of his players or their ability to attend their classes.

Rodriguez also made several comments. He stated that he knew he was at a great place and that his staff and players were working as hard as they could to every day build America’s best program.

He also praised Mike Barwis and said what he had done was unprecented and that he was a great asset to the university. I love our players and staff just like I love my family, he added.

Much of the premium seating for the Big House at the University of Michigan has been sold despite the bad economy, last season’s record setting nine losses, and a finished product that couldn’t be seen.

On Wednesday Joe Parker, the senior associate athletic director, said the University had commitments for about 70% of club seats and luxury seats for the new 2010 Michigan Stadium. Parker said they were happy with where they were while on a tour of the $226 million renovation. He added that when the project was complete that he expected that all of the premium seating would be sold.

With a minimum three year commitment and going for $55,000-$85,000 a season, wealthy fans will get 16 very comfortable seats in a 28 foot deep by 15 foot wide box that also includes sapele wood cabinets, granite counter tops and two TVs.

The suites, which are climate controlled, have large windows that can be closed when the weather is bad and opened to let in crowd noise and air. The suite owners will have the ability to invite two guests who already have tickets somewhere else in the stadium to watch the game with them during the fourth quarter, and also have the ability to purchase as many as four standing room only tickets for a maximum 22 people per box.

Parker stated that 58 out of 82 suites had been secured with deposits of $10,000. There are more than 3,000 club seats which cost $1,500-$4,000 each per year. Some are indoors and a majority of the ones outdoor are covered. Eight percent of suite costs are tax deductible and 73-82 percent of club seats costs is tax deductible as well. Parker stated that some of the fans had scaled their commitments back by downgrading to club seats from suites. The school will start providing tours of the areas with premium seating on Fridays and Saturdays this fall.

Construction began in November 2007 the day after Michigan lost to Ohio State. The roof and masonry on both sides of the stadium are complete and the construction crews are at work finishing the insides of the structures off along both sidelines of this storied venue.

This season after Michigan is through hosting the Buckeyes, they will tear down the press box and in its place will be put 704 chair back seats that have cup holders and contoured backs.

In order to improve access for wheelchairs, the seating capacity of the stadium has been lowered to 106,201 and is now second behind the Penn State Beaver Stadium for being the largest football venue in the country. Parker said he expects that the Big House will regain its top position in the future with over 108,000 seats.

Practice has started in Ann Arbor with the University of Michigan’s football team hard at work. The season starts on September 5 against Western Michigan at home. The team will soon start to increase the workload to double sessions practice on a daily basis.

Following last season’s 3-9 year, everything at Michigan is wide open. Rich Rodriguez, second year head coach, says that he is impressed with the squad’s talent level overall. He added that he won’t be happy unless the team is competing for a Big Ten title every Saturday.

As far as any win-loss record, Rodriguez says he doesn’t like to make predictions, which is probably a smart move. And even smarter, Rodriguez says he doesn’t want to discuss last season’s record. Rodriguez is constantly upbeat and not the type to dwell on plays that did not work or calls he didn’t get. He looks ahead constantly, which is one of his better qualities.

The early focus for Wolverine fans, like with most football teams, is on the quarterback. This is especially true for the 2009 team. Anyone half paying attention last year was able to realize that play at the quarterback position was a very big problem for the Michigan team. After head coach Lloyd Carr resigned, Chad Henne, the four year starting quarterback left to play for the Miami Dolphins.

Ryan Mallet was a capable backup for Henne. He had been able to step in and win two years ago when Henne was injured. However Rodriguez and Mallett clashed. Mallett stated that the spread offense wasn’t what he wanted to run, which was Rodriguez’ calling card.

Mallett, who is a classic drop-back quarterback, sat out last season and then left for the University of Arkansas where it is expected that he will start this year.

Last year two quarterbacks who had no prior college experience led the Michigan team. Nick Sheridan and Steve Threatt both looked like nervous freshman who had been thrown out to the wolves on the field. The Michigan offense was so bad it was scary. Threatt ended up leaving Michigan while Sheridan is now fighting for a chance to be a starter once again.

Some help has arrived in Michigan. Tate Forcier, who is a freshman out of San Diego, California, came to Michigan last January, participating in the team’s spring football and yearly spring game. During spring ball Threatt was injured but Forcier was dazzling. He threw for scores, ran for scores, and played with a lot of ability and confidence. He looked like a leader when he was out on the field and was very well spoken. However, Rodriguez quickly punctured his balloon. Michigan’s head coach told everyone that it was unfair to expect that a freshman quarterback playing on the Division 1 level could do too much. He should be given time to learn.

Michigan fans unfortunately have already seen Sheridan play and are not too excited about repeating the experience, despite talks of how much he has improved since last year. Dennard Robinson is another quarterback Michigan is introducing. He is a speedster from Florida who had been recruited as a defensive back by the national championship Gators team. He did not enroll at Michigan early and like Forcier is still not familiar with the offense.

Devin Gardner out of Inkster, MI, who is another top rated quarterback, is committed to coming to Michigan next year. However, in the meantime, Wolverine fans are hoping that Forcier will get off to a quick start and lead them from the wilderness.

Michigan only garnered one vote from the coaches’ preseason poll. Just one vote. You have to wonder who the coach was that voted for Michigan as one of the top 25. That pretty much tells you all you would ever need to know when it comes to preseason polls. The only thing is polls actually do matter when it comes to college football because championships are not won on the field.

Michigan certainly doesn’t justify anyone’s vote in the preseason’s top 25. Perhaps the Wolverines will play their way into the top tier and warrant discussion about playing like the big boys. However the Michigan team and Rich Rodriguez have a lot of work ahead of them.

Between some pretty high-profile upsets in the last few years and a 1-6 record in last year’s Bowls, the reputation of the Big Ten is severely bruised in a way that an unprotected quarterback might be. These are very painful hits for both players and coaches.

Doug Worthington, defensive lineman for Ohio State, said everyone in the room wants that to change, at the Big Ten Conference Media Day.

Indiana and Michigan can boast of sparkling new training facilities, and Minnesota is bringing football back on its campus after an absence of 27 years, with a new stadium about to open. However these new shines alone can’t restore a tarnished image that could use some polish.

The Big Ten’s Bowl record for the last four years is 9-20, including the two Ohio State losses in the BCS championship games. The conference hasn’t had a winning record in the post season since 2002. The BCS games have been particularly bad, with the Big Ten on an 0-6 losing streak over the last three years. To make it worse, all but one of the losses was by more than 14 points. This also includes an almost decade long slide in the Rose Bowl. The Big Ten has lost six straight times since Wisconsin’s 17-9 win over Stanford in 2000.

Daryll Clark, quarterback for Penn State which lost to USC in the Rose Bowl 38-24, stated that all the teams in the Big Ten needed to see it as a disrespectful sign.

Ron Zook, Illinois coach, said that until they started winning out of conference and Bowl games that there wasn’t really a lot they could say.

The losses in Bowl games is not the only thing that is sparking the idea that the Big Ten isn’t the conference that it used to be. It has fed into the misperception that the conference is antiquated and plodding. There have been some high profile shots taken at the Big Ten during the regular season. Then one of its flagship programs, Michigan, collapsed last season.

It certainly would help if Ohio State could beat USC in September to avenge last year’s 35-3 blow out, or if Michigan would rebound from last year’s dreadful 3-9 record in Rich Rodriguez’ first year as head coach.

The Wolverines have suffered two big upsets in the last two years. In 2007 Appalachian State beat Ohio State at home and then last year Toledo did it as well.

In 2007 Northwestern did not help the cause when it fell to Duke at home after Duke had lost 22 games in a row. However, last season the Wildcats did rebound with a 9-3 record. However, Illinois dropped to 5-7, including a loss to Western Michigan, after making it to the Rose Bowl.

Then there is the case of Michigan. Rodriguez said that you would expect in January that Michigan wold be in a Bowl game or BCS game and be in the top of the rankings. Rodriguez sees a direct connection between Michigan’s slide and the perception people have about the Big Ten.

Stevie Brown, Michigan linebacker, isn’t too sure about that. He doesn’t feel that Michigan has to a great team in order for the Big Ten to be a great conference. He added that he thought all of the Big Ten schools were good.

However, there is something that isn’t working.

It was the physical play that attracted the 276-pound, 6’6″ Worthington to the Big Ten Conference in the first place. However, despite the fact that the spread offense exists throughout the league, all the way from Minneapolis to State College, PA, the Big Ten just does not appear as sleek as other conferences. Worthington stated that there were 150 pound guys running a 4.2 that would not want to play in the Big Ten conference.

The coaches all seemed to fixate on the schedule. Most of them are pushing to break from a long tradition of having no conference games on the schedule after the Ohio State-Michigan game right before Thanksgiving. The idea is that they shouldn’t have any long layoffs that they think are giving other conferences an advantage over the Big Ten in the top-tier Bowl games. This would involve either playing into December or adding an open date.

Another option would be to do what Joe Paterno, head coach of Penn State, suggests which is to add a 12th team and split the conference into two divisions with a championship game like the ACC, Big 12 and SEC have. Paterno stated that he didn’t think there was a lot of enthusiasm for expanding to have a playoff from other presidents, but that they he wanted to bring the idea to the table.

Jim Delany, Big Ten commissioner, has indicated that an expansion would not happen any time soon. However, the shift in scheduling idea is gaining some momentum. Illinois has two games and two open dates after the Michigan-Ohio State weekend. They play at Cincinnati on November 27 and then at home against Fresno on December 5, which is the same day that Wisconsin will be in Hawaii.