Author: John U. Bacon

Changes in the University of Michigan’s football ticket policy for students – including raised prices and general admission seating – doesn’t get at the root problem of apathy toward the game. Columnist John U. Bacon explains why today’s big-money approach to Michigan football is shortchanging students and undercutting long-term loyalty. [Full Story]

Columnist John U. Bacon takes issue with a recent ranking of careers, which puts the profession of journalism at the bottom of the list. While it’s true that the job can be stressful and the newspaper industry is faltering, there are many reasons to love being a journalist, he writes. [Full Story]

After firing the last four men’s basketball coaches, three in the wake of scandals, the University of Michigan just might have finally gotten the right guy in John Beilein. Columnist John U. Bacon writes that even though the team came up short in the recent NCAA championship game, most fans seem less upset than proud – not just of what the team did, but how they did it. [Full Story]

Columnist John U. Bacon salutes the virtue of consistency, as embodied by Michigan hockey’s 22-year streak of making it into the NCAA tournament. Even though this year the team didn’t reach that goal, the streak still deserves our respect, Bacon writes. [Full Story]

A lot of amateur athletes think they’re not that far from the people who play their sports for a living. When columnist John U. Bacon tried out for Detroit’s minor league hockey team, he found out that just isn’t so – and he found out the hard way. [Full Story]

In the Michigan hockey program’s 90-year history, columnist John U. Bacon writes, some 600 players have scored more than 10,000 total goals. But Eddie Kahn, the man who scored the team’s very first goal 90 years ago, might still be the most impressive one of the bunch. [Full Story]

Columnist John U. Bacon skewers this year’s Super Bowl ads, noting that the expense and hype only increases the pressure to impress. Commercialism has seeped into nearly every aspect of the game – in fact, did anyone even watch what happened on the field? Maybe the sponsors did. [Full Story]

As John and Jim Harbaugh prepare to face each other in the 2013 Super Bowl, columnist John U. Bacon highlights their connection to Ann Arbor and the University of Michigan, where Jim Harbaugh played football for Bo Schembechler in the ’70s. [Full Story]

There’s a bright spot in sports news so far this year – the decision by Taylor Lewan to stay with Michigan another year. But columnist John U. Bacon must first sort through the bad, the ugly, and the downright bizarre before he can get to Lewan’s tale. [Full Story]

Columnist John U. Bacon notes that 2012 was a remarkable year in many ways, and the sports world was no exception. He looks back on the sport year’s best and worst – and just plain silly. [Full Story]