To celebrate my engagement, my maid of honor gave me a four-pound binder bearing the title “The Bride’s Essential Wedding Planner: Deluxe Edition.” The gift was at once heartfelt and tongue-in-cheek. She knew I wasn’t the type to fuss over every detail of my wedding day, and she wore an impish smile as she watched me heave the planner out from under the tissue paper.

In the illustration on the cover, a woman perches on a footstool in a white gown and veil holding a phone with an antenna in one white-gloved hand and a teetering wedding cake on the other. My fiancé asked later if the gray figure kneeling at the bride’s feet was supposed to be him, but a closer look revealed a seamstress dutifully sewing a hem. The groom was entirely absent.

This struck me as an idea more antiquated than the bride’s cell phone. I found a black Sharpie and bifurcated the word Bride’s with a proofreader’s caret, just before the apostrophe. Above it I wrote, GROOM.

To be sure, many grooms couldn’t care less about wedding planning. Why should they bother scouting DJs when they can get away with tuning it all out until the tuxes come in? However, plenty of men who might otherwise do more are no doubt cowed by the wedding industry’s general disregard for grooms. No wonder that mine assumed his place was there on the ground, bowing before the bride’s every whim. Regardless how enthusiastic your partner is, there’s one major reason to plan your wedding together: It can save you money.

Here are four ways to get a reluctant groom to help you achieve an ideal day within your budget.

1. Have some skin in the game. At one time it may have made sense for the bride to call the shots, given that her father traditionally paid the bill. These days the groom’s family often contributes as well, and Reuters reports that three out of four couples cover at least part of the cost themselves, citing Anja Winikka, editor of wedding website The Knot. Anyone putting up their own hard-earned cash is probably more likely to make sure they get their money’s worth. I spoke with a groom who had no interest in flowers at first but found himself bagging up clear glass pebbles the day before the wedding to ensure that each individual arrangement the couple had paid for would have just the right amount.

2. Meet with vendors together. While you want to involve close friends and family — especially if they’re paying — be aware of the effect they can have on you and your budget. If you and your mom or maid of honor tend to feed off each other’s excitement, it can be helpful to have someone to stall the resulting runaway train. (If only the groom could be there to steer you toward a cheap wedding dress.) Even when it’s just the two of you, help each other resist the upsell. You can raise an eyebrow when his eyes light up at the mention of a rented Rolls-Royce, and he can bring you back to earth when you’re tempted by towering centerpieces — or vice versa.

3. Solicit his input. Your partner may not be offering any help, but have you asked for it? You may appear to him to have everything under control — or worse, to be uninterested in his opinions. Ask him to brainstorm ways to save on the aspects of the event you haven’t thought about yet. Two heads are better than one when you’re trying to come up with cheap wedding ideas. And be sure to clue him in on what you’re doing. Even just CC’ing him on emails can go a long way.

4. Use his talents to your advantage. Has he mastered Photoshop? Design your own stationery instead of paying for pricey invites. Is he handy? Ask him to DIY some of the décor. If negotiation is part of his day job, have him take the lead with potential vendors and see if he can get you a deal. Let him introduce himself first to establish up front that they’re dealing with both of you, not just the bride. Tap into your fiancé’s circle of friends as well. He may happen to know a skilled photographer or accomplished baker willing to work for cheap.

You never know — before it’s all over, you could have him in the middle of a wedding fair with a coconut cocktail in one hand and a tote full of swag in the other.

Yesterday we talked about the recent developments in the college postseason discussion. One of which was the Big Ten completely caving on the idea of home site semifinals in order to save the Rose Bowl. Now, if the Big Ten backing off this issue doesn’t make any sense to you, then you aren’t alone. Adam Rittenberg:

Of the Big Ten groups advocating for playoffs at bowl sites, the coaches’ position makes the least sense. These are guys who typically capitalize on every possible advantage presented to them. But they seem to value their players’ bowl experience over the possibility of making Alabama or USC play them in the snow. Why should the Big Ten care if TCU and Oregon have small stadiums and can’t accommodate the media and the corporate sponsors? The Big Ten, for the most part, doesn’t have those problems.

DY Byrnes from Land-Grant Holyland:

Unlike athletic directors with posh salaries and closets full of 16th century scotch, I fail to see where the “value” is here for those dwelling in America in the year 2012. Let’s say this bowl-playoff abomination took effect this year. Somebody like Michigan plays in Jerry Jones’ Fantasy Factory, then the Sun and Blue might have trips to the Big 10 title game and two other neutral sites for the play-offs?

I know these guys take their private jets and dine on a corporate credit card, (and let’s make no mistake, these are corporations we’re talking about), but who has that kind of money to waltz around the country to follow their local band of amateur footballers?

Most pertinently, what about the students of these corporations?

Dan Wetzel:

Somewhere Mike Slive of the SEC and Larry Scott of the Pac-12 are kicking back with a cackle of delight. These guys are angling for every possible edge while the Big Ten and the Rose Bowl sit in adjacent bathtubs, holding hands and waiting for the moment to be right.

Wait, the rest of college football has to be asking, you’re not even going to fight and try to make us look like wimps for arguing against football in the cold? Wait, you seriously are going to ask the same fan base to travel three times in a month – Big Ten title game, semifinals and championship game, the last two at least via airplane? And you think we won’t end up with the majority of the crowd?

Yeah, so I guess staging games in the cold isn’t fair, but..

“The Big Ten’s bowl lineup will be revisited soon, and league commissioner Jim Delany said the Pinstripe Bowl in New York City “will be in the mix” as a possible replacement for one of the existing bowls.”

Wait, what?

Just so everyone has this straight: B1G concerned about cold weather for playoff, but would like to play bowl games in NYC in January.

— Kyle Meinke (@kmeinke) May 16, 2012

Finally, Ace from mgoblog:

What’s really remarkable is that the Big Ten is so brazen in its hypocricy that these ideas are presented within mere minutes of each other. The sooner the bowl system dies a fiery (icy?) death, at least when it comes to determining a national champion, the better.

The Big Ten Conference: cannibalizing its own interests for the sake of a meaningless exhibition game for almost 100 years. How Jim Delany can go from outmaneuvering Mark Shapiro and creating the Big Ten Network to falling helplessly in love with the Rose Bowl when every shred of common sense says it is time to give the Big Ten an advantage in the postseason is mind blowing. There must be two Jim Delanys. Or maybe he has an evil twin? Did anyone check the most recent Jim for a goatee?

[Update: 10:45]

You want more? Drew Sharp thinks the Big Ten SHOULD HAVE caved on home site semi-finals. Sorry Jim, if Drew Sharp is agreeing with you, you really need to rethink your position.

Links? Links:

Michigan expects to continue using special uniforms – Ok, so I’m fine with this because I realize that special uniforms are a great marketing tool (Marketing!) and that recruits love them. On top of that it isn’t like this is any threat that Michigan is going to go full Oregon (I do like Oregon’s uniforms, just not for a team like Michigan that doesn’t need to manufacture its own tradition in such a way). But please, for the love of god, kill whoever designed the away uniforms that the team wore at Michigan State last season. Woof.

Scout 300 for 2013 updated – Touch the Banner has the roundup of who moved where on Scout’s latest update. Most of Michigan’s commits stayed at or close to the old ranks, but Wyatt Shallman was the big dropper while Cass Tech players Jourdan Lewis and David Dawson both saw big jumps.

Spring breakout players in the Big Ten – Walk-on offensive lineman alert.

Class of 2012 Big Ten Recruiting Rankings: May 16th, 2012 – UMHoops ranks the Big Ten’s 2012 recruiting classes.

Michigan to spend $250 million to upgrade facilities for non-revenue sports

“We’ve really taken our entire campus footprint and said, ‘What do we need to do to get all of our facilities lifted to a point where we really feel we would be competitive with any other campus location for a national tournament,’’ said Brandon, in Chicago for the Big Ten’s annual spring meetings. “So, our standard would be to have facilities in every sport that would make us eligible as a site for regional or national competition.”

A Day In The Life of Dennis Norfleet and OTHER STUFF

I also think the whole “we can’t recruit skill positions well” stuff is garbage. Scout has Deveon Smith as the 53rd ranked player in the country. Wyatt Shallman is a four-star recruit across the board. As far as missing on Isaac goes, USC will always have that allure. Sanctions or without sanctions. With Kiffin or without Kiffin. As long as there’s at least some level of competency permeating from the Coliseum, USC is going to be a tough head-to-head recruiting matchup with any school. People should know this.

Maurice Hurst Jr. Update (Part 2) – Tremendous with two very good posts (including the one above). It seems that Maurice Hurst Jr. is not only serious, but a solid candidate to break out on the national recruiting scene. Meanwhile, Tremendous is another to say “keep calm” in the wake of Isaac’s commitment to USC.

Michigan Museday Meets Michigan Replay, Part 1

Michigan Replay ran from 1975 through 2008, beginning on Channel 7, moving to 4, and then back to 7 before ending up at Fox. The Sunday show spanned three coaches, two hosts, and six athletic directors. In some ways it was the spiritual predecessor to MGoBlog, in that its calling card was picking apart the plays from a wide angle, and using the latest available medium—television—to bring fans closer to the program than they’d ever been before. Many people made the show what it was—from the coaches who finished their game days with after-midnight taping sessions an hour’s drive away from their wives and beds, to the humble Jim Brandstatter, to the camera guys and crew like Pierre Woods and MGoReader Mike Berens.

If you have any attachment to Michigan Replay at all, you are going to want to read this. Phenomenal work by Seth at mgoblog.