Unverified Voracity Steps On Another Rake
Mooch'd. Shemy Schembechler came, and then he went. Warde Manuel:
"Effective this afternoon, Shemy Schembechler has resigned his position with Michigan Football. We are aware of some comments and likes on social media that have caused concern and pain for individuals in our community. Michigan Athletics is fully committed to a place where our coaches, staff and student-athletes feel welcome and where we fully support the University's and Athletic Department's commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion."
Schembechler got booted for his twitter account, which had dozens and dozens of likes on posts ranging between debatably racist and obviously racist. The ESPN story linked about asserts that "a source with knowledge of the situation told ESPN that Schembechler went through a thorough background check during the hiring process," which uh no he did not. When your background check misses publicly available information it was not thorough. Or even a "check," really.
Add it to the "What The Hell Is Warde Manuel Doing?" files. This is currently an athletic department that's winning the most important game on the schedule and doing very little else right. At this point the number of unforced PR errors that the department is stumbling into like so many rakes in front of Sideshow Bob is, dare I say it, Brandonesque. Articles are rolling in with titles like "Michigan leadership continues to embarrass itself" from places like The Athletic—not exactly the RCMB.
Shemy released a statement repudiating his hundreds of endorsements of racist right wing tweets, for what little that's worth.
[After the JUMP: anonymous quotes article woo]
ALSO IN WHOOPSIES BY GUYS IN SUITS. Kevin Warren negotiated a big old TV deal just before he went back to the NFL, but there are various… uh… issues outstanding:
Nearly three months before the season kicks off and those TV deals begin, the Big Ten does not have completed longform contracts, which include the fine print details. Instead, Petitti is engaged in significant "horse trading," according to multiple sources, to get the NBC primetime deal finished and figure out what the network calls "outstanding issues" in order to uphold as much value as possible.
Those issues include a total of 65 million dollars the Big Ten has to pay FOX because they have sold inventory that was previously FOX's to NBC, and "tens of millions of dollars of value" for the NBC primetime deal because Big Ten schools do not want to play in primetime in November for obvious reasons. Here is a section of the story:
"NBC was surprised, and I was surprised," said Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel. "We had not discussed, and I had not discussed with anyone in the league to change the tolerances we had agreed upon years ago."
Within the industry, though, there was an expectation that, considering the scope of the deal, all schools would play in prime time.
"The fault here is with the administrators on campus," said another industry source. "How did the presidents, chancellors and athletic directors not know this? The universities all signed off on the deal."
I side with the industry source here, at least as far as where the fault lies. Warde Manuel should have more information that I do about this but apparently has less because he did not read Adam Rittenberg's piece from nine months ago when the deal was "completed". Here is the bit on the NBC portion of the deal:
NBC will carry Big Ten games in prime time, which will be branded "Big Ten Saturday Night."
Since they did not brand it "Big Ten Saturday Night Except In November" it is a reasonable assumption that NBC intended to air prime time games for the whole season.
But I am on Manuel's side because I do not want to sit in 10 degree weather to watch Michgian play Indiana when I could sit in 20 degree weather to do the same.
Ooh, anonymous high school coaches. The Athletic surveys eight different high school coaches in Big Ten country about various things. One question about "if you had a son picking a Big Ten college where would you want him to go" gets this response from Coach 6, based in Nebraska:
Coach 6: If I had to pick one, I would pick Iowa. But if he was a quarterback, his ass ain’t going to Iowa.
Seven of the eight responded to a question about which schools are "working your area the hardest" and Michigan is mentioned first or second by five; the only guys who do not mention M are based in Nebraska and Wisconsin. Various assistants are endorsed as well:
Coach 1: … They’ve had some turnover, but the tight ends coach (Grant Newsome) has been there a couple years now, he’s done a good job. … Coach 4: Coach Clink (Michigan defensive backs coach Steve Clinkscale) has been super impressive. The time he’s spent at our school, even with the kids that may not be on his level, has been really good…. Coach 5: Coach Clinkscale and (wide receivers coach Ron) Bellamy (from Michigan). I know the kids really love both. They stand out.
Most downplay the impact of NIL on the kids that are getting recruited, saying that unless you're at the very top end it's not making a whole lot of difference. Michigan is not mentioned at all when the question is which teams have been the "most aggressive in promoting NIL," but Michigan State is, sooooo…
Welp. One can be frustrated at the fact that Michigan lands two first rounders on The Ringer's most recent NBA mock draft—Kobe Bufkin at #13 and Jett Howard at #23—and has nothing but an NIT appearance to show for it, or one can survey this year's team and see no potential NBA first-rounders and be happy about that. Yeah.
Cheer up, Michigan State! You may have yoked your football program to a completely untested head coach who parlayed the lucky find of a Heisman-worthy running back in the portal into a billion year unbreakable contract. You may have just lost your starting quarterback and best offensive player to the portal. Your recruiting class may have just lost one of its four commits and now stands at one CB ranked #400th and two nondescript interior OL. But y'all are dodgeball national champs. So you've got that going for you.
Hockey scheduled sleuthed. Connor Earegood used the powers of FOIA to find out who Michigan had signed contracts with next year for nonconference games. The answers:
According to records accessed by The Michigan Daily through the Freedom of Information Act, Michigan has signed contracts to face four teams — home against Providence and Lindenwood and away at Massachusetts and St. Cloud State — during its non-conference season. Similar to last season, all of those non-conference games come in the first half of the season.
Lindenwood went 5-22-1 last year and probably doesn't project much better in its second season as a D1 program. SCSU was #6 in Pairwise last year; Providence and UMass were 24 and 29, respectively. Both of the latter two programs could be projected to bounce back; UMass made the 2022 tourney and Providence was vaguely on the bubble.
Etc.: Naz Hillmon's first WNBA offseason was spent in the studio. Blake Corum is PFF's highest-graded returning college player by a whopping five points. Tray Jackson on his decision to transfer to Michigan. This tweet was sent to me. Sure, I'll read an article about the Kalel Mullings jump pass.
Thanks for the MSU dodgeball team update. One of my sons is on the team. They're so far under the radar his own dad forgot to ask him how the national championships went. He'll get a laugh out of the mention on one of his favorite sports blogs.
Were they taught how to play by Patches O'Hoolihan?
i enjoyed looking at the others sports on that tweet. OSU wins bollywood fusion dance ???
and no surprise air force wins skydiving and ND wins gaelic football (whatever that is)
VA Tech won the Dairy Cattle Judging national championship. And I'm not surprised... I am delighted, though - MSU didn't win that! Clemson won Dairy Tasting, though. I mean, that sounds like a competition I could be competitive in - I like ice cream.
Further evidence the Wisconsin AD is in shambles...
WTF, this is a sport?
I could judge the fuck out of some soil.
Articles are rolling in with titles like "Michigan leadership continues to embarrass itself" from places like The Athletic—not exactly the RCMB.
The writer of that Athletic piece, Chris Vannini, used to write for RCMB.
He didn't write for RCMB I don't think but did for the SBNation MSU site "The only Colors". He's not a partisan per se and he makes some good points but also pulls out bullshit like "Mazi Smith wasn't suspended for the gun while Harbaugh hypocritically asked for charges to be made against the MSU tunnel attack". He then cites Edwards retweeting Kanye, which is definitely dumb on Edwards' part but also...jfc, it's social media from one of the biggest accounts in the world. That's only a big story because UM actually did something about it and addressed it. So yeah, it's the type of piece that a guy who wants to sound more objective than he is.
"The shooting of multiple Virginia football players in November also highlighted the seriousness of the issue" quote in The Athletic was also quite the quote and I'm still missing the connection to Mazi Smith other than the word gun?
Yeah, Vannini is a good writer but he absolutely has some weird biases showing here that match his Spartan background. In particular, he'll largely stay away from talking about MSU or UM sports except when those teams both play each other, at which point he starts having weirdly specific opinions about how each is doing that tend to point negatively at UM unless they are just trucking MSU.
Anyway, the bigger issue is that because the AD screwed up a mediocre article comprised of equal combination of good points and message board drivel got published by a prominent sports org.
The writer of that Athletic piece, Chris Vannini, used to write for RCMB.
Point being that The Athletic is a respected online rag and having articles like this out there hurts the perception of Michigan.
At this point Jim beating OSU is the only thing keeping warde in his job.
Regarding the prime time November thing, isn't the solution just to dump those four weeks on USC and UCLA as soon as they get in the league? That's 5:00pm local in perfectly nice weather. Surely there are enough good teams in the league that you could have one interesting team play a game on the west coast for four weeks.
That was my thoguht as well. I doubt they get all 4 weeks, but at least 2 or 3 them.
Stop making sense!
It's really only 3 weeks (in most years) ---- given that the B1G has been playing night games on the first weekend of November, the last weekend pre-Daylight Savings, for years now.
("memorable" games like Indiana @ U-M and U-M @ Rutgers were November night games in 2021 and 2022)
-----------
Anyway, it should be easy enough to engineer the schedule, limited non-California Prime Time games and a schedule NBC will be happy with:
- Even number years (2024, 2026, ...):
- Week 11: Michigan/OSU/PSU/MSU (e.g., bigger-name school from the East) @ USC/UCLA
- Week 12: USC @ UCLA
- Week 13: Notre Dame @ USC
- Odd number years (2025, 2027, ....):
- Week 11: Nebraska/Iowa/Wisconsin (e.g., bigger-name school from the West) @ USC/UCLA
- Week 12: Michigan/OSU/PSU @ Rutgers/Maryland
- RU and MD have the nicest November weather among already existing B1G schools.
- Give them a big-name, somewhat "local" team, and RU and MD will go for this. They'll still get good attendance, even if it is majority opposing fans.
- If it's U-M or OSU, neither would be at too much of a disadvantage heading into their game next week.
- Week 13: UCLA @ USC
Hmm. So UCLA never gets to host a conference game during Week 13?
I'm assuming that the conference keeps the rule that everybody at home on week 12 is away on week 13, and vice versa. For the same reason, Ohio State wouldn't be on the road week 12 in odd number years, and week 12 would therefore be Michigan/PSU at Maryland (since Rutgers hosts Maryland odd years).
PSU doesn't really have a permanent week 13 opponent--I assume that stays the same moving forward.
Good points on the road/home Week 12/13 balance. You're right, that significantly limits odd-numbered year Week 12 options (not coincidentally, Michigan @ Maryland has been a rather frequent Week 12 game in odd-numbered years, including this year).
Figuring out UCLA in Week 13 is another issue. I originally figured they'd schedule California OOC: but after "Cal-imony" there may be some hard feelings there. We'll see.
PSU Week 13: who knows. We'll first need to see who PSU's annual foes are. I personally like finishing with MSU (mostly because I'm usually in Detroit for TG and can then easily attend a game) ..... but no guarantee they'll play annually going forward.
The November thing seems like a non-issue for that reason. The Game will likely be the first game of a tripleheader that finishes with USC/ND or USC/UCLA in the years USC plays at ND.
My tinfoil hat also tells me that the USC/UCLA schedule will be backloaded to help them have a better record and higher ranking to make those night games more appealing for said November gauntlet.
I hesitate to jump in because I don't want this to excuse any idiocy that occurred while hiring Shemmy -- but do we really think the AD department is signing off on a low-level recruiting coordinator? My bet is Harbaugh knew his buddy was looking for work and looked to fit him in to whatever role he could offer. I don't know if, realisitcally, Warde should have any say in that type of hire - at least in an ideal world. Maybe now he does.
Given the inevitable Anderson-related uproar from hiring anyone named "Schembechler," the AD should have at least done its due diligence to know that there wasn't anything else there. They should have known that hiring Bo's son alone would lead to scrutiny. If they didn't, they're lost in their own bubble (which seems could be the case, given all the weird stuff around the hockey program).
The administrative incompetence at both the AD and the upper levels of university admin is becoming a lot to take.
Come on - it's a recruiting role for the football program. I couldn't find his specific job posting but Denard is in a similar role and makes $100k, and again this is going to be one of the faces of your recruiting efforts to reach young students and recruits. Michigan absolutely does a basic background check for roles that pay way less than this - I got paid $20/hr 20 years ago to work in the records department and was background checked. Now, maybe their background check was really shitty and then that's an indictment of the process in play, but more likely is Harbaugh said "I'm going to hire Bo's son" and Warde said "whatever, sounds good" and nobody thought to look beyond that. The most optimistic/positive spin for them is that they assumed he had been vetted from his numerous NFL jobs but even that's lazy on their part.
Warde is the head of the athletic department - he needs to know this shit. Other schools have failsons of problematic coaches sniffing around for jobs and they seemingly catch some of them before they blow up. If Warde can't even do that then that's him screwing up and shouldn't be dismissed as "beneath" him.
Now, maybe their background check was really shitty and then that's an indictment of the process in play
Depends on your definition of shitty background check. Is it standard practice at most employers to check social media as part of a background check? Maybe it should be in this day and age, but I doubt most employers do it. My understanding is that background checks are typically looking for criminal records, maybe calling past employers to verify employment, maybe drug screenings, and that's about it. I'd be surprised if many even verified education, if anything they likely just ask for a copy of their transcript and call it a day, since how often do people actually forge their transcripts/degrees?
Most employers, as in, our standard metro-Detroit automotive engineering or accounting jobs? You're right, probably not checking social media.
Most employers, as in, multi-million dollar entertainment organizations who's main method of engagement is social media managed by a team of professionals / interns? I would think they'd check the socials to hire onto a pretty small team of ambassadors.
Generally not standard to check social media accounts in any depth. The regular BG checks, I'm sure, were done - criminal usually, maybe education and financial/credit. Maybe motor vehicle records, if the job requires driving (which it probably does).
If they did all those things, it can be considered pretty thorough.
For high profile (usually exec) candidates/hires, a pretty comprehensive social media review is also conducted. Nobody wants their CEO outed as a bigot or internet wack job, so the exec recruiters and search firms are all over this kind of crap.
That said, I'm surprised it doesn't happen for these sorts of jobs. HireRight and other BG check vendors do offer social media checks as a service and UM should probably start taking advantage of them.
To me it all comes back to systems and processes- I haven't perused the org chart for U-M's Athletic Department to see how many layers there are between the AD and whatever Glenn Junior was supposed to do, but you would like to think that before extending a public offer, some intern would have been assigned to see whether the theoretical future employee was publicly, openly a piece of garbage or not.
Short answer- I dunno if Warde should have been the one to vet him but he sure as hell should have been the one to ensure that all hires get vetted. It's not hard.
Warde keeps making the same mistakes, over and over.
but do we really think the AD department is signing off on a low-level recruiting coordinator?
I find it hard to believe that Warde wouldn't have known or heard that Bo Schembechler's son was being hired
OTOH, the mess has led to another Ace incendiation on Twitter where he, after failing to get Sam cancelled the first time, is trying to run it back. He is so quick to assign himself the job of Moral Sheriff and then for any offenders, straight to the gallows they go. Ascenseur pour l'echafaud, as they say.
Ascenseur pour l'echafaud? Interesting soundtrack. I've never seen the movie. :)
Aside: People like Ace are much loved (in an oblique way) by Team Red. SJWs really exist, kids.
I also have never seen the movie, but have the soundtrack on wax. Great for anyone who likes chill Miles.
Some other gems from the high school coaches:
Which head coach do you hear from the most?
Coach 8: ... Jim Harbaugh is a good guy, but he’s kind of awkward. Real awkward. There were like five people sitting in the room (with him) and nobody was talking. It was just really awkward. …
Which assistants have impressed you?
Coach 6: ... (Offensive coordinator) Brian (Ferentz) is such an acquired taste. Of all these coaches that come around here, he’d be one the first to say, “Let’s go bounce to the sports bar and have a beer.”
That could explain a lot regarding Booze-bag Brian. Maybe they should start making him blow before games
Maybe the problem with games is he's not, give him a few beers and he'll finally let er rip instead of that boring garbage they run
So some "Liquid Leach" kind of like the "Liquid Ledbetter" on a golf course?
At first I read this is as "DO blow before games"
The whole not wanting to play evening games in Nov is overblown, as the inconvenience is only 2023, and NFL never had problem with evening play-off games in Green Bay and Buffalo in December and January.
The real implication of NBC broadcasting BIG games on Saturday night is the removal of ND games from the primetime, which has 3 seasons left in the contract. How this will impact NDs' media negotiation remains to be seen but I don't see it playing into ND's favor.
Shemmy's PR statement was a steaming pile of crap.
There were hundreds of objectionable tweets that he liked. What's in his heart is unmistakable, notwithstanding his absurd statement lauding his dedication to Black athletes.
Is Warde talking to JH now? Maybe that was the reason for the mishap with Shemy here. Warde new about the results of the background check but because he doesn't talk to JH that information had to get into the press to get this taken care of.
How much runway does keeping JH after 2020 give Warde? Seems like he's burned all that up over the last 2 years now. He's rooting for a Natty harder than anyone this year I would bet.
Tamu won the national title in wool judging.
MSU could never come close to winning that, evidenced they their judging of the amount of wool 7L Mel pulled over their eyes.
MSU couldn't judge a wool coat with a hot babe...
ah, I lost it.
The funny thing about the night games is that it's fine for a big game. I've been to NFL playoff games in below zero wind chill that have been amazing - which is why I'm not worried about home playoff games at all.
The problem is going to be the cakewalk game where we lose our 100,000 fan streak because no one wants to brave that weather see Michigan win by 30 vs a nobody when it's that cold. But can't they just have UCLA and USC each host a night game in November, and then make the other week a big game?
That's probably what they'll do from 2024 on, but the 2023 schedule doesn't have the USC/UCLA option for those November games
Not going to lie. I’m a little jealous of the dodgeball championship.
If you can dodge a felony assault charge, you can dodge a ball!
"But I am on Manuel's side because I do not want to sit in 10 degree weather to watch Michgian play Indiana when I could sit in 20 degree weather to do the same."
It is simple pragmatism like this that makes Brian the best in the business. Yeah, he fat-fingered the spelling of our state, but I did the same thing once (orally) during a sobriety test along M-50.
A background check wouldn't trawl through people's social media to find offensive posts. That's not what a background check is about or designed for. It'd be legally questionable to screen applicants for personal opinions, especially as a public sector employer.
Background checks usually will check for criminal offenses and/or credit issues.
Of course, you can do additional vetting on top of that on your own initiative, and for positions with public visibility that's generally advisable. However, there's certainly always the possibility of legal challenge as to what constitutes a reasonable level of vetting and what constitutes a legitimate reason that disqualifies an applicant from further consideration.
I disagree. Social media posts that are not locked down are readily checked with a number of large private databases by both large investigative firms and sole practitioner PIs. And failing to do these checks for exactly the noxious views that were not found here is gross negligence for a prominent position at a public institution. There is no legit legal recourse for posting racist views unless you think u you our lawyer can convince a jury it was a good idea.
Your standard background check service will just do a database search, sex offender, criminal convictions, bankruptcies etc. You can have a lot more done obviously, but that would be beyond what most companies would do for non-security relevant positions. We're not talking about security clearance for a government job here. It's a low level assistant gig for a football team.
In fact, there's a growing movement to get rid of background checks period with the argument that they make it harder for ex-cons to find jobs and thus makes it actually more likely they re-offend.
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