The John Bacon Q&A: College Football At A Crossroads Comment Count

Brian

Hey kids. John's answered your questions in an extensive post below. I know his points hit close to home as we approach the last time Michigan Stadium will host Notre Dame for the foreseeable future. The book is Fourth and Long, and it's available now.

See also: John fields questions from MVictors and talks with the PostGame. Also he was on Olbermann!

The Kraft Macaroni and Cheese noodle sits outside of the Big House on Friday, Aug. 30. Patrick Record | AnnArbor.com<br />
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Is there a way of putting the genie back in the bottle, or have the aggressive, business-oriented strategies of highlighted in the book (and there are MANY instances therein) put Michigan on an irreversible, faulty trajectory?

[My question is in his estimation, where is that "tipping point" for Michigan, and what happens when we reach it?]

Great question, and one I’ve examined from as many angles as possible for this book. Really, for Michigan fans – and fans of college football generally – it is the central question.

Michigan happens to make a great case study, on two fronts: the loyalty of its fans, and the department’s profitably, both of which are virtually unequaled in college football.

First, the good news, from the book:

“Brandon’s style might not please everyone he deals with, but he delivers what he promises. Under Brandon, the department increased its operating surplus to $15.3 million in fiscal year 2012, 72 percent higher than the previous fiscal year. In 2012, the Michigan football team alone generated $61.6 million in profits, second only to the University of Texas, which has the considerable advantage of its exclusive twenty-year, $300 million TV deal with ESPN.

Brandon has delivered more than dollars, too. After hiring Brady Hoke in 2011, the Michigan football team beat Notre Dame on the last play of the Big House’s first night game, defeated Ohio State for the first time since 2003, and won a thrilling overtime game over eleventh-ranked Virginia Tech in the Sugar Bowl, Michigan’s first BCS bowl victory since a young man named Tom Brady beat Alabama in the January 1, 2000, Orange Bowl.

In the 2011–12 school year, the hockey team earned a #1 seed in the NCAA tournament; the men’s basketball team won a share of its first Big Ten title since 1986; and the following fall, Michigan’s other twenty-nine sports combined to run a close second behind Stanford, and ahead of such perennial all-sport powers as Texas and UCLA, in the Directors’ Cup, which Michigan has never won.

If the Michigan athletic department had issued a 2012 annual report to its shareholders, it would have been the shiniest publication in college sports, packed with enough good news to make the competition envious. By those measures, its creator could be considered an all-American athletic director.

The Wolverines are not alone in spending millions, of course, engaged as they are in an arms race with the Buckeyes and the Southeastern Conference that shows no signs of slowing down. In Brandon’s speeches to alumni clubs, service groups, and the press, he has been unabashed in laying out a simple equation: if you want titles, this is what it takes.

But it can come with some unexpected prices.”

One of them, of course, was the initial decision to leave the Marching Band in Ann Arbor for the Alabama game in Dallas – about which former band director Scott Boerma was willing to clarify several misconceptions in our interviews.

But the bigger price might be the disaffection of thousands of loyal fans, some of whom have dropped their tickets. At Michigan, as of this writing, those numbers don’t seem to be too great, and the Big House still attracts over 100,000 passionate fans each game. But just down the road at Penn State, whose fans are every bit as rabid as Michigan’s, driving an average of four hours to see their team play in State College, you can see the effects of squeezing your supporters too hard.

The scoreboard scroller at Penn State’s third game, against Navy, announced the game’s attendance at ninety-eight thousand. As I write: “This would have brought heartbreak to the Michigan crowd, which had never dipped below one hundred thousand since 1975. But the Lions’ six-year streak had already been broken at the opening game of the 2011 season, months before Sandusky was arrested, thanks to the overpricing of tickets through a misguided and ill-timed seat-license plan called the “Step Program.” This had caused attendance to drop by about three thousand a game in 2010, when the program was introduced, again in 2011, and would again in 2012.”

My sources tell me the trend is likely to continue in 2013, and this brings us to a central issue for meccas like Beaver Stadium, the Horseshoe and the Big House: faith. From the book:

College football fandom depends on the same force that buoys our nation’s currency: faith. Since the United States left the gold standard, the US dollar has value only because billions of people around the world think it does. When a critical mass of people stop thinking that, our dollars will be worth no more than Confederate scrip—without the eBay memorabilia value.

College football isn’t nearly as important, of course, nor as serious. But the ecosystem works the same way. Going to a football game at Michigan, Ohio State, or Penn State is great largely because over one hundred thousand people at each stadium think it is. If the sellouts stop and the empty seats increase, the fans start questioning why they’re paying such incredible fees for a “wow experience” that cannot attract a sellout.

One friend calculated that taking her husband and two kids to the games—without dinners or hotel rooms—costs about $500 per Saturday, more than a day at Disney World. And Mickey never loses or snows on you.

“Just because you can charge them more,” Bill Martin told me, “doesn’t mean you should. You’re not there to ring up the cash to the nth degree. It’s a nonprofit model!

“Look into how much is spent on marketing, then look at how effective it is,” he said. “Look at the increase in men’s basketball attendance this year,” he added. Michigan’s top-10 men’s team played twenty games at home, attracting capacity crowds of 12,693 for fifteen of those games, with only two under 10,000. “That would happen if you didn’t spend one penny on marketing. You don’t have to do marketing at Michigan. We have the fans. We have the support. We have a great reputation. All you have to do is win. If you win, they will come. You just need to make it as affordable as possible for your fans.”

For all these reasons, my friends—who developed what they thought were lifelong habits of attendance as kids—have found themselves in the last few years rarely going to the stadium anymore.

The straw man of the hour was Michigan athletic director Dave Brandon. Brandon talks a lot about “brand loyalty,” but that combines two words that, to a college football fan, aren’t related. College football fans are fiercely loyal, but their loyalty is to something they most definitely do not see as a brand, rather something much deeper. If Michigan football ever lost loyal fans like my friends in the living room, who were raised on Michigan football, could it win them back?

Clearly, Brandon was betting that the endless branding would keep them in the fold. And perhaps if not, other fans could replace them.”

Both those questions, I believe, will be answered in the near future. And they will be answered by you, the loyal fans, who will vote with your feet, and your credit card.

[After THE JUMP: is college football worth saving? Does Bill O'Brien want to strangle Tim Beckman? What does the U stand for?]

What's wrong with a world where college football becomes NFL lite? Some traditions are worth preserving - why is amateur/college football one of those?

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If the “tipping point” question above is the central one for fans, this question might be the central question for the sport of college football itself.

When Bo Schembechler accepted Don Canham’s offer to coach the Wolverines in 1969, he was paid $21,000. At that rate, I’d imagine, most players on his team knew that, if they got their Michigan degree, they could do better financially than their coach, and probably hundreds of them have. Few at the time, if any, were arguing that the players were being exploited.

But even though the value of a scholarship has gone up considerably, it has not kept pace with the skyrocketing coaches’ salaries.

From the book:

“Head football coaches at Division I public universities now average more than $2 million a year, an increase of 750 percent (adjusted for inflation) since 1984, which is about twenty times more than professors’ salaries increased over the same period. In 2012, the highest-paid state employee in twenty-seven states was a football coach, and in thirteen it was a basketball coach. The number of states whose highest-paid public employee was a university president? Four. The explosion in CEO pay, and the rationales that go with it, would be a fair comparison.”

In the face of this unprecedented influx of money, the contrast between the lifestyles of the players and the coaches and administrators becomes more glaring – and more galling. As you are probably already aware, this chasm has widened in the past three years, making for interesting contrasts among Bill Martin, Dave Brandon, and the players, but the details can be striking.

From the book:

“During the 2008 recession, Martin’s administration actually lowered ticket prices and gave free full-page ads in every football program to the Big Three automakers, who have generously supported the department for decades. It’s also why Martin insisted on being paid a dollar for each of his first two years as athletic director, then agreed to the going rate of about $300,000 per year thereafter.

Already a multimillionaire, Martin turned down the president’s offer to double his salary, and all bonuses. When he traveled to New York on university business, he and his staffers flew coach on Northwest Airlines, then took a cab in the city, or the subway, or, most often, simply walked.

Dave Brandon is estimated to be worth tens of millions, but he is now paid roughly three times what Bill Martin received. For the first time in Michigan’s history, the athletic director makes more than the president. When university business calls Brandon to New York, he often flies out on a donor’s private jet, then pays a limousine service to drive him to meetings around the city.

Back in Ann Arbor, for his first two years Denard Robinson borrowed his teammates’ beat-up cars—Thomas Rawls’s pickup truck was particularly popular among the players—before he bought a rusty clunker of his own, a Pontiac Grand Am, possibly a ’98, though he wasn’t sure. His protégé, Devin Gardner, picked up a little blue coupe, which had “wires hanging out from the engine over the front bumper, and half the back bumper missing,” teammate Elliott Mealer told me. “Devin couldn’t have resold that thing to a blind man. So, no. No one’s giving us cars.”

After a point, the contrasts start to matter.”

And at some point, the players might stand up en masse – really, the only way they have any power – and decide to, well, sit down. Before the Michigan State game, I ran into Michigan cross-country coach Ron Warhurst in the Pioneer parking lot. From the book:

He looked around at the thousands of people happily spending about $500 on that day’s game—and many of them much more. Two golf courses across Main Street were just as full. So was the stadium parking lot and dozens of residential blocks within a mile of the Big House.

“You look at all this, you look at how much money people spend, and how much those guys make,” he said, pointing a thumb at the Big House, “and you have to think, one of these times the players are going to run out of that tunnel, sit down on the benches, and refuse to play until they get paid.

“One of these days.”

William Friday, the former president of the University of North Carolina, told the writer Taylor Branch that if a certain team—not his own school’s—reached the NCAA basketball championship game a few years ago, “they were going to dress and go out on the floor, but refuse to play.” Because the team didn’t make it to the finals, we’ll never know if they would have followed through. But any team in the tournament could do it, jeopardizing the $1 billion March Madness generates in TV ads alone ,the highest ad revenue of any sporting event.

Just as Warhurst postulated, any football team could do the same—which demonstrates just how fragile the game’s foundation really is.

As the salaries of coaches and athletic directors escalate, while the players’ income remains stuck at zero, it’s not hard to imagine a point when the players finally say, “Enough.”

So, obviously, as the gap grows between the talent and the management, if you will, the long-held practice of not giving players a cut of the cash becomes harder and harder to defend. But I still believe there are compelling reasons not to, because once that line is crossed, a big element of what we love about college football – and why a study commissioned by Martin shows UM football fans have much less interest in professional sports – will be lost, and I believe lost forever.

From the book:

These hypotheticals would be largely academic if millions of fans did not prefer college football to the pros. Why do they?

College teams were organically and spontaneously created more than a century ago by the students, just for fun.

The NFL and all its teams since were created by league executives, lawyers, and chief marketing officers, just for profit.

Almost every Division I college football team predates the oldest NFL teams by three or four decades. Most schools built their current stadiums before most NFL teams built their first—or second, or third. College football is one of those few passions we have in common with our great-grandparents.

College teams play on college campuses, where students actually go to school. The students feel as connected to these campuses as they do to their homes—and this connection typically lasts for life. That also goes for the jocks, who live in the same dorms as the geeks; they take classes in the same buildings; and they eat at the same pizza and burger joints everyone else does. Just about anyone who went to college has a story about running into the big man on campus.

NFL players make millions and live in gated communities. You’re not likely to meet them, no matter how many years you pay to watch them play. Their teams play in big cities, and they don’t have homecoming games.

College teams never threaten to change their colors or move to Oklahoma City if you don’t build them a new stadium—at taxpayer expense. No, they play in the nation’s oldest, grandest stadiums, surrounded by lush green lawns, old trees, and two-story homes where students live. They have marching bands and fight songs and quirky customs that go back a century.

NFL teams play in sanitized, soulless domes—usually subsidized by the taxpayers—with loud scoreboards that tell you exactly what to yell and exactly when to yell it, all surrounded by vast oceans of asphalt.

Pro teams choose their players, but college players choose their teams— which leads to another major difference: universities, because they started long before their football teams, represent a particular set of values, priorities, and strengths that stamp the teams that wear their name. It was for this very reason the Big Ten presidents formed their conference. If these players were going to represent their schools, they reasoned, they should do so honorably.

In 1941, Michigan’s legendary Fielding Yost said at his retirement banquet, “My heart is so full at this moment and I am so overcome by the rush of memories that I fear I could say little more. But do let me reiterate . . . the Spirit of Michigan. It is based upon a deathless loyalty to Michigan and all her ways; an enthusiasm that makes it second nature for Michigan men to spread the gospel of their university to the world’s distant outposts; a conviction that nowhere is there a better university, in any way, than this Michigan of ours.”

When college teams compete, it isn’t just a game between two teams. We see it as a battle between two ways of life. Is there a single professional team that can claim anything like this?

This is why, when schools are caught violating NCAA rules, it bruises the identity of their fans. But when the New England Patriots were caught filming opponents’ hand signals, did their fans hang their heads in shame? No, it was just a passing nuisance.

Professional teams don’t stand for anything more than a can of pop. The players go on strike, the owners lock them out, and they repeat the cycle every five or ten years, as needed, for more money. Their fans respond in kind, often caring less about the actual teams in their state than the fantasy teams on their computers—or the point spreads in their paper, and the wallets in their back pockets.

College football fans actually care about college football, not just its parts. The two fan bases are not motivated by the same things.

Of the over 100 FBS Division I teams, not one has ever moved, gone on strike, or been locked out. Ever.

College athletes are more passionate playing for a scholarship than pro athletes are playing for millions. And we admire them more for this very reason. It’s the difference between citizen soldiers volunteering for the army and hired Hessians. Give us the doughboys, the G.I. Joes, and the grunts fighting for a cause.

And this is why we watch: not for perfection, but passion—the same reason over a million fans watch the Little League World Series every summer. This point is easily proven: the worst team in the NFL would crush the best team in college football, every year. Yet college football is the only sport in the world that draws more fans to its games than the big league teams it feeds. The attendance at Michigan, Ohio State, and Penn State home games typically averages 50 percent more than that of the NFL teams in those states—and often doubles it. No minor league baseball or hockey team comes close to matching the attendance of their parent clubs.

This basic truth escapes both the proponents of paying players and the NCAA executives who try to squelch minor leagues from starting: college football is selling romance, not prowess. If ability were the only appeal, we’d move NFL games to Saturday and watch those games instead. But if you lose the romance of college football, you will lose the fans of college football.

It might be one thing to give the players a stipend so they can afford a new pair of jeans, a nice dinner, and a trip home once in a while – which actually was suggested to the NCAA four decades ago, and almost passed. But I do believe, if college football goes “pro,” it becomes just a minor league for the NFL. And no minor league, anywhere, can compete with the top levels of any sport. If that happens, the days of Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State drawing twice as many fans as the nearest NFL counterparts might be over.

I’ll be presenting a more detailed version of the “Bacon Plan,” if you will, to solve this conundrum very soon, and will obviously let the readers of MGoBlog know when I do.

How does Bill O'Brien really feel about Tim Beckman?

Bill_O'Brien[1]tim-beckman-01[1]

Bill O’Brien, characteristically, was completely disciplined on the matter of Illinois head coach Tim Beckman sending assistants to State College to recruit his players the day after the sanctions hit. But his players were far more willing to tell me how they felt about Coach Beckman, one of the many private scenes the players gave me for this project.

From the book:

“Penn State’s first Big Ten opponent, Illinois, entered the game with the same 2-2 record as the Lions, with bad losses against Arizona State and Louisiana Tech. The Illini were led by first-year head coach Tim Beckman— the man who flew eight coaches out to State College in late July to scoop up as many transfers as he could get. Despite the effort, he got exactly one: freshman Ryan Nowicki, a scout team offensive lineman. Beckman did, however, manage to become the focal point of the Penn State players’ rage, which they intended to release in full when they visited Memorial Stadium on September 29.

“They were basically trying to break up our team,” said Jordan Hill, who actually drove around Penn State’s campus like a cowboy herding cattle when he heard Illinois’s coaches were afoot. “And really, not only our team, but our brotherhood.”

“I’ve never seen a locker room so intense, so on a mission,” [longtime equipment manager] Spider Caldwell said, grinning. “I almost felt sorry for Illinois. I knew what was coming. And our guys did not disappoint!”

[Senior linebacker Mike] Mauti led the charge, getting a sack, forcing a fumble, and making two interceptions. One of them he returned 99 yards before getting tack- led by their wide receiver on the 1-yard line.

Mauti—still overflowing with anger—stayed out for Penn State’s punt team and launched himself downfield on a 60-yard sprint. The Illini sent a receiver to block Mauti, who launched the poor guy into next week, then blew up the returner. “There’s no better feeling than that.”

Well, maybe one.

Before the game, Mauti promised himself he would find Coach Beckman and personally tell him to fuck off. When Mauti finally caught eyes with him, however, he opted for a bit more discretion, spitting on the ground in front of him. That, and Mauti’s sack, forced fumble, and two interceptions, he reasoned, “are the best fuck-yous available.”

What is a program's 'culture' and does it really have an impact on performance?

Great question, and one that I’ve been thinking about since the Rodriguez era. As Rodriguez himself said to his staff, minutes after being fired, “It was a bad fit from the start.”

As unpleasant as it surely was for all parties involved – including the fans -- I think everybody learned a lot about what it really takes for a coach and his staff to succeed at a big time college program, on all sides. AS I write, “Unlike their NFL counterparts, the best college coaches are not interchangeable parts. You don’t simply install one here or there, flick a switch, and watch them light up the college football world. Too often, schools embark on a blind date, with neither party knowing enough about the other before heading to the altar. Las Vegas weddings tend to end in Las Vegas divorces—just ask the people at Michigan. Both sides had better know what they’re getting into and be ready, willing, and able to bridge the gap between them.”

This idea was quickly confirmed by Brady Hoke at his first press conference, where the relatively unknown coach won over the faithful in a matter of minutes by demonstrating that he knew Michigan’s culture, he respected it, and he was there to protect it.

While Penn State was surely a unique case this past season, the need to know the college’s culture, and preserve it, is just as high at Northwestern and Ohio State.

“I don’t know what being Ohio State means,” Pat Fitzgerald told me. “I never played there. I’ve never coached there. But I do know what being Northwestern means. And we know how to find the kind of people who will appreciate it.”

As Brandon McCurry, a twenty-eight year old Buckeye fan, who now lives in Jacksonville, told me, “Urban Meyer’s been the best fit with his school since [Nick] Saban went to Alabama. He’s a Buckeye through and through, born and bred. Cooper couldn’t beat Michigan because he didn’t understand the culture.”

It doesn’t matter in the pros, but it matters in college. But I believe Michigan fans know that better than anyone.

What does the "U" stand for?

My middle name. ;-)

OTHER INTERESTING STUFF

There are many things, of course, you didn’t ask about – because you obviously can’t know what’s in the book – that I think you’ll find interesting reading, including:

-Michigan’s unequaled love for Brady Hoke, from the players to the fans.

-Michigan’s games against Alabama, Notre Dame, Illinois (with the alumni band) Homecoming (the alumni band), Michigan State, Minnesota, Northwestern (with the Mudbowl), Ohio State and South Carolina.

-Candid interviews with former Band Director Scott Boerma, Bill Martin, and former U-M president James Duderstadt, who told me, “Brandon always says he’s ‘building the brand.’ But of what? Dave Brandon. That’s the brand he’s building.”

-An eye-opening analysis of the athletic department’s budget, and where your money is going.

-And a lot of good insights from you, the fans, who I still believe are the most passionate, and sophisticated, in college football. Call it brown-nosing if you will, but I’ve had as much contact as anyone with you, and I stand by it.

Thanks, as always, for your smart questions.

See you at the tailgates.

-John U. Bacon

johnubacon.com

Comments

sdogg1m

September 5th, 2013 at 5:09 PM ^

I like the look of our new stadium upgrades. I don't like the purpose and the potential problem it creates. The upgrade did not in any way alter the feel of the Big House. What the new stadium suites did was seperate fans between the haves and have nots, I do not think this should exist in a college sport environment. The college game is a step up from the High School game and I remember paying $3 to sit in the stands at my high school.

The last and more important reason why I do not like the upgrade is the potential problem it introduces in keeping Michigan stadium as the largest in the country. Texas has a chance to fill in their end zone and over take Michigan. I personally NEVER want to see another team have the largest stadium in the country. This is part of what sells Michigan and fits into our fight song theme. The fact is boasted about in pregame hype videos. That upgrade makes it extremely difficult to add an additional 10 to 20,000 seats to keep other programs in second.

steve sharik

September 6th, 2013 at 3:21 AM ^

"The upgrade did not in any way alter the feel of the Big House."

The stadium is noticably louder and, in my opinion, is a much better home field advantage than it used to be.

You can say some of those big games back in the day were loud ('97 v. OSU, e.g.) but the CMU game last week was loud.  No way is that a loud crowd without the renovations.

MGoBender

September 5th, 2013 at 1:59 PM ^

-Candid interviews with former Band Director Scott Boerma, Bill Martin, and former U-M president James Duderstadt, who told me, “Brandon always says he’s ‘building the brand.’ But of what? Dave Brandon. That’s the brand he’s building.”

 

That is a damning statement.  When a renowned UM community member like James Duderstadt publicly says all Dave Brandon cares about is building his own brand, we, as community members, need to take note.

True Blue Grit

September 5th, 2013 at 3:08 PM ^

for what they are.  He's obviously a huge Anti-Bigtime College Sports person.  He probably looks at Dave Brandon as the face of what he doesn't like - money-driven college athletics.  But, I don't think we should condemn DB without having personal knowledge of what motivates him each day.  (Not saying at all that you're implying that though)

ahw1982

September 5th, 2013 at 2:08 PM ^

I fail to see the controversy re: the Kraft noodle or any other initiative from the administration to boost revenue.  If Kraft offered $1,000 to plant a giant yellow noodle on my front yard, you can be damn sure I'll take the money.

More revenue means more resources for the school and better facilities for the athletes, which presumably translates to better recruiting and better development.  So, IMO, bring on the giant yellow noodles.

dragonchild

September 5th, 2013 at 2:17 PM ^

I like it when my alma mater has more pride than a hooker.  This is Michigan; it has too much in the way of resources to need to sell its image out for money.  That may strike some people as arrogant but pride matters here.  Sticking a giant noodle in plain sight of recruits probably does a lot more damage to recruiting than any amout of money paid can make up for.  It screams, "Hi, if you go here, you'll be playing for a CORPORATE WHORE!"

Vote_Crisler_1937

September 5th, 2013 at 3:01 PM ^

Dragonchild,



I appreciate most of your comments on this thread (I would rather not have the noodle) but I can't agree with the notion that recruits will feel anything good or bad about the noodle. That is if they even see it at all, which, they likely wouldn't. Recruits will be focused on their own agendas and I have never experienced advertising or general corporate whoredom to be on that agenda. Northwestern has lots of noodle type advertisements in the stadium including a giant inflatable United Airlines jet and I have never heard a recruit comment one way or the other about it.

Bando Calrissian

September 5th, 2013 at 2:22 PM ^

Assuming the fee was in the low thousands (which it surely was, at most), does Michigan Athletics need that money? Or is it just a miniscule addition to an already-millions-deep budget surplus? How much money do you really need when you're already well into the black?

Is creating an uproar in a fanbase that's pretty defensive about advertising in Michigan Stadium (which, unless 1000SSS is even more tone-deaf than we thought, had to have been a consideration) worth that small fee? Do the miniscule aesthetic qualities and near-worthless fan benefits of the Giant Branoodle outweigh the hit in fan goodwill that would surely ensue?

The bigger picture here is integrity and values. Michigan Athletics can do just fine without the Kraft money. Just as they could do just fine without the Allstate Good Handsmoney, and just as they could without the lost seat cushion rental revenue from all of us who bring our own every week.

There needs to be recognition that revenue opportunities can bring you more than just a monetary paycheck, which is often the kind of revenue you don't want: Losing fans' trust. And that's the problem with things like the Giant Branoodle.

Alton

September 5th, 2013 at 2:22 PM ^

$1,000?  I wouldn't.  Obviously every man has his price, but I care a little too much about what my friends, neighbors and family think about me to take $1,000.  Maybe $20,000, if I only had to leave it there for a couple of days.

I realize that Kraft might have offered Michigan a lot of money to do that, but I think it's wrong to imply (as you are) that even a tiny amount of revenue would be worth putting the "Rape Noodle" inside the gates of the stadium.  Reputation has value, tradition has value.  At some point it might be worth it to sell a small amount of your reputation and your tradition, but I would make sure I was getting a great price for them, because you can't buy them back.

 

CRex

September 5th, 2013 at 2:24 PM ^

The problem is once you accept cooperate sponsors as a large and public part of your revenue stream, you are giving the a certain level of control.  You get used to the cash flow from said noodle and perhaps even start going out to get more deals from Kraft.  At some point the future you have six noodles and a giant inflatable blue box in your yard and it looks like utter shit.  

Now obviously Martin allowed ads in some areas, such as the programs, and other ADs have done the same.  That being said the general consenus at Michigan was the football stadium was off limits.  Brandon keeps poking at that with curly fries, noodles, etc.  Martin's own ideas of how to make a buck, his cheapness and such, were more in line with Michigan tradition than Senor Curly Fry.

The other thing of course is too much usage and dependcy on advertising revenue gives the marketing companies power.  They can threaten to pull ads and create budget shortfalls while you scramble for a replacement, unless you give them ground on issue (letting them bring in say noodles 2 through 6) which brings in outside influences.  I prefer my outside influences to be named "Stephen J Ross and other large donors to the program".  

Plus ultimately in Michigan's case, it is crass.  You need money Dave?  Ask the alums for donations.  Martin managed to rebuild most of the campus by telling people he wanted to give the place a face lift and make it feel more collegial and he got the money for all kinds of major projects.  No noodles needed.  I think the issue is Dave is only planning on beeing AD for a short period of time, due to political goals, so rather than spend years to raise money for things like Martin did, Dave just goes for the quick buck of ad revenue so he can kickstart a varsity sport or something of that nature and add it to his list of accomplishments for when he runs for office.

CRex

September 5th, 2013 at 2:36 PM ^

So what part of that logic would you care to refute?  It's a fairly demonstratable fact that sponsors play a big role in how organizations conduct themselves.  Look at what happens when certain talk show hosts piss off large segements of society, sponsors pull ads and that talk show host is up at the podium later that week grating out an apology in hopes the money returns.  

Is Michigan anywhere close to having any company or ad agency have that much control over their program?  No.  One noodle isn't going to do it, but I was answering a question about why people dislike the noodle and don't want it on Michigan's lawn.  You never stop at one noodle and the grand you got for putting it there.  You're either in or out with relation to that kind of thing.  People dislike the noodle out of the belief that today it is the noodle and perhaps a decade from now, it is a lot worse.  Better to bitch about the one noodle than wait until the multilevel marketing deal has been signed and the AD has millions of dollars worth of incentive to ignore alumni bitching on the subject.  Or are you of the belief that Brandon is going to just take a grand for the noodle once a year, a grand for the curly fries every couple years at the Big Chill, and just leave it at that?  

ahw1982

September 5th, 2013 at 5:07 PM ^

Tangent: I wish I could get a job as someone who runs seminars on how to properly make a slippery slope argument.  A slippery slope argument only works if you can provably demonstrate that the end result (in this case, giant noodles invading U-M campus) is the inevitable consequence of the specified course of action.  In this case, you cannot.  Thousands of giant noodles is not the inevitable consequence of one giant noodle.  We can always draw the line somewhere between one noodle and a thousand noodles.  See, The Daily Show.  Jon Stewart makes a living pointing out fallacious slippery slope arguments deployed by Fox News.

Anywho, fine, I get it, you think the giant noodle makes us look cheesy, pun intended.  We'll just have to agree to disagree.  IMO, if the giant noodle funded some nice big screen TVs in the locker room, a fancy new exercise machine, nicer desks for the study hall, or whatever, I think the net benefit outweighs negative.

dragonchild

September 5th, 2013 at 2:12 PM ^

The overall point is more or less apt, but WTF?

"College football fandom depends on the same force that buoys our nation’s currency: faith."

Faith?  Faith has nothing to do with it.  What drives programs, Michigan in particular, is legacy.  Charles Woodson picking off MSU's throwaway didn't cost me* or win me a goddamn cent, but damn do I still talk about it!  Someone might want to shake me awake and remind me that I live in the 21st century now, but as ideals go, college games aren't played for money.  It's not a product to be sold (yeah, tell that to EA, but guess who's scrambling to avoid a lawsuit).  Scholarships, to an extent, to impress NFL scouts some as well, maybe some camaraderie, but it's mostly about pride.  At least, that's what holds up everything on an emotional level.  People don't care because there's money involved, the money's involved because they care.

Someone needs to tell Dave Brandon he's not running a goddamn corporation anymore.  We're alumni, not customers.  We do want wins and wins mean spending money, but money is just a means to an end, not the end itself.  A $15 million surplus doesn't mean shit because you don't have shareholders you dumbass!  What're you going to do with that $15 million, save up to build a new stadium?  Issue dividend-paying stock?  You work for a PUBLIC university; if you wound up with $15 million that means you charged $15 million more than you should've!  For a non-profit publicly funded organization that's BAD money management!

Grr.  Sorry folks.  Gonna take a few deep breaths and drink a glass of milk.

*I was in the band

chitownblue2

September 5th, 2013 at 2:15 PM ^

What're you going to do with that $15 million, save up to build a new stadium? 

You can look up the operating statement. A large portion of it becomes a check to the school's general scholarship fund.

I don't see that as bad.

dragonchild

September 5th, 2013 at 2:29 PM ^

While I doubt the fans object to the money going to the scholarship fund, the disagreeable part of it is that this isn't any sort of decision anyone on the short end of the stick has a say in.  He's doing all kinds of shit with open contempt for the people who should matter most.  It's like I robbed your house and gave some of the proceeds to charity.  Hey, it's for a good cause; doesn't that make you feel better?  Yes, that's an extreme analogy, but the ends don't justify the methods, is my point.

Again, Brandon is BRAGGING that he's making a profit.  That by itself isn't a sin, but also just goes to show how badly he misses the point.  He's obviously a shameless businessman who has no idea how to not be a shameless businessman.  Beyond a certain point it just gets embarrassing.

There are ways to fill the coffers of the school's general scholarship fund without needing your AD to act like a douche.  Pimping out the fans & players without their consent is inefficient, embarrassing, unnecessary and really not justified just because the gold fillings he ripped out of our teeth were used to help a few students go through school.  If funding scholarships is a priority there are much more direct ways of doing so that can more actively involve one of the biggest and most educated groups of alumni in the world.

Alton

September 5th, 2013 at 3:05 PM ^

We certainly did.  The question is whether we will sell out the Miami (NTM) game in 2014 or the Ball State game in 2016.  The waiting list for season tickets is shrinking, or possibly gone.  People who buy tickets on the street tell me that there is lower demand for them than even a couple of years ago, and my own observations seem to back this up.

Once that tipping point is reached, and not enough people want to go to a game for the price they have to pay, we will have blocks of empty seats in Michigan Stadium just like they are starting to have in Happy Valley.

I'm not saying I know how to keep it from happening, or that it is inevitable, but it really does feel like it is close to happening here.  And once there are blocks of empty seats, there will be more and more empty seats, because a large part of the attraction of the game for casual fans is the atmosphere.  Wildly successful teams will of course delay the crash, but nobody is successful forever.

chitownblue2

September 5th, 2013 at 3:11 PM ^

I'm not arguing it's impossible for us to get to that point. I'm arguing Brandon has demonstrably not taken us there.

Moreover - I don't think Bacon is arguing degree here - I don't think he's saying "OK, $20 increase fine, just not $30". He's complaining about the entire system.

Any pricing system has a tipping point - I don't think Bacon's argument is solely about whether Brandon will get us over ours.

True Blue Grit

September 5th, 2013 at 3:14 PM ^

Michigan is closer to the tipping point of having empty seats than most people realize.  DB had better be extremely cautious going forward with further price increases, "revenue enhancers", and required donations.  We shouldn't believe that what has happened at Penn State can't or won't happen here even without a Sandusky scandal.  Frankly, with how Michigan's economy has gone over the last 10 years, I'm amazed the Big House is still full every Saturday. 

sdogg1m

September 5th, 2013 at 5:31 PM ^

You are closely treading the line of douchebag.

I agree with John Bacon's assessment of the College Football experience. Is College Football relative or important to the life of the spectator? NO! If college athletics ended tomorrow, all of our lives would go on, we would just need to find different hobbies. The problem Dave Brandon will run into is how high is the price driven before people stop paying?

For me a middle class citizen that price level has already been reached. I spoke with my dad about possibly attending the Minnesota game. I told him the price ($95/per ticket) and he proceeded to suggest we watch it on TV. I agreed. One less sale. Dave Brandon and Michigan have to sell more seats that the total POPULATION of Ann Arbor. Right now that seems easy but if he is not careful momentum may go in the opposite direction. Soon you are scrambling to find buyers. This CAN happen and will happen if you try to squeeze people.

Before you think I am in agreement with you on this matter. I am not. I see the "why" as to the ADs reason for increasing revenue, I just am not sure if he has concluded that Michigan fans have a breaking point or knows when that breaking point will be reached. I think that point is close to being reached which is what Bacon is conveying. You on other hand seem to present the idea that any type of profit is in college athletics is evil.

One other problem with your post is that Dave Brandon does have shareholders to answer to. These may not be those who purchase stock but Brandon is accountable to the trustees and the university president. So he knows he is doing his job well when he puts a winner on the field along with bringing in revenue.

bronxblue

September 5th, 2013 at 2:27 PM ^

Well, that's not really right.  You don't want to literally by living day-to-day, year-over-year with no assets stored for dips in income, unexpected costs, etc.  I agree that $15M is a big number, but I'm fine with the school and the AD trying to produce a surplus because, as we saw with the basketball team for years, fans can be fickle and suddenly you are losing money while still trying to field a competitive team that best represents the university.

And can we stop with the idea that big schools like UM, OSU, USC, Texas, etc. are "non-profit" beyond what is technically necessary for tax purposes?  Colleges are some of the biggest profit centers in states, and are billion-dollar enterprises that just happen to be wrapped up in the myth that "education" isn't just another industry like natural resources or finance, but some "social good" that should be protected.  I loved my time at UM and thought it served me well, but people are paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to send their kids to schools to be taught by GAs making $28k a year and a professor who is maybe clearing $150k with tenure.  Lots of that money is going to building new research facilities and programs to chase government and private-sector investments, much like commercial pharmaceutical, technology, etc. companies do.  Most major colleges are economic players like everyone else, and we are merely their customers.  The fact that UM has an athletic department generating a surplus shouldn't surprise anyone.

dnak438

September 5th, 2013 at 2:51 PM ^

$150k with tenure? That would be wonderful. It ain't happening for the most part, though:

The average full professor at the University of Michigan makes $148,800 per academic year, or roughly 31 percent more than the average pay earned by professors at other universities offering doctoral degrees.

U-M associate professors on average earn $98,200 per academic year and assistant professors earn $85,800. 

Link: http://www.annarbor.com/news/full-university-of-michigan-professors-make-149k-per-year-on-average/

MGoBender

September 5th, 2013 at 3:56 PM ^

Not only do typical professors not make $150k, there are not nearly as many as some would think.  As mentioned above, JUB is a lecturer.  I think lecturers are paid based on how much they teach.  I know one of our favorite lecturers at the School of Ed was a lecturer in two departments and worked a ton... he was listed as making under $60k on the salary database.

bronxblue

September 5th, 2013 at 9:59 PM ^

I was mostly speaking of schools like UM; obviously if you are at a smaller school your package is less.  My wife's Ph.D. advisor just received tenure at a smaller school here in NYC and his package was less, but still a pretty respectable number.

The link you provided basically proves my point at UM, and I know of other schools with similar academic profiles that pay close to the same.  Regardless, my point is that the cash inflow is far greater than expenses of staff and facilities at many of these schools, and that to treat them as purely non-profit academic centers just isn't true; they are economic drivers with interests and pressures not unlike other industries.

dragonchild

September 5th, 2013 at 3:02 PM ^

You want to run a surplus to sustain the organization, not the other way around.  Non-profit does not mean "never make a profit".  It means the organization's purpose is something other than to make a profit.  This is a very meaningful difference between Michigan and a degree mill.  Profit-making is OK, even desired, but not the goal, and hence never anything to brag about.  Dave Brandon is incapable of comprehending an organization that exists for something other than making money, to creepy levels.  It's not the $15 million figure that disturbs me so much as how much he measures his own success by it -- the guy would try to monetize a goddamn high school chess club.

"And can we stop with the idea that big schools like UM, OSU, USC, Texas, etc. are "non-profit" beyond what is technically necessary for tax purposes?"

No, because you're making the same mistake Dave Brandon is guilty of.  I say "non-profit' knowing full well what you mean by all the stuff they do for profit.  I think you don't understand the difference between a business that exists purely for profit, and an organization that operates like a business but doesn't exist solely for the sake of profit.  It's the same misunderstanding that repeatedly gets Brandon into trouble.  Michigan likes money, but there are lines it definitely won't cross -- can't cross, even -- because if it did there would be royal hell to pay.  That's not to say Michigan is sin-free by any means, but  its alumni's expectations of preserving a legacy they're genuinely proud of imposes a form of quality control (for better or worse -- RichRod was arguably a casualty) that a business couldn't be bothered to give a rat's ass about.  A business wouldn't hesitate to relocate the entire university to save a few bucks no matter how many people get pissed off.  It wouldn't care about destroying entire departments if they weren't pulling their own weight.  For a business that exists to make a profit, emotional attachment doesn't mean shit.  Go ahead, suggest to the Board that U of M relocate to someplace like Guangzhou.  You'll probably get some rather interesting replies, but more likely you'll be ignored.

I'm not an idealist.  I know how much money flows through the University of Michigan, and what it does to keep that money flowing.  What you don't get, though, is that it's impossible for an organization that size to NOT adopt many business-like elements.  I volunteer at a fan convention that has, in its 20 years, grown into a multi-million-dollar budget.  It used to be not much more than a club that dealt with money only when it had to.  Now, much of the planning discussions are indistinguishable from a mid-size business -- we work with contractors, negotiate prices & contracts, manage logistics.  That's because businesses deal with business in a business-like fashion.  The organization has legal, accounting and other teams you'd find at any corporation and -- yes -- operates at a surplus.  But that's not why it exists, and that is why we're not in a hurry to squeeze our attendees in douchey ways and then brag about it.

grsbmd

September 5th, 2013 at 7:11 PM ^

For PhD students (who don't take classes) at least, tuition is little more than a made-up number.  If the department makes up a huge number like $50K and claims that it costs that much for a student to sit around and do independent research, then the department gets a bigger slice of the research-money pie.

So $50K is not a real expense.

ShockFX

September 5th, 2013 at 2:58 PM ^

A $15 million surplus doesn't mean shit because you don't have shareholders you dumbass!

Non-profits are not banned from surpluses, in fact, how do you think they handle years where they have deficits, or save for capital projects?

What're you going to do with that $15 million, save up to build a new stadium?

Well, they could have applied it to the debt from the stadium earlier than planned, but decided to ship it over to the University instead.

Issue dividend-paying stock? You work for a PUBLIC university; if you wound up with $15 million that means you charged $15 million more than you should've! For a non-profit publicly funded organization that's BAD money management!

I think we should be more like the Maryland AD, broke, cutting sports, and needing to switch conferences and break history and tradition to keep things funded and the lights on.

dragonchild

September 5th, 2013 at 3:10 PM ^

Right, because before we turned UM into a whore we were SO close to financial insolvency.

I know full well that running a surplus isn't ill-advised, per se.  But alienating fans in an attempt to rake in record-breaking short-term surpluses for an athletic department that was in no immediate danger. . . I can't think of a stupider way to run things.

We don't need to act so desperately precisely because we're not Maryland.

Gulo_gulo_horribilis

September 5th, 2013 at 3:19 PM ^

I think Dragon is pretty clear here, and your response is simply deliberately missing the point.

 

The point is that Brandon's end-goal is to turn a profit.  That is the wrong end-goal.  And his behavior clearly demonstrates that his primary motivation is wrong-headed.

 

I think Dragon said it best: we want to make money to the extent that it helps us win, but winning, for the sake of pride, is the goal.

jmblue

September 5th, 2013 at 3:39 PM ^

You guys are mixing up the cause and effect here. The University wanted a marketing guy, so it hired Brandon.   Nothing he's done is a surprise to the folks who hired him.  The University absolutely wants the athletic department to be profitable and successful - it helps the University's own bottom line when that happens.    

jmblue

September 5th, 2013 at 3:23 PM ^

 

A $15 million surplus doesn't mean shit because you don't have shareholders you dumbass! What're you going to do with that $15 million, save up to build a new stadium? Issue dividend-paying stock? You work for a PUBLIC university; if you wound up with $15 million that means you charged $15 million more than you should've! For a non-profit publicly funded organization that's BAD money management!

Actually, a lot of it is going to the stadium - we are paying off the $226M stadium renovation, and I imagine we also borrowed to finance the Crisler renovations.  Debt servicing is now a significant expense for the athletic department.  My understanding is that, in part due to surpluses, we've been able to reduce our stadium debt faster than originally planned, although it will take another decade or so to pay it off.  

Gulo_gulo_horribilis

September 5th, 2013 at 3:29 PM ^

Gah! Finally found this post again... wow this thread blew up fast.

 

Anyway, I coudn't have said it better myself.  And actually, Bacon's (or Brian's?) point about minor leagues is illustrative.  If there were a farm league or minor league of feeder teams for the NFL and they sucked up talent that would have otherwised played for college teams... I would still care about college football infinitely more than pro sports, because I would still want to see Michigan beat ohio and Notre Dame and the SEC.

Brodie

September 5th, 2013 at 3:55 PM ^

If Michigan football were all about alumni (as both yourself and John Bacon like to act), it wouldn't be a fraction of what it is. The truth is that to a very large segment of the fanbase, the difference between Michigan and the Lions is much more semantic than we probably want to believe.