Those Rumormongering Athletic Directors

Brandon is an asshole CEO-type, and that's what asshole CEO-types do. Instead of complaining, we need to suck it up and get used to it. 

I, for one, welcome our new corporate overloards. The cheesy bread will help us synergize our core competencies and leverage our roadmaps for the new paradigm. 

Crain's Detroit - "There was some chatter last year that the Ohio (State) - Michigan game could be moved in the future from its traditional spot in the schedule as the final game of the season." 

Is it just me or is it strange for a reporter at a professional publication to refer to OSU as "Ohio".  I totally understand......and even appreciate it........for Brady Hoke.  It just seems to me that a reporter should dimiss the games and get it right.

I don't understand why this blog keeps attacking Brandon over trivial things: mascots, uniforms, you name it.  None of that stuff really matters as far as I'm concerned.  Brandon cares deeply about winning, about doing it within NCAA rules, about having the best facilities, and about making sure the AD is financially self-sufficient.  That's what really matters,  so I'm happy he's our AD.  

If Brandon hates being called for his own bullshit now, wait until he gets into politics.  DB is used to being THE CEO, and being able to fire people for disagreeing with him.  Now, he has to read blogs discussing his decisions, and he realizes he can't squash anyone's First Amendment rights because he isn't paying them for the privilege.  

Worse yet, at least for him, he can't just make those who disagree with him in the blogosphere "disappear" by firing them. 

Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

in a row it will be such a novelty that everyone will be more excited than annoyed. 

Caught Brandon being Brandon, though. Wouldn't want him for a friend but you have to concede good things are happening. 

Owned.

Just because I think it'd be nice to respectfully contact Brandon- does anyone have the appropriate email for the AD?  I don't want to just fill out a form on MGoBlue and have it never be read.

Last year was 2011.  Eighteen months ago was 2010.  There also were rumors going around rather recently, which I think was what was being referenced.

Also, this fascination with picking on everything Brandon says is very different from the "let's all get behind the UM team" that used to be advised here.

Brandon didn't have to say either thing. To say he did either for the good of the program, or because this is who he is is ridiculous.

Brandon stuck his foot in it on that one. Still, the reality is that it's all just blog fodder for the over- informed among us to knock around and wring totally try. The numbers we bring to the table aren't of consequence to Brandon and his larger mission.

There are two areas where the blog has a decidedly different editorial stance from the fan base at large which relies mostly on MSM for University of Michigan sports information: 1. Rich Rodriguez' job performance. 2.  David Brandon, the person and his job performance. 

Among a huge percentage of the masses, number 1 is considered awful and number 2 is generally popular to extremely popular.  Both are cases where even if the blog is more correct, the practical application is the majority rules over whatever obscure facts exist to the contrary.

On here, our level of knowledge and opinions matter among the group. Out there, it's about the players first, the heavy hitter donor fans second, the casual fans third, and us way way down the list. It's not personal. It's numbers.

he creates alternate pasts

I feel a little uncomfortable about wanting to distance myself from the athletic director of the school I love. 

There are times I want to see him leave yesterday, and volunteer to help him pack his corporate-speak dictionary into his domino's boxes, ad there are times I begin to think, well, maybe he gets it. Then things like this happen, and I realize that his head is pretty far up the chute, and soon he'll see the back of his teeth.

The good Dave Brandon was the one who shouldered the load during the Freep Witch Hunt. The bad Dave Brandon talks out of both sides of his mouth on The Game (by the way, I don't care at all when it's played, because the B1G Championship Game really will change the dynamic of the season and the Conference forever), and talks about wanting mascots and in-stadium advertising.

The bad Dave Brandon led a very disorganized coach search too late in the year. The good Dave Brandon hired Brady Hoke, when he probably could have hired a bigger name, but believed in the guy. The bad Dave Brandon gave Michigan players Killer Bee suits for the MSU game.

Everything he does either works out very well, or makes me want to eat my shorts. He is a very frustrating and annoying man.

We've been had.

File under:  "WE DIDN'T LISTEN!!!!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1bIhZO7o3k

David Brandon is not a boy scout.  Neither is Brady Hoke.  Sometimes they deviate from the truth deliberately, sometimes--they just lose track of a past public statement. 

Sometimes Brian's posts read like a search for absolute consistency in Brandon's every utterance. 

Brian Cook is half blogger, half journalist, and he runs a great Blog.  But he's not a boy scout either, and he's not perfectly consistent.  None of is.  Jesus, even Christ couldn't count on his disciples to put together a coherent narrative.  Jesus was not a theologian on the hunt for the slightest deviation from an all-encompassing theology.  Jesus apparently sought to save people's souls, not monitor every utterance.

Dave Brandon is definitely not a theologian, nor is he a journalist or a blogger.  In his job, PR is King.  Right?  He was hired to lead and manage, which includes a large helping of PR.  I'm not crazy about some of his marketing schemes.  But PR and marketing aside, he's been a take-charge guy.  He's pushed through facility improvements in basketball and football, put the hockey program on the front page, and scheduled our first night game in the Big House.  We've got solid coaches and competitive, winning programs.  I think he's already the most effective AD we've had since Don Canham, and that period includes Bo Schembechler's tenure.

So this chicken feed stuff about "did he contradict himself" pisses me off.  Would it piss me off if Michigan and Ohio State didn't play annually on the last day of season?  Yes it would.  But I don't think Brandon will let that happen if he can help it. Is he a "corporate CEO type"?  Yeah, I think he is.  But if you could choose any other AD from the Big Ten, SEC, Big 12, PAC 10, ACC, or Big East (including Notre Dame), who would be better?  And how, exactly?

Brandon lies constantly. That's my main problem with him. I think he's a pretty good AD, I don't trust a word that comes out of his mouth. 

I got halfway through the comments and got tired of listening to people bitch at eachother over whether or not Brian is a hypocrite or not, and I have no idea what post to respond to, so here it goes:

Dave Brandon went on the radio saying that there's a possibility The Game might be moved, then realized it wasn't a good idea because people on sites such as this one got pissed off at him. 18 months later he denies that he ever said that and blamed the whole thing on guys like Brian.

Brian Cook said, before Brady Hoke was hired, that there was no way he was a serious contender for the UM job. If you didn't realize this was speculation, you're a fucking idiot. Brian has no control over that; his opinion literally means nothing to the Athletic Department. When Hoke was hired, he maintained his position that it wasn't a good hire and that DB screwed the pooch on the coaching search. 10 months later, he admits he was wrong after seeing concrete evidence of what Hoke did.

What do these things have in common? This is a serious question.

All Brandon had to say was: "yeah, there was some talk of that, but I never thought it was a good idea, and so we (the B1G ADs) decided to keep it at the end of the schedule." It still would have made him out to be the hero who "saved" the Game from moving.

Instead, he directly contradicted his previous statement about the topic. Instead of admitting that HE SAID HIMSELF it was a possibility, he scapegoated the blogs, a group of which Brian Cook is the most popular, prominent, and vocal. He blamed them for reporting a rumor to which he was the primary contributor.

The net effect, other than propping himself up, is to continue to de-legitimize the blogs as real sources of information of happenings around Michigan and Big Ten events. I don't know why they are so insistent on hating Cook et. al., especially when traditional media isn't even that friendly to the school, but apparently, for all Brandon talks about creating the future, he still does not understand modern internet journalism.

Expect another long meta post from Brian soon about how he is doing a much better job reporting and analyzing than anyone else, and that people should listen and trust him more.

WE HAVE ALWAYS BEEN AT WAR WITH EASTASIA

I would have never guessed how fast many of the MGoBoard members (exemplified by Brian's critics in this thread) would have become unthinking BrandonHoke fanboys.

I've been struck lately at how quickly our friends at places like Eleven Warriors turned on a dime and embraced Urban Meyer, who was previously an object of ridicule for them on a par with Nick Saban, Les Miles and Lane Kiffin.  Now, you can choose from nearly a dozen different Urban Meyer T-shirt designs.  They love them some Urban Meyer.

And I actually took all of that as a curious mark of Ohio State's strength and determination to achieve success on the field, above all else.  Just get the best guy.  Just put the best team on the field.  Just beat that team up north.  Forget what what we said last year.  It was, oddly, a sort of a credit to the Buckeyes.  "There's no crying in football.  Our side is always right; and our side is whoever we've got right now.  All that matters, is beating the other."