brady hoke has a new job title
He's not the Head Coach any longer. Now he's the "Ira and Nicki Harris Head Football Coach."
http://www.mlive.com/wolverines/index.ssf/2014/02/brady_hokes_new_job_t…
According to the press release, "This endowed position will strengthen the program for years to come and ensure the future generation of student-athletes will continue to benefit from outstanding coaching and leadership."
February 17th, 2014 at 2:18 PM ^
February 17th, 2014 at 2:21 PM ^
They gave 10 million to the university.
Source: The third sentence of the press release.
February 17th, 2014 at 4:24 PM ^
February 17th, 2014 at 2:23 PM ^
Only a 10 million dollar donation. I volunteer to change my name for a 1 million dollar donation.
February 17th, 2014 at 2:30 PM ^
One billion gagillion fafillion shabadabalo shabadamillion shabaling shabalomillion yen
February 17th, 2014 at 3:23 PM ^
February 17th, 2014 at 2:18 PM ^
That is sickening.
February 17th, 2014 at 2:28 PM ^
from having the Edward J. Frey Dean and Stephen M. Ross Professor of Business lead the business school, or the Joan and Sanford Weill Dean of Public Policy lead the public policy school?
February 17th, 2014 at 2:35 PM ^
It's only sickening if you 1) don't know much about endowed positions elsewhere or 2) think athletics should be more important than academics or 3) like to over react.
February 17th, 2014 at 2:37 PM ^
A classier way would be the "Anonymous Head Football Coach"
February 17th, 2014 at 2:38 PM ^
Or maybe "Anonymous and Anonymous Head Football Coach" so the wife doesn't feel left out.
February 17th, 2014 at 2:41 PM ^
How did that work out for Larry David?
February 17th, 2014 at 2:47 PM ^
It doesn't blow my hair back, but if these two want to pony up ten million to have their names before Hoke's on MGoBlue and Wikipedia I don't see the big deal, especially since it's not out of the ordinary in higher education.
February 17th, 2014 at 4:32 PM ^
You don't think it sounds completely unnecessary and a ridiculous place to put a sponsership ?
February 17th, 2014 at 6:43 PM ^
will take your $10 million and apply it to just about anything you want, and not even attribute it to you if you so wish.
February 17th, 2014 at 6:52 PM ^
I don't see the difference between this, the Donald R Shepherd Director of Athletics, the Stephen M Ross School of Business, or the endowed titles I posted above for the Deans at Ford and Ross.
February 17th, 2014 at 7:24 PM ^
I suppose it could be worse, at least these two are apparently alumni and not a corporation, but what type of egomaniac gathers $10 million to put their name before a college head coach? I would love to see how big Nick Saban would handle a situation like this.
February 17th, 2014 at 10:23 PM ^
Hell yeah. This is as ridiculous as it gets. What the hell kind of title is that? On the other hand, as long as it is an endowed position - why don't we call him the endowed Michigan Football coach?
February 17th, 2014 at 2:29 PM ^
I bet if I offered to pay you $100 you'd change your username to "The jtmc33 sponsored writings of formerlyanonymous"
I would then parlay that deal into ""The jtmc33 sponsored writings of formerlyanonymous, brought to you my Miller Lite and Sprint" and at least triple my investment.
Business, man, Businessman.
February 17th, 2014 at 3:35 PM ^
February 17th, 2014 at 4:16 PM ^
is firmly in the picture.
February 17th, 2014 at 8:46 PM ^
February 17th, 2014 at 2:30 PM ^
Why? Professors carry those titles all the time, and it's not like Michigan is the first school to bring those titles to their athletic coaches.
February 17th, 2014 at 8:11 PM ^
Harris's have a lot of money and want to leave lots of leagacies behind. I would rather have a name before Hoke's title than to have higher ticket prices.
http://www.cct.org/give/meet-our-donors/j-ira-and-nicki-harris
February 18th, 2014 at 1:59 AM ^
If you think this is going to have one scintilla's worth of restraint on ticket prices, I've got a fantastic investment advisor that I'd like to introduce you to. His name is Madoff.
February 17th, 2014 at 2:20 PM ^
February 17th, 2014 at 2:22 PM ^
Michigan and many other schools.
February 17th, 2014 at 2:26 PM ^
Many schools (including Michigan) have endowed their AD position. We did it back when Goss was the AD, I believe.
February 17th, 2014 at 2:28 PM ^
"Donald R. Shepherd Director of Athletics."
February 17th, 2014 at 3:27 PM ^
Endowiong a staff position is common all over the University, particularly in academics. Most of the academic units at most major campuses have not only some kind of endowed chair for their Dean but also for high level professors too.
That $10 million will sit in an account and the 4.5% interest the University will allow out annually will go towards paying a large part of Hoke's salary. The concept both here an on academic campus is to take the staff member's salary off the balance sheet and free up that money for other things (or in many cases on academic side with all of its funding cuts, provide that money to retain a professor we would otherwise lose to another University that is offering more).
I guess my only knock is that the athletic department simply doesn't need the money. That would do much more good elsewhere. Football is so deeply in the black off of PSD's all this does is take them another few hundred thousand into overage.
MORE MONEY FOR SKYWRITING!!!!
February 17th, 2014 at 2:20 PM ^
David Brandon has no goddamned shame
This man will sponsor your effing children
February 17th, 2014 at 3:04 PM ^
February 17th, 2014 at 2:20 PM ^
if joking.
EDIT: Oh wow, not joking.
February 17th, 2014 at 2:21 PM ^
What the hell is going on?
February 17th, 2014 at 2:21 PM ^
February 17th, 2014 at 2:22 PM ^
be ready to embrace the honor.
February 17th, 2014 at 2:22 PM ^
I can't imagine the ego involved in saying "we'll only give the program money if you name the head coaching job after us."
At least when schools name their shiny new buildings after donors, those are actual new, physical things that the donor made possible.
February 17th, 2014 at 2:26 PM ^
Ahhhh, you do know that you can give a crap-ton (this is a non-official amount) and endow a professorship at any university, right? It's really pretty common to have named endowed positions. It's almost shocking (to me at least) it has taken athletics this long to catch up.
February 17th, 2014 at 2:40 PM ^
to endow something at Michigan that isn't named after me -- like an academic chair named after one of my professors at Michigan that really shaped my career.
February 17th, 2014 at 3:02 PM ^
Exactly, something meaningful. I hate that this will sound all holier-than-thou, but if I donated a shit-ton of money to my school for a purpose of some kind I'd choose a meaningful name for it and stipulate as part of the donation that it could never be changed. Not "Me Hall" or the "Look At Me Chair Of Teaching Stuff."
February 17th, 2014 at 4:07 PM ^
February 17th, 2014 at 4:41 PM ^
February 17th, 2014 at 4:41 PM ^
February 17th, 2014 at 4:57 PM ^
February 17th, 2014 at 2:23 PM ^
"Welcome to the University of Michigan... where we create our own headlines before The Onion does it for us"
February 17th, 2014 at 2:24 PM ^
for short.