John U. Bacon on the GA Student Section
My son just pointed this out to me. I see it was published on May 3, but I didn't see any reference to it on the board when I searched. It does predate Brian's belittlement of the the MSA president's complaint about breaking the "long-held social contract."
Whatever. I think Bacon is on to something and I think we, the university, and the athletic department should treat the student attendance situation as something to learn from and adapt rather than to fight back with a stick. The problem might lie closer to a place where Brandon will never look: himself and others who are focused solely on money.
Anyway, here is Bacon's article: http://michiganradio.org/post/students-aren-t-leaving-michigan-football…
SIAP
*slowly walks away.....*
Yeah it was mentioned here: http://mgoblog.com/content/unverified-voracity-shows-surgeons-broom
John U. Bacon sure does love to make excuses for underperformers. First RR, now the students. Hard to read his stuff seriously anymore.
It does seem like he's been mad at Brandon ever since his friend Rich Rod was fired.
Except that Rod isn't happy with Bacon about his book either. I went to a game last year and my brother and I ate at a local bar. Let's just say that Bacon isn't the only one upset with Brandon. There are several others who have been ticket holders for years who are angry with Brandon and are no longer ticket holders.
I've read the book and it's about as flattering to Rich Rod as it could possibly be. I think the "Rich doesn't like the book either" is just a cover story to make it sound like it's even-handed.
I'm not saying there are no valid criticisms of Brandon, just that Bacon's bitched about him so much that it's hard to take him seriously. And honestly, the same is true for the proprietor of this site. Brian's ranting about Brandon has gotten old, too. No AD is going to satisfy everyone in every area, but when you look at the big picture and see an athletic department that is successful in just about every sport, has steadily rising APR scores across the board, and runs a yearly profit, is there really that much to complain about?
Of course you can't please everyone, but that doesn't mean Brian shouldn't call out Brandon on his mistakes. Success in sports, good academics, and being in the black are par for the course at Michigan. It's not like he's revolutionized the athletic department. Besides, Brian has complimented him on a number of issues as well. If you specifically asked his overall opinion on Brandon, I don't actually think it'd be that low. Just that he's tinkering too much with a formula that has obviously treated Michigan well, and I'd agree.
John Bacon and Brian Cook have much more access to the Michigan program than you or I , yet they're doing the complaining.
They see a lot more detail and talk to a lot more people associated with the athletic department than you do, I wager.
So maybe there is something to the criticism, yeah?
And how people come up with the book as being flattering to RR is beyond me. Made him look like he was naive in how he handled the press, former players, and the university administration.
Without getting into the Brandon/Bacon/Brian ballyhoo, I have to say this is a pretty nonsensical and self-defeating line of argument. If we're going to say that Bacon & Brian's opinions carry some sort of enhanced credibility because of their amorphous "access" to the program, wouldn't the same logic then immunize Dave Brandon from criticism, since presumably he has significantly MORE access to the Michigan program than Bacon and Brian combined, and therefore can speak more authoritatively than a sports writer and a blogger, respectively?
Why don't we just evaluate these criticisms on their own merits and against our own experiences as fans rather than appeal to baseless assertions of esoteric knowledge to buttress the arguments we happen to favor?
The access Cook n' Bacon (ha!) have is anything but amorphous, IMO. Their criticisms of Brandon are more informed than joe average fan. Don't deliberately misconstrue.
I don't think you really grasped what I was saying.
"Trust them, they have more access than you" is not an availing argument when used to justify criticisms of the person with the most access to the program.
Again, none of this is to say that Brian & Bacon's critiques are unfounded or incorrect. But their purported access to the program is probably the poorest measuring stick by which to evaluate their claims.
No AD is going to satisfy everyone in every area, but when you look at the big picture and see an athletic department that is successful in just about every sport, has steadily rising APR scores across the board, and runs a yearly profit, is there really that much to complain about?All true except that, as it's been pointed out here previously, Athletic Departments aren't supposed to run profits. These aren't publicly traded corporations with stockholders demanding quarterly gains. I'm pleased with the modernization effort taking place on the athletic campus, but at some point we have to ask ourselves when it enough? My block of two season tickets in the endzone of Michigan Stadium will crack the $1000 barrier next season; for the crap slate of games Michigan has scheduled. I've been a season ticket holder for almost 25 years and I can't believe that I'm actually considering giving them up because they aren't worth it anymore. I can't be the only guy in that boat and Brandon should be concerned.
Being "non-profit" doesn't mean you're trying to break even like your grant funded and have to return anything you dont spend, and not get a penny more. It just means that those profits go back into the business, and aren't paid out as dividends.
Take a look at the University as a whole if that's how you want it to run. They're making so much money they're looking for excuses to build new buildings and such. But they're not lowering tuition. And CEO's and administrative costs at all sort of charities are through the roof.
You can talk about it as an ideal, but you're not going to find any others that are run that way either.
If collecting the largest amount of cash for the athletic department is the goal, then there is little to complain about. But if there are other concerns and goals, then yes there is considerable one can complain about.
Let's pick on the students--many of whom are there, but squeezed in down low, some who show up late, and others who don't show for crappy D2 games. Unlike many alumni who dump bad games on friends or office staff, students likely can't give those tickets away. And I suspect the attendance of many here wasn't as good as a student as one remembers--and this board isn't likely a cross-section of the average fan, whose intensity may not match those here.
Rather than the students, I believe the corporatization of Michigan football is thelong-term problem. Like professional sports, the boxes and the best seats are now going to people merely because they can afford them (with donations), whether or not they are genuine fans or alumni. People who are oftentimes writing their tickets off as a "business expense".
Let's just get rid of those free-loading students and the reminder of the college experience they bring to each game.
If Brandon keep increasing ticket prices the number of people pissed off at Brandon will drastically increase. Count me among the people PO'ed at Brandon. It has nothing to do with supporting an underperformer like Rich Rod.
Jesus Christ people, you all want top facilites, top payed assistant coaches, more varsity sports added and facilities upgrades for non-revenue sports and you would throw a hissy fit if Brandon ever turned to the biggest untapped resource, ads in the stadium. How do you expect the athletic department to raise more funds for these projects without raising ticket prices? It is like half this blog is living in some fantasy land.
I for one would prefer to see ads in the stadium over raised ticket prices but if that can't happen they need to continue to raise revenues to keep up, ohio already spends more on their football program than we do and if you don't think spending money increases recruiting and performance than you haven't been paying attention to football or basketball recently.
I, for one, would prefer that the AD not employ 28 staff members with law degrees as athletics support staff and pay 15-20M/yr on coaching staff salaries.
all this money is going into 2 things: facilities and the staffing of these facilities
I don't know that many people were clamoring for more varsity sports to be added, and I know quite a few alums who were unhappy with the addition of the suites.
belong to Bill Martin, the "bricks and budgets" AD.
You would prefer this:
to this?
Uh, yeah, you're wrong.
If it means paying less for football tickets then yes I would, one is an aesthetic thing, the other actually could impact my ability to get into the stadium on a regular basis. I'm sorry I care more about being in the stadium to see football than whether or not the entire screeen is free of ads.
Personally I would prefer introducing ads and holding ticket prices steady to maintaining the ban on ads and continuing with the ticket price increases.
I don't think, however, that this is a realistic choice. I doubt including ads would have much impact one way or the other on ticket prices.
....as any of us would be if one of our friends were fired. Damn straight if Brandon fired one of my buddies, I'd be pissed too. But a man of his intelligence, in his position, with his platform, should know better than to let his personal dislike for DB influence his thought processes on unrelated items.
Your comment is pure speculation.
But look at my mgoblog record of not trolling or being stupid and weigh that for what it's worth. Given that it's not much and I wouldn't trust a random internet person either. We are all speculating to a certain degree, but the ticket costs have gone up and it has cost many loyal fans their ability to hold season tickets. If people don't think Bacon's book was balanced then that's on them, but I think it's funny that Hoke comes on board and starts winning and many fans change their tone on certain topics.
Rodriguez was portrayed as someone who had temper tantrums and as someone who seemed to create almost a paranoid atmosphere of "us against them" as scandals were happening. Bacon goes into brutal detail on how Rodriguez could have handled several things better, and ultimately it was the losing that cost Rodriguez his job along with his inability to unite the fanbase, and I liked him but knew it was time for change.
I am, however, unwilling to exonerate certain Michigan personalities who were sources of dissent during Rodriguez's tenure. It's amazing how many people who were pointing fingers one way have done a 180 because Michigan is seemingly on the right track. I rooted for the team throughout and there are some who didn't who will never answer for their crimes because of winning. Some Michigan fans are no better than the blitheringly blind fans who reside to the south....
We're all speculating, including Mr. Bacon. He admits as much: "The athletic department hasn’t asked them, but I have a few hunches."
Well, it didn't help that after his book was published, Bacon got banished to the far back corner of the press box next to (no joke) Michael Rosenberg.
I definitely I have heard this before, but from what I remember it later came out that Bacon's new spot in the press box was blown a bit out of proportion as his movement came as a natural shift for many other media people as well, correct?
For such a great writer that he is with Michigan history, man does he whine a lot.
News for ya Johnny boy, the days of Michigan playing a schedule of nothing but power conference teams in non conf are long gone. That didn't start with Dave Brandon.
It was Bill Martin that scheduled all 3 of Michigan's FCS opponents.
It was Joe Roberson who scheduled the first MAC team since the 40s in 1995 with Miami University.
EVERY school loads up on lower tier programs on their schedule. Been going on for over a decade. Isn't stopping anytime soon.
Eh maybe, but that schedule next year is one of the worst home scheuldes I've ever seen for a major program.
lolwut? Have you seen other school's schedules?
Can you provide another major program with a worse home schedule? Not one of these teams will be ranked in 2014:
Appalachian State
Miami (OH)
Utah
Minnesota
Penn State
Indiana
Maryland
Next year's home schedule is arguably worse than msu's this year. It IS that bad.
for someone to twist this back to a RichRod thread. Nice reach.
So, exactly how was RR supposed to "perform" when LC and his minions gutted the roster, and then ran around telling local recruits not to go to Michigan? It's amazing that people are still whining about RR, even when he has been gone for so long. Maybe "Butterfield" should change his name to "Spartyfield."
What did he say that was irrelevant? It's a valid argument. You must not have a rebuttal. Carr is partly to blame for the drop in Michigan football relevance. He stopped recruiting towards the end of his career. Look at the roster and tell me I'm wrong. Let's run the spread during his last game of the years just to say, "I can do it too!" If RR had the support and one more year, MGoBlog would be singing an entirely different song.
and your version is completely revisionist and contrary to the facts that recruiting has been tanking during Carr's final years.
you proffer a provocative (and in this instance, essentially off-topic) comment, and then act shocked when someone disagrees or calls you on it. And then you dare accuse that person of being the troll.
Underperformers with no team and no support? Perhaps you should read 3 & Out before you call someone a underperformer.
Yes because that was really how it went last year...
The student section fits 20,000. There is no way those other '' two'' had no way of getting in to the game if they desperately wanted to be there.