Michigan being investigated for shoe reselling
August 10th, 2018 at 9:02 PM ^
Beat me to it.
Relevant section:
ESPN had shoe marketplace site StockX review its database of about 17,000 different pairs of shoes to see how many player exclusives it had tracked as sold, along with the average price of the sale. StockX also tracks the value of shoes in real time.Michigan, with 23 pairs, had the most shoes on the exchange. It also had the highest average price of $4,671 a pair.
"Oregon obviously has a long and storied history with Nike, but Michigan is the cool new kid on the block due to the continuing hype surrounding its landmark (Jordan) deal (which began in August 2016)," StockX CEO Josh Luber said.
Michigan football spokesman Dave Ablauf says the number of sales tracked by StockX doesn't mean its players sold the shoes. Ablauf says executives and celebrities receive the special shoes, as do Nike's Michigan endorsers in the pros. The school itself also may have donated, at times, some pairs to charity.
August 10th, 2018 at 9:30 PM ^
I’m taking a little comfort in this statement:
Sources tell ESPN that school exclusives made for basketball teams are generally limited to 50 pairs, while football-team exclusives are in the 200-300 range.
Ablauf said Michigan players sign a form that acknowledges that selling the shoes would jeopardize their eligibility. The shoes are also marked by the equipment staff with the player's name or uniform number, making it more difficult to sell them anonymously.
August 10th, 2018 at 9:39 PM ^
The shoes are also marked by the equipment staff with the player's name or uniform number, making it more difficult to sell them anonymously.
All my shit (which was Adidas, so nobody was trying to buy that) had my number in sharpie on it somewhere. A tag, a label - anything white and discreet that you could write on had my number. It would be pretty obvious if a shoe came directly from a player.
August 10th, 2018 at 10:30 PM ^
All this time I had no idea you were a player. Lol.
August 10th, 2018 at 10:49 PM ^
Same reaction. The fact that Dr often speaks in absolutes, when seemingly offering opinions, now makes some sense.
August 10th, 2018 at 10:55 PM ^
I was a walk-on and didn’t stay for all 4 years so let’s not get too loose with the term “player” lol
August 10th, 2018 at 11:51 PM ^
So much for my guess that you are Jordan K...
August 10th, 2018 at 11:59 PM ^
No, not sneaky athletic enough. Was in a locker room with him though!
August 10th, 2018 at 11:30 PM ^
He may not be a player, but he is a real big-time PLAHYER!!!
August 10th, 2018 at 10:46 PM ^
Me too. They always put number on everything. Not only was I Adidas I also wasn’t a revenue sport so truly nobody wanted my stuff anyway.
August 10th, 2018 at 11:56 PM ^
You were a Michigan athlete? Good shit Jed.
August 11th, 2018 at 12:19 AM ^
I was an athletic person that Michigan allowed to be on their football team for a minute. That's probably the best way to put it.
August 11th, 2018 at 8:06 AM ^
More of an athlete than 99.9% of the board, myself definitely included - don't sell yourself short.
August 11th, 2018 at 12:57 PM ^
Agreed. You put on that Maize and Blue, never undersell that. I bought my gear from MDen, you got yours assigned haha
Hail!
August 11th, 2018 at 2:53 PM ^
August 12th, 2018 at 4:24 PM ^
Yeah, you did.
August 11th, 2018 at 10:55 AM ^
Mike Golic Jr had a great take regarding this topic on ESPN. Number one, mentioned how sad it could be that these players get a similar / harsher sentence than Urban Meyer may get. Two, that as a player at ND he could sell back his books to the University and pocket the money and that was OK. So what's the real difference? The school buys your books for you and you then sell them and that's ok, but you cannot sell the athletic apparel you get for free from the University? I thought it was a fairly logical argument.
August 11th, 2018 at 6:39 PM ^
..... Really? You are counting books in the same category as apparel only athletes get? Any student can sell their books back to the University... not every student gets free apparel to then sell. Also then it becomes a potential way for boosters to funnel money to players.
August 11th, 2018 at 11:53 PM ^
I got free books from Michigan as part of my scholarship... and I for sure sold them after I read them. Not to mention that basically every PhD student at the university does exactly the same thing.
August 11th, 2018 at 10:04 PM ^
As long as you don’t trade them for tattoos....
August 10th, 2018 at 9:04 PM ^
Watch how much the Detroit media is all over this. I bet they will try and turn any dirt they can unlike what happened with Mork and Izzo and they didn’t lift a finger.
August 10th, 2018 at 9:05 PM ^
Hopefully, as Ablauf states in the article, the shoes are just non-player issued. Transfers would also be a good candidate for selling shoes. That would be fairly embarrassing to find that we're the next big ten east team exposed in an espn article.
August 10th, 2018 at 9:06 PM ^
Hopefully. But 23 pairs is a lot of shoes for something so exclusive. We'll have to sweat this out.
August 10th, 2018 at 9:22 PM ^
Probably, but how many pairs did Harbaugh give the pope? I bet it was him.
August 10th, 2018 at 9:26 PM ^
I'll slap tf out of this Pope if he screws up Michigan football, believe that.
August 10th, 2018 at 10:47 PM ^
I'm actually not sure 23 pairs is as many as you would think. That could easily be a handful of players unloading all their shoes
August 11th, 2018 at 8:16 AM ^
If each player got 2 a year and we are entering year 3 of Jordan...someone hypothetically like Mike McCray could sell of up to 4 pair. Someone who just transferred out hypothetically like Kareem Walker could also sell off up to 4. Plus shoes to charity and we could in theory get to 23 easily...I hope.
August 11th, 2018 at 12:11 PM ^
This is a good point - wouldn't it be totally legit for players who are out of eligibility to sell their shoes? Between the guys who have graduated or just left the program in the last 3ish years, getting to 23 pair wouldn't be hard at all.
August 11th, 2018 at 1:23 PM ^
23 pairs is a lot, but possibly some of those shoes were sold more than once? I could see that happen if prices were going up. I would imagine among the collectors buying shoes are people looking to turn a quick profit.
August 10th, 2018 at 9:06 PM ^
Knock on every piece of wood, but we're the only team in the East without a major recent scandal.
August 10th, 2018 at 9:08 PM ^
I don’t know if the Gibbons/Lewan shit counts as recent or a scandal, but we’ve got that and Shane Morris’ concussion. Either way, Big Ten East looks pretty shitty right now
August 10th, 2018 at 9:09 PM ^
Those were all disgusting and embarrassing, but I generally don't think of them as recent, only because of the regime change.
August 10th, 2018 at 9:14 PM ^
Agreed, and the Morris incident, while awful, was on the field during a game. Ohio State, Michigan State, Rutgers, Penn State, and now Maryland have all had major scandals involving criminal activity or serious injury/death.
The Lewan & Gibbons crap was originally handled poorly, but eventually dealt with via Gibbons' removal from school. When a coach or player acts criminally, it usually takes a cover up or lack of discipline to create a "scandal".
August 10th, 2018 at 9:41 PM ^
Shane could have died because of how it was handled. That makes it a major problem for me. And obviously the Gibbons shit was disgusting even if it was eventually handled.
This is just to say - Big Ten, get your shit together
August 11th, 2018 at 8:12 AM ^
Not minimizing that Shane incident, that was bad and could have been much worse. But, it appears to be a one time incident that was poorly handled in the moment. The Maryland thing appears to be part of a on going cultural problem. The other incidents also seem to be on going, long term things. Much easier for me to get past one bad decision in the heat of the moment than a conscious long term pattern of bad behavior.
August 11th, 2018 at 9:03 AM ^
"could have died" is a reach. The the team neurologist was on the sideline and examined Morris. Without breaking doctor/patient confidentiality he stood behind the concussion protocol during interviews the next day. You can see the staff examining Morris in the background if you re-watch the game. The in-game optics were horrible but a team doctor saying ready to play and the hospital doctor saying slight concussion the next day is not necessarily problematic. (I suspect that more than a few players finished the game with a slight concussion.) The Morris family didn't find fault with the way they were treated. While Morris stumbled at one point he also waved off help at others. Shane Morris doesn't have a problem with the incident. There is ample evidence that QB management for the game was less than ideal but concussion protocol was not the weak link.
August 10th, 2018 at 9:50 PM ^
Actually, Gibbons’ expulsion via a Title IX kangaroo court was the only embarrassing part.
For his part, Gibbons agreed to an interview with AAPD, without any lawyer, cooperated with the investigation, and volunteered to take a polygraph if asked. Not embarrassing.
Gibbons’ accuser stopped cooperating with police. She didn’t even initiate the Title IX proceeding.
August 10th, 2018 at 11:13 PM ^
Concern trolling: Check.
August 11th, 2018 at 12:44 AM ^
You don't actually believe the "tattoos" coverup, do you? They were trading souvenirs for drugs. That's why a DEA agent was the one to blow the whistle. That tattoo parlor was a drug den.
August 11th, 2018 at 1:28 AM ^
Hey Woody, FOAD you loser jackass piece of shit.
August 11th, 2018 at 10:43 AM ^
Who invited this dickhead?
August 12th, 2018 at 12:25 AM ^
I've been thinking that scUM is a perfect name for Urban Meyer
August 10th, 2018 at 11:13 PM ^
Grant was drunk and forcefully grabbed a girl in a non-sexual way, then he was immediately and subsequently suspended for multiple games. That is not a scandal where I'm from.
August 11th, 2018 at 12:36 AM ^
I too can cherry pick from the same MLive article, except I would head to the passage that mentions that both the female judge and the female prosecutor state that the crime was not sexual in nature.
Perry was arrested, and he was charged, and he was sentenced and served his punishment, and he was suspended from the team. You see, when our guys screw up, which is not often, they're held accountable.
The audacity and pure shamelessness it takes for a Buckeye to say that Michigan has a culture of "boys will be boys", when your head coach has protected, re-hired, and given performance raises (!!) to a man who regularly cheated on, beat, and stalked his pregnant wife and mother of his children, all because that scumbag was the grandson of an old OSU coach.
I'm glad I am from a place where the few who screw up are held accountable - a place where you can throw a rock and not hit a woman beater, a heroin junkie, or water that's so polluted it's flammable. Enjoy your life in Ohio, troll.
August 11th, 2018 at 11:56 AM ^
Jesus Christ. I have post traumatic stress after reading your stupidity. PTSD is 10% legit, and 90% glorified victim hood.
August 11th, 2018 at 12:26 AM ^
How do you grab a woman's genitalia in a non-sexual way?
August 11th, 2018 at 2:01 AM ^
That's what Nassar didn't understand.
August 11th, 2018 at 2:53 AM ^
Not funny.
August 18th, 2018 at 8:31 AM ^
Wasn't a joke.
August 10th, 2018 at 9:23 PM ^
You have enough young adults running around campus, some of them are going to do awful shit. The difference is how it’s handled, and while Michigan isn’t perfect, I think it’s fair to say Michigan has been better than MSU or PSU, or even “I hope he doesn’t fire ME” Gordon Gee, in the most equivalent scandal to this one.