MSU is still blocking details of Mel Tucker’s $95 million guaranteed contract
Isn’t this odd? The next court date in this FOIA battle with Detroit Free Press is in a few weeks. What could MSU be hiding? My hunch, the two billionaire boosters aren’t paying much of the $95M, let alone “all” of it as many Sparties continue to claim? In other words, it looks like more reckless spending at taxpayer expense by a university with financial challenges?
Axios-Detroit: Lawsuit involving Mel Tucker's contract heats up
The closely guarded funding sources of Michigan State football coach Mel Tucker's $95 million contract will be discussed in court Oct. 25 as part of a public records lawsuit.
https://www.axios.com/local/detroit/2022/09/30/foia-friday-lawsuit-mel-tucker-contract
October 2nd, 2022 at 7:53 PM ^
Knowing these pieces of shit they are probably paying him out of the fund set up for the Nassar victims
October 2nd, 2022 at 8:18 PM ^
I think you’re honing in on the motive to conceal it is the university, i.e. students and Michigan taxpayers, likely paying most of the $95 million — not boosters. Not only do they have that $500 million Dr Nassar lawsuit settlement bond to service, the athletic department was running a massive deficit last year, they also had to cut varsity sports and close their pool, and were in court regarding their alleged inability to afford the cancelled sports. The university is cash-strapped and it looks reckless and frankly asinine that the majority of trustees would agree to blow $95 million on a (mediocre) football coach for 10 years. Solution: Pretend a pair boosters are paying the $95 million and just never actually reveal the contract to the public?
October 3rd, 2022 at 8:42 AM ^
Michigan taxpayers of MGoBlog, here are the trustees if you want to let them know how you feel about this: https://trustees.msu.edu/about/index.html.
October 4th, 2022 at 9:56 AM ^
Lawyers aren't cheap. They're willing to pay the legal fees (I don't know what it costs to defend in court -- $100k?) to do what? What possible good justifies that spending? Taking this to court shows a lack of good judgment with taxpayer funds.
October 2nd, 2022 at 9:00 PM ^
what could possibly lead you to suspect even the faint whiff of a possibility that MSU leadership would even once trip over its collective gonads when dealing with Nassar victims
October 2nd, 2022 at 10:18 PM ^
Um…we aren’t that far removed from our f@cking glass house.
October 2nd, 2022 at 11:36 PM ^
Yeah, I get shitting on Staee because it's fashionable.
But Bo knew.
Leaders and best my ass. We're just like everyone else. Neg away those of you with exceptionally narrow world views.
October 3rd, 2022 at 6:16 AM ^
Honestly, I've never really seen how Bo was any different than Paterno.
October 3rd, 2022 at 7:18 AM ^
I don't think he was much different from the MSU and OSU coaches involved in their scandals. In all three cases, a team physician abused his power and the coaches allowed it to happen - presumably because they figured they didn't know any better, having no medical training. That's a terrible situation but I see it as more of an institutional failure than something to be laid on the shoulders of the coach alone.
But in Paterno's case, it was a member of his coaching staff doing the abusing. There was absolutely no reason to allow Sandusky continued access to children in the football complex.
October 3rd, 2022 at 11:33 AM ^
This is true but also Bo was the AD at one point right? To not do anything from that position is pretty bad.
October 3rd, 2022 at 6:24 PM ^
Really?
The hill you're going to stand on is relationship by job title?
Wow!
I'll help you out here:
- Bo and JoePa are both larger than life, cult of personality figures, at their respective institutions.
- As such both Bo and JoePa wielded tremendous influence and power.
- Whether or not one abuser is a member of the football program and the other abuser a member of university staff is COMPLETELY IRRELEVANT. Both Bo and JoePa were in a postion to prevent horrible, systemic, institutionalized abuse and fucking did jack shit about it.
October 3rd, 2022 at 10:19 AM ^
Michigan being wrong before means we cannot call out others for being wrong? Like, just because there was My Lai doesn’t mean the US can’t call out Russia for massacring civilians in Ukraine.
October 3rd, 2022 at 12:26 AM ^
Doesn't make the comments regarding msu untrue.
This isn't a "pointing out the splinter in your eye when we have a plank in ours."
There has plenty of discussion over Anderson and Bo and the general consensus is that Bo knew and our university has a lot to answer for, even after the settlement.
But that doesn't mean we can't call a spade a spade.
October 2nd, 2022 at 7:54 PM ^
So now we need a lawsuit on where theyre getting the money to spend on this lawsuit to cover up the money theyre pissing away on Tuck?
October 2nd, 2022 at 7:58 PM ^
If it's not really donor money they are in deep trouble. If it is, perhaps they are scared of disclosing what the buyout terms are. Those might be getting relevant sooner than they'd like.
October 2nd, 2022 at 8:02 PM ^
It has to be the buyout terms because the fact it's guaranteed is something they've been crowing about for months now, as if "we're so rich we can promise millions to a barely-.500 coach and no wiggle room in case he flops" is a sign of a well-run AD.
October 2nd, 2022 at 8:51 PM ^
Why not both?
October 2nd, 2022 at 9:54 PM ^
As a finance guy myself I've been watching slack-jawed as Nebraska lit $7.5 million on fire. It seems they forget that they are playing with public dollars. We'll see once the terms of this deal are reviewed whether or not MSU's administration just said "hold my beer"
October 3rd, 2022 at 12:18 AM ^
Wait, since when did ANY of the administrators of public dollars give a shit about spending those public dollars?
October 3rd, 2022 at 9:09 AM ^
Bingo. Lots of public money and very little accountability creates a situation where it's really easy to abuse funds. Unless significant negative consequences exist for wasting public funding, this will continue on local, state and national levels.
October 2nd, 2022 at 8:01 PM ^
I wouldn't be shocked if there were more financial shenanigans with the contract; something like "rich guys will pay as long as he wins but anything guaranteed is coming out of MSU if he's fired".
MSU is absolutely going to be fleeced on this deal for Tucker and while I'm all for a guy getting the bag it is crazy just how quickly the "Tuck comin'" talked died off. I remember listening to an off-season podcast and one of the hosts went on and on about how MSU was recruiting and portaling "SEC athletes" and how they looked so fast and I can only assume it was watching MSU's DBs and they looked "fast" because they were chasing all out after another WR streaking past them for a TD.
October 2nd, 2022 at 8:07 PM ^
Yeah, I have to chuckle at the Spartan fans who insist that Tucker’s contract is no biggie, and they can just hit Ishbia up for a quick check for $90 million any day of the week. Rich guys usually attach some strings to the money they give away.
October 2nd, 2022 at 8:12 PM ^
And, $90 million is some serious cabbage. Even if you are rich/rich/rich 9and my guess is these guys ain't as rich as they were when they did this deal), you don't want to write that check twice.
October 2nd, 2022 at 9:11 PM ^
Cuck fleecin’
October 2nd, 2022 at 10:09 PM ^
Tuck conning?
October 2nd, 2022 at 9:14 PM ^
Also, sure Ishbia is a billionaire with a net worth of $3.8 billion, but not outrageously wealthy like other billionaires worth tens of billions. $95 million is 2.5% of $3.8 billion, and it's not like that $3.8 billion is liquid. Spending 2.5% of your net worth on an unproven college football coach seems rather stupid.
October 2nd, 2022 at 9:34 PM ^
And I strongly doubt Ishbia is stupid.
October 2nd, 2022 at 9:59 PM ^
He’s probably looking at a 20% drop in his net worth, just like other millionaires along with everyone else. This stock market isn’t doing anyone any good.
October 3rd, 2022 at 2:06 AM ^
and the mortgage market is waay down.
October 3rd, 2022 at 10:00 AM ^
Ishbia's company (UWMC) is down from 6.14 to 2.96 this year (-51.8%)
Follow MSU backer Dan Gilbert's Rocket Companies is down 55% YTD.
"Jerome Powell is attempting to demolish MSU athletics" would be my submission to the next MGoPodcast hot takes segment.
October 3rd, 2022 at 10:57 AM ^
20% drop looks more like 75%. His company is public, ticker UWMC. It is trading near an all-time low of around $3 a share, from an all-time peak last year of $10-13 a share. Its SPAC IPO in 2020 was around $8.
October 2nd, 2022 at 10:27 PM ^
One thing I’ve learned in observing the billionaire and few hundred millionaires I’ve been fortunate to get to know: they are as human as anyone else and they all have their blind spots where any objectivity is subjugated to pure emotion.
Its possible Ishbia is very smart. It’s Also possible Ishbia is of normal intelligence but had a couple good enough ideas and enough luck to become a billionaire. In either case, MSU athletics could be such a blind spot for him. Or he could be emotionally hijacked about the prospect of being the financial savior of MSU athletics. Maybe we will learn in time but I wouldn’t assume that just because someone is generally smart that they are making rational, wise, self-interested decisions with big amounts of money.
October 3rd, 2022 at 10:05 AM ^
It’s Also possible Ishbia is of normal intelligence but had a couple good enough ideas and enough luck to become a billionaire.
It helps when your daddy starts a mortgage company and hands you the reins when he retires!
October 3rd, 2022 at 1:54 PM ^
Born on 3rd base
October 3rd, 2022 at 6:47 AM ^
Smart enough to be born to a guy that had a mortgage company.
October 2nd, 2022 at 10:04 PM ^
Yeah, his net worth has tumbled this year (per Forbes his net worth in 2021 was $9.7B and now it's under $5B), and it seems like most of that is in stock related to UWM. So yeah, he's not flush with cash on hand and $100M is still something he'd notice.
And even if he does wind up paying most of Mel's salary, that likely means he won't be giving money to other projects at MSU, something I'm sure guys like Izzo would be unhappy about.
October 3rd, 2022 at 2:10 AM ^
Izzo already got what he wanted.
They clearly paid a pretty penny for this recruiting class.
October 2nd, 2022 at 10:14 PM ^
And UWM and other providers are seeing a massive dip from where the housing market was 12 months ago…and indicators point to it continuing to dip
October 3rd, 2022 at 12:03 AM ^
Was going to say the same. The mortgage business isn’t a good business to be in at the moment.
October 2nd, 2022 at 9:18 PM ^
If you're giving that much, you probably want something lasting, like your name on a building. You don't want to pay that much just to clean up the AD's mess.
October 2nd, 2022 at 10:07 PM ^
UWM Spartan Stadium brought to you by Rocket Mortgage
October 3rd, 2022 at 8:55 PM ^
Jet's Pizza field at UWM Spartan Stadium brought to you by Rocket Mortgage
October 2nd, 2022 at 9:42 PM ^
If he didn't last time, he will the next time.
October 2nd, 2022 at 10:01 PM ^
Yeah, rich guys don't stay rich by accident and even if you could argue Ishbia came into his money via outside assistance (his father was the originator of the company and it was already doing reasonably well went he became CEO) he absolutely isn't going to just throw ~$100M around. The fact the mortgage industry is struggling a bit and his personal net worth has taken a dive from $9.7B to $4.9B (the tinniest violin playing, I know) might also be a factor.
October 2nd, 2022 at 10:32 PM ^
“Rich guys don’t stay rich by accident”
That is often true. But not always. Some really do have no idea what they are doing but end up still wealthy in spite of themselves.
October 3rd, 2022 at 12:28 PM ^
Yeah, I'd argue they stay that way by design.
Like the poor.
October 2nd, 2022 at 8:01 PM ^
That contract will go down in the annals of college football as the most hasty investment in a coach EVER.
October 2nd, 2022 at 8:04 PM ^
They outderped Texas A&M, problem is Texas A&M has way more money to piss away than MSU
October 2nd, 2022 at 8:12 PM ^
Charlie Weis on line 2 for you; he'd at least like to be remembered as the former record-holder here.
October 2nd, 2022 at 8:27 PM ^