January 28th, 2024 at 3:00 PM ^
This is one of my biggest concerns with Harbaugh leaving. The administration isn’t really interested in doing what is needed to win WRT NIL, transfers, etc. Jim had the clout and skill to force the AD and university to deal with these issues at least partially. I’m not sure they won’t go back to their old ways with Sherrone at the helm now.
January 29th, 2024 at 12:20 AM ^
What have we been doing that isn't our old ways? I'd bet a lot that we're not going to stop paying proven upperclassmen, doesn't seem like it took anything additional to have on field success
January 28th, 2024 at 3:02 PM ^
Whelp. Back on the Fire Warde train I go.
January 28th, 2024 at 11:38 PM ^
Fire Warde.
January 28th, 2024 at 3:36 PM ^
And there it is.
January 28th, 2024 at 5:40 PM ^
Exactly. What did everyone expect him to say? Changes will happen if Moore pushes and is more visible at NIL fund raising events.
January 28th, 2024 at 12:54 PM ^
Man, it’d be a whole lot cooler if they did
January 28th, 2024 at 2:58 PM ^
One of the things that made this year's championship so special was that Michigan didn't play the game that nearly all the other top teams play -- they managed to compete on an unlevel playing field in multiple respects and still won. I'd love to see Michigan win championship after championship, but not because they simply bought overwhelming talent. That the playing field is not level absolutely sucks -- I would rather that Michigan be a strong advocate for leveling the playing field (including leaving the NCAA and forming a new governing body) than participate in an arms race.
January 28th, 2024 at 3:17 PM ^
I agree with you, but I also think Michigan needs to play the “game” a little better also. We may not like the way college football recruiting, NIL, etc is right now but we also can’t afford to do nothing and be left behind.
January 28th, 2024 at 3:40 PM ^
OSU just spent 13 mill to beat us. We aren’t even in the same universe as the other blue bloods. Keeping player 4 and 5 yrs evens things out a bit, but that’s tough to maintain.
January 28th, 2024 at 5:20 PM ^
Hopefully we're headed toward Harbaugh's revenue-sharing model. In the meantime, sounds like Warde's determined to keep that donor money to himself. The battle continues.
January 28th, 2024 at 6:38 PM ^
The irony is that other teams are doing what Jim advocated for, paying players, just consistent with the current rules.
I still have PTSD from those last seasons of BPONE. I'm concerned we're going to get curb-stomped in Columbus next year. Perhaps Manuel and Moore will surprise me...
Santa, we need your help.
January 28th, 2024 at 4:18 PM ^
I completely understand the sentiment, but I would really prefer for my team not to play in the kind of league that allows organizations like the Yankees (and a whole bunch of others in baseball) to exist. The playing field in college football has never been level, but the current state of NIL is pushing things in the wrong direction.
January 28th, 2024 at 6:04 PM ^
You do realize that the most level playing field of all professional US sports is baseball?
They have had the highest number and percentage of their teams in their championship of all major sports leagues..
January 28th, 2024 at 9:58 PM ^
You’re joking right? Baseball is one of the most uneven playing fields in professional sport, with the exception of European Soccer. Just because some teams keep beating the odds and making runs to the playoffs/world series, doesn’t mean they did it with an even playing field. The highest payroll last season was the Mets with 309 million, congrats to the lowest Oakland A’s of 40 million. Is that the even playing field youre speaking about.
January 28th, 2024 at 4:26 PM ^
It’s been this case with everybody. Warde needs to be the powerful one to teach these “ethics” and the ones who allow him to do this, the 3-4 regents who support him, are the REAL problem. They’ve tried taking down UM athletics for decades. And they hide from the public eye like cowards. Why is this so easy for other schools to know how to compete with sports?
January 28th, 2024 at 1:28 PM ^
Doing nothing has been Warde's approach to to the job since he got here.
January 28th, 2024 at 1:57 PM ^
Warde is our Ron Swanson but without any humor.
“Normally, if given the choice between doing something and nothing, I’d choose to do nothing. But I will do something if it helps someone else do nothing. I’d work all night, if it meant nothing got done.”
January 28th, 2024 at 2:01 PM ^
I'm thinking more like Ron Lumberg.....
Yeah, I'm going to have to ask you to move your NIL down to storage room B., yeah.
January 28th, 2024 at 3:59 PM ^
Dont you dare disrespect Bill like that! The man is a legend.
January 29th, 2024 at 12:26 AM ^
You mean Ron Lumberg? The Intertrode guy, the young guy?
January 28th, 2024 at 3:15 PM ^
Then, it is upto Santa to sit down with him and tell him when his last day on the job is.
January 28th, 2024 at 4:37 PM ^
It’s not bc the regents supporting Warde might threaten to fire Santa. I cannot tell you how those regents are the REAL problem. Hell it took a student protest to get rid of Brandon. They can’t accomplish anything with these cowards who hide from the public light.
January 28th, 2024 at 3:30 PM ^
This fuckng guy. It became cool around here over the past few days to defend Warde. Unfortunately, this ivory tower bullshit likely has other sponsors among the University mucking muck.
January 28th, 2024 at 4:29 PM ^
EXACTLY. It’s the 3-4 regents who support Warde and prevent him from being fired that have been the biggest bottleneck for UM for decades. And yet they hide from the public in a cowardly way. We don’t even know the right people to vote out!!
January 28th, 2024 at 4:34 PM ^
It was cool to defend him for a minute, and most everyone was. But this is what it gets you - a guy that was a stuffed suit without much institutional clout butted heads with Harbaugh and lost a fair amount of ground. Now, the same guy has the power squarely in his corner against a rookie coach. You can damn sure bet that the Ivory Tower is going to rule the day for the next several years...
January 28th, 2024 at 4:38 PM ^
January 28th, 2024 at 5:20 PM ^
The entire Michigan 'Ivory Tower' arrogance that we're better than you because 'we do things the right way'. We'll continue doing things 'the right way'.
January 29th, 2024 at 12:28 AM ^
It's not that it's cool. It's that some people want to be happy not miserable just a couple of weeks after we won a national championship, and think things must be going ok if just we won a championship. We'll complain if they ever go south.
January 28th, 2024 at 12:57 PM ^
Warde is making a disgusting and insulting false choice but at least “we’re not going to change anything” is very on-brand for him.
January 28th, 2024 at 1:10 PM ^
Exactly this. I'm sure there are many recruits that love football and would love to play at UM, but just can't turn down big $$$ to play at another good school. Lots of schools develop and produce great DTs, LBs, DEs, etc., and if they're going to pay you to go there as well, that's hard to pass up.
The key is to identify and separate the ones that want to be developed and want to get paid vs. the ones that just want to get paid. I'd have no problem finding some way to get $ to the former to get them on campus.
January 28th, 2024 at 2:00 PM ^
This is it right here Blue. Money paid for the right players can be a good investment. Players get what they are worth arent ruined. Get our coaches first choice at each position and if pay comes with it fuck it.
January 28th, 2024 at 2:02 PM ^
Or if the coaching staff wants the money to go to proven performers, then Michigan should have the most money to spend on upper-classmen and be a magnet for the best portal transfers.
Other schools are able to get more NIL money to their players. So sure, it takes a level of indirection, but everybody from the donors to the coaching staff/AD to the players know the end goal. If Warde is impeding NIL due to a desire for control, he should be shown the door.
January 28th, 2024 at 1:33 PM ^
Um, did it ever occur to you that this policy comes from school leadership and not Warde? But, sure, go ahead and blame him because it’s consistent with your biases.
January 28th, 2024 at 1:45 PM ^
Did it ever occur to you that it's Warde's job to push back against school leadership and fight for the changes needed?
January 28th, 2024 at 2:06 PM ^
Lol exactly. You advocate for your unit. That’s leadership
January 28th, 2024 at 2:19 PM ^
But in this case, you need to ask him to push back against the state legislature. It’s easy for us keyboard warriors to blame Warde for everything under the sun. It’s his job to make sure the university follows the law and stays out of legal trouble.
There is a segment of this fan base that is fine with a “win at all costs” mentality. The other guy is cheating, so should we.
There is a segment of this fan base that expects Michigan to be Leaders and Best, which includes setting an example for honesty and integrity.
January 28th, 2024 at 2:27 PM ^
Who said anything about breaking laws? Also, why can't Warde push back on state legislators if he doesn't agree with something? Other states have altered laws to support athletics at their universities.
January 28th, 2024 at 4:15 PM ^
There are a lot of questionable things about Warde‘s tenure but the NIL thing isn’t one of them. The law in Michigan prohibits the kind of practices that are ok in Texas and Ohio. You are kidding yourself if you think Warde is going to convince the entire legislature to change their minds. Maybe he can get the ones with a Michigan or MSU connection to reconsider but surprise, surprise not everyone believes that NIL should be turned into a back-door pay-for-play scheme, especially the people who went to schools where big time college football was not particularly part of the culture.
January 28th, 2024 at 3:06 PM ^
Thank you!
I suspect that the win at all cost crowd and largely not alumni.
January 28th, 2024 at 1:45 PM ^
mackbru--- I was not in the camp to get rid of Warde... but can you tell me one thing that he has done that was forward thinking or insightful or noteworthy. From what I can tell he has done nothing of substance while employed as the AD. In fact he has also done nothing to protect or diminish or defend the UofM from the wrath of outside forces (NCAA, B1G, social media). So basically he just collects a paycheck and goes to social events.... he has no function.
January 28th, 2024 at 1:51 PM ^
He's (allegedly) the AD. It's literally his job to handle this stuff so "school leadership" doesn't have to.
He gets paid over a million dollars a year to scroll Facebook, I guess.
January 28th, 2024 at 2:03 PM ^
Or, errrr, other sites.
January 28th, 2024 at 2:14 PM ^
What does Warde Manuel do well? Actually, as mentioned in the gif above, what would you say he does here? He doesn’t keep good coaches. He doesn’t hire good coaches. He doesn’t handle scandals well. For some reason, he lets a point guard borrow his wife’s car, which he proceeds to crash, and then the young man gave a fake name and said he wasn’t driving. If Warde stays, we’re stuck with Juwan Howard for the foreseeable future, and in all likelihood the football program will go into slow decline. Because Warde will do the only thing Warde does well. Nothing.
January 28th, 2024 at 4:12 PM ^
in all likelihood the football program will go into slow decline.
lol.
January 28th, 2024 at 1:37 PM ^
Warde's failure to take any action has benefitted us once when he chose to not fire Harbaugh, but Harbaugh is the one who made the changes that ultimately benefitted us