Mitch: Wishful Thinking

Submitted by JTGoBlue on
After seeing the reaction of the national media, namely ESPN, I am wondering if the announcement of Mitch intending to declare and his openness about the circumstances is a strategic PR move. It is amazing to me that with all the legal power Michigan has, that they cannot win an appeal to a rule that changed literally weeks after the offense. Mitch has implied that he would have stayed if not for the 1 year suspension; and if held to the new 6 month rule he would be able to play in the fall, correct? Is Michigan drumming up support and planning to take another swing legally?

JTGoBlue

April 25th, 2014 at 9:04 PM ^

Not the greatest analogy, but if you were fired from your job for archaic rule that had already been changed, would you take it lying down?



I am being optimistic, but it is interesting that they have been so open about the circumstances; if they didn't want discussion on the topic, why divulge so much? I do think it is because it is thought the media may react, and therefore garner sympathy for the case. Why do that if giving up?

I Like Burgers

April 25th, 2014 at 10:25 PM ^

The media would have found out anyways. You don't keep something like this bottled up for long. So it's better to get out in front of the story.



You know, not that the school has had any recent experience doing the opposite of this of course...

LSA Superstar

April 26th, 2014 at 12:17 PM ^

Are you saying "we" from the position of an insider?  Because I consume more college football media than 95% of the adult male population and all I've heard are a scatterplot of totally shot-from-the-hip rumors.

Muttley

April 25th, 2014 at 11:33 PM ^

and then got another one that paid at least $500,000 or maybe more, I might just say screw it.

Now Mitch is turning down the possibility of having a great season and becoming a lottery pick, but that didn't work out so well for GR3.

Erik_in_Dayton

April 25th, 2014 at 9:02 PM ^

But I highly doubt this. The NCAA's willingness to say "fuck you" to reason and public opinion is boundless.

The best hope here is that this galvanizes support for unions. The more people who realize the emporer has no clothes, the better.

Another thought: people should still email/tweet the NCAA and tell them how fucked up this is. Might as well make their lives difficult.

bdsisme

April 25th, 2014 at 9:04 PM ^

I thought you were going to go in a different direction.  My conspiracy theory is that IF Mitch really wanted to declare for the draft this year, getting disqualified next year for a stupid reason is a GREAT P.R. move.  Michigan fans wouldn't be mad for him going pro because he'd be suspended next year anyways.  Pro teams would think he has a higher ceiling because he was going to go back to college (and thought he would improve his own draft stock), but had to go to the NBA -- hence ruling out the possibilty that the only reason he was declaring for the NBA was because he thought he wouldn't recover from his injury while at Michigan or that he wouldn't have a productive junior season.

If Mitch really wanted to go pro but not face any wrath from NBA GM's, this is one of the better ways to do it.

That said, I don't think this conspiracy theory is why this really happened -- but it was interesting to me.

LSAClassOf2000

April 25th, 2014 at 9:05 PM ^

Typically, schools set their own guidelines when it comes to punishments for failing drug tests, and I believe we've heard that, if this had been during the regular season, the punishment might have been a suspension of perhaps a couple weeks (I could be wrong though). As it happened during an NCAA-sponsored event in which Michigan participated, it is their rules which apply, no matter how insane or overbearing they seem. I would imagine that Michigan wouldn't have a leg to stand on due to that alone, so I very much doubt they'll fight it.

JTGoBlue

April 25th, 2014 at 9:17 PM ^

It can be argued that the spirit of the NCAA view on the appropriate punishment is in effect now, and the punishment is meant to be served from the time of the offense. I am not a lawyer, but I wonder if there is precedent for this type of argument.





MGoBender

April 25th, 2014 at 9:10 PM ^

Personally I think Mitch was gone even without the suspension (maybe why he was willing to risk a drug test...).

Someone pointed it out: If Mitch returned, he'd be competing with guys for draft position that wouble be 5 years younger than him.  That's not a good thing.

I Like Burgers

April 25th, 2014 at 10:30 PM ^

There might be an alternate way to try and fight an appeal this but Mitch needed to decide on the NBA by the 27th. No legal appeal would be resolved that quickly. So if he tried to fight it he'd be stuck sitting out another year and no NBA team would draft a player that hadn't played in two seasons. So it's NBA or nothing for Mitch.

bmedia

April 25th, 2014 at 9:29 PM ^

Long time reader, first time poster.  I dont think by any means that a calculated PR move would include a star player declaring for the draft because of an impending one-year ban for a failed drug test.  This seems like the complete opposite of a strategic PR play considering the scenerio.

Also, I saw you posted the word-for-word exact same thing in one of the other threads, a little repetitive don't ya think to start a new thread when the conversation was already going?

bluesalt

April 25th, 2014 at 9:44 PM ^

This is Team Mitch getting ahead of the story so it doesn't hurt his draft stock. Now the story is the NCAA is evil, rather than Mitch is irresponsible. (Not trying to start a debate about Mitch's responsibility, just remarking how his team is trying to control the narrative, which they are smart to do.)

AlwaysBlue

April 25th, 2014 at 9:46 PM ^

these tests? Do they test all players on a team or do they draw names from all of the players in the tournament?

I don't believe there is any conspiracy. I think Mitch wanted to return but was waiting for the result of the appeal. I don't see any other reason for him to have delayed his decision. Yeah, it's admirable that he owned up to he suspension but given what kind of crap NBA executives are willing to overlook in 19 and 20 year old kids it's hard to see a public admission as being as being more powerful than what he could have quietly accomplished.

Sllepy81

April 25th, 2014 at 9:49 PM ^

gets for us. Best for both sides...Mitch and us to move on. For his future and our rep. We don't want to be the school that took on the ncaa over weed do we? Even if it was reversed he will get taunted at every road game, best to just move on.

vablue

April 25th, 2014 at 10:58 PM ^

The appeal is almost certainly why he was waiting to announce. But this thread still amazes me. While the NCAA rule seems harsh, it tests during one three week period that everyone knows the dates of. If you somehow get caught by this very foreseeable test, doing a drug that is still illegal in most places including Michigan, you deserve a serious punishment. It sucks, I wish it were not the case, but it is true. It just hard for most of us to admit because the truth means lowered expectations for next season.

vablue

April 26th, 2014 at 4:58 PM ^

And I have never smoked. But that is not the issue. I believe pot should be legal. But I also believe that if an organization bans pot and you know you can be tested during a three week time frame, than you should probably not smoke it. If you do, I get why they come down hard.