CC:Comments from an Assistant AD that probably don't mean anything...but...

I'm a current student at U of M who's taking CLCIV 371. Basically a class about the history of sport primarily focused around the Greeks but making connections with modern athletics and the structures surrounding them. We've had a variety of assistant ADs and UM coaches come in as guest speakers (Brandon and Beilein were both scheduled to speak but were canceled due to firing and a meeting resulting from the firing. Ironically, Brandon's lecture was supposed to be on integrity in sports). Today was David Ablauf, associate AD of communications (basically the PR guy). During the course of the lecture he started talking about Harbaugh's comments about the General studies degree (on his own, no question was asked about it. He had to go out of his way) and then took a shot at Harbaugh saying that 40% of the players on his Stanford teams took the equivalent degree (supposedly) and he seemed overall kind of petty and mad about it.

So, just thought I'd share. I was slightly worried that might mean people are pissed at Jim in the department. But obviously it could be nothing.

Mod edit: I'm publishing MichAero's comment as an addendum to the OP. If ReegsShannon wants to make an additional comment that's fine too but I don't want another perspective to get buried after a hundred plus comments. JGB.

I am also in CLCIV 371 and you are leaving a large part of the context out.

I could be wrong, but I believe he was responding to a question about how much credibility should be given to reports that come out of social media, or some related question. Regardless, I'm almost positive this was during the Q&A session after his main lecture.

He began by bringing up the Harbaugh comments, but then went into how Pat Forde wrote an article about what Harbaugh had said. Forde wrote the entire article and then called Ablauf for comments, but Ablauf wasn't available at the time so it went to voicemail. Ablauf then called Forde back and began asking him about what he wanted to write about while at the same time researching what Forde was telling him. While on the phone, Ablauf found the article that Forde had written already published, even though Forde was telling Ablauf that he wasn't sure when his deadline was, etc. Basically, according to Ablauf, Forde wanted to be able to say he reached out to UM for comment before he published the story. Then he told us about how if Forde, or these other journalists, would have looked into the situation further, they would discover that this isn't anything new or something that nearly every school is doing, including Stanford (at 40% of their players).

This was part of a larger point he was making during his lecture about how media has changed. There is much less "work" done by the reporters today due to the culture that is the 24/7 newscycle. The goal is to be the first with a story, or write something that will generate clicks, regardless of how trivial a story might be.

In my opinion, he was more upset with Forde and the new form of media here than he was upset with Harbaugh.