The Rest of College Football

[Jeff Buchanan]

Oh, my ...... another AD that gets it.

I wonder. Dave Brandon might just follow the crowd if M loses to the Minnesota.

[WM Wolverine]

You're hoping Hoke gets fired?

[hack]

I guess a moral victory against Michigan ain't what it used to be.

[hack]

Jeff, share what you can that makes you think Brandon's office is about to get stormed. I just don't see it. Not from Michigan.

Even as a person who wants meritocracy, it's awfully hard for me to imagine a mid-season firing is the way to go. For those with more perspective, is this an uncommon number of mid-season firings? Seems like it to me but I'm not the closest watcher.

[Hannibal]

I say go ahead and get it over with if you know that it's what you are going to do anyways. No sense in playing out the string if the coach is a dead man walking.

[Tony G]

For all you know, if they did fire him they would hire Pasqualoni

[Jeff Buchanan]

Without attribution .....

Contacts inside the M ticket office, I am told, have received complaints, at an increasing rate, about the pricing structure for seat licenses, individual game tickets and how they are made available, cost of taking a family to a game, the list of all those things we've seen before. Nothing startling here. The added value to what we have heard is going on is affirmed by people answering the phone and providing answers/explanations..... I am also told callers do not find the corporate responses Dave expects his people to make to angry customers acceptable. No surprise but it mitigates toward the view that there is an increasingly aggravated fan base. Those are your customers. You don't want to piss them off ...... like DB did with his pizza by making them taste like shit with cheap ingredients and then trying to recover by apologizing for it. Meanwhile corporate profits soared and so did the size of his bank account. Then he left that mess for someone else to clean up.

I also hear there is a generalized concern regarding a potential down turn in donations and questions coming from political corners in the state of Michigan regarding the issue of public funds being used to fund DB's legacy dreams. So, everyone will say, nonsense, the Athletic Department funds itself. Not really. The general fund is used for capital development and can be shared by all parties with building plans/aspirations at Michigan.

What could be noteworthy about this is the political pressure Brandon might feel, real or imagined, regarding his ability to raise the money he needs to run his department (the football and basketball teams or revenue sports) AND build his legacy. Is he counting on the General Fund to provide some dollars? His political opponents think they can leverage this possibility.

Dave paid a sky writing company to fly over Spartan Stadium a few weeks ago and sky write Go Blue. Trashy, not to mention people questioned him spending athletic department money to do that. His response to operatives that asked that question (assuming on behalf of politicos) was pretty much F' you. Not good. He could have simply said, yeah, that might have been a poor use of funds at my disposal.

All of this sets the tone for Brandon to feel he might have to do something to shore up his rep and create a moment that fans can rally around within the Michigan Community (esp. the Regents). Sort of like GWBush creating a nuclear and chemical threat in Iraq as an excuse to find and kill Saddam for F'ing with his father. The match to start that fire, it is thought, may come from outside the group of former Carr players and include core Schembechler players with Dierdorf mentioned as a leader but more likely only behind the scenes.

The point here is that there are undercurrents present in the Brandon administration that are only tangentially associated with Hoke's coaching performance but could be linked to it to give cause for his firing.

[hack]

I see the case you're making. If you're saying that this is happening -- and not just conjecture with a logical underpinning to back it -- then fair enough. Good to hear. However it happens, if there's a bit more of a meritocracy at work that's a good thing.

The Skywriting incident -- really? Seriously? That's really disappointing.

[Tony G]

The sky writing is a low class move. I could see Urban doing it. For once I'm on the side of the UM's reputation protection association. I would expect better from the Leader and the Best

[Hannibal]

The Skywriting incident -- really? Seriously? That's really disappointing.

Yeah you didn't hear about that?

And to make matters worse, they tried to pass it off as something that the pilot did spontaneously after giving him general instructions to just fly over Southeast Michigan.

Dave Brandon thinks you (and everyone else in the fan base) are an idiot.

[hack]

I knew it happened. I didn't know Brandon did it. How utterly weird.

[lineygoblue]

If Brandon did that, he should be fired. Right now. What a freaking low class move for a Michigan AD. What did he think that would do? Draw money from East Lansing? I would expect something like that from a rich, overzealous booster or alumni, but from Michigan's own Athletic Director?

He's already priced a Michigan game out of the reach of most leather-lunged fans who love the team. Now, he's doing crap to infuriate opposing fans.

Great job Dave. Fire yourself now.

[Rocky Bleier]

Skywriting in E.L. Yeah, now Sparty is asking,"Who is obsessed with who?" But the worst part is he couldn't own up to it.

[iam416]

Oh man, that's great stuff!

[hack]

Dave Brandon is a real Michigan Man. Michigan Men are in charge of Michigan athletics. FFS.