As much as I hate Michigan title of this post is not meant as a joke. Stumbled across a NY Times article and found these quotes REALLY interesting.
Michigan’s new president, Mark Schlissel, has suggested that academics may have taken a back seat in the athletic department and made it clear that the university’s sports culture concerned him.
Schlissel, a former provost at Brown University and a scientist, expressed concern to a faculty group recently that Michigan, annually ranked among the top-rated public universities in the nation and owners of the most victories in college football history, had admitted football players who were not as academically qualified as the rest of the student body. “If we had won Nobel Prizes this year, we wouldn’t have gotten as much attention as did our A.D. It’s sad, but it’s really true.
They hire a new President with zero athletic experience and who CLEARLY doesn't get Michigan Football and bring in an interim AD with zero athletic experience. Now rumors are the interim AD may get the full time gig and rumors have been floating around since he was hired that Hoke might be given one more year. Several people have suggested part of Brandon's exit deal was securing another year for Hoke.
Even if they do fire Hoke what kind of coach is going to take the gig with an interim AD? or suppose Hackett announces himself as full time AD? Is a big time coach going to want to be involved with an AD learning on the job? Doubtful. If they punt the ball down the road till the following season and promise a new AD/Coach in 2016 that's just as troubling.
Nothing they have done points to fixing the football problem. A new President saying he wants to bring back the academic integrity by raising the levels of who qualifies only makes a bad problem worse ( on the football field).
Even if I take off my "hate for Michigan glasses" it still seems like everything I am hearing from up North sounds like they are putting their ducks in a row to be Northwestern. I want them to lose one game every November and be a national powerhouse the rest of the season but I fear those days may be long gone.
