Everything in @DanWetzel's piece here is accurate, according to my sources. One key:
"[Harbaugh] is also seeking to have any decision involving “for cause” termination — whether for NCAA violations or anything else — to be determined by a three-member arbitration panel... [1/3]
[cont'd] "...rather than the school’s athletic director, a role currently held by Warde Manuel. Traditionally, for-cause termination of a coach would be determined by his direct supervisor. The athletic director would still be able to fire him for performance-related issues.[2/3]
[cont'd] "The arbitration panel is a system used by the university's president. It is common in university executive contracts, but not with coaches, according to numerous college administrators." [3/3]
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Curious why Detroit always hosts a Thanksgiving Day game? Here's the story from yours truly, updated for this season:
"If it seems like the Detroit Lions have played on Thanksgiving since it became a national holiday, it’s because they actually started seven years earlier. (1/13)
True, the Pilgrims celebrated the first Thanksgiving in October of 1621, but the custom faded, resurfacing only when George Washington, Abe Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt promoted the idea as a national tonic in troubled times. (2/13)
FDR tried to move the unofficial holiday back a week to expand the shopping season, but Congress put an end to all the feast-fiddling in 1941, when it fixed Thanksgiving’s date forever and declared it a national holiday. (3/13)
Four weeks ago I tweeted that “The only thing more annoying than a week of juvenile taunting between Michigan and Michigan State fans? 2 weeks of it.” But I was wrong: the 2 weeks that followed the game have been even more annoying.(1/X)
On the Bacon Blog johnubacon.com/2022/11/justic…
Michigan won the game, 29-7, for the first time in three years. But that was eclipsed by the scene in the tunnel afterward, when some Spartan players attacked two Michigan players with their helmets, and punched and kicked them when they were on the ground. (2/X)
When the videos surfaced, Michigan State’s head coach, athletic director, and president all apologized the next day, and the school suspended eight players indefinitely – about all any reasonable fan could ask for.
But the Big Ten has been far less responsive. (3/X)
I have received the investigative report into the University of Michigan hockey program. Here are the basic findings, and my initial conclusions. johnubacon.com/2022/08/the-in…
Regarding the University of Michigan hockey program: I now have the report produced by the DC law firm Wilmer Hale, and commissioned by U-M. I understand other reporters now have it too, and you can expect to hear from them soon. (1/X)
Caveats: I am currently traveling through the Upper Peninsula on business, so both time and coverage (internet/cell phone) will be very limited. Also, I’ve scanned the entire report but not read it thoroughly, nor yet asked anyone involved for comment.
A few thoughts on USC and UCLA joining the Big Ten.
The immediate stuff: USC and UCLA reached out to the Big Ten, so if the Big Ten didn't accept them, the SEC surely would have - the kind of pressured decision all conferences have to make these days. (1/9)
Short run: this will be great for both USC-UCLA and the Big Ten, especially with the Big Ten's new TV deal being negotiated. It will soon shatter all records.
So that's more money and power for everyone involved, which is what they want. Really, it's all they want. (2/9)
USC and UCLA will have a better shot at the CFP, and adding two blue bloods - great records, traditions, uniforms, and more - gives the Big Ten a shot in the arm, too. USC and UCLA's first few times around the league will be exciting for everyone, boosting tickets and TV. (3/9)
In OVERTIME (2019), I broke down Nick Saban's coaching record to reveal a simple truth: he has only been successful at LSU and Alabama. Why? (1/X)
As I wrote in Chp 32, Hard to Beat the Cheaters, "You can make a good case that Nick Saban’s success has depended more on recruiting than coaching. When he coached at Michigan State from 1995 to 1999, his recruiting classes were never in the top 10 of Tom Lemmings’s lists...(2/x)
"In Saban's first four years in East Lansing, his teams went a very unimpressive 25-22-1, never finishing higher than fifth in the eleven-team Big Ten, until his fifth season, when the Spartans went 9-2. In East Lansing Mark Dantonio has done far better.(3/X)
My take on what Michigan men's head basketball coach Juwan Howard did, and what Michigan - not the Big Ten - should do about it, with some important leadership lessons. On the Bacon Blog - and now on this long thread: (1/19) johnubacon.com/wp-admin/post.…
On Sunday a back-and-forth between Michigan basketball coach Juwan Howard and Wisconsin’s Greg Gard spilled over to both teams after the game ended. But it didn’t become national news until Howard recached out to slap the head of a Wisconsin assistant coach, (2/19)
which naturally has eclipsed everything that occurred before and after. (3/19)