2025 NCAA Football Thread

[Deleterious]

 

[gehringer_2]

1 hour ago, Deleterious said:

 

the only thing surprising to me is that they didn't segregate the revenue sports - the main direction seems like the inevitable future.

[Deleterious]

 

[MichiganCardinal]

 

Although I doubt this move has anything at all to do with sports, I do think it is a black eye on the university generally.

[gehringer_2]

52 minutes ago, MichiganCardinal said:

 

Although I doubt this move has anything at all to do with sports, I do think it is a black eye on the university generally.

there are probably a couple of thousand Voodoo dolls of Ono with lots of pins stuck in them all over faculty offices in A^2. It's probably no fun working at a school once most of the faculty decides they don't like you. I haven't see any kind of rumbling that the Regents have had any issue with him - I suppose won't hear about that for while - if there were anything if might only filter out slowly.

Edited May 4 by gehringer_2

[MichiganCardinal]

24 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

there are probably a couple of thousand Voodoo dolls of Ono with lots of pins stuck in them all over faculty offices in A^2. It's probably no fun working at a school once most of the faculty decides they don't like you. I haven't see any kind of rumbling that the Regents have had any issue with him - I suppose won't hear about that for while - if there were anything if might only filter out slowly.

His private home in West Bloomfield was also vandalized. Possibly on more than one occasion, I don't remember. I doubt the Regents had issues with him given that massive contract extension he signed less than six months ago.

[gehringer_2]

11 minutes ago, MichiganCardinal said:

His private home in West Bloomfield was also vandalized. Possibly on more than one occasion, I don't remember. I doubt the Regents had issues with him given that massive contract extension he signed less than six months ago.

Still, under normal circumstances you'd think a move to Florida would be a desperation move - who with a resume as solid as Ono would want go be under DeSantis' thumb in a situation as politicized a FLA? Or  maybe Ono is just way more conservative at heart than he has ever let on in his previous gigs(?). I suppose he was comfortable at Cinci - which  is not a school you'd consider part of the liberal elitist clique.

The piece we would never hear about that could be also be in play is if he had struck out with some big donors recently. If you don't keep the $$ raining in that job that's a subtext issue that's below the public radar but could be a killer. But as you note - if that were the case the contract extension would probably not have been forthcoming.

Edited May 5 by gehringer_2

[CMRivdogs]

Looking at his resume on Wikipedia he really hasn’t stayed long at any of his gigs as President of a university. 6 years is the average so 3 years does seem short even for him.

Just seem like he’s constantly looking for the next job

[gehringer_2]

10 minutes ago, CMRivdogs said:

Looking at his resume on Wikipedia he really hasn’t stayed long at any of his gigs as President of a university. 6 years is the average so 3 years does seem short even for him.

Just seem like he’s constantly looking for the next job

The proposed protest policy his office had put out last year was pretty draconian piece of work. In my view it was poorly considered and had no place in any decent institution and the push back across the University was hard. Maybe that was a point where the mismatch between the man and the institution became too obviously big to bridge. And that didn't even have anything to do with DEI.

Edited May 5 by gehringer_2

[buddha]

2 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

Still, under normal circumstances you'd think a move to Florida would be a desperation move - who with a resume as solid as Ono would want go be under DeSantis' thumb in a situation as politicized a FLA? Or  maybe Ono is just way more conservative at heart than he has ever let on in his previous gigs(?). I suppose he was comfortable at Cinci - which  is not a school you'd consider part of the liberal elitist clique.

The piece we would never hear about that could be also be in play is if he had struck out with some big donors recently. If you don't keep the $$ raining in that job that's a subtext issue that's below the public radar but could be a killer. But as you note - if that were the case the contract extension would probably not have been forthcoming.

florida is a really good school.  and they probably offered him more money and he doesnt have to deal with the lunatics at michigan anymore or if trump decides michigan is on his list.

win-win.

[gehringer_2]

45 minutes ago, buddha said:

florida is a really good school.  and they probably offered him more money and he doesnt have to deal with the lunatics at michigan anymore or if trump decides michigan is on his list.

win-win.

You don't think DeSantis is a lunatic? And he'll probably be angling to replace Trump in the near future and thus on the warpath against all his usual suspects again to get himself in the news. And in Fla the Gov has the direct control to meddle that you are insulated from at Mich.

The last UM pres to leave by choice before retirement was Bolinger, who never really wanted to be there anyway. It's not been a job people left by choice in the past and he had just signed a pretty rich deal. OTOH, times change and FLA probably did have to throw a really big pot of money at someone to get them to come given the situation with DeSantis.

Edited May 5 by gehringer_2

[buddha]

3 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

You don't think DeSantis is a lunatic? And he'll probably be angling to replace Trump in the near future and thus on the warpath against all his usual suspects again to get himself in the news. And in Fla the Gov has the direct control to meddle that you are insulated from at Mich.

The last UM pres to leave by choice before retirement was Bolinger, who never really wanted to be there anyway. It's not been a job people left by choice in the past and he had just signed a pretty rich deal. OTOH, times change and FLA probably did have to throw a really big pot of money at someone to get them to come given the situation with DeSantis.

i dont think desantis is a lunatic.

he left because of the money, most likely.  michigan's regents have been scrambling lately to get rid of the remnants of dei and the palestinian protestors so as to try to avoid northwestern and columbia's fate.  so far they've stayed off the radar even if they are "on the list."

maybe he got tired of fighting that battle?  not sure how michigan's faculty reacted to some of those moves.  but i suspect the reason he left was about the money.

[gehringer_2]

30 minutes ago, buddha said:

not sure how michigan's faculty reacted to some of those moves

Badly

tired of fighting with the faculty is likely spot on

Edited May 5 by gehringer_2

[romad1]

Michigan and all research-heavy universities are looking at a hard future.  

[Hongbit]

It’s very possible that more is coming from the football program under his watch and he’s Harbaughing out of it. 

[buddha]

1 hour ago, Hongbit said:

It’s very possible that more is coming from the football program under his watch and he’s Harbaughing out of it. 

that doesnt matter to the university president.

mary sue sat through the fab five stuff.

[gehringer_2]

9 minutes ago, buddha said:

that doesnt matter to the university president.

mary sue sat through the fab five stuff.

Michigan is a school that will be happy as a clam once the NCAA revenue  settlement is in place. They really haven't had much reason to get themselves in trouble - not that that usually stops anyone who does.

Edited May 5 by gehringer_2

[buddha]

30 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

Michigan is a school that will be happy as a clam once the NCAA revenue  settlement is in place. They really haven't had much reason to get themselves in trouble - not that that usually stops anyone who does.

that's just hongbit's wishful thinking.

[gehringer_2]

article in the DetNews this AM makes it sound like there was a growing division inside the Regents about Ono's dismantling of the DEI program, which he apparently did without much consultation with the Regents. The Dem majority appears to have wanted the U to take a stronger leadership role in defense of academia against the Trump admin. Obviously hard to know what level any of this actually rose to. Also worth noting that the contract extension came before the election, which certainly changed the landscape out from where everyone expected. Maybe the Dems on the Regents have come to believe he wasn't the leader needed for a fight they now have on their hands.

On the money side, the October deal was apparently about the best ever given to a public University Prez, second to the one given out by --- you guessed it - U Florida to Ben Sasse. That didn't end well - depending on whether you believe Sasse resigned by choice or not.

Nolan Finley also has a take on what lead to Ono's departure but it's paywalled and I  stopped contributing the DetNew's profitability a while ago.

Edited May 5 by gehringer_2

[Hongbit]

Maybe he just wanted a better basketball program.  

[gehringer_2]

So I only had access to a bit of the article, will track it down somewhere - but the crisis came when the Ono was asked to sign on to something (op-ed?) in opposition to something  - no doubt some aspect of Trump policy, and he refused, which put him on the wrong side of the Dem regents and almost the entire University community.

Edited May 5 by gehringer_2

[buddha]

the universities made themselves targets for this.  the president is right to keep as low a profile as possible and let it pass.  our orange overlord will ignore you unless youre dumb enough to make him mad.

this too shall pass...

(and besides, a lot of those dei programs are unconstitutional.  theyre better off playing it slow, renaming them, incorporating them into other existing programs and keeping the general principles while not being so blatantly violative of civil rights laws)

#soapbox

[gehringer_2]

31 minutes ago, buddha said:

the president is right to keep as low a profile as possible and let it pass.  our orange overlord will ignore you unless youre dumb enough to make him mad.

the problem with this approach is that if you are wrong, by the time you realize it any hope of winning the battle will be over. I think the lesson if history is pretty clear that you oppose what is wrong when you have the chance. Granted, the issue is that the Uni's had gone over the edge on identity is destiny, but the Universities' transgressions are small potatoes to Trumps attempts destroy any civil society barriers to his whims. You can put your own house in better order without capitulating your obligation to provide institutional leadership.

As the little girl says "Why not both?"

Edited May 5 by gehringer_2

[buddha]

1 minute ago, gehringer_2 said:

the problem with this approach is that if you are wrong, by the time you realize it any hope of winning the battle will be over. I think the lesson if history is pretty clear that you oppose what is wrong when you have the chance. Granted, the issue is that the Uni's had gone over the edge on identity is destiny, but the Universities' transgressions are small potatoes to Trumps attempts destroy any civil society barriers to his whims. You can put your own house in better order without capitulating your obligation to provide institutional leadership.

As the little girl says "Why not both?"

taking the better ideas from "dei" and moving them under a different organizational umbrella is not "capitulation" to a bad idea.  slavishly adhering to the extremes of public policy even after they've been adjudged to be unconstitutional rather than reviewing your policies to see which ones might be worth revisiting and perhaps ending is what leadership really is.  

caving to university professors (no offense) is no less an abdication of leadership than caving to donald trump.  the point of being a president is to lead for the betterment of the entire university now and in the future, not to placate the lunatic fringe of the sociology department for fear they might call you racist, or worse, a jewish sympathizer.

[gehringer_2]

27 minutes ago, buddha said:

taking the better ideas from "dei" and moving them under a different organizational umbrella is not "capitulation" to a bad idea.  slavishly adhering to the extremes of public policy even after they've been adjudged to be unconstitutional rather than reviewing your policies to see which ones might be worth revisiting and perhaps ending is what leadership really is.  

caving to university professors (no offense) is no less an abdication of leadership than caving to donald trump.  the point of being a president is to lead for the betterment of the entire university now and in the future, not to placate the lunatic fringe of the sociology department for fear they might call you racist, or worse, a jewish sympathizer.

I get the point but I think Ono had lost the confidence of a lot more than the lunatic fringe. I tend to think the protest policy proposal was a big misstep - I mean the draft could have come from the Nixon White House. Which points to there being two different questions here  - one is DEI and one is the larger question of civil society. DEI at UM needed to be fixed but that's one issue in a much larger context. And DEI may not have been the only issue at play if he had lost the Regents - it remains to be seen.

In any case, you can't lead unless you give people a belief in where you are going - if what is dribbling out in the local papers is correct, Ono had lost his audience. So maybe he stays and tries to lead them to where he thinks a better place is? It is just as much capitulation to simply duck out? if you are going to turn an institution at all, I guess you have to be a little bit of a visionary and that is certainly not a vibe I ever got from Ono - or Schlissel for that matter. I think they were both more caretakers than movers. Maybe he was just the wrong guy in the wrong place once the political tide had turned.

And so we wait to see what if anything leaks out from the Regents. Even if they weren't going to cry about DEI reforms they might applaud in private,  he may have stepped on toes there if they ended up being blind sided finding out about the changes on twitter.  To be honest, I think that had as much to do with Schlissel's dismissal as anything - him not paying adequate attention to the Regents that is. e.g. he might have survived the personal issues if he wasn't already in the dog house over ignoring/fumbling the Ilitch/Gilbert efforts to build more presence in Detroit.

Edited May 5 by gehringer_2