We've all been around long enough to know that when someone submits their "resignation" from a great, high-paying job in the midst of controversy, it's not always a voluntary thing.
Drew Sharp of the Detroit Free Press writes that University of Michigan President Mark Schlissel’s announcement Friday about Athletic Director Dave Brandon stepping down for the betterment of the program was a bunch of B.S.
Sharp writes:
The man who wanted Dave Brandon gone eulogized the passing of his athletic directorship as an occasion worthy of grateful tears within the Michigan community. The public relations spin doctors articulated Brandon’s “resignation” as the selfless act of a “Michigan man” devoted to a greater purpose than himself at the end.
But nobody bought new president Mark Schlissel’s song and dance Friday.
“Dave feels that it would be in the best interests of our student-athletes, the athletic department and the university community,” he said at a news conference, “if he moved on to other challenges and allowed the important work of the department and the university to continue without daily distractions.”
Sharp writes that it was apparent during a meeting last week with coaches that Brandon was not going to quit.
Sharp writes:
Please, spare everybody the nonsense, Michigan. Brandon is gone because his prickly personality and haughty arrogance overshadowed his many achievements in more than four years as athletic director. Brandon didn’t merely burn bridges. He took a flamethrower to them, unceremoniously turning U-M athletics into his own fiefdom, surrounding himself with handpicked loyalists he thought would provide the necessary firewall from external criticism.
Instead, it was that very hubris that ultimately brought down Brandon.
This wasn’t a resignation. This was a cleansing. Brandon effectively lost the confidence of administrators, donors, students and general fans because the football program again is in shambles. If he wasn’t as cryptically detached to the concerns of those regular folks emotionally and fiscally invested in Michigan football, perhaps he would have been afforded an opportunity to make amends and potentially right the wayward direction of the football program.
John Niyo of The Detroit News writes:
Brandon had alienated so many of his customers, including the next crop of Michigan alumni, with his heavy-handed approach to sales and marketing, with his jacked-up ticket prices, and with his occasional trampling of traditions, his defenders weren't going to win this fight.
The student government last month delivered a report describing a "broken trust" with the athletic department. The U-M Alumni Association followed this week with a similar rebuke. A petition calling for Brandon's firing gathered signatures by the thousands.
-- Allan Lengel
