Warde missed the football banquet.  And is the major reason Harbaugh hasn't signed.  He isn't buddy buddy.

He's got to go.  

I like the whole “transformational over transactional” philosophy as much as anyone. In theory.

But doesn’t that conflict with the “players are employees” philosophy? If players deserve to be paid (they do) and be treated like employees (they do, I think), then at some point you have to treat it like a job market.

Signing bonuses and large salaries are the norm when you’re recruiting/poaching in the corporate world. You identify someone that you think will be a good fit and a good producer, and you pay for that talent. 

Now, nobody wants to work with an asshole, so “I don’t care how good he is, dude’s a jerk” is pretty common. You have to target the right people.

But my opinion is that you cannot automatically disqualify someone solely because they want to get paid a lot, and want part of that payment to be up-front. That, by itself, should not be taken as a moral or cultural indicator. 

The only pushback I've had for Seth and Brian is the insisting on allowing the bag up front. I'm hesitant to push back because I assume you guys know more than me. But, I mean, look at that cover art.

Do we really need to pay kids up front? How many losses do you think it has cost us? How many wins do you think we got just by having our culture of players? Would you rather err on the side of paying kids up front and sacrificing culture or keeping culture and losing a kid?

Warde needs to be dealt with. No half measures. 

Once the contract issue got "sign-gated" into a holding pattern, I didn't see anyway JH would sign until after the bowl/playoff. The ball's in his court (Ono trumps Warde, so people need to quit worrying about a guy will probably be gone in a year). He should keep on driving for better conditions (more NIL, better pay for coaches, etc.) while adding to his resume. A playoff win alone should give him even more leverage.  A natty more so.

As for Warde, Santa has only been on the job 1.5 years and didn't come from a school as heavily influenced by the combo of great academics and championship athletics. His biggest issue this year was getting the grad student/teachers contract settled, which dragged out for many months. My daughter is now in grad school there and I can tell you that strike cast a dark cloud over the mood on campus for months. Santa's also trumped Warde on the contract situation by going public in favor of JH more than once. 

I suspect the failures of the men's hoops team will put Warde in a "fire Juwan before they fire me" mode soon enough. Having to advertise tickets on B1G network is crazy for a program with as much success over the previous 10+ year. I also believe Warde will get canned ("pursue outside opportunities") sometime next year. Give Santa time to get his feet underneath him without any strikes going on. 

Even before NIL, I've definitely seen highly touted players who seemed to coast during their latter time in college. Even some that checked out midway.

Kyle McCord couldn't handle being told he wasn't guaranteed a starting job. Thought Rhule would promise it to him. Then feared competing with a 5-star recruit. 

I can recall a lot of guys with tremendous hype who seemed to mail it in before they left. Shea was way better and focused at QB in 2018 than 2019 (when his golf game got better, his completion % got worse). Tate Forcier. Antoine Joubert in 80s hoops came in being hailed as "our" Magic Johnson. Derrick Green when he faced competition from Deveon Smith. 

JH has been consistent (except in a few cases like luring Shea from Ole Miss) where he believed in meritocracy. Some coaches would have been too chicken to have Cade and JJ get in-season auditions like opening for 2022. 

p.s. like the GS example. I worked for 35 years at Dow Chemical. It too paid less than companies in the oil industry but you had a better chance working a long career there. Plus happier place to work, less stress. 

Other than the connection with Stapleton, why would Warde NOT like Jim? As a former player, you would think Warde would love how Harbaugh is going about his business. Playing within the rules, being accountable, elevating the program, advocating for players, and winning titles is all Jim is doing. I don't get it.

Fuck the NCAA

I guess I can understand the side of Warde a smidge , to your points Seth , but in the end  he needs to do whatever he needs to do to get both sides to that “bear hug “ scenario. 

Feels like their is a giant pissing contest going on between Warde and Jim…well Warde, you are not a future hall of fame coach , with multiple trips to NFC title game, a trip to and  almost wining a Super Bowl, brought Michigan football LITERALLY back ontop of CFB, and has won three in a row B1G ships.  Get rid of all the damn clauses as I see it…then again I’m just an arm chair qb over here. 

Everyone knows what time it is for the NCAA; they're becoming increasingly irrelevant.

What annoys me - I'm not sure it worries me now, though it did at first - is how the Big Ten and its leadership handled this season. They should have let the NCAA finish their investigation, and let the chips fall where they may. They did the opposite.

Whoever said it's a power grab is absolutely right.

Pettiti handled it so arrogantly that I still believe Michigan should explore leaving the Big Ten, if there is any reasonable way of doing so. Would the SEC take Michigan? I don't see why not. Maybe take M and Florida State?

But M could also explore becoming an independent at some point.

As for Warde, if he can't get along with Harbaugh, he should be let go. 

That he wasn't at the football banquet is telling. But if Harbaugh goes, and Michigan falls back to mediocrity again, Warde is toast. That Warde can't seem to get along with Jim means that he has a monumental ego, and that's a problem.

Can Michigan get Gene Smith as AD? The guy did everything in his power to help his football team and got lucky with two consecutive head coach hires. 

Football is a business. Michigan needs to get an AD who will do his best to keep them there and not play feelingsball.

My whole approach to all of this recruiting is that I’m in “wait and see mode”. As in wait and see how Jan 1st and potentially after goes. I think it’s obvious Bama and Georgia are the measuring stick for on field success, so if we beat Bama, and are at least competitive for a title, I feel as if we need to stay the course with our approach. If it’s obvious we got out talented then we need to change course to be championship caliber. The thought process was that 21 Georgia was generational on defense and that we just overlooked TCU too much focusing in Georgia so this supposed to be “the year” for Michigan to take that next step. Long post to say that it’s “wait and see” what happens Jan 1st. 

RE: Up front bag game

I'm getting reddit feeds from OSU, Miami, Georgia and a bunch of others for some reason. (targeting)   The fans openly talk about how they are paying players up front.  Jerimiah Smith basically admitted several times that OSU and the Florida schools had a bidding war for him. 

Deion Smith the top Juco transfer showed up to his signing at Ole Miss in a Lambo.

Good thing there wasn't any cheese (burger kind or bagel kind) on that Lambo... Such utter BS.

I check Michigan outlets like 20 times a day hoping for news about Harbaugh signing the extension.

It’s a dumb unenforceable rule that the NCAA isn’t enforcing, but “pay for play”, which is what a “signing bonus” is, is still against the rules.

And Michigan is staring down the barrel of handsomely paying their head coach to NOT coach for half of two seasons for breaking NCAA rules.

We can bitch all we want about how unfair or capricious this is (it’s clearly both) but we need to at least acknowledge that reality. 

You don’t think that might play into how willing Michigan is to push the rules right now?