Best Athletic Director for NIL Era
I know this will be an unpopular opinion, and I hate to say it because I loathe the man, but Dave Brandon could have been an iconic AD if he had the position in the NIL era. With all of his gimmicky marketing acumen and his ties to ultra wealthy alums, along with the respect he garnered from the University’s academic leadership where they seemed to just nod in agreement with him, he could have shepherded Michigan into the NIL era and really ramped up the money cannon for recruiting top talent. We will see how Warde Manuel adapts to this new environment, but going the former player turned corporate CEO route for AD might be a route to success in the future. Dave Brandon is obviously not the answer, but should we bring Jim Hackett back to save the day if Warde falters?
January 7th, 2022 at 9:21 PM ^
Man, if ever there was a post to comment "Quit drinking and go to bed," this is it.
January 7th, 2022 at 9:27 PM ^
I posted my comments more for sport to see the collective reaction, but he probably would have thrived in the NIL era. I don’t like the man, but he was AD ten years too early. Would he have lasted more than 3-5 years given his dickish ways, probably not? But would he have laid a solid foundation to take advantage of the NIL world? Absolutely. He did transform the athletic facilities and athletic campus which has done wonders for the non revenue sports.
January 7th, 2022 at 9:41 PM ^
How can somebody that wouldn’t last more than 3-5 years be the “best athletic director for” any era? If you can’t last more than 5 years in a job because you are a dick, then you are not the best. You are just a dick.
January 7th, 2022 at 9:48 PM ^
Who was the best CEO of Apple? Steve Jobs. Was he one of the most visionary leaders in the history of corporate America? Yes. Was he a dick? Yes. The best can still be dicks. Do you think Nick Saban and Bill Bellichick are nice guys? No. They are dicks. Successful dicks. But they are they best at what they do. I’m not saying Dave Brandon is the best, either. He could have thrived as the AD in this NIL era and could have been the best for such an era. But let’s just agree that he’s a dick!
January 7th, 2022 at 9:58 PM ^
You sure Dave Brandon is the hill you want to die on? I thought you would have chosen Tom Goss.
January 7th, 2022 at 10:33 PM ^
Your title is literally “best” but you are not saying he is the best? Maybe you should figure this out next time before you take the time to post.
January 8th, 2022 at 12:45 AM ^
Dicks are no longer the norm in corporate America. They hurt people’s feelings now and we can’t have that anymore. It’s so ten years ago.
January 7th, 2022 at 11:55 PM ^
I think you've got the right idea but you are executing wrongly. I don't think it's the AD that runs/organizes an NIL effort. It needs to be either completely separate or a subset of the AD organization.
Brandon would be perfect as a fund raiser, but NOT as an AD. Separate "marketing" group, run by a Director of Marketing, i.e. Brandon. He was a complete schmuck, yes, but he'd fit well as a fund raiser.
January 7th, 2022 at 11:28 PM ^
Why do you feel the need to tear the guy down? This is a thoughtful post. Maybe you need to take a break from the internet you’ve become unnecessarily cynical
January 7th, 2022 at 9:23 PM ^
No. Every company sponsoring an athlete would go bankrupt and then restructured so their employees lose their pensions while their executives have yachts.
January 7th, 2022 at 9:23 PM ^
Dave Brandon would have embarrassed himself in a cringeworthy fashion no matter what the circumstances.
January 7th, 2022 at 9:28 PM ^
I'll bet anyone 2 cokes that BB is right!
January 7th, 2022 at 9:24 PM ^
You could have left this topic in the other thread, you have -1 in that thread stating this exact thing. So you think it will go better for you here?
January 7th, 2022 at 9:25 PM ^
Just because someone does "business"things, doesn't qualify them to be in charge of anything. Smart, intelligent, bring a visionary, and well thought out decisions don't require business acumen...
January 7th, 2022 at 9:31 PM ^
Dave Brandon is a dick but he led the modernization of many athletic facilities and transformed the athletic campus. Not everything he did was bad.
January 7th, 2022 at 11:29 PM ^
Agree
January 8th, 2022 at 12:07 PM ^
Not really. Most of our athletic renovations were begun, or planned, under Bill Martin.
January 7th, 2022 at 9:25 PM ^
Stopped reading at the end of the first sentence and went to find a big bottle of Listerine to wash the taste out my mouth.
January 7th, 2022 at 9:30 PM ^
Yeah let's get the guy who put Toys R Us out of business and reduced Michigan football to 2 cokes for tickets.
Holy shit, shut the fuck up.
January 7th, 2022 at 9:30 PM ^
Schlissel should be replaced by someone who has worked at a large university with athletics.
January 7th, 2022 at 9:31 PM ^
Found Dave Brandon's burner account.
January 7th, 2022 at 9:41 PM ^
And Nero could have been in a country band with his fiddle.
January 7th, 2022 at 9:42 PM ^
Dave Brandon is a dick who loathed the fans and saw us more as customers to generate revenue from rather than a key ingredient of what makes Michigan football great. But he did have the respect of the student athletes and did many things to make their experience at Michigan world class. He would have leveraged NIL in a major way for the betterment of the athletes.
January 7th, 2022 at 9:51 PM ^
This is a bad hill to die on.
January 8th, 2022 at 7:55 AM ^
January 7th, 2022 at 9:38 PM ^
Oh dear.
January 7th, 2022 at 9:58 PM ^
So, posting this in the "Michigan Football Twitter Post" and getting a few negs made you think it'd be a good idea to start an entire new post on the same thing?
January 7th, 2022 at 11:21 PM ^
Just read that whole article. Crazy going back in time like that.
Brian's not bad at predictions, either.
January 7th, 2022 at 10:17 PM ^
Lol! Have a coke and a smile!
January 7th, 2022 at 10:20 PM ^
Go buy yourself JUB’s Endzone. If you can read that and still think Dave Brandon would ever be a decent AD at any point in history at any school in America, you need to quit drinking and go to bed.
January 7th, 2022 at 10:20 PM ^
real talk…does NIL stand for Noodles is Large and nobody told me? I thought it was about players making money. If I got it wrong and it’s about noodles than shit yeah let’s bring back DB!
January 7th, 2022 at 10:22 PM ^
Steve Jobs. Dave Brandon. Michael Scott.
January 7th, 2022 at 10:46 PM ^
Yea, I mean he was the only AD to ever have a business background. Such a great one too.
January 7th, 2022 at 11:12 PM ^
Monte Hall. Let's make a deal.
January 7th, 2022 at 11:16 PM ^
He liked the idea of money, but was a total dumbass about how to make it.
In theory, he would've been perfect -- but I think in actuality we would be Toys R Us U.
Shit even Domino's rebounded after he left.
The guy is awful at everything except being a total asshole.
January 7th, 2022 at 11:30 PM ^
Everyone commenting on this thread needs to chill out. If you disagree just say so respectfully and move the fuck on
January 8th, 2022 at 6:11 AM ^
He says in a non-respectful way.
January 7th, 2022 at 11:35 PM ^
I'll never understand how good people get trampled on and people like Dave Brandon continue to succeed and fall up the ladder of success one disaster at a time. Never.
January 7th, 2022 at 11:46 PM ^
AD for UMVAFAN means something else. Use your own acronym. Restart this thread; AD means what to UMVAFAN?
January 8th, 2022 at 1:23 AM ^
I would argue that the jury is still out on Warde Manuel regarding NIL. We are still early in the NIL process. Warde seems like a smart guy and makes calculated moves. And he wants to win as badly as anyone and rake in the money. I think Warde will do everything in his power to get Michigan to a competitive level with the elite.
January 8th, 2022 at 2:18 AM ^
Well his personality was certainly to the best of his ability I’ll give him that much
January 8th, 2022 at 7:02 AM ^
So he would have been good at raising money for student athletes, but he would have hired a shitty coach and pissed fans off anyway, so how would he be iconic exactly?
January 8th, 2022 at 8:39 AM ^
Jim Harbaugh.
January 8th, 2022 at 11:29 AM ^
The question “Should we bring Jim Hackett back” only makes sense if “we” are the Board of Regents. Posing this question to anyone else is asinine.
January 8th, 2022 at 11:44 AM ^
Don Canham would have been the KING !!
January 8th, 2022 at 11:52 AM ^
Personally I think we should bring in Tom Haverford as AD and institute the full Entertainment 720 package here at Michigan.
January 8th, 2022 at 12:50 PM ^
Isn't this the same thing that Dave Brandon did?
January 8th, 2022 at 11:53 AM ^
As if all Michigan AD's don't have access to wealthy donors. This is a straight up WTF thread.