Jordan Acker to write a piece for this blog?
January 26th, 2024 at 2:39 PM ^
As far as I know hes a "good guy". I would love to know what happened before that Penn State game...
January 26th, 2024 at 2:49 PM ^
He's a great guy that really loves Michigan football.
January 26th, 2024 at 4:15 PM ^
He’s a great guy that really loves Michigan football and a University Regent who let our most successful football coach leave.
FIFY
January 26th, 2024 at 5:35 PM ^
Do you not see how ridiculous it is to say "let him leave"? No one had control of him and "let him". He just left because he wanted to. It is possible to deal with this without being mad just for the sake of it
January 26th, 2024 at 6:39 PM ^
Mea culpa. Poor choice of words.
January 26th, 2024 at 4:15 PM ^
Craig Ross seemed quite positive that we would have won the TRO, so somebody threw in the towel to soon. Was it the Regents? If not then who?
January 26th, 2024 at 4:23 PM ^
Anyone who is "quite positive" about obtaining a TRO, particularly in this type of situation, hasn't filed for many TROs.
My sense is that the NCAA and Big Ten pressured Michigan with the intensity of the investigation that would unfold if Michigan didn't play ball with the suspension. Threatened, implicitly or directly, to find as many process "crimes" as they could (like Partridge).
January 26th, 2024 at 4:28 PM ^
Craig implied that he had inside knowledge on the legal system side of things that led him to strongly assert that the TRO would have been obtained. I wouldn't be surprised if he knew people who knew the judge in question. The guy has connections and he's not prone to exaggeration.
January 26th, 2024 at 5:20 PM ^
I am not trying to cast aspersions at Craig. But, if his source was the judge or someone who knows the judge, that's a pretty big ethical violation by the judge. I dunno, kind of skeptical anyone could know definitively how the TRO would shake out. Judges are peculiar people.
January 26th, 2024 at 5:27 PM ^
Yeah, I'm a CR fan, but his take on the TRO is really strange to me. Between his on air Roundtable comments and then his posts in the Roundtable comment section, he's all but saying "The judge told me" or perhaps "the judge told the lawyers who told me."
And if that were true (which seems doubtful) it's obvious why CR can't say that, but why then walk up to the line and say it without saying it? It's not very useful and it is still implicating the people you're trying to protect.
January 26th, 2024 at 5:28 PM ^
Yes the American judicial system is know for being a bastion of ethics.
January 26th, 2024 at 5:39 PM ^
Even if Craig did have inside info at one point that week, the facts changed just before the hearing when the Partridge stuff came out. What he was told at one point may no longer have been true when the hearing happened. He seems like a good guy, but I think anyone saying it was possible to know for sure how that would have turned out is fooling themselves
January 26th, 2024 at 5:47 PM ^
I have filed a number of TROs and Or defended them. I also have tremendous faith in what Craig says. I agree that there was a significant chance Michigan would’ve won/prevailed at that hearing. I think our decision makers ate a truckload of quiche, followed up with snifters of skim milk
January 26th, 2024 at 6:15 PM ^
Reasonable minds can differ, but the framing of "quite positive" as Craig's view in the original post seems overly optimistic. I've also dealt with a number of injunctions and TROs, and I wouldn't have been comfortable handicapping this at anything better than a 60-65% chance. Now, that is not a reason to settle and drop the motion (which I still believe was driven by NCAA/Big Ten posturing about the way the investigation would play out), but personally think it is a stretch to say with confidence we would've gotten the order.
January 27th, 2024 at 8:27 AM ^
And here I thought it would be wine and brie.
January 27th, 2024 at 10:19 AM ^
I don’t have faith in what Craig said. If it was a true slam dunk the university would have won the motion for ex parte preliminary relief and Harbaugh would have been coaching for PSU. Since the court declined to grant the injunction without a full hearing, and likelihood of success is one of the things the court considers in granting preliminary relief, I don’t know how you could be as confident as Craig is that the relief would ultimately be granted. Craig was also confident that Michigan would win the motion for ex parte relief, fwiw.
January 27th, 2024 at 11:31 AM ^
Nobody said anything about a “slam dunk “, just a solid chance to prevail. Also, some battles are worth fighting, even if you may not win. That battle was worth fighting in my opinion, even with the risk of loss.
and if you get to know Craig a little, you would have faith in his opinions.
January 26th, 2024 at 8:46 PM ^
When I first heard that the Regents accepted the suspension I was surprised they caved to the BIG. But then at the same time I heard that Partridge was fired for interfering with witnesses.
So, I assumed that the BIG had been tipped off by the NCAA about the Partridge violation and offered not to ask for additional suspensions if Michigan agreed to accept the already imposed suspension.
I didn't think that was an unreasonable action.
January 26th, 2024 at 6:27 PM ^
Wasn't the TRO pulled by Michigan because the judge indicated they would not make a summary/immediate judgment without hearing arguments from both sides?
That essentially meant it would take at least two weeks to get through the process at which point it is moot.
If the judge isn't going to decide before the Penn State or OSU game there's no point in going through all the motions to get a temporary restraining order for something that will have ended by the time the tro process concludes.
Nobody threw in the towel FFS, though I know how much a group of people on here want to think that Ward himself went down and pulled the application at the courthouse personally.
January 26th, 2024 at 8:13 PM ^
And I recall Barb McQuade saying that was effectively quashing the TRO. The judge didn't have to rule against it, all he had to do was push it down the road. They were asking for Harbaugh to be able to coach the next day.
January 26th, 2024 at 9:03 PM ^
Edit: deleted. duplicate
January 26th, 2024 at 5:46 PM ^
I don't know what Craig's practice specialty is. I think he's mistaken. At the very least, there were strong indications that the court would not grant the preliminary injunction, and rather than have its nose bloodied in court, the university decided not to move forward with the suit.
When a TRO is declined - clearly this was the case, since not granting it means it's declined - and a subsequent hearing is scheduled, it gives the parties a pretty good idea the court is unlikely to consider the situation an emergency, i.e., either no likelihood of success on the merits, or more likely in this case, no irreparable harm demonstrated.
Whether the court was right, wrong or indifferent, the simple fact is that it was not a slam dunk by any means, and that there was sufficient justification for the university's decision not to pursue the matter in court.
These things can always be second-guessed, of course. But whoever made this decision was not ignorant of the law, and not stupid, even if one disagrees with it.
January 26th, 2024 at 6:23 PM ^
Yep, I love Craig, but he’s sometimes really out there with his opinions. The very fact that the court denied the TRO shows that obtaining a preliminary injunction was not a slam dunk.
January 26th, 2024 at 6:27 PM ^
I am no legal anything, but it seems somewhat obvious to me. The judge scheduled the initial hearing a week out. By the time that was going to be heard, the suspension was already 50-70% complete. The university had 2 options, 1) drop the case and have everything with the BT be finished a week later, or 2) drag it out. If you win, the full hearing would be months out and the story would continue (and you would likely lose the full hearing anyway), or you lose, look bad, and have the same result as 1).
Don't make a 2 week story (or at least 2 more weeks) into a 6 month story. Nobody wants to go with #1, but it was the better option.
January 26th, 2024 at 6:38 PM ^
I've had several lawyers tell me that when going to court, "even when they are 100% certain they will win, they are only 75% certain they will win."
Craig Ross is being overly optimistic.
January 27th, 2024 at 11:11 AM ^
Partridge’s misdeeds came to light and they worried things would get worse, even with a TRO.
That explanation makes way the hell more sense then the University dumping a couple weeks worth of high class lawyer time into the case just to pull the rug from under Harbaugh at the last moment.
I’m not sure why people are so reluctant to take the obvious explanation.
January 26th, 2024 at 2:40 PM ^
I'm in the camp that this will be a big CYA screed. I seriously doubt that Jordan is going to excoriate his fellow Regents or anyone else in the University Administration. Maybe he'll rail about the B1G or NCAA, but I just don't see him shitting where he eats.
January 26th, 2024 at 2:43 PM ^
Anger will make anyone say truths they would be better off holding inside if they allow it to.
January 27th, 2024 at 11:13 AM ^
Just because it’s CYA doesn’t mean it’s false.
January 27th, 2024 at 10:48 PM ^
So it’s regents that are keeping Warde here over Jim? Why do we have such dumb regents compared to most schools. We’re the only school that doesn’t understand that you can be good at sports and prestigious at the same time
January 26th, 2024 at 2:42 PM ^
It will be on the front page, just like Ace's. Brian said he was going to have a bunch of guest writers to talk about the championship season.
January 26th, 2024 at 2:43 PM ^
Look forward to him Ackerknowledging the situation.
January 26th, 2024 at 2:47 PM ^
I wish he had Ackercelerated the Harbaugh contract negotiations
January 26th, 2024 at 5:50 PM ^
I gotta stop scrolling without my reading glasses. Without them I thought the title read "Goodman Acker" and I wondered why lawyers were getting involved.
January 26th, 2024 at 8:06 PM ^
Well that is the same Acker family. So it basically is Goodman Acker.
January 26th, 2024 at 2:59 PM ^
"A certain Michigan related website" has got to be the Victors HTML for beginners super secret insider board hosted by LiveJournal
January 26th, 2024 at 3:01 PM ^
He's actually a member of ChatSports. Look for full think piece with forward by Yoder.
January 27th, 2024 at 1:05 AM ^
Or maybe he's resurrecting the classic Northwestern 'golden era of sports blogs' website Lake the Posts. It is Lake Michigan that the name is referring to!
January 26th, 2024 at 3:07 PM ^
I think he was a guest on an MGoPodcast not too long ago.
If you want to get your message out, there’s no one more trustworthy than Seth and Brian.
January 26th, 2024 at 3:11 PM ^
It will be interesting, but it will also be spin.
January 26th, 2024 at 3:19 PM ^
Came here to say something similar...
Jordan by all accounts loves Michigan and wants to see Michigan succeed, but he has inferred a ton of progress on Twitter that simply hasn't occurred for the two most important items:
1) Extending Harbaugh
2) Making up front NIL money happen so that the 50%+ of top 100 recruits in the nation actually consider Michigan
January 26th, 2024 at 3:19 PM ^
I don't care if JH had made up his mind to go to the NFL prior to spring camp. The process or lack thereof was not handled well. Put whatever spin on it you want, the Michigan Administration fumbled in the Red Zone.
January 26th, 2024 at 3:55 PM ^
Trying to cover his ass.
January 26th, 2024 at 4:54 PM ^
Why would he need to cover his ass?
January 26th, 2024 at 4:27 PM ^
This is why I trust our administration to never be able to keep a secret.
January 26th, 2024 at 8:43 PM ^
Now we know why you and Brian were attacking Craig for saying it was an administrative failure in not signing Harbaugh :)
January 27th, 2024 at 9:51 AM ^
This is extremely offensive. That really had nothing to do with it. If you think we're so easily biased towards connections, why would you even bother reading this site? What the fuck man?
January 26th, 2024 at 4:37 PM ^
Plot twist...Jordan was Mineral King THE WHOLE TIME
January 26th, 2024 at 5:24 PM ^
What does Shea think of this?