Schlissel ignoring Harbaugh's texts and emails
WOW
Harbaugh said he’s texted and emailed U-M president Mark Schlissel, but they haven’t spoken.
— Austin Meek (@byAustinMeek) September 5, 2020
September 5th, 2020 at 1:56 PM ^
So sassy
September 5th, 2020 at 9:08 PM ^
moody, nasty!
September 5th, 2020 at 1:59 PM ^
but they may have exchanged texts and emails.
September 5th, 2020 at 2:01 PM ^
Exactly. When I've been texting or corresponding through email with someone, I usually don't say I've spoken with them. I say I was talking with them through text or email.
September 5th, 2020 at 8:31 PM ^
OP may have reading comprehension problems.
September 5th, 2020 at 2:28 PM ^
This tweet is probably the money one if I can do this right on my phone.
https://mobile.twitter.com/_ZachShaw/status/1302298385140121600
Jim Harbaugh has said he has sent Mark Schlissel evidence of why Michigan should play. When asked if Schlissel has replied or reached out, said Warde Manuel is the only one who speaks to Schlissel directly
September 5th, 2020 at 2:32 PM ^
Probably smart on Schlissel’s part. A lot of other moving parts around campus that he has to worry about.
September 5th, 2020 at 2:53 PM ^
The school's president, who has bigger fish to fry, is honoring the chain of command and speaking to the AD. I don't see an issue there.
September 5th, 2020 at 3:41 PM ^
I’m sorry but $100,000,000 million dollars in revenue for the school is a pretty large fish to fry.
If there is something I’ve learned in life so far it is to trust your gut, and mine as well as millions of other people’s don’t align with Schlissel type/elite/establishment bureaucratic group think mindset.
In essence we are in a period of time where because life has slowed down so much, people are learning to listen to their spidy-senses when before life was almost too busy to do so. And people are learning that that bullshit, especially politicized bullshit doesn’t sit well.
just let them play
September 5th, 2020 at 4:10 PM ^
This is where people really don’t understand how college finances work.
How much of that $100M a year do you think the engineering dept. gets? The history dept? IT services?
For comparison, Michigan’s 2019-20 total revenue and expenditures are around $9.6B each. Yes, that is a B. So, how important are athletic finances to the University President? Pretty low on the list.
Here is a link to Michigan’s current budget if you want to learn more.
https://obp.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/pubdata/budget/ubudgetbooksummary_fy20.pdf
September 5th, 2020 at 6:48 PM ^
This is where people don't understand how the the world works, how much of Michigan's brand power is related to athletics? Big donations? In state political power? Some random super talented kid from far away picking Michigan instead of Stanford or an Ivy?
The answer to that obviously isn't 100% but it just as obviously isn't insignificant? Maybe it's only 5%, probably it's a lot higher than that though. Probably higher than it should be.
So should the University's President pay attention to the University's brand that factors into everything else it tries to accomplish? Of course. Even if it's components don't have the same budget as the engineering department? Of course. To think otherwise is naive.
September 5th, 2020 at 6:58 PM ^
And to think that you, some random person on a message board, know what the president of Michigan has and has not taken into account when making decisions is just fucking stupid.
September 5th, 2020 at 7:17 PM ^
How the world works? Like when people truly believe that because something is super important to them it must be really important to everyone else. And then they make up “stats” to support their argument which don’t come from any research or data analytics.
Yep, must be one of those people who have no idea how the world works.
September 5th, 2020 at 9:36 PM ^
In 2019 the Wall Street Journal accessed the football team's brand value at 811 million dollars.
Your line of thinking seems to imply it's out of bounds for someone running a university to have a nearly one billion dollar brand on their radar.
September 5th, 2020 at 10:18 PM ^
You make the point even further. Even in it’s highest monetary valuation it would only be 10% of the total annual revenue of the University.
Michigan can’t monetize that full value at once because unlike professional sports franchises, Michigan can’t sell the football team to another school. Michigan only get’s a portion of that value every year and that is basically what makes up the athletic department’s operational budget which brings us right back to my original point.
September 6th, 2020 at 11:25 AM ^
Fascinating, thx!
Interesting Intercollegiate athletics $184.5 expenses, $185.5 Revenue.
September 5th, 2020 at 4:45 PM ^
I get your frustration, disappointment, pain, etc, but you and the millions of people who share your gut feeling are as qualified to out-think Schlissel on this as you are to out-coach Harbaugh any given season. That doesn't mean everything will always work out perfectly (or even well) for us, but following wild ass guesses/gut feelings isn't leadership, it's desperation (or the job description of sports talk radio host). Let the people who have dedicated their lives to this do their job. If you don't like it, fine. Go be an SEC fan, or simply move onto anything else that makes your gut feel good. But if you think you've spent 1/100 the number of hours Schissel and his team of experts have put into working through this (and the interconnected issues), you're delusional. It sucks to have important things be 100% in the hands of someone other than yourself, but it's no coincidence that you and your millions of like-minded gut thinkers came to the brilliant conclusion that Schlissel should just give us our toys back. I'd rather listen to the people who are qualified to lead.
September 5th, 2020 at 6:04 PM ^
Given Harbaugh career so far, pretty sure I could out-coach him.
September 5th, 2020 at 7:21 PM ^
That’s something to put in your resume.
September 5th, 2020 at 10:04 PM ^
O RLY?
Where were you when Hoke was getting canned?
You could be making 7.5+ millions USD but here you are on a messageboard claiming you could outcoach Harbaugh.
Did you also think you could take Stanford from 1-11 to 12-1?
How about take San Francisco 49ers from 4-12/5-11 to 3 straight NFC Conference Championships and a Super Bowl?
Seriously man...if you're such a brilliant coach...why are you wasting your supposedly great coaching talents?
September 7th, 2020 at 7:43 PM ^
You wear your troller shorts over your troller sweatpants.
September 5th, 2020 at 6:13 PM ^
So true, over 50% of a president's responsibilities are to fundraise for the University. I wonder how much fundraising will be lost by not playing??
September 5th, 2020 at 2:58 PM ^
If all this is simply because they are observing the "chain of command", as it were, then I have no problem with that. I work at a large corporation and you basically have to do that even when you know exactly who will ultimately get the message, or should get the message perhaps in cases like this. Hell, even when you know the manager /director / etc...socially, you still have to do that.
September 5th, 2020 at 3:09 PM ^
Chain of command works in the military and is set up that way. Some large corporations have an open door policy. Not that that every widget maker can go directly to a VP, President or CEO but some grievances can be expedited.
Harbaugh is a big enough fish at Michigan to get access to Schlissel. I agree that Warde Manual should be doing the heavy lifting for Harbaugh to Schlissel but it could be that the message is not getting through to Jim's satisfaction.
September 5th, 2020 at 3:38 PM ^
Or, maybe, the AD and University President are well aware of the very public statements Harbaugh has made. They have communicated their stance and reasoning very clearly and it is Harbaugh who is having a hard time accepting the situation.
September 5th, 2020 at 7:59 PM ^
Bingo. I give Jim credit he did what he was supposed to do with the team. They definitely took it serious. Unfortunately life can be cruel and it didn’t work out for them. It’s frustrating but I have no doubt Warde has told him a ton of times what the stance is. Some of this is theater by Jim too which he needs to do.
September 5th, 2020 at 8:11 PM ^
Agreed. From what I have seen, the whole Michigan program did everything they could and the players have certainly done their part. That probably doesn’t happen without Harbaugh. I fully expect him to support the team and publicly support wanting to play. At some point he has to move beyond the public displays/comments and set a positive example of how to handle disappointment.
September 5th, 2020 at 3:42 PM ^
The message is probably not all that convincing. I love the amount of research Harbaugh puts into things and I know he probably isn't halfassing it. But at the end of the day, I doubt it's very convincing when I assume the main reason the conference isn't playing is because everybody is not doing as good a job as some.
September 6th, 2020 at 12:24 AM ^
The corporate chain of command analogy gets flipped on its head in this case since Harbaugh makes significantly more money than Schlissel (x9). I get that Schlissel is calling the shots (subject to the board of trustees) but Harbaugh is not the equivalent of some mid-level senior manager who has a really good idea but can't get an audience. It would be like if the best sales guy made nine times what the CEO made as a result of commissions and the CEO wouldn't talk to the sales guy. That would be weird. It's weird in this context as well.
September 5th, 2020 at 6:51 PM ^
Crazy how people bend the narrative, huh?
WD, turn off OANN.
Kidding, I know, you've got a mind of your own. But do better.
Don't claim "CHINA!" and own a shit ton of Apple products.
Stop it with "ignores" when it just means they haven't spoken with each other. Because you can communicate in other ways in 2020.
September 5th, 2020 at 2:00 PM ^
That is not what that tweet says.
September 5th, 2020 at 5:44 PM ^
As WD dipshit admitted in a separate comment, he's hammered drunk and making stupid comments/threads. We should all ignore this and him today. Dude needs help.
8.3.0September 5th, 2020 at 2:00 PM ^
I can't tell if you're joking. Can you see how your title and that quote don't actually match up?
September 5th, 2020 at 2:01 PM ^
That doesn't say what you think it says....or even implies.
September 5th, 2020 at 2:02 PM ^
Welp, so much for the new and improved WD with improved perspective and clarity about what is important in life.
September 5th, 2020 at 3:09 PM ^
Yep, he’s back on the yacht. Didn’t take long.
September 5th, 2020 at 3:17 PM ^
This made me laugh, and laughing makes me feel better, so thank you for that.
September 5th, 2020 at 3:34 PM ^
We should be playing today and I’m mad, sad and drunk. A deadly combo. I made an oopsie in my comprehension of the original tweet my bad
I will take my nogs and be quiet the rest of the day
September 5th, 2020 at 3:38 PM ^
Fair enough, though I'd note there's a difference between "scheduled to be" and "should be."
I've definitely be there with jumping the gun in emotion, hope you enjoy the rest of your Saturday!
September 5th, 2020 at 3:50 PM ^
You don't need any more nog
September 5th, 2020 at 5:53 PM ^
One more nog, for the road.
September 5th, 2020 at 6:14 PM ^
Someone who's life is that centered around Michigan football should see a therapist.
September 6th, 2020 at 10:09 AM ^
No "we" shouldn't.
The Team could have played yesterday, had the large group of vocal idiots in this country been able to process information, and taken a damn pandemic seriously. But that did not happen for a few reasons, maybe you could use this as an opportunity to learn.
September 5th, 2020 at 2:02 PM ^
If they have texted and emailed but not spoken would that not mean that they have texted and emailed but not spoken?
I didn't see anything about ignoring in the tweet, OP.
September 5th, 2020 at 2:06 PM ^
WD: What do you mean, WOW? I didn't realize Harbaugh reported directly to Schlissel. I may have missed something.
September 5th, 2020 at 2:41 PM ^
You may have a chain of command on a chart but between Harbaugh and Manuel there is little doubt who commands the bigger stage.
Finding a new AD is a much simpler task than replacing a top football coach. There is a reason why Harbaugh makes more than three times Schlisssel and Manuel's combined annual salary.
September 5th, 2020 at 2:48 PM ^
Do you mean to suggest that Schlissel should be open to a "skip level" here?
Also, last I checked Michigan had a "Public Ivy" orientation. Sports are secondary to academics. This isn't Mississippi State.
September 5th, 2020 at 3:12 PM ^
Not that a $100M loss in the athletic department means much for this school year. Don't forget, some 12 layoffs occurring in the Athletic Dept, last I heard.
September 5th, 2020 at 3:20 PM ^
Do you have a point to make that's closely related to what I wrote?
Did you see a spot where I minimized the impact of the AD's $ losses?
September 5th, 2020 at 6:21 PM ^
Michigan's yearly operating budget is approaching $10,000,000,000. One year of no football will have almost no impact on the long-term financial plans of the university. Harbaugh is learning who is in charge in Ann Arbor, and it's a lesson all football coaches should be beaten over the head with.