Warde doesn't expect changes to NIL approach.

Some leaders don’t act until there’s literally no other choice. They let things drift and drift and drift until they’re forced into the one SINGLE path remaining to them.

That’s only a good strategy if 1) you think you’ll get fired for proactively doing something, or 2) you’re a character in the Foundation novels.

The Old Guard of college football had DECADES to design an equitable system that paid student athletes for their labor. Instead, they doubled down on their strategy, they resisted change until change was forced upon them. And by losing their lawsuits, they lost the ability to influence the system. Hence the Wild West where we are now.

Organizations change in one of two ways: 1) strong leadership, or 2) crisis.

Looks like Warde is waiting for a crisis before he changes anything. That’s just great. Great strategy Warde. Continue our intensive cutting edge strategy of doing nothing and hoping the 1970s football landscape comes back.

Buy student athletes?? If he would added that we make millions of dollars out of those student athletes and I get a big fat salary out of those student athletes and we should pay them from TV revenue I would have been fine with it. 

Be a leader and lead.

Gonna be a long time before we win another championship. We have to identify under the radar players and then develop these 3 and 3.5 stars and keep them for all four years while maintaining a perfect culture just to have a chance. The stars have to all align perfectly. Even harder with a coach who doesn't have big name recognition to mitigate some of our deficiencies. They won this year, but the further Michigan falls behind in NIL the harder it will be to align those stars. We don't have to go full Miami, but we can set aside money and make some guarantees for players and incoming recruits. We will not though. Michigan is deeply self-righteous to the core as an institution and Warde is the face of this illusory superiority complex that just being Michigan is enough. The reality is players risk health and limb to provide entertainment. Even recruits bring the fans. Not supporting players monetarily is actually what is amoral. Being a bloated institution run by bloated people like Warde who are fine exploiting college kids so they can have one more mansion is amoral. You think if Michigan goes 7-5 or worse for a few seasons in a row and finish in the middle of the back that people will still come for the block M alone. Maybe some, but I won't. Look at the basketball team. 

Personally, I would enjoy seeing Warde make a statement that includes.

“Michigan feels the media agreements afford an opportunity to support student athletes.  I have requested that B1G Commissioner Petitti sponsor a Committee to develop a recommendation / solution to the revenue sharing issue so all B1G student athletes can be recognized for their efforts and contributions to the conference.  It would be a pleasure to serve on this Committee, and should Commissioner Petitti feel appropriate - I would be happy to chair that group.”

Every indication points to Wards holding up the NIL process with bureaucratic inertia, and possibly out of a desire to make sure that NIL collectives aren’t competing against the athletic department for booster/donor dollars. This seems antiquated and foolish.

I am typically among the last to call for coaches or ADs to be fired. But I can’t help but notice that Warde inherited the best football, basketball, and baseball coaches Michigan has had in our lifetimes and all three left under his watch. It’s like Warde was born on third base but he’s intent on getting thrown out trying to steal home. He is the turd in the swimming pool, and someone needs to fish him out.

I think we should panic and demand Warde and all our administrators and Santa Ono be fired over this.  Clearly we can not win with our current NIL and the culture it helped maintain.  There's just no possible way we could win a national championship, let alone 3 straight B1G Ten championships with our current NIL.  It's not possible.  We are doomed to the failure we've had the past few years unless we panic and change drastically immediately.

We need to scrap everything and change the way we do NIL.  Hopefully, it can change the culture here at Michigan so we can bring in more guys looking for quick paychecks and push out some of the guys who just want to come here to develop and win.  If Warde and Santa won't do it, then we need to demand they, and every single leader at the entire University, be fired.

One of the downsides to winning the national title when we did is that it’s only emboldened the powers that be to say “See, we can do this without paying upfront. Sherrone, find a way to get them on campus without paying them a dime. If they’re good enough when they step on the field and perform, then they can have their money.”

With this approach, I’m not really sure I expect recruiting to have the kind of uptick that it should have off of winning a title. Top-100 players who have the option of going wherever they want aren’t going to go somewhere that asks them to bet on themselves, wait for money down the road, when Georgia and OSU will pay them 500k just for signing their letter of intent, and then if they perform on the field they’ll get paid down the road anyway. 

Fire Ward Manuel.  He is the problem.  His approach will kneecap Moore's chances.