Well, it's out: 70 pages of Wilmer-Hale billable hours on what went down with Mel Pearson and the hockey program over the last couple years. Pearson chased off team captain Strauss Mann, was ineffectual at best when dealing with a subordinate's abusive behavior towards women, instructed players to lie about positive COVID tests before the 2021 NCAA tournament, and repeatedly lied to investigators.

So what are we doing here? It is August 2nd. This report was issued to the university in May. Warde Manuel has done nothing either way since. The report was made available to the public by MLive, not the actual university. Mel Pearson costs zero dollars to fire. What could possibly justify the three months of limbo the hockey program has been in? A week, maybe two is understandable. Three months is absurd.

As for what happens now, I cannot imagine that Pearson is allowed to continue. I mean:

The evidence shows that, despite what [Pearson] us in his interviews, [Pearson] was aware of Complainant’s concerns about mistreatment of female staff members

That's on page five and should be a fireable offense. There are 65 more pages, many of which make it clear that Pearson shouldn't be in charge of Michigan's hockey program. John U Bacon is probably the most careful member of the media out there and he says it's "not clear to me how U-M could retain Pearson and claim it is serious about protecting students and employees." And well, yeah:

The investigators raise the question of Pearson’s “inability or unwillingness to hold Mr. Bancroft accountable for his conduct.” In other words, Pearson was well aware of the abuse, or should have been, and did nothing.

— John U. Bacon (@Johnubacon) August 2, 2022

He's got to go.

That Pearson is still Michgian's hockey coach brings Warde Manuel's competency into question. His reaction to Strauss Mann's situation seems naïve at best:

Manuel, the athletic director, testified that he confronted Pearson about the allegations of retaliation but that he “never felt (Pearson) was retaliating against (Mann)’” and that Mann left the university “on his own.” But that belief was not shared by some of the players and staffers who participated in the survey. “Several responses noted that Coach Pearson recently removed Strauss Mann, the former team captain and starting goaltender, from the team in retaliation,” the summary reads.

Manuel's been a cipher since day one, and while that's a huge improvement over his (non-interim) predecessor he hasn't exactly been the kind of bold leader who has much of a track record to oppose what appears to be an inexplicable do-nothing approach to this situation. Manuel's made a few obvious hires, extended some contracts, done nothing to improve the fan experience, and generally faded into the background. That provided an extended honeymoon that now seems over.

As for what future awaits the hockey program: if I was in charge I'd axe Mel immediately and just replace him with Bill Muckalt, who everyone seems to love. If that's not possible because he is implicated in the report—it does not seem like he is but it might be a tough sell to promote Pearson's right hand man—then I guess Brian Wiseman just left a job with the Islanders. At this point making a splash hire outside the program seems tough because, you know, it's August.