Todd Anson claims alumni NIL endowment was rejected by Warde
Todd Anson is an alumnus who was very instrumental in getting Jim to come home to Michigan in 2015. He tweeted that he was working to create a big NIL endowment but it was rejected by Warde.
Tweet is quoted below. Perhaps a source of friction between Jim and Warde?
I worked ALL ‘22 on a large, 501c3 nonprofit NIL platform, The Winningest Team (named by Jim) to “unlock the sleeping giant of UM.” Planned to create a funded endowment to support NIL. Warde shot it down. Would NOT support our donors sharing their support with our players.
January 11th, 2023 at 9:05 AM ^
I put this as the title but it did not show up...
Was an alumni NIL endowment rejected by Warde Manuel?
January 11th, 2023 at 10:20 AM ^
Time to talk to Santa...... he might see things differently than Warde does.
January 11th, 2023 at 10:40 AM ^
Definitely sounds like there is more to the story. Like for instance, if Warde rejected it, why did he reject it?
January 11th, 2023 at 10:57 AM ^
I actually think this is somewhat clear. Random dude is like "I've got a great idea! I'll create a non-profit to generate NIL! And guess what, I'll run it! And Warde, can you tell all of your donors about it? That would be great! That's how to make this work!"
Warde: "Pass"
I think you'd pass too, if you were Warde.
January 11th, 2023 at 11:30 AM ^
Todd is not some random dude, he's good friends with Harbaugh and it sounds like Harbaugh was involved in creating this since he came up with the name!!
January 11th, 2023 at 2:17 PM ^
"and it sounds like Harbaugh was involved in creating this"
...which quite possibly makes it a violation of NIL rules and Michigan NIL laws...
January 11th, 2023 at 11:36 AM ^
That isn't some random dude. Here's a quote from John U Bacon.
In mid-July of 2014, Jim and Sarah Harbaugh traveled to Northern Michigan for a wedding.
They flew in a day early to spend the evening with Todd Anson, a San Diego attorney, his wife, Terri, and a dozen or so of Anson’s friends, including yours truly. I had gotten to know Todd while researching my previous two books.
Harbaugh can't come out and do any of the things his friend is trying to do. Based on the reaction of Todd Anson on Twitter. Hard to not think Harbaugh wasn't aware of or helping steer the ship on this program. Just to see it get shot down by an A.D. who doesn't believe in pay-to-play.
Warde, it doesn't matter what you believe in, facts are facts and that's EXACTLY what is happening.
January 11th, 2023 at 11:41 AM ^
thanks both for the context. Harbaugh beings friends with this guy does make it a bit less clear as to what exactly is happening.
I see now that Seth has some clarification about all the NIL collectives below...
That said, I don't think Warde not working with Todd means that Warde is necessarily in the wrong.
January 11th, 2023 at 12:23 PM ^
For some reason Warde is against 501c designated NIL collectives. Not sure why because literally every other big time school has such a collective (including big time academic schools like Notre Dame).
And if this guy was willing to set it up and do the work, why would Warde say no thanks? Warde wouldn't have to do anything, its legal and with lots of precedence across cfb
January 11th, 2023 at 2:40 PM ^
I suspect that the issue is that Warde does not want them to poach dollars that would otherwise be going to the Athletic Department.
January 11th, 2023 at 3:09 PM ^
The devil is in the details. Details which currently are not public.
One example: maybe this collective wants to take a 22% cut for management and operations.
That would be outrageous. I can easily see why Warde wouldn't give his seal of approval for a collective designed to get its managers rich.
January 11th, 2023 at 9:23 PM ^
Its absolutely bullshit because Warde can't reject an NIL endowment. Todd could set up the NIL, get the money and they would do deals with players and there isn't a thing Warde could do to stop it.
January 11th, 2023 at 12:32 PM ^
But Warde is on board with a fucking crypto DAO? Gtfo lmao.
January 11th, 2023 at 1:18 PM ^
Man not an informed response at all.
January 11th, 2023 at 3:40 PM ^
Yeah, I wouldn't just assume this random Anson guy, who seems to want attention, had all the right answers on NIL just because he knows Harbaugh. Could be has no idea what he's doing.
January 11th, 2023 at 7:22 PM ^
he is friends with jim harbaugh, and was friends with bo schembechler.
January 11th, 2023 at 3:45 PM ^
Seems obvious to me why an AD would reject a NIL collective designed at funneling donations away from the athletics department that supports all student-athletes...to a collective that.
1. He have no jurisdiction over and doesn't control.
2. Will undoubtedly use the money on Football.
3. Will eventually be a Title IX violation at some point down the road.
This has always been my thing with these collectives. They have competing interests with the athletic department, but they hide behind the fact that their mission of supporting student-athletes is the same.
Athletic departments are only going to go but so far in supporting collectives, if they want to be their own thing...they need to step up and be their own thing. But I can't just create a business, go to a University and say, give me all your donors and I'll do what you do.
Or at least that's how it's often received.
The best collectives work with universities for access, but the money they find themselves and they're not taking it from the Athletic Department pot (usually).
ADs have no interest in collectives picking rosters, putting guys on a payroll, basically playing fantasy GM. That put their own job at risk.
The best collectives act as a bank and nothing more.
January 11th, 2023 at 4:24 PM ^
I guess I fail to see how this particular collective and its mission is any different from any other collective at UM and at any other school that seems to work just fine. ADs aren’t allowed to control any of them. And all of them on some level are likely getting some money that might otherwise have been donated to the athletic department.
January 12th, 2023 at 3:31 PM ^
1) It's a 501c3 - the others aren't
2) He wanted either money or donor lists directly from the AD - the others don't.
January 11th, 2023 at 9:09 AM ^
one hand tied. behind our back. Its the Michigan way.
January 11th, 2023 at 9:25 AM ^
Especially on the goal line.
January 11th, 2023 at 9:29 AM ^
Ugh. Too soon.
January 11th, 2023 at 10:20 AM ^
Don't go breaking out the Philly Special on us Vlad.
January 11th, 2023 at 6:20 PM ^
We had both hands available at the goalline. The only problem was that the ball wasn't in either of them.
January 11th, 2023 at 9:43 AM ^
Even with one hand tied behind his back, Donovan Edwards still went for 75 yards and 85 yards in 2 plays to crush the Buckeyes' spirits.
January 11th, 2023 at 10:07 AM ^
This is uplifting, and I wish to sign up for your motivational speech seminar...
January 11th, 2023 at 10:08 AM ^
a lot better than tommy two thumbs.
January 11th, 2023 at 11:59 AM ^
Two Thumbs
January 11th, 2023 at 1:12 PM ^
And still gets pulled in the most important game of the year in the most important goal line carry of the season just so we can instead hand it off to a LB.
I bet that ends well!
January 11th, 2023 at 9:12 AM ^
Two ways to look at this:
1. “We beat OSU twice, won the B1G twice, and made the CFP without this already so why do it?”
2. “We beat OSU twice, won the B1G twice, and made the CFP without this…imagine what we could do with this?!”
And to the surprise of no one they choose the former
January 11th, 2023 at 9:38 AM ^
We could be the next Alabama...but nah, 4th place is cool.
January 11th, 2023 at 10:18 AM ^
Actually 3rd place and 2nd in our hearts (according to some)...
btw/ I am making fun of our fan base and not the team. I would run through a wall for these guys.
January 11th, 2023 at 10:33 AM ^
we will never be the next Alabama because we don't have access to the same level of homegrown talent that Alabama does.
January 11th, 2023 at 2:44 PM ^
Not sure why you're getting negged. Schools like Alabama and Georgia have built-in advantages that teams up north will never have.
Kirby Smart does not have to drive more than maybe 200 miles in any direction to field a team that can win a national championship. Neither does Nick Saban. Alabama has plenty of talent, a short couple hour drive over to Georgia shows even more talent. They do not have to fly across the country to find a team that can win them a title. Jim Harbaugh does. Even OSU, to some extent, has to do that. They do have a pretty talent rich state in Ohio. But its not the same.
Georgia is probably the third most talent-rich state in the country for HS football, behind Texas and California, and they only lag those states because TX's and CA's respective populations are just exponentially higher.
Smart also doesn't have to deal with an instate rival that can realistically compete with him for any talent that's worth a damn. Sorry, Georgia Tech. You're an amazing academic institution, but any recruit that Georgia wants is not coming to play for you.
So....you've got boatloads of elite, homegrown talent right in your own backyard, no instate rival to compete with, and all of these kids are growing up in a period where the state school right down the road is dominant and winning titles. Kirby Smart doesn't have to recruit anymore. His program recruits itself.
January 11th, 2023 at 3:39 PM ^
We already know all of this. I don't think that was the point of the "we could be the next Bama" comment. I can also think of 1000 other obvious as all hell reasons we can't literally be the next Bama. Like for instance, our mascot isn't an elephant. We don't have a mascot fergodsakes!! Breaking news. Our logo is an M and not an A, so we could never be the next Bama. And so on and so forth. Face palm for team literal.
January 11th, 2023 at 10:03 AM ^
I took it as "give the money to the athletic department, not the players"
January 11th, 2023 at 10:06 AM ^
And we did it with Harbaugh running the show.
1) The faction of our fanbase whining over Harbaugh interviewing need to get over themselves. The results are what matters. It was a long 17 years in between Big 10 championships and Ohio State dominated for too long over multiple coaches including Lloyd Carr.
It matters not if Jim interviews 1000 times in the off season as long as he comes back to coach us to 12 or more wins each season. Good luck finding a replacement coach that does it on a consistent basis.
2) Why is Jim flirting with job opportunities? Information coming out demonstrates that our athletic department needs to support him more. Total support! He should be the highest paid coach in college football atleast. He should be the one to determine if an NIL program is shot down. Our AD should be fighting these bogus burgergate charges intensely with the army of lawyers that are affiliated with Michigan.
Most people say Jim is weird when actually he is not. He is one of the rare coaches that can be successful wherever he is and right now he is with us. He is a man who appreciates respect and admiration above all else and he will be loyal. <b> We can either give him the respect he deserves and continue to win championships or we can be the team that is below Michigan State in competitiveness</b>
January 11th, 2023 at 1:43 PM ^
I am in complete disagreement.
1. Jim interviewing matters tremendously if it continues to impact recruiting. Michigan is great at developing prospects, but if they fail to land some top end recruits each cycle, the losses to OSU will follow. If interviewing has no impact on recruiting and retention, interview as much as he desires.
2. From what you described in the penultimate paragraph, Jim would basically not report to anyone in the athletic department and would be given carte blanche over items in which he has no expertise (NIL regulations, risk management across multiple sports, financial implications of a managing an NIL fund). People can argue that Michigan should hire a different AD that is more receptive to pay-for-play, but the structure of any school is that the coach is below the AD.
3. Jim has done incredible things at Michigan to turn around the program and I'm grateful he is the coach. However, he does not deserve to be the highest paid coach in college football. Saban, Smart, and Dabo all deserve to be higher paid based on results. I would argue that he should be the highest paid coach in the Big 10.
4. Isn't Jim 4-4 against MSU? The last two years have been incredibly fun, but are we just going to forget the first 6?
5. This is not related to your points above, but a general counter to the trend I'm seeing where Warde is blamed for any and all things. I'm not sure why people blame Warde for Michigan's unwillingness to engage in pure pay-for-play. From my recollection of discussions on podcasts and this blog over the last couple of years, that is an institutional decision, not a Warde Manual decision. Where is the evidence that Warde is unilaterally shutting down these efforts in defiance of his higher-ups? There likely isn't any because he would fired if he took that action. In all likelihood, Michigan isn't on board and Warde is having to operate as the fall guy. He seems to be the easy scapegoat for miserable fans.
January 11th, 2023 at 2:21 PM ^
#1 Recruiting will be an issue when the results demonstrate it. Currently it is not. The whole reason for this thread is Warde shooting down a potential tool to help Jim recruit.
#2 My issue is not with reporting to the AD but with the understanding that the Jim must answer to the AD on this. The AD can provide insight and direction but he better be on board with "assisting" Jim in making sure he has every tool he needs to succeed.
The NIL proposal above is not being made from some random fan on the internet but a Michigan trained lawyer who happens to be a friend of Harbaugh. The University should not be shutting it down unless it is illegal.
#3 and #4 demonstrate your short-sightedness as a fan. Who cares if Dabo and Saban have accomplished more; they arent walking through that door if Harbaugh leaves. Soon a (NFL) team will offer Jim more than what Kirby Smart is making and I would rather us be proactive rather than reactive. The school needs to demostrate that we want him to be our coach for as long as he wants.
Regarding your point on pay to play, its out of Michigan's hands. If other schools are doing it and it is allowed even if indirectly then Michigan will have to participate in order to compete. If Michigan's administration refuses because of some sorta of appeal toward how they think college athletics should operate then they will get passed up by other programs.
January 11th, 2023 at 4:04 PM ^
Its all about expectations. He's raised them.
Did you watch Georgia play? We likely had no shot of winning that game, though I'd like to think we'd have done better than TCU... yet I have no real reason to believe we would have...
If you are happy with B10 titles and no shot at a national title, which is fair given how things are playing out in college football - and should be the target for pretty much every school not named OSU and UM in our conf - then fine.
But if you expect to compete with Alabama/georgia.. not annually, but ONCE in a while, then you simply need more talent. MORE. Last year and this year were our 2 best years in 25 years and while we were in the top 5, we weren't within a sniff of the title.
Recruiting is the only way to get there. You can coach up 25 3 stars, but they wont be as good as equally well coached up 5 stars. that's the difference. thats why we can beat texas or oklahoma, or usc, where coaching / defense is optional.. but its why georgia/bama when in full form, are basically NFL teams.
OSU competed with them with NFL talent. They should have won that game. multiple times. its not about georgia's style. its about talent on the field and talent being used to its highest capability. We do that, and so does georgia. they just have a lot more.
January 11th, 2023 at 2:30 PM ^
It does matter dude. It clearly hurt recruiting and has continued to do so. The team won’t stay at the top without top talent.
January 11th, 2023 at 9:12 AM ^
Like I’ve always said. Warde is a bitch and needs to get fired asap. A lot of rumors out there that Warde is the reason behind all of this and Harbaugh does not like him
January 11th, 2023 at 10:00 AM ^
This seems like a bit of an emotional reaction. There are certainly no guarantees that the next AD would be anymore flexible himself or would be ALLOWED to be more flexible by the powers above them.
January 11th, 2023 at 10:26 AM ^
Idk, per some posts on the other thread, it looks like Santa is basically stepping in and making sure Warde doesn't screw over Harbaugh on the new contract.
Therefore, IF that's all true, then I would fully trust Santa to pick a new AD who isn't constantly trying to shoot Michigan football in the foot and stopping us from engaging in modern program tactics that virtually every other school uses.
January 11th, 2023 at 10:31 AM ^
Santa should send Krampus to Warde's house to straighten him out.
And if that doesn't work, fire him.
January 11th, 2023 at 1:11 PM ^
I'll send this to Santa. I would assume the next AD would have him involved. Maybe Jim as well.
January 11th, 2023 at 1:20 PM ^
Agree that there is no guarantee what the next AD will do or how they would perform.
But on Warde's watch we have lost our best basketball coach and best baseball coach and could lose our best football coach. He also completely botched the pearson hockey saga sending that team reeling.
Further, it's clear he's not thinking outside the box/ inside the box- meaning it's his job to be creative to find the way to succeed at NIL even if it has to happen with a controlled Michigan box of acceptable rules. He's failing wildly on that score. Dickinson has been the loudest about it and that should say something.
And, finally, it's pretty clear that he's not in a good relationship with Harbaugh. I don't think the AD necessarily has to be, but in this instance at this moment it's imperative that they can work together which is always a necessity and skillset needed. Let's not kid ourselves on what the importance of all the other sports are. They matter. We want to be great at everything. But the machine, and yes, even at our holy MIchigan football is a machine. Maybe a little tidier and neater and less mercenary, but it's a machine and an important one for all athletics and yes, the entire university.
I think we need a FIRE WARDE site
January 11th, 2023 at 12:50 PM ^
Like I’ve always said. Warde is a bitch and needs to get fired asap.
i'm guessing that you'd have this same reaction if this "story" suggested that manuel had accepted, let's say, 90% of anson's plan. i believe the term for this is "confirmation bias."
January 11th, 2023 at 4:19 PM ^
Even if you are right about that, Warde is still a bitch
January 11th, 2023 at 9:16 AM ^
There needs to be more to the story. Did Warde comment on why?