Angst in Ann Arbor

Michigan has slapped themselves on the wrist for violations stemming from extra practice time and, as importantly, the failure of their compliance people to protect its athletes (by complying with NCAA rules). Michigan is trying to shape the view of what they did wrong by making these recommendations for their punishment in advance of their meeting with the NCAA on the matter in August. They even let a grad assistant walk the plank, ie, get fired, for lying to the NCAA, which as we know from the Dez Bryant situation is about as bad as it gets in the NCAA's eyes. And new athletic director David Brandon stressed three things during his announcement: that Michigan has always been clean so the embarrassment of these sanctions is worse than any real penalty, that coach Rich Rodriguez may have made some mistakes but does not fail to promote an atmosphere of compliance as charged by the NCAA and that the penalties should not be worse because Michigan did not get a competitive advantage from these wrongdoings.

Where do I begin to poke holes in all of this Michigan logic? Before I begin let me say that the Wolverines really did not do anything too bad and should not be overly punished, especially with all of us still waiting for some shoe to fall in the USC case. But, the problem folks from the Big Ten have with Michigan is their arrogance, and this press conference reaked of it. Let's touch on Brandon's three points to see how this is so. First of all, stretching back to the history of Michigan football to show how squeaky clean you are is a bit disengenous as no one was getting caught back in those beginning 50 years or so and Michigan was as bad as any other power when it came to paying players (see Heston, Willie of the juggernaut teams of 110 years ago). And why cheat when the referees bend over backward for you? Overall, however, Michigan has done well in regards to rule breaking and deserves credit for it, but that should not effect how the NCAA views this situation--unless of course Rich Rodriguez has been coaching Michigan for 95 years. In other words Rodriguez should not get a pass because Bennie Oosterbaan and Bo Schembechler ran clean programs. Secondly, Rodriguez is not winning and these violations are the type that come from desperate times. Brandon has to protect him regarding the overall atmosphere of compliance because that is where the big penalties will come if the NCAA finds him guilty here. Brandon even went so far as taking full responsibility for the problem despite the fact that he was running Domino's Pizza at the time of the violations. So staffer Alex Herron was fired for lying about his involvement while Rodriguez gets to keep his job--for now. As soon as the NCAA does judge this matter, his clock will be ticking unless he goes 12-0 and that's not happening. Lastly, to claim that they should not get punished too bad because they stunk is funny. He has a point, but that is not how punishment works. If you cheated, and they admit to a lot of it, then you should get punished for it whether you win three games or nine. How can you say that practicing more than your opposition was not an attempt to gain an advantage?

So Michigan deserves whatever they get this August for hiring Rodriguez. It has been less than four years since they won the first 11 games of the 2006 season and were playing Ohio State for a spot in the BCS Title game, but that seems like a lifetime ago. They will get the magic back at Michigan--and Brandon was a backup player during the early 1970s when they aimed for perfection on an annual basis--but it will be a few years before they can return to power. And that will only be with a worthy replacement to Rodriguez.