WTKA Roundtable 7/23/2026: No More FAQing Around

WTKA Roundtable 7/23/2026: No More FAQing Around

Things Discussed: * Craig asks AI if any of us should be athletic director. * Brian on Warde: Not an easy tenure to assess. The case against him is we're spending $11 million on an investigation because there were too many scandals that were explainable (Weiss) or went away (Shoop, Xavier Simpson crashes Warde's wife's car), on top of $30 million for the Stalions thing, on top of what it costs to send him on his way. There wasn't a lot of coherence. Mixed legacy, but there are a couple of national championships on his resume, graduated athletes, good hires. * Seth: Ends as it lived: waiting around five months to write a big check. He accumulated enemies. If he won some of these battles—kept Harbaugh, kept Bakich, kept Dusty—or had a few more instances where he acted decisively on a scandal (like Weiss). * Sam violates a confidence with Greg Harden to clear up something: the *SCHOOL* had a firm they use to vet people like Shemy; when they failed it fell on Warde, but he didn't have a choice which firm. * Sam thinks Grasso told him "I've got your back, but I'm gone soon, so do you want to go out on your own terms or somebody else's?" * Seth & Sam: The decision not to release the report doesn't look good for the president and regents. Warde was probably the target of the investigation, but they probably turned up things that the vetting org, where the people who commissioned the report are the ones who botched it. This is how Baylor handles things. * Why would you spend $12 million when the buyout is $7.5? Is Warde getting more than his buyout? If so, what are we paying for? Is it to keep quiet about other things? Our rivals want to know, we want to know. Can't think of a good faith reason not to present all of the findings in a report, except to prevent, e.g. Shriver from fishing. * Brian: Michigan has a policy of not complying with FOIA. Sam: Why would they release that? * Seth: Grasso is independent now, because what are they gonna do, fire him? But the regents are elected by the people of the State of Michigan, and too many people who investigate Michigan are too good at their jobs. Not me, but we have real journalists around here. We just got the real story of the botched Shemy background check. Do you really want to wait for Kim Kozlowski [https://bridgemi.com/author/kkozlowski/] to dig out more stories like that? Or the Daily? Because she/they fucking will, and you'll all look like idiots. * Sam reacts to the "Warde is lazy" talk. He was very hands-on when he re-hired Harbaugh in 2020, e.g. there's no way Harbaugh hires Mike Hart. If you were to FOIA conversations about waiting to make a decision on Mel, he's sure you'll find Warde wasn't alone in sitting on the report. What if it wasn't (just) Warde? * Talking about the next president. They're considering Duggan (a politician). Only if it's someone who got out of politics because they're too honest. Craig recommends Obama—he couldn't be *that* bored. Think it will be an academic. * According to one donor, the AD's #1 job: fundraising. A lot of them are going to be super pro-Katie Fraumann, though she doesn't have AD experience. Sam: like going with a politician for president. Seth: no, it's more like raising the OC. It's not direct AD experience, but it's a lot closer to being an AD. * Who are our candidates? We can do a better job of laying out what we want. Winning, obviously. Brian wants someone who *REALLY* cares about the university. Seth wants transparency, who changes Michigan's culture, where you know not to fuck around because we won't cover it up for you. Sam agrees that wasn't a strength for Warde, though he was doing better with it at the end. Craig: someone who really loves the university, because Santa Ono didn't. Sam needs someone who can manage the academic space and also fundraise. Fair to say politicians do more of extracting money without giving anything back. * Fraumann? Donors' pick. Not a seasoned AD, but someone who's been next to the AD. Seth: Warde was very good at raising money without annoying me. I love nothing better than when donors give millions and millions, and I don't have to hear about it, and Katie must have been part of that. I've heard the same things from donors, which is important; I want Sam to find out what the coaches think, because that was a key issue w Warde, and it's important that they want to work for her. Brian: on the surface she looks like a good pick, notable that she was hired for an academic job at DePaul.

WTKA Roundtable 7/16/2026: Al Capone's Secret Tomb

Things Discussed: * The Warde Report: Did they find anything? Apparently not. Do we get anything? Apparently not. Really? Eleven months of waiting and the answer is "nothing to see here?" * Do we get a "report"? Does one exist? To avoid FOIA it's possible that the findings of the investigation were delivered orally so that they could not be used in litigation (e.g. Shiver's). That's a sad state of affairs, because we are interested parties who deserve access to the findings. * The WSJ's thing: Claims Warde was aware of the relationship enough to warn Moore not to bring Shiver on a trip. Doesn't mean anything, unless you really want to stretch it, because the timeline shows the program conducted that investigation after it was brought to the university, and didn't have enough to do anything until Shiver came forward in December, at which point they fired Moore on the spot. * Relitigating the scandals and "scandals." Craig says again he thought the Mel Pearson situation was handled correctly, which gets a lot of pushback. Seth says Warde wasn't playing the long game with the NCAA, and his indifferent approach to the buildup of Ohio State influence plus Harbaugh's inability to separate the little reportable stuff from the fights made all of it into a maximal storm over really miniscule events. The one thing that bothered in all of it was letting people into the building during COVID. That's a minor violation that should have been reported. * The Bad Faith people—sparties, buckeyes, haters—don't need to be reasoned with. Just block and move on, because trying to reason with hate is a waste of time. * Summary of status: They spent $X million(s) on an investigation, the results of which did not lead to the immediate termination of Warde Manuel, and which are not being shared. There is talk of a buyout, which means he's not getting removed now, and probably not for a year at least (there's 3 or 4 years left on his contract). There's clearly a faction that wants him gone, and clearly a faction that needs convincing, and this report did not do any convincing. I feel so....unsatisfied.

WTKA Roundtable 7/9/2026: Don't Test Me on 1999

Things Discussed: * McKenny, Trey: Present. Cadeau, Elliot: Present. Thiam, Moustapha: Present. Estrella, J.P.: Present. McCoy, Brandon: Present. Reed, Jalen: Present. Liburd, Patrick: Present. Goodman, Oscar: Present! Cosby, Brown, Costello...they're rolling 'em out and we expect Moller and Cason back as well. * Retaining staff, especially Akeem Miskdeen. Is he? Leaning that way, not entirely sure. * Would you let Warde give staffers 3-year contracts? Yeah. If I'm Manuel and they just spent millions to investigate me I'm spending all I can because why not? If you fail it's somebody else's problem. It's an issue in the way we run institutions but that's not Warde's problem today either. * If you have a coach on his way up, PAY. Odds are he's moving up and you're getting that money back. You also might get the Super Bowl-winning head coach of 2025 as your defensive coordinator in 2021. * Credit to Warde for going with the interim route to start, because that pushes the period when teams could actually retrieve poached Michigan players into August, and by then it's really hard to change the chemistry of your roster, especially at guard. * Do you give Boynton a 2-year contract? Not right now, because there's no need to, unless that's a prerequisite to holding your team together. * Boynton right now has proven he can hold a roster together. Not new: He got Cade Cunningham to play for Oklahoma State. Can he DEVELOP them over the year is the question. People had Michigan a 1-seed even if they look like a 3-seed roster because they thought Dusty May could develop Thiam, Estrella, McCoy, McKenny, Liburd, Cadeau into that much more effective players over the season. * OFFENSIVE LINE: What do you do if Frazier and Babalola are both able to play left tackle, because it looks like Sprague is a RT only. Seth gives the copout answer, which is the true answer: You play your best five each week and reassess. * Sam things Frazier could be a 1st round tackle after this year, or at least his camp does. Seth says don't say that out loud, Blake; you have to be on the team you're on now before you think too much about your next one, or you diminish your value. * Frazier to center? Sam thinks he can do it, which puts GWAR back at guard, and that would be a MONSTER offensive line. Like that this gives you redundancy, because nobody ever got through a season without injuries.

WTKA Roundtable 7/2/2026: Retention Dominos

Things Discussed: * World Cup: When our nation needed rascally anti-slavery hicks with guns, Michigan provided. When our nation needed factories that could turn out more war machines than the rest of the world combined, Michigan provided. When our nation needs unfathomably pedantic sports lawyers, * Mo Thiam returning: HUGE news for Michigan, because they needed a frontcourt. Sam: strategy is a retention domino effect: keeping Boynton helped the keep McKenney, which may have influenced Akeem Miskdeen to stick around, which means holding onto Cadeau, which was a big question for Thiam, and if everyone's here you have a shot to keep Estrella. * Sam: needs to be more strategy here. Got to back Mike Boynton, let him sign his staff to long-term contracts so he can attract good people. * Craig: Misrepresenting how Dusty left. Not okay with the way his players found out, don't think he left for the same reasons as Beilein, despite the interview, because the context of that interview was the NCAA issues were an aside and the main reason was the Mavs were willing to pour resources into him and it's the friggin' NBA. * Seth: don't make the 2024 football mistake again by prioritizing keeping the roster together, because most of them—Cadeau, McKenney, Thiam, Estrella, McCoy, Reed—are only around for one more year. You can give Boynton a chance, but obviously Warde is working the back-channels. Sam: Need to support Boynton without boxing yourself in. Craig: Can't hamstring your current guy with less than full support. * Ideally Boynton does a fantastic job, is lining up guys for beyond, wins again, and is Tom Izzo but with championships for 30 years. * Craig: Schertz is this year's model. He isn't just the hot name; in Ken Pomeroy's article for VALIANT [https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mgoblog/valiant-a-celebration-of-michigan-basketballs-2026-season?ref=1ixbvh] he showed which coaches were dominating in 2PAD: the top-six teams went Schertz, Schertz, Nate Oats, Dusty May, Dusty May, Dusty May. Dusty got Boynton because he defended the rim. * Cason to return? Sam thinks so. * Break: Craig thinks Dusty should have exited more gracefully. Seth says if you're getting a divorce because you fell in love with someone else, *how* you tell your wife isn't the reason she's mad at you. * Football recruiting: Big deal that they can go into a Buckeye family in Cincinnati and get a cornerback that Ohio State wanted. * Scouting report: Monsanna Torbert is FAST. Saban always talked about DBs with basketball skills because they can play the ball. Nickname is "Sookie" (sp? Suki? Sukki? Siucci?). Need to watch the film still—love when we get a kid from Cincy because the competition level is strong and the kids are so well-coached. * Height: only 5'11 man in America who's really 5'11. Sam was thinking he'd be Smith Snowden's size. If Ohio State wants you that bad—was trying to get him to not even take a Michigan visit—you're probably something. Comp: DJ Turner II. * Good to see how their GM is working with the coaches regarding what level they can recruit. Was an issue last year when they had Coach BJ recruiting linebackers that he didn't have the money for.

WTKA Roundtable 6/25/2026: Napoleon But Good

EVENT: THIS SATURDAY [https://channel-6.ghost.io/dont-give-up-the-ship/] EDSBS will be in town to celebrate Michigan fans once again dominating the Charity Bowl. Brush up on your shipwrecks trivia, find us at the library, and meet up for drinks afterwards at Venue. It's free but RSVP here [https://channel-6.ghost.io/dont-give-up-the-ship/] so we can get a head count. BOOK: If you want a VALIANT, THE KICKSTARTER [https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mgoblog/valiant-a-celebration-of-michigan-basketballs-2026-season?ref=1ixbvh] is still going on. If you want your name in it or need to add something to your order, email me. Things Discussed: * Make Sam happy: We've got the #1 pick in the 2027 NHL Draft coming. Even better, DuPont falls under The Shouneyia Law: All Michigan stars should be 5'11" wigglers who score in droves. * Dusty May reaction: We're blindsided that it happened in late June, but didn't expect Dusty to be here for 30 years. It takes a Tom Izzo who loves being the king of a tiny country to do that. Could be a Mike Macdonald/Jesse Minter thing: sometimes you get a legend on his way. * Circumstances of college basketball today amplified Dusty's genius. His ability to put together a roster was especially effective in a situation where everybody's rosters are poachable. Converse of Bo, who was the right guy for a time when players were really trapped at one school through the course of their development. Sam: Dusty could have won in any era (point conceded). * Boynton/staff? What does "interim" mean? Probably that it's a "you've got a year to show it." Will he be interim for the entirety of next season? Yeah. Then why aren't we calling Josh Schertz? * Brian: Disabuse people of the notion that going from college to the NBA is a good idea. Brad Stevens is one man. Dusty? Based on history he'll get chewed up, because NBA coaches are disposable and not really in charge. Beilein lost his damn mind (yes, would say this to his face); he was a fundamentals-teaching college lifer. * Counterpoint: Dusty's not as much of a college coach; he's a roster-builder and a locker room guy who loves to watch film, isn't interested in spending half of his time fundraising. * Brian goes off on Warde for losing four great coaches to better jobs, Craig argues Dusty told Warde I'm staying and every one of those events is explainable. Sam: There was plenty of evidence you were going to lose Dusty next year, but not this June. * Seth argues (borrowing from a commenter) is it doesn't look like we're being proactive (is there any AD in America who wouldn't give Dusty the best contract in the Big Ten?). Consideration: If you poach another coach, that's two rosters and coaching staffs you can build from rather than fighting Dusty for your staff and fighting everyone else in college basketball for your roster. * Canham always had three coaches in his drawer. Being a leader doesn't just mean defending your tower; you have to be agile, and ready to make decisive, advantageous moves. From an outsider's perspective, does it look like that's what's going on in our athletics department, or does it look like we're making decisions on ChatGPT? * Why Duke kept Scheyer: they grew him, and they have a basketball culture.