<p>Thoughts? It seems pretty credible from what I've seen. </p>
<p>I think it was inevitable that he was going to go, but I'm really shocked that he's resigning. </p>
<p>Schlissel did a good job at the news conference. He oozes honesty and openness. </p>
<p>Need the perm AD by The Game so Hoke can be let go that Sunday.</p>
<p>One down, one to go…</p>
<p>I find it deeply disturbing that the University will continue to pay him another 3 million. This money could be used for student’s scholarships, faculty salaries, post-doc salaries or better facilities.</p>
<p><a href=“Brandon to receive $3 million over four years per resignation agreement”>http://michigandaily.com/news/brandon-receive-3-million-over-four-years-resignation-agreement</a>.</p>
<p>It looks like the university extended his contract after he was here for only 2 months back in 2010. This is just baffling.</p>
<p><a href=“Interactive Timeline: Dave Brandon's beleaguered tenure as Athletic Director”>http://michigandaily.com/sports/michigan-wolverines-football-athletic-director-dave-brandon-resigns-timeline</a></p>
<p>Although unfortunate, it is paid for with athletic money, earned by football. Most schools athletic dept are not self-sustaining likes Michigan. With Brandon in place, attendance was starting to wain (not that winning wouldn’t help) and a previous long waiting list completely vanished. Things need to turn around so all 23 varsity sports are not at funding risk. The first domino to fall (pun intended) is Brandon.</p>
<p>Wait 'till you see the payout due Hoke! DB’s will pale in comparison</p>
<p>jack, at Michigan, athletics are self-funded. The University does not pay for him. </p>
<p>3mm is not outrageous by any means. The man makes 900k base, and inclusive of bonus, the buyout is less than 3x annual pay, not quite a golden parachute tbh.</p>
<p>I understand that Michigan Athletics are self-funded thru the profits from football, basketball, and maybe Hockey (not sure specifically about Hockey). Perhaps this is worth mentioning in some small way. However, I don’t think it gives the athletic dept. a blank check to pay Brandon. Just because Michigan athletics are self-funding, doesn’t mean they should be looked at as if they were in vacuum. Umich is a primarily an academic institution. There are less than 1000 student athletes. The football profits exist because of the students, staff, faculty, and alumni watch the games. The students, staff, faculty, and alumni are exist because of what umich is academically. </p>
<p>I can understand paying the football coaches and athletic director competitively compared to other similar salaries at other universities, but making a bad decision like giving Brandon 3 million dollars to leave is an entirely different thing. This is impossible to justify in my mind.</p>
<p>At least use this money to pay scholarships for other student athletes in sports programs that are not self-funding.</p>
<p>Probably no choice given the contract. It is at contract negotiation time that these issues need to be dealt with – I doubt any decision is being made right now on what to pay him, it was settled when his contract was negotiated what would happen if he was asked to leave before it was up. Not saying it is appropriate, just saying that is how it works.</p>
<p>“I find it deeply disturbing that the University will continue to pay him another 3 million. This money could be used for student’s scholarships, faculty salaries, post-doc salaries or better facilities.”</p>
<p>At that level, terms of severance are pre-negotiated. I’m assuming you are not suggesting that UM void the contract without cause? Brandon donated $4MM to UM, so he has really been working for free for the last 4 years (given his levels of compensation). I think he took the compensation – as do other leaders like Coleman who donate significant sums back to UM out of their compensation – to help benchmark the position, not because he needed the money. He took $50MM out of the IPO and absent this event might have donated millions more. He did a tremendous job along a number of dimensions. Ultimately, he pushed too hard in directions the fanbase didn’t want to go. Hoke was his key hire…were it the case that the team was 8-0, we would have paid scant attention to the peripheral issues.</p>
<p>As to the money going to the athletes, during his tenure Brandon significantly augmented the money granted to athletes under scholarship. </p>
<p>“Probably no choice given the contract. It is at contract negotiation time that these issues need to be dealt with – I doubt any decision is being made right now on what to pay him, it was settled when his contract was negotiated what would happen if he was asked to leave before it was up. Not saying it is appropriate, just saying that is how it works.”</p>
<p>Agreed on all points.</p>
<p>Brandon has done a lot for Michigan and may continue to be involved with fund raising.</p>
<p>Inter alia: "The U-M Health System has raised $68 million of its $75 million goal for the new building project. Its fund-raising campaign, part of the University-wide $2.5 billion Michigan Difference campaign, which ended in December 2009, is led by Domino’s Pizza CEO David Brandon and his wife, Jan, and former-U-M head football coach Lloyd Carr and his wife, Laurie.</p>
<p>In 2006, Dave and Jan Brandon made a gift of $4 million to the University, of which $2 million goes towards the construction of the neonatal intensive care unit (which will be named the Nick and Chris Brandon NICU in recognition of the gift) at the new hospital."</p>
<p>So Brandon has worked for 4 years at an average compensation in the ballpark of $800,000/year. In light of his donations, like Bill Martin before him, he has been essentially working as a $1/year guy.</p>
<p>blue85, ok point taken. A $4 million gift changes my views on this. I didn’t know this. This gift amount was not in the Michigan Daily article on the subject.</p>
<p>^^ of course not because people just love to slam athletics. But this man, has in my opinion not done a ton of things wrong. He was in the wrong place and the wrong time and said the wrong things, but he’s done plenty of good things for UofM. Let him go in peace. Although I do tend to agree with the one down and one to go.</p>
<p>Jack63: Yeah…the gift was nice as was the campaign leadership…but I was really thinking about potential future gifts had the pot not boiled over. A guy with $50MM or better net worth might have donated a few more crumbs ;)</p>
<p>Momof… I share your view. I think he has done a tremendous job. The too high ticket prices can be and were being walked back. The seating plan was going through various iterations and would have or will converge to a solution of some sort. The regents can always say “no” to the pageantry so that is a non-issue. I lay the concussion at the foot of the coaching staff, but even there changes were made in order to become possibly best in class. The new campus is a huge addition to other sports. The Ross donation was correlated with his tenure. His other coaching hires have been solid. The school’s position in the Director’s cup for other sports is very solid. Even with the way the Hoke hire has turned out the revenue picture is/was solid (though potentially subject to degrading over time). In general, it seems that with football playing the role of budgetary locomotive none of the foregoing was enough to save Dave Brandon. Excepting a dearth of football victories I would have given the guy a grade of A- </p>
<p>Sorry - I’m more in tune with what John U Bacon wrote this past June:</p>
<p>[After Brandon became Michigan’s 11th athletic director in 2010, he often repeated one of his favorite lines: “If it ain’t broke … break it!”</p>
<p>You have to give him credit: He has delivered on his promise.]</p>