WTKA Roundtable 2/1/2024: It's Not Play for Pay It's Play for Work
Seth
Things Discussed:
- Lost Herbert: Recruiting against Jim is tough.
- DC: Zach Orr has a couple of NFL opportunities now so figuring that out will be the most important thing.
- Concerned that this administration is going to Bennie Oosterbaan Sherrone Moore's program. Needs to not just support but lead the transition to a new version of the college football landscape.
- Beefing up recruiting department: can criticize Jim Harbaugh here because he spent recruiting jobs on hires like Stalions and Shemy.
- Sherrone going hard for ND's Chad Bowden. Fended off Harbaugh for Grant Newsome, fighting for Elston.
- Warde: His "transformational not transactional" interview was the end for us; he's not the guy for the future. Transactional means fair; when you say you don't want that you're saying you don't want the players getting a fair deal.
- Michigan's culture doesn't have to be these 1930s ideas. Hunter Dickinson would be here if we had this working right.
- There's more in the tank: Michigan's Athletics department doesn't need to be taking money for naming buildings.
- NCAA dysfunction has to be part of this. We should be leading the way towards fixing the system, not pretending the old system still works. Players don't benefit from everyone being a free agent because it makes them all replaceable. That system sucks for everybody because there's no investment in the players, there's less time to get to know your system, and nobody's getting an education.
- Right now we're hanging onto a system that's already dead, falling into a terrible oligarchic system. System should be one that forces the universities to be stuck with the players they get, because it makes them responsible for the player's education and development. Right now the NCAA is antithetical to the higher ideal the NCAA was set up.
- Seth: communist economies—that's what the NCAA model is—require a black market. The cheating is part of the system.
- What we're seeing is the fall of that system, and what Michigan should be doing is leading the way to a new system.
- How? Pay our players to be in a Super Bowl commercial advocating for a player's union, which we start here.
- Seth & Brian argue whether the history of Oosterbaan/1950s is relevant today.
[Hit the JUMP for the player, and video and stuff]
You can catch the entire episode on Michigan Insider's podcast stream.
Seth came on early to talk Lions here. Segment 2 is here. You can watch the video here:
The Usual Links:
- Helpful iTunes subscribe link
- General podcast feed link
-
Direct download link (right-click/save as)
- What's with the theme music?
That guy's making 7 figures a year and telling other people not to get paid.
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Swayze Howell Sheen
February 1st, 2024 at 10:51 AM ^
"Recruiting against Jim is tough."
It wasn't for our rivals.
Zing!
Joined: 10/05/2008
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HateSparty
February 1st, 2024 at 11:32 AM ^
Name a rival outside of Mattison that we lost a coach to?
Joined: 12/17/2014
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WeimyWoodson
February 1st, 2024 at 11:35 AM ^
It's a joke about losing out on high school recruits.
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Quailman
February 1st, 2024 at 11:49 AM ^
They are talking about players, obviously
Joined: 08/30/2013
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schreibee
February 1st, 2024 at 1:34 PM ^
You thought it was obvious. I thought it was obvious. Every person on this thread but 1 thought it was obvious.
Joined: 11/02/2009
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jimmyshi03
February 1st, 2024 at 12:13 PM ^
In fairness, we lost Mattison to rivals twice
Joined: 08/22/2013
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WestQuad
February 1st, 2024 at 3:06 PM ^
That was weird about Mattison. Great coach and seemingly good guy, but goes to ND and OSU who in my lifetime have been our biggest rivals. I had a UofM classmate/friend go to law school at OSU. It just seemed wrong.
Joined: 07/22/2011
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schreibee
February 1st, 2024 at 1:32 PM ^
Edit: comment deleted for being meaner than necessary
Joined: 11/02/2009
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WindyCityBlue
February 1st, 2024 at 10:55 AM ^
Seth. I loved the soviet communist economics reference. Could we call what we are seeing now "glasnost"?
Joined: 07/23/2008
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Seth
February 1st, 2024 at 11:13 AM ^
Glasnost was actually way better implemented than the NCAA's attempt to free NIL, but yes, and we're rapidly moving on to the next phase.
Joined: 10/14/2008
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MichiganiaMan
February 1st, 2024 at 11:23 AM ^
Fix the headline Seth!
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Don
February 1st, 2024 at 11:30 AM ^
In college football, we're already well into what came after Glasnost: Gangster Capitalism. Vicious battles for control of natural resources and wealth-generating entities erupted everywhere; money and aggression were necessary to triumph in a completely lawless environment. The weak and powerless were trampled underfoot.
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Hotel Putingrad
February 1st, 2024 at 12:02 PM ^
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Don
February 1st, 2024 at 12:06 PM ^
I was hoping this would draw you out of your ill-advised retirement.
Joined: 06/30/2008
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Zetroit
February 1st, 2024 at 12:30 PM ^
Seth and Brian please see my comment below. Can you guys be our co-Athletic Directors? Please and thank you!
edit: Sam Webb would be swell too
Joined: 09/06/2017
MGoPoints: 32
sdogg1m
February 1st, 2024 at 1:09 PM ^
I am glad Brian is on the fire Warde bandwagon but he also excused Warde for his handling of the Harbaugh situation because Harbaugh left to win a Superbowl. The handling of Jim's contract is important regardless of Jim's desire because it showcases our directors ability to handle a tough situation and also the type of manager he is moving forward.
In my mind, it's not the comments on NIL that disqualifies Warde but his reduction of Harbaugh's salary and then his short-sightedness in making things right when Jim Harbaugh interviewed with the Vikings. Michigan doing nothing for Jim in regards to the investigations and subsequent suspensions was the final straw.
Jim stated all the right things during this such as "Don't get bitter, get better." Everyone around Michigan should have known that when your top employee is throwing around the word bitter in describing his work situation then things are not going well.
Joined: 09/13/2008
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schreibee
February 1st, 2024 at 1:36 PM ^
Ok, in this instance I'm hoping Putin comes along quickly! They need leadership over at the ncaa...
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MGoPoints: 20313
MGlobules
February 1st, 2024 at 3:11 PM ^
Paul Farmer--and most students of the period--would disagree. The Soviet health system collapsed. Many, many people died, esp. in (former) Soviet prisons. The period of cowboy capitalism that followed was a crazed free-for-all that savages like Larry Summers and his Harvard boys insisted was necessary, but created a predatory period in which the oilygarchs were created. One can trace a relatively straight line to Putin, who people like Henry Kissinger admired. If anyone writes a half-truthful account of the period, it will not look pretty, let alone organized. Much of the current ugly traces to it.
Edit: I think that all regulated and or taxed economies produce black markets. As competitors seek advantages in those economies, and as poor people pursue the narrow margins that they need to survive.
Joined: 11/17/2008
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AnxietyRules
February 1st, 2024 at 11:33 PM ^
To the discussion during the roundtable about whether the history of decades or a century ago is relevant, I agree with you 100%, Seth, and not just because I was also a History major at U of M. The history matters because institutional history and one's personal legacy within its arc are absolutely daily considerations for most senior leaders at any major, prestigious legacy institution. They view every decision through the lens of their place in history as it relates to the defining professional and communal association of their lives. That goes for university presidents and regents (if not always ADs), who are exactly the people who would need to step up for M to lead boldly into the next era of fairer, more competitive and ultimately more sustainable college athletics. Whether or not one of the steps they would take is replacing the AD with someone who could see past their own experiential confirmation bias ("my Michig