Super Dave Brandon joined Ira and Sam this morning on WTKA. Here’s the audio, starts about 1 minute in:
[display_podcast]
At the end he talked about apologies. Brandon:
“We apologized yesterday because we made mistakes. I’m kinda waiting for somebody from the media to apologize for mistakes they made. And I’m not sure that’s ever going to happen, but that would be a nice thing, wouldn’t it?”
Judging from the stories out today from the Free Press you can bet Brandon’s not holding his breath for a phone call. Later this morning on WTKA John U. Bacon made the point that folks will read into the NCAA findings what they will to benefit their point of view, a ruling Rorschach if you will.
What do you think? Here’s Sharp:
Michigan believed it scored a victory when the NCAA accepted its impassioned argument against the fifth and most serious allegation — that Rodriguez willingly fostered an atmosphere of non-compliance, accepting the different conviction that the coach wrongly failed to monitor his program.
It’s like the thief that’s caught stealing your watch, but is relieved he didn’t get nailed for taking your wallet as well.
And this headline from Snyder/Rosey: 
We really wanted to know two things out of this announcement—whether the NCAA would accept Michigan’s self-imposed sanctions and whether they’d drop major violation #5 (against Rodriguez). Everything else was settled. There’s really no way to look at this other than a win for U-M and Rodriguez. The NCAA backed-off…they didn’t “hit” anyone yesterday.
4 Comments
MGoShoe
Bacon's Rorschach test analogy is spot on. The Freep won awards for their "investigation". No one should think they'll ever step off their high horse on this issue. I guess they thought a grandstanding "Carty-like" approach would work for them. I'm sure it brought them additional readers from the MSU fanbase, but they're forever dead to this Michigan alumnus. I know I'm not alone.
Kool Breeze
The Freep can suck my tail pipe, bitches ass!
brewonsouthu
You HAVE to read the WHOLE decision. It's riveting. The Staffer(s) who wrote it figured it all out, and it is DEVASTATING to Rodriguez and Martin. Devastating. If you read it, you will see that they did not believe RR's schoolkid excuses, and they skewer Martin for trying to bury it all all for 9-12 months. And they figured out what happened: that Martin had no intention of reporting, was covering up, and then the Freep forced his hand. And they say that there were no CARA forms, for about a year, so no one can tell what the true hours were (contrary to Brandon's "air of certainty" on the topic.
So here's what happened: the Committee (not the Staff) backed off. You can tell the Staff wanted stronger penalty, and wanted a finding of "Failure to Promote Compliance." The Committee (chaired by Paul Dees, former UMiami AD who got slammed by NCAA 20 years ago) backed it all off, and came up with this milquetoast result.
Life's troubles always are a chance to show your character, and RR's has been fully revealed: RR (and Martin, to an extent) is as trustworthy as a Used Car Salesman, and will say or do whatever he has to, regardless of truth. We used to be the Leaders and Best – in character and athletic prowess. Now we've got a sewer rat at the helm. (I lean toward thinking he's a mediocre coach, but his character's so sketchy I don't even need to make that decision.)
tater
Uh, Rosenpuke: is that you after a few "brews on South U?" Maybe you should go on the wagon for awhile.
The NCAA found, and rightfully so, that there was no reason to assassinate RR's character. Too bad some so-called "fans" can't do the same.