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 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.