The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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JANUARY 2025 ❱ THE WOLVERINE 19 Magee said, was repairing the relation- ship with him and his family. "It was, 'Why did you stop recruiting me?'" Magee said. "We had to rebuild trust. This wasn't a transactional rela- tionship. This was building a real, authen- tic, trusting relationship and recruiting the whole family. I was fortunate enough to be part of that with Coach Moore. "This was an unbelievable, unique op- portunity to land someone we've never seen in the history of this program. A player of this caliber, at this position, from here [in Michigan], to come and do this. … What an opportunity to build a legacy that's never been done before." A NEW SET OF RULES The ball really got rolling last spring, when sources informed us a relationship with a "potential large-scale donor" had begun, and that it could completely change the magnitude and direction of the program. While there had previ- ously been rumblings of movement that didn't quite measure up to the hype, this one absolutely did. Even so, as recently as last January, AD Warde Manuel repeated the Jim Harbaugh mantra of not "buying players." "I've talked to our donors, and I've talked to our collectives," Manuel said. "I'm fully supportive of them support- ing our student-athletes the right way. We don't own any players. We don't buy them, but we do provide resources for our student-athletes. … I don't want us talking about what we have to do to buy student-athletes." But again, the rules changed, and so has Michigan's approach. Magee called 2024 one of the most pivotal years in the program's existence, and that might be the case for many programs. It's either adapt or get left behind, and Moore, Magee and Co., with help from the do- nors and collectives, are all over it. Magee was hired from the NFL's Chi- cago Bears specifically to navigate the changing climate, and he's been just what Michigan needed. "Arguably no greater change has hap- pened or maybe will happen in the history of college athletics in 2025," Magee said. "If the House settlement goes through as expected, is settled in April and approved to start in July, that allows institutions for the first time to compensate student-ath- letes directly. That alone has fundamen- tally changed the relationship between the student-athlete and the institution, and the relationship to the monetary po- tential of the student-athlete. "Recognizing what's around the corner when coming back here was step one. Look at guys like the biggest 'Go Blue' Michigan fits of all time — J.J. McCarthy and Blake Corum. If J.J. and Blake were high school seniors today, and we were in an environ- ment that wasn't looking at compensat- ing, we probably don't get them. That's the reality, The world has changed around us dramatically, and we had to answer the call. How do we do this?" The financial aspect is just one piece, though. Moore noted the compensa- tion is "part of college football now," which means it's also part of recruiting and conversations with families, cur- rent players and those close to them, agents, and others. He's had great talks with many of them, and he made it clear there's still that "transformational" piece, and it is important, too. If they're just looking for a bag of cash, for example, then Michigan prob- ably isn't for them. "You still have to have the attitude that you want to come to Michigan to be trans- formed into something bigger than just yourself," Moore said. "For us, the support that you get isn't just always financial. It's putting your guys in positions to suc- ceed, whether it's internships or different things to make sure you have a goal. "Football's not here forever. What can we do to help you to accomplish that goal? That support's a big piece of it, too." U-M has been ahead of the game in that aspect for a while, with programs like "M Power" started by Jim Harbaugh and his staff and others aligning players with prominent alums, business oppor- tunities and life-after-football advice. But it took someone in the program to align and unify the resources, manage the relationships both internally and ex- ternally, and bring it all together. Magee has proven outstanding in that role, and U-M has benefited — not just by being the "highest bidder," but by being the "Lead- ers and Best" they've always claimed to be. "You can choose to do it one way, or you can choose to do it the way I believe is right — with strategy, with vision and sophistication. I think we're operating at a higher level, frankly, than a lot of other programs," Magee said. "One of my roles, and what I came in to do was how do we create that sort of alignment with Champions Circle, which has done a phenomenal, phenomenal job. When I talk to my peers and people around the country, they can't believe the level of success we've had with Champions Circle and the effort they've made. "This isn't just the high-end, key do- nors. This is people that are doing the crowdfunding. … It's people that are having the opportunity to pay for events and a lot more." Nowhere is the success more evident than with Underwood, the crown jewel of an outstanding recruiting class. "If you look at his commitment video, Bryce wanted to be the quarterback at the University of Michigan since he was a young man," Magee said. "The land- scape changed over the last few years, and NIL and strategy changed for dif- ferent programs. … When he commit- ted to LSU a year ago, we were at a far different stage in this program. That probably wasn't something we could attain at that time. "That was something that was out of our market and out of the general scope of what Michigan had traditionally done." But not anymore. Now, everyone is rowing in the same direction, giving U-M a leg up — in this case, a golden arm, too — on the competition. ❏ ❱ Sean Magee, Michigan football's general manager "You can choose to do [NIL] one way, or you can choose to do it the way I believe is right — with strategy, with vision and sophistication. I think we're operating at a higher level, frankly, than a lot of other programs."