The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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David Brandon Takes On The Issues director of athletics usually create a buzz, and he's not shy about answer- ing any challenge to U-M's decision- making process. Here's his take on a number of hot-button topics. Alternate football uniforms: "Our David Brandon's moves as Michigan's players love it. Our recruits ask about it. The young people today like that. Because they like it, our coaches like it. Our coaches feel it helps them build their program. "If there is something we can do that year, playing Alabama at night in Dal- las, playing Nebraska at night on the road, playing Notre Dame at night on the road, and Purdue with a late-after- noon start, we looked at the schedule and didn't want to just come up with a game to play at night. We asked, do we take a pass this year and look more towards 2013? That was the decision we made, and I think it was the right decision. our coaches fully support and encour- age, that motivates our existing team, that also helps us recruit better, then the only reason not to do it is that we have some people who want it to al- ways be the same. I believe the players and the coaches and the recruits are the tiebreaker. the four years I was here. I can tell you, our game-day uniforms now are dra- matically different than the one I wore. They're dramatically different in every way. They're different in color, they're different in style. We didn't have names on our jerseys. We were using a mesh material that was very different. "If I decided that I wanted everything "I also wore the Michigan uniform for " sonally don't think it's a good idea. We know how to manage games. We've been doing it for a long time. We have a clear understanding of different games, in different day parts, and some of the issues we have to manage from a game-operations perspective. "My belief is, the stress and tension that exists in that rivalry is such that if "As it relates to Michigan State, I per- " we were to wait all day to play it, and give both fan bases all day to prepare to play it, and have that game last until 11:30 or midnight, that's taking more risk than we want to take in terms of all we'd need to manage. "We just don't believe it's a good idea. Would it be a phenomenal atmo- sphere? For sure. But would there be potentially negative consequences? There is a great enough risk that it's something we're just not interested in pursuing. extent anyone felt we were going to come up with a new system that di- minished the amount of controversy in the selection of the national champion- ship, we're going to fail. Everything I've looked at just shifts the controversy from one measure to another. College football playoff: "To the " to be the way that I remember it and loved it, we'd have a lot of misery on our hands. If you look at the team pic- tures over at Schembechler Hall, that uniform has been changed numerous times in numerous ways. "The world evolves. The world of apparel evolves. You have to try to evolve with it, without getting too car- ried away. I'm not going to let us get schizophrenic, but from time to time we're going to do something special. We think that's in the best interest of the program. igan State night games): "I felt like our first night game was a huge success. There were a lot of people who were cautious about our first night game. There were a lot of other people who were dead set against it. The feedback I've got from people who have now experienced a night game is, when are you going to have another one? "My view is, we shouldn't go out and Night football games (and no Mich- " schedule a night game just because it's a night game. It should have some- thing special around it that makes it exceedingly important. "The way our schedule played out this 56 THE WOLVERINE AUGUST 2012 "