Do more Michigan coaches have to take NIL ‘into their own hands?’

Michigan football is thriving, and recruiting has been very good after back-to-back Big Ten titles. At the same time, U-M finished 11th in the Director’s Cup standings this year measuring success in all sports, its lowest finish since 2015.

Softball, basketball, and baseball have taken a tumble. And while the Wolverines won 13 Big Ten titles this year, men’s swimming recorded its third-worst NCAA Championship finish (20th) in program history, the women’s team its worst (23rd) since 2014.

Men’s lacrosse made a move up, making the NCAA Tournament for the first time and winning a game, but volleyball and water polo also had down seasons.

Many Michigan fans are all about football, of course, so none of this will really move the needle for them. Jim Harbaugh’s Wolverines have trended positively recently in NIL, and ESPN radio’s Paul Finebaum recently asked Michigan historian and best-selling author John U. Bacon why on a recent show.

“Speaking of NIL, which currently dominates all the headlines in college athletics … we understand the south, even Ohio State [having NIL success],” Finebaum said. “But from a distance, it would just seem like Michigan would struggle to adapt to that model just from the strength of that university from an academic standpoint, a research standpoint.”

Bacon didn’t mince words when Finebaum asked his opinion.

“Part of it frankly is luck,” Bacon said. “They did not have NIL pull two or three years ago when they started getting these classes in, and the guys for the most part have not gotten injured. The depth is not at the same level of Georgia or Alabama — not even close, in my opinion — so … you can’t lose that top player. You just can’t.”

They got away with it against Ohio State when Blake Corum went down with a knee injury, Donovan Edwards stepping up with a huge game. They could have used Corum against TCU, though. And even with a full complement, Michigan is still lagging the elite SEC teams in overall talent.

That hasn’t changed, and it probably won’t. Michigan football isn’t raking in top 25 or 50 kids like the football factories. They’ve stayed competitive and have been ascending due to player identification and development, but the programs in the mix for national titles year in and year out … well, they’re doing it a bit differently.

To combat that and get to that tier, Michigan needs its NIL game to be elite. It got off to a slow start, even in football, but Harbaugh has been the catalyst for improvement, Bacon noted, implying the coach isn’t getting the support the wants and needs.

“Harbaugh, I believe, has grown tired of waiting for A.D. Warde Manuel to get more serious about the NIL,” Bacon said. … “Jim took the deal into his own hands. He did a tour about two weeks ago around the country and raising NIL money. If you’re going to go out there yourself and shake the hands yourself and meet the donors yourself, you’re probably going to raise the money. And that’s what he’s doing.”

But “he shouldn’t have to be doing that” is the point many frustrated fans have voiced. They should have been proactive instead of reactive, and it’s created more work for coaches (linebackers coach Chris Partridge, for example, has also been at these NIL events) they might otherwise have used for recruiting, etc.

And the other sports? There’s no question it’s been a struggle.

“The other coaches at Michigan have been grumbling with increasing volume about this,” Bacon reported. “And Juwan Howard, the basketball coach, just lost his center Hunter Dickinson to Kansas entirely due to NIL So that’s what’s happening in basketball and other sports at Michigan. And the coaches are getting frustrated.”

So, what’s the answer? It’s improving NIL across all sports, not just football. Easier said than done, of course. And while the collectives have made progress, much of the success has been to fund football.

The next several months are going to be big for the athletic department when it comes to raising money for the “other sports,” too. Championships are the standard at Michigan, and NIL will affect their recruiting, too — believe it.

Will those coaches be held to that standard even if they’re at a decided disadvantage, or will they be asked to do it with the proverbial hand tied behind the back? And how will that affect attracting top coaching candidates?

Deeper than that, should the purported “Leaders and Best” really be in that position?

These are all aspects we’ll be watching in the months ahead. It seems clear, though, that Michigan athletics still has a lot of work to do in this respect.

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