Hackett discusses athletics in chat

Michigan’s interim 

athletic director 
met with students 
Tuesday evening

By JAKE LOURIM

Managing Sports Editor

Around 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, 

Michigan 
interim 
Athletic 

Director Jim Hackett was sitting 
in an armchair in the Pond Room 
at the Michigan Union when his 
phone rang. He took it out of his 
pocket and looked at the number.

“This 
is 
Coach 
(Jim) 

Harbaugh,” 
Hackett 
said, 

drawing awe from the crowd. 
“But I’m going to call him later.”

Hackett had other business to 

tend to. Tuesday night, he held 
a town hall meeting with about 
30 students to exchange ideas 
about the student experience in 
Michigan sports. Topics ranged 
from the school’s new Nike 
apparel contract, to the Maize 
Rage seating policies, to football 
scheduling.

Hackett’s appearance — and 

his postponement of business 
with his famous football coach 
— came as part of the Athletic 
Department’s mission to interact 
more with the students than the 
previous regime did in an effort 
to gain their support.

Five senior associate athletic 

directors accompanied Hackett 
to help convey the department’s 
vision.

“I brought help because the 

way I run athletics is, really, 
I don’t make every decision,” 
Hackett said. “I believe in 
empowering others with great 
talent — I should say better than 
I am in lots of aspects of our 
business — to hear with me what 
you’re talking about.”

In the 11 months he has been in 

office, Hackett has worked with 
his team on fairly comprehensive 
changes 
throughout 
the 

department. He has reunited the 
Michigan fan base and revived 
morale, an effort punctuated 
by two key accomplishments: 
the hiring of Harbaugh and the 
new apparel contract with Nike 
worth $169 million over 15 years.

The latter of those was the 

first topic of discussion at the 
meeting Tuesday. A student first 
asked about the impact the Nike 
deal will have on campus. For 
instance, the contract dictates 
that the company must hire four 
Michigan students as corporate 
interns each year. The Athletic 
Department is still working 
on the process of selecting 
those interns, but the new deal 
nonetheless 
promises 
wide-

ranging benefits.

“It turns out the financial 

rewards, which are extensive, 
isn’t the whole reason we picked 

them,” Hackett said. “We kind of 
assumed Michigan would get its 
due. It’s a really powerful brand. 
So we went after thinking about, 
which one aligns with our notion 
of, we want to be kind of the 
smart Athletic Department.”

To shift the conversation with 

the apparel companies away 
from money and product and 
toward the University took some 
convincing. Now, the discussion 
centers around the campus: 
Besides the student internships, 
the Athletic Department and 
Nike are attempting to plan 
community events or teaching 
exercises.

Those aspects and the product 

combined to make Nike a more 
popular choice in the decision 
than Adidas or Under Armour. 
Tuesday, Hackett took a poll of 
how many students preferred 
each brand in the spring — 
the last time he held a similar 
fireside chat — and the answer 
was overwhelmingly Nike.

At the same time, another 

student followed up, wanting 
to make sure that the tradition 
of Michigan was being upheld, 
which 
Hackett 
said 
was 
a 

priority, 
though 
Nike 
does 

dictate most of the conversation.

“This is college,” Hackett 

said. “This isn’t pro. This isn’t 
Las Vegas. It’s not trying to be 
super 
flashy. 

It’s not trying 
to be a fashion 
statement. It’s 
a statement of 
a college. It’s 
Michigan.”

Of 
course, 

much of the 
apparel 
news 

at 
Michigan 

has 
centered 

around the football uniforms 
carrying the Jordan brand’s 
jumpman logo. Hackett said 
former Heisman Trophy winner 
Charles Woodson first advised 
him of the possibility of working 
with Jordan’s brand.

Hackett, in turn, took the idea 

to his football coach.

“The minute I took this to 

Coach Harbaugh,” Hackett said, 
“he said, ‘Sweet.’ ”

The conversation soon shifted 

to basketball, where most of the 
discussion regarding the student 
experience has revolved around 
the Maize Rage. In recent years, 
students have called for their 
section to take up more of the 
lower bowl in an effort to create 
a more exciting environment. 
Hackett faced this question at 
his last town hall meeting in 
April, when he answered that 
the Athletic Department was 
working on a solution.

When 
a 
student 
brought 

the issue back up on Tuesday, 
Hackett and his team said 
expansion was still a goal, but 
it also poses a conflict to season 

ticket holders. Putting more 
student seats in the lower bowl 
could move dedicated season 
ticket holders higher up.

“It 
is 
a 

challenge, 
and there’s no 
promises 
on 

what we can 
do because of 
that 
tension 

between those 
two 
groups, 

but we’re open 
to having this 
conversation,” 

said Rob Rademacher, one of 
Hackett’s aides and the Athletic 
Department’s chief operating 
officer.

The basketball talk included 

another popular point of debate, 
the idea of putting two Final Four 
banners from the Fab Five teams 
back in the rafters at Crisler 
Center. The University took 
down the 1992 and 1993 national 
finalist banners in 2002 as part 
of the NCAA sanctions. The 
10-year period of dissociation 
between four former players and 
the University ended in 2013.

A Maize Rage member on 

Tuesday 
advocated 
for 
the 

banners being replaced, citing 
popular opinion from the group 
at a meeting Monday night.

Much like the expansion of 

the student section, that issue 
has 
broader 
consequences, 

though. 
Elizabeth 
Heinrich, 

the chief student development 
and compliance officer, noted 
that the NCAA has vacated 
Michigan’s wins from those 
Final Four seasons. As a result, 
the tournament runs did not 

technically 
happen, 
per 
the 

NCAA’s definition.

Hackett 
and 
his 
team 

said they would be open to 
commemorating those teams in 
some other way, but reinstating 
vacated banners might prove to 
be too great of a challenge.

Most of the rest of the 

discussion 
centered 
around 

football, including opponents 
and 
the 
Michigan 
Stadium 

experience. One student asked 
about 
the 
scheduling 
quirk 

that resulted in the Michigan 
State and Ohio State games now 
being in Ann Arbor in the same 
season and away from home 
every other season. That was 
a concession the Wolverines 
were forced to make when the 
Big Ten added Maryland and 
Rutgers, expanded to 14 teams 
and divided into East and West 
divisions.

Other Big Ten opponents, as 

well as marquee non-conference 
opponents, could remedy that 
effect, with one standing out in 
particular: Notre Dame, which 
ended its series with Michigan 
last season.

The rivalry has reentered 

the conversation in the media 
over the past couple of weeks, 
with Hackett, Harbaugh and 
Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly 
all coming out in support of a 
renewal.

“There’s not a negative force,” 

Hackett 
said 
Tuesday. 
“I’m 

really open to it, and I believe 
in it. I think it’s a destiny kind 
of game, with two programs — 
one is the No. 1 in total number 
of wins, the other is the No. 
1 in percentage of victories. 

They should be playing, and I 
wanted to send a signal to the 
whole world that Michigan’s not 
sitting there mad because they 
were the ones that exited the 
last time. We have to get over 
that.”

Hackett 
was 
unavailable 

for 
further 
comment 
after 

the fireside chat, but Chrissi 
Rawak (one of 
Hackett’s aides 
who 
handles 

external 
relations) 
and 
Kurt 

Svoboda, 
the 

department’s 
associate 
athletic 
director 
for 
media 

relations, 
confirmed no phone calls have 
been made. Michigan does not 
have an open date on its schedule 
until 2018.

In the present, the students 

were focused on their experience 
at Michigan Stadium. A graduate 
student inquired about creating 
a separate section for graduate 
students, 
to 
help 
improve 

attendance. Another asked about 
finding a way to group people 
together to make the experience 
more enjoyable and avoid making 
students sit alone at the top of 
the stadium. A third brought up 
the idea of allowing students on 
the field before the game as a 
promotion.

The Athletic Department does 

not have plans in the works on 
any of those fronts, but accepted 
the feedback. Hackett and his 
team’s main goal Tuesday was to 

move closer to the students after 
a tumultuous era under former 
Athletic Director Dave Brandon.

Before 
the 
meeting, 
the 

engagement team went over its 
goals for both the department 
and the students using a number 
of charts and lists taped on the 
wall. Phase one, as they called 
it, focused on the present, with 

phases 
two 

and three on 
the near and 
distant future, 
respectively.

In the near 

future, 
the 

department 
vowed 
to 

“confront 
emotional 
issues” 
such 

as lack of trust 

and lack of voice. The session 
before the meeting included 
surveys from students, including 
“tension wires,” the results of 
which 
were 
skewed 
heavily 

toward feeling like a customer 
over family and feeling muted 
over having a strong voice.

In the distant future, the 

Athletic 
Department 
wanted 

students to build a foundation of 
support at what Hackett went on 
to call an elite university — with 
one caveat, he said.

“We don’t want to be an 

arrogant place,” he told students. 
“We want to be humble. We 
want to win and be humble 
about it and have the pride that 
this is the best place. But if you 
go around talking about it, then 
it’s arrogance. I hope that comes 
through that we’re not trying to 
be an arrogant group of people.”

8A — Wednesday, September 30, 2015
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

ZACH MOORE/Daily

Interim Athletic Director Jim Hackett met with students in the Michigan Union on Tuesday night to discuss athletics and his goals for his department in the present and the future.

SAM MOUSIGIAN/Daily

The hiring of Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh has been one of the two biggest highlights of interim Athletic Director Jim Hackett’s tenure so far.

“I believe in 
empowering 
others with 
great talent.”
“We want to 

win and 
be humble 
about it.”

