There is "no current wait list" for Univ. of Michigan football season tickets this year, according to Angelique Chengelis of the DETROIT NEWS. Associate AD/External Communications & PR Kurt Svoboda, speaking at a UM roundtable event, said, "We’re at 90,000 season tickets sold for football this season, (and that) includes 18,000 students. We were a little above where we were last year. Anybody who was interested in season tickets this year was able to purchase them." Chengelis noted an allotment "was made available for people to purchase single-game tickets." Meanwhile, UM football coach Jim Harbaugh has said that he "would be open to alternate uniforms, although nothing will happen this year." AD Warde Manuel said that an alternate uniform "will not be his call." Manuel: "I would leave that up to Jim and how he wants to handle that either himself or with the team, because you can create the alternate uniform." Chengelis noted Manuel "is pleased" with the new Nike product. He said, "We’ll look at what they bring to the table and maybe some ideas we may have, but for this year, we really like the look that they created for the team." Meanwhile, Manuel "expects to have cost estimates and architectural drawings for a new weight room by the end of the month." The UM athletic department is "actively fundraising to pay for the construction, which could begin in the spring" (DETROIT NEWS, 8/24).
WHO'S GOT IT BETTER? Manuel said of Harbaugh's $9M salary this year, which places him second among all coaches, "It doesn't bother me he's that close to the top. ... Jim has proven that he brings tremendous benefit to our football program, to this department and this university." In Detroit, Mark Snyder noted if that value is "measured in marketability, Harbaugh could be worth far more in exposure." He has a "higher Q score" than Alabama's Nick Saban among millennials, and "between his multiple trips to the White House, attending rap concerts ... and hosting a celebrity-filled signing day special, he has crossed over to popular culture" (DETROIT FREE PRESS, 8/24).
