Michigan AD Dave Brandon to Resign

After a season filled with controversy and embarrassment, Michigan Athletic Director Dave Brandon is resigning, according to reports you can see here.

A 1:30 p.m. press conference has been scheduled for the event.

Brandon has been surrounded by controversy involving the football program’s mishandling of quarterback Shane Morris’s head injury and issues with students’ ticket prices.

But the biggest embarrassment, honestly, is his unwillingness to fire Brady Hoke.

Let’s call it what it is, Michigan cares about football and winning in football. That takes priority, and it should. Brandon wanted to put his own stamp on the program and fired Rich Rodriguez just as he was turning the football program into a powerhouse again.

Well, Rodriguez laughed his way to Arizona, and Brandon is now being laughed at after the terrible decision to hire Hoke. One good year with Rodriguez’s recruits is all that could be celebrated in 2011.

Brandon’s ego is what did him in.

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He wanted to make his hire for the football program, and despite that hire turning out to be a failure, he has stuck with that hire. Firing Hoke is an admission of failure in the decision to have him replace Rodriguez in the first place.

Brandon didn’t want to admit that.

So he in turn decided to stick it out, and despite glaring evidence to the contrary, tried to make the case that the football program is in decent shape under Hoke. Because, you know, that’s what fans want to hear when their team is 3-5 in a coach’s fourth season.

Sure, rearranging the student seating at the game and the head injury with Morris are issues, but they are minor issues that a regular athletic director could overcome. But they become magnified when you have directly contributed to tearing apart a football program.

Brandon should’ve fired Hoke in the middle of the season, and he didn’t.

Now, he’s out the door in embarrassment. Hoke is next.