Wolverine Wednesday: There Are No Coincidences

If you run into a college buddy at the Dallas Airport that is a coincidence.   If you stalk your old girlfriend on social media and end up running into her at Whole Foods, that isn't.

Which leads me to Mark Dantonio's retirement last night.  If you listen to him, he has been considering this for a long time.   He even wrote his goodbye on a plane last week.   The work load was too much for his 80 hour week job.  Makes sense, but it doesn't.

Mark picked up a cool $4.3M bonus a couple weeks ago, is being sued for wrongful termination from an old employee, and just a day ago there was new allegations of NCAA violations.   This was all after saying he was completing the circle and staying on to coach his team.

The new allegations are the ones that broke the camel's back and Mark hit the exit button as soon as he could.

This is a cut and paste from Mgoblog last night:

Blackwell's lawyers allege:

Dantonio orchestrated employment for the parents of two MSU football players, with mega-donor Bob Skandalaris, whose name is on the football facility.

Dantonio had Blackwell accompany him on a Metro Detroit home visit of an unnamed five-star recruit, when Blackwell, in his role as director of college advancement and performance, wasn't authorized to conduct off-campus visits.

Dantonio said in his Jan. 10 deposition that Blackwell never did any home visits because it would've been an NCAA violation. He did recall Blackwell once traveling with him to see a recruit, but that Blackwell remained in the car.

In his filing, Paterson said Blackwell "is prepared to provide the court with an affidavit attesting" to the visit of the five-star recruit, which can be "verified by the former five-star recruit and his parents, who were also present during the recruiting visit."

This was no coincidence.

• I have no comment on that game Michigan Basketball played last night.