Michigan’s resurgent football program took signing day to controversial new heights last week with its star-studded event that included a cast of guests including Tom Brady, Derek Jeter and Ric Flair. ESPN draft expert and college football reporter Todd McShay was also there, for some reason, and now he is saying it was a mistake on his part to be there.
The boundaries between a reporter and any single college football program were seemingly blurred by McShayt’s involvement in the signing day event, which did go on to raise over $100,000 for the Chad Tough Foundation. It would have been one thing for McShay to simply be there in an official capacity for ESPN with on-location interviews during ESPN’s day-long coverage, but McShay was there as a special guest with fellow ESPN employee Desmond Howard. Of course, Howard is a former Michigan star so his presence for the signing day event made sense. McShay is a Massachusetts native who played his college ball at Richmond and has no Michigan connection.
In his Monday media column for Sports Illustrated, Richard Deitsch touched on McShay’s involvement with the Michigan event and reports Michigan did not pay McShay to appear. McShay’s involvement also took ESPN by surprise. Per Deitsch;
ESPN management said that McShay was not paid for the appearance and it did not know about his attendance prior to the event. To his credit, McShay answered the question when asked by SI. “I completely understand that I made a mistake and clearly should have discussed this appearance with ESPN in advance,” he said. “I will obviously learn from this situation, and in no way will this compromise the quality or objectivity of my work going forward.”
Michigan has been generating plenty of positive momentum as a program since the hiring of Jim Harbaugh. Harbaugh has done a little bit of everything and anything to put Michigan on the map, and that paid off with the recent recruiting class coming in to Ann arbor. As Harbaugh continues to find new and innovative ways to generate exposure for his program, ESPN will be among the media entities covering the developments. This is why McShay being a part of the signing day event was such a controversial issue. Nothing Michigan has done under Harbaugh has been out of line with NCAA rules, but there has been no shortage of outrage over what Michigan has been doing. As for McShay, there was nothing wrong by inviting him, but he clearly recognizes he should have thought twice about it.
UPDATE: McShay tweeted this to Awful Announcing further clarifying his position:
@awfulannouncing Donating time for event raising $ for charity (ChadTough) is never a mistake. My error was not telling employer in advance
— Todd McShay (@McShay13) February 18, 2016
[SI.com]
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