The thing about Michigan that always gets me is: the administration and the fans regularly act like there is something special about them. They do things "the right way." They are somehow morally superior, and that is why - even if they lose games - they are still special.

But over the last couple of decades, it's become clear that there is no there there. They are just another big school trying to win games and willing to compromise values along the way to get there. To wit:

- The Fab Five viewed with such reverence that one of them comes back as head coach despite all of the corruption associated with that era of the program.

- The number one football recruit in the country, Rashan Gary, somehow leaving three years of higher education in Ann Arbor unable to pop double digits on his Wonderlic.

- A $490 million settlement with victims of a team doctor who abused students while still revered head coach Bo Schembechler looked the other way. 

- The head basketball coach suspended a paltry five games in the regular season - but, of course, not the postseason - for taking a swing at another coach during the handshake line. 

These are not equivalent in importance or embarrassment of course. But the main point is this: there is no evidence at all, if there ever was, that Michigan operates on some higher academic ground, some higher moral ground, or applies some higher ethical standards than any other school in the Big Ten. Their scandals, their coaches' behavioral standards, their standards for their top players' academic capacity, their administrative morality is no better- and quite possibly worse- than their Big Ten counterparts. 

So spare me all the talk of the Michigan Man. They are just another school trying to win games, compromising values along the way. There is nothing special about them at all.