Bill Belichick left the New England Patriots and pondered retiring for a bit. But, as fate would have it, he saw himself becoming the head coach of the North Carolina Tar Heels in a $50 million deal. College football embraced the arrival of the legendary coach and his expertise. Belichick then started to shake things up a bit with his team and, in a path-breaking move hired the recruiting legend Michael Lombardi as their GM on a $1.5 million per year deal. College football hadn’t seen that kind of money paid to any GM till now. What would have been the implications?
Well, football teams had GMs already for various teams, like Alabama’s Courtney Morgan, who earned $775,000 per year, and LSU’s Austin Thomas, who was making $425,000. However, a seven-figure salary for a GM was something unheard of in college football. Teams started to shake up a little bit; the whole dynamic was changing. Money was at the center of it, and deals were now being distributed like Halloween candies. Sherrone Moore, the Michigan head coach, seems to be in a similar conundrum and potentially is facing the ire of Belichick’s move.
Michigan hired a new general manager, Sean Magee, last spring to bolster the recruiting game in Michigan. This was the man who was coming from the Chicago Bears, leaving the position of Chief of Staff and having vast expertise in recruiting. Although he previously had served at Michigan as Athletic Director, GM at Michigan was still something new for him. He had a task to take his NFL experience and translate it into results in college football. How could he do that?
Sean Magee stops by for a wide-ranging discussion on his role within the program.
In the Trenches, presented by @meijer#GoBlue | https://t.co/jlLjykZm0p pic.twitter.com/yJHi7uD8xn
— Michigan Football (@UMichFootball) February 6, 2025
Well, He did it and did it in quite magnificent fashion. In came Bryce Underwood after being poached from LSU for a $12 million deal. Andrew Babalola, another 5-star prospect who is ranked 3rd nationally in his position, made the cut into Michigan’s 2025 roster. And Ty Haywood, the much-touted O-line prodigy, also enrolled in the program. Even in the 2026 class, both Sherrone Moore and Sean Magee are making moves, as they recently visited No. 1 overall 5-star prospect Jackson Cantwell, who looks to be leaning toward Michigan. Then they made inroads for Jett Washington in Las Vegas to visit him, the No. 1 safety prospect of the 2026 class. That’s the kind of change Sean Magee is bringing on. But what if all that can change?
Michigan at the Voice of College Football hosts TJ Ronin and John D’Adamo were talking about the $350,000 per year salary Magee was earning and how it’s low in comparison to other GMs like Michael Lombardi. “North Carolina getting a general manager. You have all these programs now getting general managers; the going rate is typically about $850,000 for a quality general manager, and obviously, the top-of-the-line high-end general managers are your $ 1.5 million general managers. I anticipate Sean Magee to be in that $850,000 to $1.3 million range. I think a lot of people consider Sean Magee one of the best in the college football world because he does have the pro football angle, but Michigan definitely is going to need to make a move here.“
The hosts are right; the Michigan GM has proved his mettle in managing the NIL landscape and has been at the forefront of Michigan’s top-rated classes in 2025 and also for the 2026 class. Naturally, there would be tons of offers lined up for the man if Michigan doesn’t extend the contract and give Magee a raise.
It would also benefit Magee in the long term but also will provide a good incentive for his recruitment and managerial work for the college. Because we are now in the NIL and House v. NCAA era now. There will be roster caps, revenue sharing, and, most of all, transfers will take place at a whim. For that to brace against, Magee seems to be the perfect man. But then comes another problem for Sherrone Moore concerning the sign-stealing scandal.
Michigan’s sign-stealing scandal takes an ugly turn
Well, we all know Sherrone Moore and Michigan’s previous head coach, Jim Harbaugh, were accused of the infamous tampering and sign-stealing. This not only shook college football but also brought the NCAA thumping at Michigan’s doors with rule violations and dire penalties. Then there were also alleged leaks of Moore’s WhatsApp chats in which he was giving directions to now-fired Connor Stallions. All this was done by a whistleblower, which was allegedly speculated by Michigan to be from one of their bitter rival teams. However, that story has now taken a turn, and it’s a big one.
Ohio State Buckeyes Insider Nevada Bucks said that the leak didn’t originate from Ohio State as alleged but was an insider job at Michigan. “ Michigan people had insisted all along that the whistleblower was Ryan Day’s brother or that Ryan Day himself. Kind of like Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible, one of those black suits, and lowered himself down and hacked into the computers and got the stuff out and turned them into the NCAA or whatever their story was, and it turned out that it was a Michigan source”.
The NCAA’s recent communication with Michigan also reveals that the information came from an undisclosed source within Michigan’s own campus and said the whistleblower “appears to have worked at the school.” This essentially means that there will be no one to blame now for Michigan. And with the NCAA fighting the screws and getting hell-bent to make an example out of them, to act as a deterrent in the future. It seems troubles are getting added up with every single day.
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