Michigan said no.

The nice folks at Michigan passed on Michael. The note from the chair of the search committee said that the consensus was not to hire a candidate who is ABD (for those not in the academic world.... ABD is All But Dissertation.... which is Michael's status).

I don't get it. They talked to him 5 times on the phone prior to bringing him to campus. It wasn't a surprise he is ABD. I told Michael I think the scenario went something like this. There were one or two gentlemen as the core of the search. They discounted the rest of the faculty input. Meeting with the senior leadership in the Sports Marketing Department, Marketing Department, Strategy Department and the Dean of the college, is probably what worked against Michael. They are Michigan. They don't hire newbies. They hire people at the PEAK of their career, not at the beginning. They can demand an experienced candidate.

At least he got the experience. He networked with the senior folks. He'll run into them again at conferences and maybe even get research collaboration out of it.