Life got in the way here for a few weeks, and I apologize for leaving you all hanging a bit. We had a chaotic end to our band/football season (first year in Div I made the playoffs fun!), I turned 40, went to Disney, got COVID, and settled in for a stretch of 4 tech weeks in 5 weeks in 3 different theaters.
Anyways.
We're a few days from UM's deadline to reply. An extension has not been requested, which is unsurprising as it was pretty well telegraphed during negotiations that one would not be granted.
Their reply will not immediately be made public, though I do expect our usual CFB cast of characters to report confirmation of the filing and likely some loose characterizations of it. These will almost certainly be sourced by UM-adjacent folks, so grains of salt et al.
UM's FOIA coordinators have confirmed for several of us that their preliminary anticipated release date of the NOA under FOIA to be in mid-December. Deposits have been paid, so now we all wait. They could probably get away with dragging this out a bit longer, but they've been consistent with the timeline so far.
A few weeks ago, I shared that there was an actual proposed resolution on the table... the only one in this whole saga I know of to be formalized and vetted. I told you that it had several hurdles to clear, and ultimately it did not. I think I know what happened but it's all from one source, so we wait for corroborating accounts. Once the book is written about this entire mess, this one little nugget could prove interesting.
Enforcement staff has been moving to prepare for the COI hearing throughout UM's reply window, so I would expect something to be scheduled relatively soon after the response is received... at least sooner than the 90 days allowed by policy.
As we prepare for a top 5 showdown in the Shoe this weekend and another chance for our Buckeyes to prove to be a true team of destiny, our neighbors to the north have swapped their school colors for Honolulu Blue and Silver. Their coach is losing the team, their AD has lost control, and their president has lost the plot. Crying "COPE" in all caps on Twitter, they cling to the faded banners of their ill-gotten spoils... banners soon to be tossed in the shameful dustbin of history.