The Victors

I found the WSJ piece published today. The central point is much broader than “Larry Ellison helped pay for Bryce Underwood.” It says Jolin Ellison—Larry Ellison’s wife and a 2012 Michigan graduate—has become one of the most powerful people behind Michigan athletics, with both money and direct influence over how the department operates.

Here are the important parts:

* The Ellisons have reportedly put about $10 million into Michigan athlete compensation/NIL since late 2023. WSJ portrays Jolin as the driving force behind their Michigan involvement. Bryce Underwood is the highest-profile example; Champions Circle previously publicly credited Jolin and Larry with providing the financial resources and guidance that helped flip him from LSU.
* Jolin isn’t behaving like a passive donor. She’s communicating with Michigan athletic personnel and influential boosters and pushing ideas about the structure of Michigan athletics. WSJ describes a May gathering at the Ellisons’ Palm Beach County estate involving major Michigan figures. A smaller meeting included athletic director Warde Manuel, regents and Stephen Ross.
* One particularly interesting proposal from Jolin was creating a semi-independent entity that could monetize Michigan athletic assets—such as premium seating—and use the resulting revenue to compensate athletes. Regent Michael Behm confirmed to WSJ that she raised the concept at that meeting.
* There’s also a Sherrone Moore angle. According to WSJ’s reporting, Moore had claimed that Jolin threatened to withhold donations unless Michigan fired him. Jolin denies making that threat. Moore was subsequently fired for misconduct, so the article doesn’t present his firing as something she caused.
* The story portrays her as having strong opinions about both football and basketball and being unusually willing for a mega-donor to involve herself directly with the people running the programs.
* Interestingly, the Ellisons apparently aren’t regular Michigan game attendees. Their role is more financial/organizational and behind the scenes.

The bigger takeaway

WSJ is basically presenting Jolin—not Larry—as Michigan’s new billionaire power broker.

Larry provides access to an almost absurd pool of capital, but Jolin is the Michigan alum who cares about the athletic department and appears to be deciding where and how that capital gets deployed. And her ambition seems to go beyond buying recruits: she’s interested in changing Michigan’s athletics business model so it can generate substantially more money for players.

That’s potentially the biggest news in the article. The Underwood deal was originally easy to interpret as a one-off billionaire-funded recruiting splash. WSJ’s reporting makes it sound much more like the Ellisons have become an ongoing institutional force in Michigan athletics.