Ivan Maisel
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Articles by Ivan Maisel
One of Alabama’s Most Unusual Bookstores Is Also One of the Best
One year of Donald Trump: Alarms sound over relentless expansion of presidential powers | Alabama Reflector WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump promised during his bid for another White House term that he would be a dictator only on “day one.” Before a town …
The Enigma Of South Bend
Try GOLD - Free The Wall Street Journal | October 09, 2025 American Coach: The Triumph and Tragedy Of Notre Dame Legend Frank Leahy Notre Dame's Frank Leahy aggressively recruited players, used deceptive offensive-line schemes and possibly encouraged phony injuries to win an extra timeout. This story is from the October 09, 2025 edition of The Wall Street Journal. Subscribe to Magzter GOLD to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 10,000+ magazines and newspapers. Already a subscriber?
Donahoe takes over at a ‘pivotal and tumultuous time.’ The hiring of John Donahoe, MBA ’86, as the Jaquish & Kenninger Director and Chair of Athletics is both a departure from precedent and a recognition of the formidable task ahead for Stanford Athletics. Donahoe’s résumé is what most of his fellow alumni of the Stanford Graduate School of Business dream of: a long career as CEO and/or board chair of successful entities such as Bain & Co., eBay, ServiceNow, PayPal, and Nike.
Excerpt: The forgotten legend of Notre Dame coach Frank Leahy
He won the most national titles of any Notre Dame football coach but Frank Leahy’s achievements in South Bend have been underappreciated.
Excerpt: The forgotten legend of Notre Dame coach Frank Leahy
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Excerpt: The forgotten legend of Notre Dame coach Frank Leahy
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Excerpt: The forgotten legend of Notre Dame coach Frank Leahy
Editor's note: This story is an excerpt from the book "American Coach: The Triumph and Tragedy of Notre Dame Legend Frank Leahy," by Ivan Maisel, to be published on Sept. 16 by Grand Central Publishing. They came from near and far to the gleaming new Athletic & Convocation Center at Notre Dame to honor the football coach they once called The Master. The calendar said that Frank Leahy was 60 years old on that last night of January 1969. One look at Leahy would have labeled the calendar a fabulist.
A Grandmaster of Tradition and Innovation
July 03, 2024 By Ivan Maisel Jack Swarbrick is a thinker. As a member of an academic community, Swarbrick is among his people. The campus of the University of Notre Dame is filled with men and women who spend much of the day in the zip code of their own head. The campus is, if not a safe haven, a place where deep thinkers are sheltered from the thrust and parry of the business world. Except that Swarbrick served for 16 years as University Vice President and James E.
Youth-focused programs provide mental health support
The rise of mental illness among young people is as daunting as it is undeniable. The rate of adolescents aged 12-17 in the U.S. who suffered a major depressive episode nearly doubled from 8% in 2007 (according to Pew Research Center) to 15.1% in 2018-19 (according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). Yes, 2007 is the year that the iPhone debuted, and we’ll save the debate of correlation versus causation for another time.
Nick Saban stood out like a strobe in the high-wattage world of college football
Nick Saban RETIRES | Alabama Head Coach calls it a career | What is next for Crimson Tide? Nick Saban isn’t the first coach to demand greatness. But only a handful of men in the 154-year history of the sport achieved what Saban achieved game after game, season after season. Saban won more at Alabama than at LSU, more at LSU than at Michigan State. Father Time remains undefeated, but the 72-year-old Saban made him leave his starters in until the end.
Good Dog: The Resurrection of Sparky
The dog of my childhood shared a bloodline with the finest hunting dogs of his breed. Unfortunately, the closest Sparky came to hunting involved chasing noisy cars—he had an ear for VW Beetles—and rooting through garbage cans. Both appeared to be congenital talents. My memory insists he did catch a car once, barreling into its back panel and stunning both himself and the driver, but I might be mistaken. The fact is we obtained Sparky to be a pet, not a gundog. He had the talent.
Best Writing Contest Winner: Column
Comments by the judge: "Great job on capturing the depth of Mike Leach’s coaching career, his life, laced with fact, opinions and emotion. Was the first entry I read, and I just couldn’t find another one that matched up." Mike Leach was entertaining, sure. But don’t forget that he also was an innovator Dec. 13, 2022 By Ivan Maisel, On3.com In death as in life, so much of the focus on Mike Leach will be on his value as an entertainer, which, in death as in life, will completely miss the point.
Say a prayer for what's happened to college football
Article written by:Ivan Maisel Ivan_Maisel The longest seven-plus months of the year are over. College football is back, serving up its usual dishes of color, pageantry, partisanship, thrills, and, the Chef’s Special for this season, poignancy. The sport as we have known it is taking a defeat lap, running a going-out-of-fun sale, staging a season-long funeral procession for the Pac-12 Conference, which continues to be designated as one of the – hold your laughter, please – Power Five.
Greg Sankey focused on 'healthy collaboration' heading into SEC Spring Meetings
Greg Sankey has been Southeastern Conference commissioner for eight years, long enough to understand that he is an administrator, not an autocrat. There may be a time and place for a commissioner to crack heads. But that time and place does not involve the heads that belong to the university presidents who employ him.
Football schedule format could be turbulent waters for smooth-sailing SEC
ACC members spent their spring meetings quelling mutiny. Pac-12 members spent the last year seesawing between trust and panic. The Big 12 is charting a path with four new members, two lame ducks, and no bellcows. The Big Ten has a new commissioner trying to untangle the television deal his predecessor sort of completed. And the SEC continues to glide across the seas, a battleship gleaming in the sunlight.
NCAA must come up with Plan B if federal NIL legislation continues to fizzle
The faith in NCAA president Charlie Baker among his new constituents is broad. They believe that Baker has the political ability to convince a dysfunctional Congress to pass the national legislation necessary for the NCAA to reassert control of intercollegiate athletics over the 30-odd (and counting) state NIL laws. Baker’s loyalists had better be right, because in athletic terms, he has pulled his goalie. The NCAA has no Plan B. It’s a Congressional law or bust.
Why 2023 NFL draft will coronate Georgia as top dog of college football
It isn’t smart to make a habit of studying NFL draft results for clues to the mysteries of college football. The pro game differs from the college game, players mature on their own clocks, etc., etc. If the intention is to paint an accurate picture, it’s best to use a broad brush. With that caveat in mind, as we await the announcements of NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell in Kansas City on Thursday night, recent NFL drafts have underscored how the balance of power has changed on autumn Saturdays.
Lifetime Cardinal collective overcoming Stanford's tepid NIL approach
Article written by:Ivan Maisel Ivan_Maisel As the rest of the FBS seized upon NIL and Alston payments and figured out how to use them for competitive advantage, Stanford dithered. University administrators may have lifted an eyebrow, but they sure didn’t lift a finger. Allen Thorpe had seen enough. Thorpe, a Stanford 1992 graduate and former keeper on the Cardinal soccer team, is a private equity partner in New York.
Trev Albert’s personal transformation creates confidence Nebraska will win big again
Article written by:Ivan Maisel Ivan_Maisel Not quite two years into his gig as Nebraska athletic director, Trev Alberts frames the task of resurrecting football at his alma mater as “being Nebraska,” as in, “I’m not talking about winning national championships, I’m just talking about being Nebraska. Operating in a way that’s Nebraska.” To Alberts, an All-American Husker linebacker and Butkus Award winner in 1993, “being Nebraska” defines success.
Underdogs make for irresistible stories - but Final Four might be overdoing it
Underdogs make for irresistible stories. They sing the American hymn of overachievement, of beating the odds, of can-do. Long before Mike Krzyzewski became the overlord of college basketball, he was a young coach leading a dormant program to the top of the sport. Dabo Swinney talks about “Little Ol’ Clemson” for a reason. Ten years ago, the Tigers were the Little Engine That Couldn’t (Beat Florida State). Swinney charmed us all until he won two College Football Playoffs.
TCU’s football success has reverberated through campus and made the Horned Frogs ‘a national brand’
When a donor agreed to a request for $2 million to the TCU athletic department, Horned Frogs athletic director Jeremiah Donati realized he had screwed up. “I broke the fundamental rule in fundraising,” Donati said with a laugh. “You ask for more than the dollar amount you think they can give you. I asked a donor for $2 million, hoping to get $1 million.
Beamer: Staley's success proof 'you can accomplish everything you want to accomplish'
IVAN MAISEL GamecockCentral.com If you want to be reminded of the power of hiring the right coach, look at South Carolina. When Dawn Staley took over Gamecocks women’s basketball in 2008, it was just another program. South Carolina had been to the NCAA tournament twice in the preceding 17 seasons. Here it is, 2023, and Staley’s Gamecocks are favored to win their second consecutive NCAA championship and third in the past seven seasons.
South Carolina’s Shane Beamer: Dawn Staley’s success proof ‘you can accomplish everything we want to accomplish’
If you want to be reminded of the power of hiring the right coach, look at South Carolina. When Dawn Staley took over Gamecocks women’s basketball in 2008, it was just another program. South Carolina had been to the NCAA tournament twice in the preceding 17 seasons. Here it is, 2023, and Staley’s Gamecocks are favored to win their second consecutive NCAA championship and third in the past seven seasons.
Steve Shaw, national coordinator of officials, on proposed rules changes: ‘You may not even notice it in a game’
The official reason to make the changes proposed last week by the NCAA Football Rules Committee is to improve “game flow.” The unofficial reason is that in the era of up-tempo offenses, games last as long as “War and Peace” – literally. The 1956 film came in at 3:28; the average FBS game in 2022 came in at 3:27. Any fan on a couch or in a stadium could tell you the quickest way to cut down on game length is to shorten the commercial breaks. That’s also the most expensive.
Who will ‘control’ college football in the future - the NCAA or a different entity?
College football over the course of 40 years has morphed from family station wagon (comfortable, dependable, affordable) to European roadster (stylish, fast, pricey). The influx of money and its inequitable distribution are the wellspring of the sport’s current problems. Take NIL income: If that is an issue of athletes’ rights and not about the money, then why did no one clamor for those rights 20 years ago?
Stanford will try to win the old-fashioned way - without NIL or the transfer portal
STANFORD, Calif. – Troy Taylor checked a lot of boxes on the Stanford wish list. He has won a lot at every level of coaching. He is naturally, insatiably curious. He is intensely competitive but knows how to park his ego at the door. He sees a larger societal picture, catnip to the Farm hierarchy.
NIL is keeping some players playing on Saturdays instead of trying their luck on Sundays
The news came so quietly that it scarcely qualified as news at all. When the deadline to declare early for the 2023 NFL Draft came in mid-January, 82 players had submitted their names. That’s 18 percent fewer than the 100 who did so in 2022. That’s nearly 40 percent fewer than the 135 who did so in 2019. The latter number reflects the extra eligibility that the NCAA handed out like Halloween candy after the pandemic had its way with college sports in 2020.
Life Coach
On the wall opposite David Shaw’s desk sat a small hutch, a piece of office furniture every bit as unassuming as the former Stanford coach himself. Oh, Shaw adorned his workspace with the customary pageantry of college football coaches trying to impress 17-year-old recruits: coaching trophies, oversized photos of Cardinal stars in the NFL, framed NFL jerseys dedicated to him by Richard Sherman, ’10, Doug Baldwin, ’11, and Michael Thomas, ’12, and more coaching trophies.
Bryce Young’s dad: One of the most important things with NIL ‘is to manage expectations’
The father of the most prominently marketed college football player of the nascent NIL era has some advice for how families should weigh NIL deals when a son or daughter is deciding where to sign: Don’t. “People are looking for the best NIL opportunities, which is short-term thinking,” said Craig Young, the father of Alabama star Bryce Young. “They should be focusing on what is the best academic institution for you? What is the best culture? What is the best coaching? Coaching staff?
2 years into NIL, the NCAA still is fighting the wrong battle
Armageddon arrived in college football, and we survived. Players have the freedom to move from one school to the next without having to redshirt, just like coaches. Players are getting paid while still playing on Saturdays. It’s technically not pay-for-play, but it’s still money in their pocket. We heard for years how this would mean the end of the sport. If truth be told, I may have doom-written it a time or two.
Georgia opens and closes season as national champs - but a lot happened in-between
One of the most entertaining, exuberant college football seasons in recent memory concluded the same way it began, with Georgia as national champion. That’s not to say that nothing changed. That the Bulldogs (15-0) won their second consecutive College Football Playoff in a season when so much changed is a testament to the recruiting ability and coaching acumen of Georgia coach Kirby Smart and his staff, not to mention the talent, skill and fortitude of the players themselves.
Epic, historic, easy: No matter the adjective, Georgia romps to another title
LOS ANGELES – The rest of us thought Georgia traveled all the way across the country to play in the College Football Playoff Championship Game. The Bulldogs came out and treated it like one of those early-season Buy-a-Victory games. This wasn’t Samford or Kent State, this season’s check-cashing guests between the hedges. This was No. 3 TCU, the 13-1 team that knocked off Michigan in one semifinal, the same Wolverines who thrashed the Ohio State team that nearly beat Georgia in the other.
Georgia and TCU both chasing history, though in vastly different ways
Article written by:Ivan Maisel Ivan_Maisel LOS ANGELES – No. 1 Georgia and No. 3 TCU have more at stake Monday night than a national championship. When the Bulldogs and Horned Frogs play in the College Football Playoff Championship Game at Sofi Stadium, they will be chasing history on separate but no less powerful tracks.
Greg Sankey: ‘There’s no “easy” button’ to solve NIL issues
Article written by:Ivan Maisel Ivan_Maisel LOS ANGELES – As the execution of NIL deals continues to run far afield of what administrators and legislators originally anticipated, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said Sunday morning that the state of regulation is one of “constant adaptation.” But he added that he remains buoyed by the public response to the game as it undergoes significant change.
Coaches, teammates and opponents on the moments that have transformed Stetson Bennett
Article written by:Ivan Maisel Ivan_Maisel LOS ANGELES – Stetson Bennett IV, the sixth-year quarterback from Blackshear, Ga., who grew up attending Georgia games, will suit up one final time for the Bulldogs on Monday night when they play TCU for the national title at Sofi Stadium. He is looking to become the first quarterback to win consecutive national championships since A.J. McCarron did so for Alabama a decade ago.
When College Football Playoff expands, plan is to play 1st-round games on 3rd Saturday in December
Article written by:Ivan Maisel Ivan_Maisel The schedule for the 12-team College Football Playoff may not be as disruptive as first feared. Executive director Bill Hancock said Saturday that the plan is to play the first-round games (teams ranked 5-12) on the third Saturday in December, even if that means playing them at the same time as NFL regular-season games. Three quarterfinals will be played in bowls on January 1, with the fourth played a day earlier or later, depending on the calendar.
TCU’s ability to play physical football should no longer be in question
TCU’s bid for an undefeated season and the Big 12 Championship died at the Kansas State goal line in overtime on December 3, and conventional wisdom took a bow. The failure of running back Kendre Miller to get a half-yard on third down and again on fourth reinforced the notion that the Big 12 doesn’t play the brand of physical football that they play in the Big Ten and the SEC.
Going home: Emari Demercado’s performance off the bench means TCU will play for national title down the street from his house
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – The smile on TCU running back Emari Demercado’s face after the Fiesta Bowl on New Year’s Eve would have lit up the desert sky as brightly as any five fireworks shows. Of course his delight derived from the Horned Frogs’ 51-45 defeat of Michigan in a College Football Playoff semifinal. And from how he came off the bench in place of injured All-Big 12 starter Kendre Miller to rush for 150 yards and a touchdown against one of the best run defenses in the FBS.
Whoda thought it? TCU is in the national title game
Article written by:Ivan Maisel Ivan_Maisel GLENDALE, Ariz. – The purple confetti had completed its orbit of State Farm Stadium. TCU coach Sonny Dykes, unbridled joy across his face, had held aloft the gold football that sits atop the Fiesta Bowl trophy. Someone began handing out cigars to the No. 3 Horned Frogs, who had just stunned No. 2 Michigan and pretty much the rest of the college football universe.
This has been unforgettable year for Michigan star Olusegun Oluwatimi, with numerous highs but one devastating low
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – In one year, Olusegun Oluwatimi has experienced the full array of what life can offer. After three seasons of starting at center for Virginia, Oluwatimi brought his economics degree to Michigan. Oluwatimi became the first player in the Wolverines’ storied history to win the Outland Trophy, given to the best interior lineman in college football. He won the Rimington Award, given to the best center.
TCU’s Quentin Johnston put in the hard work - and it has paid off
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – TCU junior wide receiver Quentin Johnston may have 4.4 speed and hands the size of oven mitts, but he is humble and thoughtful, character traits not listed on the wideout prototype. Wide receivers are supposed to be brash, attention-chasing divas. It’s the position that Lady Gaga would play if she ran a better 40. It’s the position of Michael Irvin, Terrell Owens and Chad Ochocinco. Somehow, it’s also the position of Johnston.
Take a knee and remember these notable college football figures who died in 2022
Article written by:Ivan Maisel Ivan_Maisel Take a knee. It’s what we say when we stop to pray. It’s what we say when we need a break. As we take a knee to remember the men whom college football lost this year, we need 2022 to take a knee. We need 2022 to stop. We need a year in which San Jose State freshman Candam McWright died in a traffic accident to stop. We need a year in which Mississippi State lost freshman offensive lineman Sam Westmoreland and coach Mike Leach to stop.
New Charlotte coach Biff Poggi job-juggling as Michigan preps for College Football Playoff
When you hold two jobs in an industry in which one job demands 80 hours a week, something has to give. “I’m sleeping so (much) less,” Biff Poggi said. “I hope that my 62-year-old self can handle it. But I’m having a lot of fun.” Poggi is the new coach of the Charlotte 49ers. Poggi still is the associate head coach of No. 2 Michigan.
Mike Leach was entertaining, sure. But don’t forget that he also was an innovator.
Article written by:Ivan Maisel Ivan_Maisel In death as in life, so much of the focus on Mike Leach will be on his value as an entertainer, which, in death as in life, will completely miss the point. Any college football journalist within earshot of the Mississippi State coach, who died Monday night at 61, knew that if you could stick a mic in front of Leach and turn it on, the hard part of your day was done. You might hear about pirates, or relationships, or Geronimo, or whatever.
TCU’s Max Duggan: The ‘college football nerd’ who could win the Heisman
Article written by:Ivan Maisel Ivan_Maisel FORT WORTH, Texas – Sonny Dykes checks all the boxes to win your various national coach of the year awards. He took over a TCU program that went 5-7 a year ago and transformed the Horned Frogs into a team with a 12-1 record, a No. 3 ranking and, most important, a berth in the College Football Playoff.
Despite loss, TCU is in: ‘I was worried. I’m not going to lie.’
FORT WORTH, Texas – The suspense in the Legends Suite of Amon G. Carter Stadium on Sunday morning punched above its weight. There really shouldn’t have been any suspense. No. 3 TCU had lost Saturday, the Horned Frogs’ first loss of the season, to Kansas State, 31-28 in overtime. Only four teams had zero or one loss. Only four teams make the College Football Playoff. But until it’s official, it’s not official. “I was worried. I’m not going to lie,” coach Sonny Dykes said.
TCU falls just short - and now the Horned Frogs must wait
ARLINGTON, Texas – They played the college football version of the World Cup on Saturday. Like France and Brazil, No. 3 TCU lost in the group stage and looks as if it will advance to the knockout stage anyway, and the Horned Frogs didn’t even have to go to Qatar to do it. They did so 18 miles east of campus in AT&T Stadium.
Daily briefing: On College Football Playoff scheduling, Blake Corum and Brennan Armstrong
Article written by:Ivan Maisel Ivan_Maisel Ivan Maisel’s “Daily Briefing” for On3: TV networks will have a say in Playoff scheduling Now that the Rose Bowl has fallen in line, a 12-team playoff is official. We know that because College Football Playoff officials announced Thursday that the first two championship games in the 12-team era will be January 20, 2025, and January 19, 2026. Keep in mind that the first XII Super Bowls all were played no later than January 18. What do we call that?
Daily briefing: On the transfer portal and coaching stability, Kirby Smart and Trent Dilfer at UAB
Ivan Maisel•about 8 hours Article written by:Ivan Maisel Ivan_Maisel Ivan Maisel’s “Daily Briefing” for On3: Is the transfer portal leading to coaching stability? One unintended (I think) consequence of opening the transfer portal on the Monday after conference championship games is that it’s promoting coaching stability. It used to be that coaching hires spilled into December; the National Football Foundation Hall of Fame dinner on the Tuesday after the season used to be a job fair.
There’s a symmetry in the story arcs of Jim Harbaugh and David Shaw
On the day that Jim Harbaugh got the biggest win of his college coaching career, David Shaw resigned in defeat. Causality? No. Coincidence? Sure. But there’s a symmetry in their story arcs. Harbaugh and Shaw became FBS coaches on the same day in December 2006, Harbaugh as head coach at Stanford, Shaw as his offensive coordinator. They came from FCS member San Diego, where they had transformed the Toreros into a winner. Together, they brought the Cardinal program back from the dead.
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