Michigan Athletic Department Releases Scathing Letter Regarding "Superimposed" Internet Show

The University of Michigan athletic department released a letter through its football office on Friday offering guidance on Chat Sports CEO James Yoder, who runs the internet show Michigan Football Report. It is not particularly flattering. Putting “coverage” in quotation marks in the first sentence is a good indication of what’s to come.

Associate athletic director David Ablauf writes that Yoder’s reporting is “riddled with inaccuracies,” that he does not have a credential, nor has he ever been given access to the football program.

But that’s not all.

“We believe that he films his online postings in front of a green screen and superimposes a photograph of Schembechler Hall in the background, thereby creating the illusion/perception that he is an insider/informant, with access to the program and our facilities,” the letter states.

Yoder, well known among Michigan fans and message board visitors for his unique brand of trolling and adversarial relationship with actual journalists, was previously a player in this complicated and overall very weird story about the final days of The Cauldron.

Pretty extraordinary step for a program but obviously Michigan believed a response was warranted.