One of the more interesting things about covering Big Ten football is seeing how the league and its members balance tradition and history with the need to grow brands and keep up with national trends. Whether it’s expansion, instant replay, the addition of division play and a championship game, a new TV network or simply more football in prime time, the Big Ten and its schools are in a historic period of change. Michigan is a particularly fascinating case study, particularly since Dave Brandon took over as athletic director in March 2010. Brandon has roots in the Michigan tradition as a former football player under Bo Schembechler. He also returned to his alma mater from the business world and saw a brand that, despite its historical significance, needed upgrades. Brandon made branding a priority from the start and has facilitated several changes. Michigan now has lights at the Big House. The Wolverines will play their first night game Sept. 10 against Notre Dame — in throwback jerseys , no less. They will open the 2012 season against Alabama at JerryWorld in Texas. New LED video boards are being installed at Michigan Stadium. These moves wouldn’t be notable at many programs, but they are at Michigan, which hadn’t exactly been a beacon for change. I recently caught up with Brandon to discuss the Michigan brand and his vision for the future. What was your impression of the Michigan brand when you arrived as AD? Dave Brandon: The Block M brand has always stood for excellence. It’s a brand that is connected with the history and tradition of college football. It’s the oldest football program, it’s the winningest football program. It’s got a lot of iconic characteristics in terms of the Big House and the winged helmet and legendary coaches and many championships. The expectations around the brand are always high. As I came in and did my review, I think our brand had received some short-term hits that were a result of football being such an important brand builder for us. We’d had two consecutive years of poor performance, not being competitive in our conference, not going to a bowl game. We had the NCAA violations and all of the negative ramifications of being involved in investigations and allegations. Certainly that was detrimental. And across the board, one of the measures is our performance in the Director’s Cup. We had fallen to 26th that previous year, which was a real low point. So it felt to me like even though we continue to have a strong brand, in the near term we had slid back a little bit.

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Michigan AD Dave Brandon talks branding