Tipping point for Dave Brandon?

"Resource generation is a huge part of the equation today," said Bill Carr, who runs an executive search firm that consults with college athletic departments and helps universities find new coaches and athletic directors. "The athletic director has to be capable of understanding those revenue streams, how you sustain them and how you grow them."

Along with making money, Carr said one of the best indicators of a successful athletic director is the ability to manage coaches and provide them with the tools to be successful, then get out of the way. Carr spent eight years as Florida's athletic director and four at the University of Houston before settling permanently into his advisory business in 1997. He said he learned it was important for an athletic director to keep his or her ego in check.

"An AD should feel most comfortable when that spotlight is on the coach," he said when asked about the traits of a good athletic director, not specifically about Brandon. "You don't look for a lack of an ego. You look for a well-managed ego."

A common knock against Brandon from his naysayers throughout his five-year tenure as athletic director is that he has a tendency to steal some of that spotlight. Several former players who spoke with ESPN.com had a long list of complaints about how Brandon got his job and how he's performed since; chief among them, they say, is that he serves himself instead of, as the famous Bo Schembechler mantra goes, "the team, the team, the team."

"He's alienated people to the point where it's impossible for him to be an effective leader," said John Ghindia, a former player under Schembechler and former executive board member of the Letterwinners M Club whose family ties to the Wolverines football program date back to the 1940s.

"Bottom line, Michigan can do better."

Public approval will ebb and flow for almost any athletic director during a long stay in office. Hamilton, who held his job for eight years before stepping down, said the best way to weather bad times is to make regular deposits in the "public relations bank" when times are good by keeping lines of communication open with students, alumni and fans.

As much as Michigan seeks to control its message, the athletic department has struggled with public relations under Brandon. Many fans lost trust in the football program because of the way it handled sexual assault allegations against former player Brendan Gibbons. The kicker was arrested during a police investigation into sexual assault in 2009, but the matter wasn't addressed by the university or the team until the end of the 2013 football season -- Gibbons' last at Michigan. When Gibbons was held out of his final two games as a Wolverine, Hoke provided misleading answers when asked why he wasn't with the team.

Recently, the week of miscommunication between Hoke and Brandon, and in turn between Michigan and its fan base, that followed Shane Morris' head injury in September didn't help the public trust. Less serious issues like ticket-price hikes and revised student-seating policies have widened the gap between Brandon and the Michigan faithful.

"I think there is a certain obligation to communicate effectively and regularly," Hamilton said, referring to all athletic directors, not Brandon in particular. "I think that's the world. With what you're paid as an athletic director in today's world, I think there's an obligation to do that."

Following the Morris incident, in an interview with the Michigan student newspaper, Brandon said he wanted to repair his fractured relationship with the student body.

"I think there are a lot of people who have decided to not like me who have never met me or have probably never met me or have never been in the same room as me, so I need to fix that," he said in the interview. "One of the things I want to do is to figure out ways I could connect more with the student body."

He told other local newspapers that the recent miscommunication within the athletic department was his responsibility. Through a spokesperson, Brandon declined multiple interview requests from ESPN.com for this story and others over the past several weeks.

The tipping point

The day Mike Hamilton heard about the NCAA's investigation into his basketball program, he went home and told his wife that their days at Tennessee were numbered. He didn't know when or how he would leave the university, but he knew it was coming. Eleven months later, he resigned.

"The reality is eventually you lose your effective ability to lead," he said. "Whenever that tipping point is, you can get so far that you can't get it back. I felt like it had gotten far enough that I wasn't going to be able to get it back to the point where I could effectively manage."

Brandon told reporters during the first week of October that he had no fears about losing his job. He said he had not at that time had any discussion about his future with Schlissel, the only man with the power to end Brandon's tenure at Michigan.

If Brandon has had a revelation similar to Hamilton's, only he knows about it. How close he believes he is standing to the leadership tipping point is a mystery. Thursday's board meeting isn't likely to push him in one direction or another, but it should be a good indication as to where the rest of Michigan stands.