Detroit — Top donors of Detroit Mercy athletics have taken and passed a vote of no confidence in the athletic department’s leadership, including athletic director Robert Vowels, weeks after the men’s basketball program again ran afoul with the NCAA over academic shortcomings.
The Titan Club, the athletic department’s primary booster wing, took the no-confidence vote at its regularly scheduled monthly meeting June 3, The News has learned.
The Titan Club sent the resolution to Vowels and university president Donald Taylor later that week.
The News recently obtained a copy of the two-page no-confidence resolution.
“The failure to properly monitor and supervise the men’s basketball team caused significant harm to the reputation of the University of Detroit Mercy, its students, employees, alumni, and fans,” the resolution read, in part. The many repeated failures of this athletic department to correct the (Academic Progress Rate) problem indicate such a fundamental management deficiency that cannot be solved under its current leadership.
“The Titan Club Board of Directors no longer has confidence that the current UDM athletic department, as presently led and constituted, can solve the men’s basketball APR problem.”
The News reached out Monday to Vowels and Taylor, requesting comment.
Vowels declined comment Monday afternoon, through a spokesperson with the athletic department. Taylor was out of the office Monday and not available for an interview.
Detroit Mercy did issue a statement to The News, through a university spokesperson.
“The Titan Athletic Club is UDM’s official booster organization for University athletics,” the university said in a statement. “We appreciate the club and all they do to support our student athletes. However, the club and its members do not play a role in university personnel matters.”
The no-confidence vote by the Titan Club, while an unusual expression of disapproval, carries no official authority in personnel matters. That said, the Titan Club includes some of the athletic department’s most prominent and generous donors, and any disharmony that leads to a hesitation in cutting checks would seemingly be taken seriously in this era of college arms races and NIL.
Before the Titan Club took its no-confidence vote in early June, members of the booster organization had a virtual meeting with Vowels in May, according to a source who was on that call.
It was not immediately clear Monday if Taylor, president since 2022, or Vowels, athletic director since 2013, have directly responded to the Titan Club’s no-confidence resolution.
The Titan Club had no public comment Monday.
On May 5, the NCAA levied sanctions to 15 Division I athletic programs across the country for falling below the acceptable APR standard of 930 (out of a maximum of 1,000), a rolling four-year average number that’s been in place since 2003 as a tool to attempt to improve predictive graduation and retention rates and academic eligibility for student-athletes. On May 4, The News first reported Detroit Mercy was among the violators. This is the third time in a decade Detroit Mercy has been penalized for its men’s basketball program falling below the threshold.
Detroit Mercy men’s basketball was given a one-year postseason ban, for the 2026-27 season, awful timing, given the program seemed to be trending up under head coach Mark Montgomery.
The Titans lost to Wright State, 66-63, in the Horizon League championship game in March, coming so close to the program’s first trip to the NCAA Tournament since 2012.
“It’s a big blow because of the momentum we (had),” Montgomery told the News in May. “It’s unfortunate.”
Detroit Mercy previously was hit with APR violations and sanctions for the 2017-18 season and 2023-24 season, under then-head coach Mike Davis. The school supports Montgomery, who recently signed an extension that takes him through the 2029-30 season.
Vowels and many other college athletics administrators and coaches have argued the NCAA’s APR standard is outdated, amid this new age of the transfer portal and so much player movement. Vowels said in an interview with The News in May the APR, as currently constructed, has become “obsolete,” but the APR idea still has merit, but requires some changes with the times.
That said, the heavy majority of athletic programs across the country, in the thousands, get by without violations every year. Detroit Mercy men’s basketball is the only Division I athletic program in the state of Michigan to get hit with an APR violation more than once.
Only four other programs in Michigan ever have received an APR penalty, and each received just one. None of them have been in the last 15 years, and none have led to a postseason ban.
Michigan, Michigan State and Oakland never have been hit with an APR penalty, in any sport.
The postseason ban for Detroit Mercy, which also includes the 2026-27 Horizon League tournament, is for one year, for now. The program must show progress in the next year for the NCAA to lift the ban for the next season. Given Detroit Mercy’s most-recent APR score was 916, getting above 930 next year for the four-year rolling average is “mathematically impossible,” the Titan Club said in its no-confidence resolution. The NCAA would need to issue a waiver to clear the men’s basketball team for postseason eligibility after 2026-27. The NCAA denied a waiver request from Detroit Mercy before issuing sanctions last month.
Vowels said last month that academics are strong at Detroit Mercy, which he said graduates more than 90% of student-athletes across all sports. Vowels said last fall, 16 of 17 programs had a collective grade-point average of 3.0 or higher, and that more than half (155) of the 300 student-athletes made the Dean’s List. He said some Detroit Mercy programs even had perfect APR scores of 1,000. He also said men’s basketball is making progress.
Of men’s basketball under Montgomery, Vowels said, “He’s building a culture here.”
“This is a bright future,” Vowels said last month. “I can actually say that.”
Most of the recruits who had previously committed to Detroit Mercy have stuck with the program amid the postseason ban, and the Titans will return six players from last season’s roster, most in the Horizon League.
Thirteen players on the 2026-27 roster are on campus, and participating in summer practice.
Vowels, 67, was named Detroit Mercy’s athletic director on May 28, 2013, making him the longest tenured Division I athletic director in Michigan. It’s not known how long his current contract runs through, or how much he is paid. Detroit Mercy is a private institution and not subject to Michigan’s open-records laws. (Likewise, Montgomery’s annual salary isn’t known.)
On Vowels’ bio on the Detroit Mercy website, the university said that giving from the Titan Club has increased 31% since 2014, and membership in the Titan Club has increased 20% since 2014.
The no-confidence vote comes as Detroit Mercy is preparing to unveil its Titan Club VIP hospitality suite in the corner of Calihan Hall. That projected, which will double as a nutritional lounge for athletes during non-game times, was funded, in large part, by donations from members of the Titan Club. The hospitality suite is the latest significant renovation to Calihan Hall, which also has undergone major upgrades to training facilities in recent months. Calihan Hall also renovated its long-outdated restrooms in the past six months.
Before arriving at Detroit Mercy, Vowels worked for the NCAA, as vice president of membership and student-athlete affairs. Before that, he had stints as a conference commissioner at both the Division I and II levels, with the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) and Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, respectively. He also has been an associate commissioner with the Big Ten and assistant athletic director for compliance at Vanderbilt.
tpaul@detroitnews.com
@tonypaul1984
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Detroit Mercy donors want new athletics leadership amid NCAA sanctions
Reporting by Tony Paul, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
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By Tony Paul, The Detroit News | USA TODAY Network
