Dave Brandon knew he'd need to familiarize himself with the NCAA's practices and policies to succeed in his new job as Michigan's athletic director.

Brandon didn't realize he'd have to become an expert in less than three months.

The NCAA's investigation into alleged rule violations by Michigan's football program has taken up much of Brandon's time since he took his new post March 8. Brandon's involvement actually began before his official first day, as he appeared at a Feb. 23 news conference with head football coach Rich Rodriguez and university president Mary Sue Coleman to announce the NCAA's five allegations against the football program.

Michigan today will formally respond to the NCAA and outline the self-imposed penalties it deems appropriate. The school could admit to committing major violations for the first time in football.

Michigan's response is crucial because it will send a message to the NCAA and the public about how the university views the allegations. Details will be made public Tuesday as Michigan, to its credit, continues to be transparent about a difficult topic.

The NCAA ultimately has the final say, as its Committee on Infractions will meet with Michigan officials Aug. 13-14 in Seattle. The committee could uphold Michigan's self-sanctions or hand down more severe penalties.

"One of the penalties you receive going through a process like this is the process," Brandon said last week at the Big Ten spring meetings. "It requires a lot of time, it forces you to spend a lot of time reviewing what you've done, trying to come up with steps and measures to assure you don't make the same mistake twice."

The NCAA alleges that Michigan exceeded limits for both time and number of coaches/staff members allowed to monitor both in-season and out-of-season team activities. Head coach Rich Rodriguez is alleged to have "failed to promote an atmosphere of compliance within the football program," and Michigan is alleged to have "failed to adequately monitor its football program to assure compliance."

Because Rodriguez is named in the allegations, he will issue his own response to the NCAA today. Rodriguez hired an attorney who has worked with the university's attorneys since Day 1 of the process.

"I had an opportunity to look at everything and that's a process that's time-consuming," Rodriguez said last week. "A lot of the things that I probably want to say will be in the response, but I don't know if everything that I'd like to say will be in the response. Everything I'd like to say probably will never [be said publicly]. We're all anxious to get it over with."

Michigan has hired attorney Gene Marsh, the former chairman of the NCAA's Committee on Infractions, to help during the NCAA's investigation. It's safe to assume Marsh will play a key role in today's response.

The school also has examined similar instances where self-imposed penalties were handed down, although each case is unique.

"You're always nervous," Rodriguez said. "We have experienced people who have looked at similar cases before, but you don't know for sure until you go in front of the committee in August and explain your case and see where it goes from there.

"For us, you'd rather have it be over six months ago, but in talking to everybody else, this is the normal time frame it takes."

Brandon is comfortable with the way Michigan has handled itself and, like Rodriguez, hopes the program can soon move forward.

"I'll be very, very glad to get this all turned over to the NCAA," he said, "and I'll be even more glad to finish this process in August."