Rick Bay, then San Diego State’s athletic director, interviewed a host of candidates, including Rick Majerus, before ultimately deciding on Steve Fisher.

But not before doing his due diligence on the NCAA investigation that led to Fisher’s dismissal at Michigan.

Bay called Michigan acquaintance Bernie Machen, who was a provost at Michigan during the scandal and assigned to conduct the university’s internal investigation.

“Bernie told me, ‘Fisher had nothing to do with it ... I told the university that they should have never fired him in the first place,’” Bay says. “That’s all I needed to hear.”