Dave Brandon was credited with helping secure finances to upgrade and improve the athletic facilities at Michigan.

He also helped usher in the night-game era for football while Michigan’s athletic director from 2010 to October 2014, a tenure that was marred by public criticism for his business-like approach to running the department.

Among the business decisions he made, he revealed this week on Jim Harbaugh’s “Attack Each Day” podcast, was securing permanent lighting for Michigan Stadium.

“Everything’s controversial,” Brandon said. "I put lights on the stadium. I got so sick of — we’d play those afternoon games and bring in those portable lights and there’s shadows on the field.

“I actually got ESPN to pay for it. It didn’t cost us a dime. All we had to do was promise to play a night game once a year.”

ESPN did pay the cost of installing permanent lighting at the 107, 601-seat Michigan Stadium, team spokesman Dave Ablauf confirmed to MLive on Tuesday.

The lighting was approved by Michigan’s board of regents in September 2010 and installed ahead of the school-hosted “Big Chill at the Big House,” a collegiate hockey game between Michigan and Michigan State.

Night football games then began in earnest during the 2011 season, when Michigan hosted Notre Dame in its first-ever evening kickoff before 114,804 Michigan Stadium. The Wolverines did not play a night home game in 2012, but followed up with another 8 p.m. kickoff against Notre Dame in 2013 and 7:30 p.m. game against Penn State in 2014.

Under the Big Ten’s previous TV agreement, league schools agreed to play a maximum of three night home games every two seasons; that has since increased to a maximum of two night home games per season, Ablauf said.

“We put those lights up there and we put those big video boards,” Brandon said. "Do you remember, we used to have those little, dinky LED things? And then we backlit that block ‘M,’ and from downtown Ann Arbor it’s like a beacon to the stadium.

“I think some of those views really defined the brand and the program, and it really makes the athletic department — more the athletic facilities — jump out as an integral part of the university.”

Details of the deal with ESPN for the lights have never been disclosed. At the time of the lights were installed, university officials cited the project cost as $1.8 million, with “funding provided from athletic department resources.”

Michigan is set to host Middle Tennessee State in its season opener on Aug. 31, a game that is set for a 7:30 p.m. kickoff in Ann Arbor.

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