Getty Image / Aaron J. Thornton
Jim Harbaugh is no longer the coach of the Michigan Wolverines, having moved on after last year’s national championship to coach the NFL’s Los Angeles Chargers. But, that doesn’t mean the NCAA is done going after Harbaugh for numerous alleged rules violations.
The NCAA laid the hammer down on Jim Harbaugh on Wednesday over his role in rules violations stemming from illegally purchasing a recruit a meal during the COVID dead period in 2020, and then not cooperating with the NCAA in the investigation
The NCAA has given Jim Harbaugh a four-year “show cause” penalty and will suspend him for a year upon a return to college football. Here’s what the NCAA had to say.
Today, the committee issued its decision resolving that portion of the case. The underlying violations in this case are centered around impermissible recruiting contacts and inducements during the COVID-19 dead period. Throughout the investigation, Harbaugh denied his involvement in the violations, which were overwhelmingly supported by the record. Harbaugh also refused to participate in a hearing before the committee.
Harbaugh’s violations of the COVID-19 recruiting dead period are Level II violations, but his unethical conduct and failure to cooperate with the membership’s infractions process — specifically, his provision of false or misleading information — is a Level I violation.
Head coaches are presumed responsible for violations that occur within their programs. Due to Harbaugh’s personal involvement in the violations and his failure to monitor his staff, he could not rebut the presumption, resulting in a violation of head coach responsibility rules.
The panel noted that Harbaugh’s intentional disregard for NCAA legislation and unethical conduct amplified the severity of the case and prompted the panel to classify Harbaugh’s case as Level I-Aggravated, with penalties to include a four-year show-cause order. Subsumed in the show-cause order is a one-season suspension for Harbaugh.
Basically, a show cause order significantly disincentivizes schools from hiring the person penalized with one. Unless the school can prove to the NCAA why they shouldn’t be punished for hiring that person, that person will be ineligible for the length of the show cause.
And, even if Jim Harbaugh comes back after the show cause penalty, it seems as though he will have to sit a season.
It’s unknown, and probably unlikely, that the NFL takes action against Jim Harbaugh for something like this that happened in college football. That may have not been the case a decade ago, but the NCAA has lost so much cache.
The allegations stem from not just the recruiting violations, but also due to the NCAA claiming that Jim Harbaugh lied to investigators and then refused to cooperate with a hearing. The NCAA doesn’t take kindly to that.
But, Jim Harbaugh is in the NFL right now, and even before this it was hard to see him ever returning to college. This penalty may ultimately mean absolutely nothing for Harbaugh. He got his national title at his Alma Mater and will be a hero there forever.
The NCAA is still working through the Michigan sign-stealing scandal, as these punishments are unrelated.