Jim Harbaugh and the Wolverines football program are currently involved in multiple NCAA investigations. Considering the amount of chatter surrounding his interest in NFL jobs over the last few years, the 59-year-old head coach may try and run away from potential punishments at Michigan by bouncing for the pros during the offseason.
That may not be possible.
According to Tom Pelissero and Ian Rapoport, the league may choose to block his escape. Their sources pointed to Jim Tressel as a precedent.
Jim Harbaugh, who has been in Ann Arbor since 2015, currently leads the No. 2-ranked team in the country at 8-0. Michigan will come off of a bye week next week with a road game at Michigan State before hosting Purdue, traveling to Penn State and Maryland, and finishing the season at home against Ohio State with a potential College Football Playoff bid on the line.
Michigan football is at the center of scandal(s).
Meanwhile, the NCAA is currently on campus. It is looking into two separate incidents.
The Wolverines are accused of recruiting violations, and Harbaugh is accused of lying about those violations. He allegedly purchased a meal (hamburgers) for a pair of recruits during the COVID-19 dead period. Not only is it illegal to buy recruits anything, it happened during a time when coaches were not supposed to have in-person contact with recruits.
Harbaugh said it never happened. The NCAA found a receipt.
To try and get ahead of potential punishment, Harbaugh served a self-imposed suspension to begin the 2023 college football season.
And then there is the more recent, headline-grabbing sign-stealing scandal.
Michigan staffer Connor Stalions allegedly ran a nationwide operation to steal signals from future opponents. He purchased tickets to multiple Big Ten games and is said to have paid them to film the sidelines.
Stalions would then take that video, learn the signals, and use them to assist the Wolverines coaches with their play calls on both sides of the ball. A former D-III football coach says that he attended multiple games in the last two years. Stalions apparently did not pay him enough to sit in the pouring rain to watch a blowout earlier this season.
Jim Harbaugh may try to run.
With potential NCAA punishment on the way, Harbaugh could choose to bounce for Las Vegas, Chicago, Washington, Minnesota, Los Angeles, or whichever team decides to move on from their current head coach. That may not be as easy as it sounds.
Pelissero and Rapoport report that “the NFL is unlikely to make itself a safe harbor for Harbaugh to escape what could be substantial NCAA discipline.” He may need to “serve some or all of any possible suspension he could face in college if he returns to the pros.”
Tressel and Terrell Pryor are two examples of what could happen.
Pryor was facing a five-game suspension from the NCAA in 2011 for trading memorabilia for money and tattoos. He chose to enter the NFL’s supplemental draft.
Roger Goodell upheld the five-game suspension on the professional level.
Tressel also received a five-game suspension from Ohio State, but ultimately resigned. He took a consultant job with the Colts, but did not join the team until Week 7 of the season.
It wasn’t officially announced as a suspension, but in consultation with the NFL, the effect was the same. And the point was made: No one should escape discipline by leaving college for the pros.
— Tom Pelissero and Ian Rapoport
The NFL may choose to take a similar approach to Harbaugh. If he were to dip out of Michigan right before or right after the NCAA lays the hammer, Goodell may force the head coach to serve some of his punishment on the pro level.