It was officially announced that the University of Michigan football program was found guilty of multiple NCAA violations on Tuesday morning. Meanwhile, Jim Harbaugh is laughing from somewhere on a beach in Los Angeles.
Before we go any further — this has nothing to do with the Connor Stalions scandal.
These penalties stem from the cheeseburger debacle. And some other stuff.
For those who are unaware, the NCAA determined that all in-person recruiting would shut down from March of 2020 through May of 2021 due to the pandemic. Coaches were not allowed to meet with prospective players. Players were not allowed to take formal visits to campus.
Harbaugh did not oblige by those rules and lied.
He met up with two recruits (who had already committed to his program) after learning that they were in town on an unofficial visit during the pandemic-related dead period and took them out to lunch. The Wolverines’ head coach bought them a famous ‘Jug burger’ at The Brown Jug in Ann Arbor.
That was a no-no!
To make matters worse, the NCAA found the receipt after Harbaugh said that it never happened. The (inept) governing body of college sports caught him lying.
Michigan self-imposed a three-game suspension for Harbaugh at the start of last season to try and get out in front of the NCAA’s punishment. All of the Stalions spy stuff came later.
Michigan is officially guilty.
The NCAA announced its penalties for the Wolverines after an investigation that lasted more than a year.
Its football program will be on probation for three years and recruiting will be restricted. Michigan’s athletic department was hit with a fine. In addition, five unnamed individuals who “currently or previously worked for its football program” received a one-year show cause— which is the stiffest punishment a staffer can receive for violating NCAA rule.
A show cause was created to prevent coaches who are penalized by the NCAA from escaping sanctions by leaving to another school. It attaches the penalties to a coach for one year, no matter where he or she is/goes.
One former Wolverines staffer chose not to participate in the agreement. Per the NCAA, “that portion of the case will be considered separately by the Committee on Infractions, after which the committee will release its full decision.”
Harbaugh is presumably one of these six coaches involved. We don’t know if he is the coach who chose not to participate. We don’t know if he did.
Either way, the 60-year-old is out in L.A. as the first-year head coach of the Chargers. There is zero reason for him to care about how the NCAA decides to punish him.