NEWSLETTER
After weeks of investigations, new stories breaking, and constant developments in one of the more bizarre stories ever in college football, the Big Ten has suspended Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh for the final three games of the regular season.
According to College Football Insider Brett McMurphy of the Action Network, the Big Ten found that “Michigan conducted an impermissible, in-person scouting operation over multiple years, resulting in an unfair competitive advantage that compromised the integrity of competition.”
McMurphy also noted that Michigan is expected to seek a temporary restraining order that would allow Harbaugh to coach on Saturday against Penn State.
With the announcement of the suspension, the Big Ten Conference released the following statement:
ROSEMONT, Ill. – The Big Ten Conference announced today that the University of Michigan has been found in violation of the Big Ten Sportsmanship Policy for conducting an impermissible, in-person scouting operation over multiple years, resulting in an unfair competitive advantage that compromised the integrity of competition.
Big Ten Conference Agreement 10.01 states in part that “The Big Ten Conference expects all contests involving a member institution to be conducted without compromise to any fundamental element of sportsmanship. Such fundamental elements include integrity of the competition, civility toward all, and respect, particularly toward opponents and officials.”
As a penalty imposed on the institution, the University football team must compete without its Head Football Coach for the games remaining in the 2023 regular-season, effective immediately. This disciplinary action shall not preclude the University or its football team from having its Head Football Coach attend practices or other football team activities other than the game activities to which it applies. For clarity, the Head Football Coach shall not be present at the game venue on the dates of the games to which this disciplinary action applies.
The Big Ten Conference will have no additional comment at this time.
So, a little bit to unpack there from that statement. First and foremost, Jim Harbaugh will NOT be on the sidelines this weekend when Michigan visits Penn State, at least as of now. Reports did suggest that Michigan could fight the ruling from the Big Ten, which could possibly delay the suspension, but that hasn’t happened as of yet.
What is interesting is that the Big Ten will allow Harbaugh to be at practice with the team all week. Normally a suspension would mean no contact with the team for the duration, but I would guess with how quickly this suspension came to be and how little time is left in Michigan’s thus far undefeated season, that was a bit of a compromise on Big Ten’s part.
What’s Next For Jim Harbaugh & Michigan?
Well, other than the three-game suspension from the Big Ten, nothing will come of this until the offseason. It’s important to note that while this is a suspension from the Big Ten, this is NOT discipline from the NCAA, who will undergo their own investigation of Harbaugh, Connor Stalions’ scouting operation, and the Michigan program. That is likely where the real punishment would come from.
Harbaugh is already in hot water with the NCAA over an investigation into illegal recruiting practices during the COVID-19 dead period. The Michigan head coach is accused of lying to investigators regarding that violation. He was set to be suspended by the NCAA for four games to begin this season, but the NCAA Infractions Committee overruled that punishment and delayed it until this offseason. Michigan did self-impose a suspension of three games on Harbaugh to start this season.
Long story short, this is FAR from over. The NCAA and Harbaugh have been butting heads for a while, and combined with the likely punishment already coming his way for those recruiting violations the ruling the NCAA hands down if they find Harbaugh and Michigan guilty of illegal scouting will probably be quite harsh.
I have a few opinions on this whole thing. First off, while sign stealing is a part of the game, the Michigan program clearly went above and beyond, violating the rules. If other programs were doing 75mph in a 70mph zone, Michigan was doing 110mph.
Did Harbaugh know about what was going on? Most likely. Does it matter? No, it shouldn’t. According to NCAA and Big Ten bylaws, coaches are responsible for what goes on in their programs. Everything falls at their feet. So whether or not Harbaugh knew the lengths Connor Stalions was going to steal signs is fairly irrelevant.
While the case at Northwestern with Pat Fitzgerald this summer was infinitely worse than what’s going on at Michigan, an independent investigation came to the conclusion that Fitz didn’t know what was going on there. He was still held accountable and fired. Again, I’m by no means saying this is apples to apples, but essentially, if you’re the boss you’re responsible for everything that goes on in your program (if you weren’t, it would be an awfully convenient excuse for a lot of misbehavior).
I do want to say that the timing of thus suspension is pretty bogus, and it seems somewhat targeted by the Big Ten. Michigan is set to play their biggest game of the season to date by far, and less than 24 hours before kickoff they hand down a suspension? I’m sure they had to have all their ducks in a row legally, but still, this seems unfair to the rest of Harbaugh’s staff as well as the Michigan players who clearly had no involvement in any of this.
Michigan and Penn State kick off at 11:00 am central.
