Michigan Wolverines Starting Quarterback handed full-season suspension by NCAA for recruiting violations
The NCAA announced a four-year show-cause order for former Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh on Wednesday for impermissible contact with recruits and players while access was restricted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, the NCAA will require Harbaugh to immediately face a full one-season suspension if he accepts another college football coaching job.
The NCAA said Harbaugh, who left his alma mater to coach the NFL’s Los Angeles Chargers after last season’s national championship, “engaged in unethical conduct, failed to promote an atmosphere of compliance and violated head coach responsibility obligations.”
The NCAA had already put Michigan on three years of probation along with a fine and recruiting limits after reaching a negotiated resolution that was approved by the committee on infractions in the same matter.
Harbaugh did not go along with the agreement, disputing allegations he failed to to cooperate with investigators. Harbaugh’s attorney, Tom Mars, has said the coach was not invited to participate in the settlement process or aware that an agreement had been reached between the school of the NCA
Coach Jim Harbaugh banned from 3 games over sign-stealing allegations. Michigan asks judge for stay
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) — The Big Ten Conference banned Jim Harbaugh from coaching at Michigan’s three remaining regular-season games on Friday, escalating an extraordinary confrontation with college football’s winningest program over a sign-stealing scheme that has rocked the sport.
The school delivered on its promise to fight back in court a few hours later, asking a Michigan judge for a temporary restraining order that would allow Harbaugh to coach the Wolverines in their biggest game of the season so far.
The discipline was announced less than 24 hours before kickoff at No. 9 Penn State. The second-ranked Wolverines (9-0) have a shot to win a third straight Big Ten title and the school’s first national championship since 1997.
Michigan’s team plane landed in Pennsylvania shortly before the announcement. It issued a statement ridiculing the decision.
“Like all members of the Big Ten Conference, we are entitled to a fair, deliberate and thoughtful process to determine the full set of facts before a judgment is rendered,” Michigan President Santa Ono said in a statement. “Today’s action by Commissioner Tony Petitti disregards the conference’s own handbook, violates basic tenets of due process, and sets an untenable precedent of assessing penalties before an investigation has been completed.”
Harbaugh has denied any knowledge of an improper scouting scheme in his program. Michigan warned earlier this week that it was prepared to take possible legal action if the conference punished the program before a full investigation; the NCAA and the Big Ten are both looking into the claims.
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“To ensure fairness in the process, we intend to seek a court order, together with Coach Harbaugh, preventing this disciplinary action from taking effect,” Ono said.
The request for the restraining order was filed in Washtenaw County, home to the university, listing Petitti and the Big Ten as defendants and attorneys for Harbaugh and the school contending its students and players would “suffer significant and irreparable harm” if the punishment stands. Courts were closed Friday, the recognized federal holiday for Veteran’s Day, and it was unclear when a ruling might come. Judge Timothy P. Connors, a Michigan graduate, was listed as the judicial officer but it was not clear whether he was handling the case.
Such a fight between a conference and one of its most storied members is unheard of. The dispute began three weeks ago and the allegations leaked day by day, with it becoming clear the Wolverines do not want their undefeated season derailed by an unfinished investigation of activities it says Harbaugh knew nothing about and are not unheard of across college football.
The Big Ten, however, said the school had violated its sportsmanship policy by conducting “an impermissible, in-person scouting operation over multiple years” that resulted in “an unfair competitive advantage that compromised the integrity of competition.”
As a result, the Big Ten said Michigan must play without Harbaugh against the Nittany Lions (8-1) this weekend, next week at Maryland and in the annual showdown game against rival and No. 3 Ohio State two weeks from now. If Michigan wins out, he would be clear to return for the Big Ten title game in Indianapolis.
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