“YOU ARE THE WORSE COACH I EVER MET” Star player disparaging Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh.
According to a school representative who talked with ESPN, Michigan football has received a notice of accusations from the NCAA regarding the investigation into illegal coaching and recruiting during the COVID-19 dead period. In addition to a Level I accusation against coach Jim Harbaugh for deceiving investigators, the program is facing four Level II offenses.
When Michigan first saw a draft of the NCAA notice in January, the program acknowledged a number of Level II charges, such as coaches using Zoom to observe workouts during the COVID-19 outage, analysts providing on-field coaching, and texting during the dead period. Nonetheless, the university keeps disputing the Level I violation—that Harbaugh misled investigators about the incidents—that was made.
At the start of the season, Harbaugh suspended himself for three games in an attempt to avoid being sanctioned by the NCAA. The NCAA Committee on Infractions later rejected the four-game negotiated resolution that the program had originally consented to at the start of the season. The NCAA will go through the legal process before deciding whether to accept the three-game penalty as adequate punishment.
The NCAA will have sixty more days to refute the claims, while Michigan will have ninety days to reply to the notice of allegations. According to the timeline, Michigan won’t have to confront the accusations until much later than the College Football Playoffs. Additionally, there can be an appeals procedure that lasts well into the summer.
A separate inquiry is ongoing in Michigan regarding coordinated sign theft and in-person scouting by former analyst Connor Stalions. In reaction to information the Big Ten obtained from the NCAA’s conclusions, Harbaugh also served a supplemental three-game suspension at the conclusion of the regular season. This group of allegations has nothing to do with that case.
