Former Michigan football head coach Jim Harbaugh was punished this week by the NCAA for recruiting violations committed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Harbaugh received a one-year suspension and four-year show cause form the NCAA, who said the current Los Angeles Chargers head coach “violated recruiting and inducement rules, engaged in unethical conduct, failed to promote an atmosphere of compliance and violated head coach responsibility obligations.”
During the course of the NCAA’s investigation into Michigan’s recruiting infractions, a former Wolverines recruiting director apparently had some less than flattering things to say about his former boss and program.
Via 11W :
The former director also reported that “the football staff had no process in place to alert the athletics compliance staff when prospects were planning to visit campus,” that “the football staff took no precautions during the visits to avoid in-person contact with the prospects” and that “the culture (in the football program) wasn’t to be safe, the culture was to go up to the line and cross it if you had to.”
It must be noted that the violations the NCAA found and punished Harbaugh for have nothing to do with the ongoing investigation into the Connor Stalions sign-stealing scandal.
Harbaugh’s show cause runs through August 2028, but since he was just hired by the Chargers, it seems unlikely he’d be back in college by that point anyway.
Earlier this week, Harbaugh addressed the media about the upcoming Notice of Allegations related to the Stalions imbroglio.
“Never lie. Never cheat. Never steal. I was raised with that lesson,” Harbaugh told reporters . “I have raised my family on that lesson. I have preached that lesson to the teams that I’ve coached.
“No one’s perfect. If you stumble, you apologize and you make it right,” he added. “Today, I do not apologize. I did not participate, was not aware nor complicit in those said allegations. So for me, it’s back to work and attacking with an enthusiasm unknown to mankind.”
Related: Colin Cowherd Blasts NCAA For ‘Witch Hunt’ Against Jim Harbaugh