Round meat patties being distributed to teenage Michigan football recruits might be a laughing matter to Paul Finebaum at ESPN, but the recruiting violation that led to Jim Harbaugh’s four-year “show-cause” order was not a victimless crime, per a report by Austin Meek of The Athletic.
As previously discussed on GH, the NCAA found Harbaugh violated recruiting rules during the Covid dead period:
“A Division I Committee on Infractions panel determined former Michigan head football coach Jim Harbaugh violated recruiting and inducement rules, engaged in unethical conduct, failed to promote an atmosphere of compliance and violated head coach responsibility obligations, resulting in a four-year show-cause order.”
The committee found Michigan had impermissible recruiting contacts during the COVID-19 dead period. The NCAA slammed Harbaugh for refusing to participate in a hearing before the committee and wrote that Harbaugh’s denial of his involvement in the recruiting scandal did not match what was “overwhelmingly” supported by their records.
Jim Harbaugh said he wants what is best for student-athletes
Harbaugh was asked about the NCAA’s ruling on Thursday. Per ESPN, Harbaugh deferred the question and said that he hoped college athletics would be about what’s “best” for student-athletes:
“But my only hope is that one day college athletics will be about what’s best for young men and young women who participate in it. That’s really all I’ve got to say about it.”
Harbaugh’s comments appeared to be a shot at the NCAA for what he thinks are arbitrary rules. But they are rules, and the way Harbaugh’s program tried to circumvent those rules harmed some of the young men he tried to recruit to Michigan.
Per Meek’s report, a recruit and his father (one of a three anonymous players in the report) went to Ann Arbor for what was supposed to be a “self-guided” tour but met with members of Michigan’s staff for a discounted meal at a restaurant while visiting Ann Arbor. The recruit and his father later met with Harbaugh for a free meal at another restaurant before they were granted permission to see the program’s football facilities.
The Michigan football recruiting scandal was not a victimless crime
The father knew Michigan was breaking the rules but said he felt like he and his son were obligated to go on the impermissible trip. The father had to hire a lawyer to deal with the mess:
The player’s father eventually had to hire a lawyer to deal with the NCAA fallout. He said he realized at the time Michigan was breaking the dead-period rules but didn’t feel he was in a position to say anything.
“I thought, ‘Wow, this is Harbaugh. It’s a big-time program,’” he said. “You don’t want to say no.”
Other schools knew better
The father said other schools did not break those rules:
“It was completely, 100 percent different than everywhere else,” the recruit’s father said. “Even SEC schools that you thought in the past would have bent rules did it by the books.”
Lawyer fees are costly. While the NCAA might be overbearing, Harbaugh wasn’t a saint in this process. Harbaugh and Michigan knew the rules and didn’t care if they broke them. They also didn’t care if recruits and their fathers had to pay for their disobedience.
Under Harbaugh, Michigan didn’t do what was best for the young men looking to join their program. That wasn’t the NCAA’s fault.
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1 Comment
anonymous sources …. could be made up. don’t care.