When the NCAA had Michigan dead to rights as a repeat offender with a complete disregard for its rule book, only to let the Wolverines off with a fine and no other major punishments, it was confirmation that the national governing body of college sports is fully into a new, weaker era of crime and punishment. Our own Doug Samuels highlighted three egregious examples of retroactive hypocrisy based on past punishments, but there's also another, pointed out by none other than Urban Meyer.
In 2010, five Ohio State players sold their Buckeye memorabilia for cash and free tattoos. That's completely legal today, but in 2011 it was a major scandal. Ohio State vacated a season in which it went 12-1 and won the Big Ten and the Sugar Bowl; it self-inflicted a postseason ban for a 2012 season in which the team went 12-0; the NCAA suspended the offending players for five games in the following season; and ultimately forced the resignation of head coach Jim Tressel.
The five players and Tressel eventually went pro (Tressel joined the Indianapolis Colts as a consultant), and the NFL took an unprecedented step by enforcing the NCAA's punishments.
Meyer wants the NFL to honor its own precedent.
“There’s an elephant in the room here that no one’s talking about,” Meyer said on The Triple Option podcast. “When Jim Tressel was fired by Ohio State and he was given a suspension. Roger Goodell, Commissioner of the National Football League, came out and said that we’re going to honor that suspension. [Tressel] went to the Indianapolis Colts to work in the replay room. The Colts, because of the respect they had for the NCAA and the suspension, suspended Jim Tressel, so he was unable to perform his duties for the first six games of the year.”
Tressel was a mere consultant for the Colts. Harbaugh, of course, is the LA Chargers' head coach.
Already under one show-cause order from the NCAA, the NCAA extended Harbaugh's show-cause through 2038, an NCAA record. While the show-cause was less publicized, the NCAA also suspended Harbaugh for the first season back on a college campus, in the event that ever happens. From the NCAA:
Should Harbaugh become employed in an athletically related positionat an NCAA member institution during the 10-year show-cause period, he shall be suspended from 100 percent of the first season of his employment. Because the show-cause order restricts Harbaugh from all athletically related activity, the suspension is subsumed within the show-cause order. The provisions of this suspension require that Harbaugh not be present in the facility where the contests are played and have no contact or communication with football coaching staff members or student-athletes during the suspension period. The prohibition includes all coaching activities for the period of time that begins at 12:01 a.m. on the day of the first contest and ends at 11:59 p.m. on the day of the last contest. During that period, Harbaugh may not participate in any coaching activities, including but not limited to teamt ravel, practice, video study, recruiting and team meetings.
Would the NFL really suspend a sitting head coach for a full season for something that happened outside of its purview?
“Any chance that Roger Goodell and the NFL, I don’t think so,” Meyer said.