As Michigan's 10-page response into the multi-tiered investigations into Jim Harbaugh's Michigan football program finds its way into public domain, there are several key takeaways from the document supplied by Chad Hawley, the school's vie president for policy and compliance.
FootballScoop breaks down the letter, Michigan's stance as it seeks above everything to defend Harbaugh -- or at minimum to advocate for the entire legal process to play out.
Michigan, with athletics director Warde Manuel at forefront, contends the Big Ten and specifically league commissioner Tony Petitti lack purview to impose penalty at this time on Harbaugh or Michigan under the Big Ten's "Sportsmanship" policy.
Michigan also plainly states in its letter that its coaches HAVE NOT been interviewed at this time.
Connor Stalions, the alleged mastermind of the scheme that has seen a dozen other Big Ten schools supply information that Stalions sought to or did purchase tickets so that he or a proxy could attend games of Michigan opponents, resigned from his full-time position in Michigan's football program last Friday.
The matter first came into public view three weeks ago Thursday on October 19, which prompts the question: If Michigan coaches have not yet been interviewed in this matter, have those Michigan coaches been made available for interview in this matter?
Has the Big Ten failed to interview those coaches?
Or has Michigan, its transparent desire to see this process stretched to its duration, not made those coaches available?
It's virtually impossible for anyone to know. Michigan keeps leaking its side of information, but it also says it cannot take questions. Harbaugh, Warde Maneul and the remainder of Michigan's leadership are perfectly content, it appears, to allow letters and legalese be their voices at this time.
While Michigan contends that neither the Big Ten as a whole nor Petitti specifically can at this time punish Harbaugh under the "Sportsmanship" clause included in the league's bylaws, it's important to note that multiple other high-ranking executive leaders at Big Ten institutions have strongly told FootballScoop they have a different interpretation of the matter and believe strongly that Pettiti could and can impose punishment at this time on Harbaugh.
The FootballScoop trio of Zach Barnett, Scott Roussel and John Brice dive deep into the letter here and also seek to highlight the nuance of this situation -- to notably include that Michigan contends there's no precedent for punishment under the "Sportsmanship" bylaw at this time -- yet it is a time in which Michigan as a football program and Jim Harbaugh specifically are under concurrent investigations.
Harbaugh sat on the shelf three games to begin this season as self-imposed suspension for the NCAA's still-not-finalized probe into Harbaugh's alleged recruiting violations during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The NCAA mandated in that time that no in-person recruiting could occur; Harbaugh seemingly at least tacitly admitted his guilt in that matter when he served the three-game suspension to begin this campaign.
Michigan also contends that Stalions has resigned in the wake of this "scheme" -- Michigan notes that is the Big Ten's word for Stalions's alleged cheating scandal -- and said that Jim Harbaugh denied any knowledge of the scheme.
Michigan also in the letter has sought to argue that Stalions might not have violated the NCAA rule against in-person scouting because Stalions or his minions did not use "field" equipment.
The NCAA rule, however, plainly states that no in-person scouting is allowable against a future opponent within the same season:
"11.6.1 Off-Campus, In-Person Scouting Prohibition. Off-campus, in-person scouting of future opponents (in the same season) is prohibited, except as provided in Bylaws 11.6.1.1 and 11.6.1.2. (Adopted: 1/11/94 effective 8/1/94, Revised: 1/14/97 effective 8/1/97, 1/19/13 effective 8/1/13, 1/15/14)"
Also for Michigan's contention that the Big Ten cannot act and that the NCAA should be allowed to be the standing measure for this investigatory process, there is the matter of "coach control," a measure the NCAA adopted more than a dozen years ago that specified a head coach could not plead ignorance of illegal activities into his or her program as a viable defense.
Of course, that is an NCAA standard and a loophole that Michigan has asserted cannot be applied by the Big Ten.
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