Back in late October, as we began to learn more and more about Connor Stalions and the Michigan illegal scouting operation, we wrote about how the scandal could cool the interest of NFL teams in bringing Harbaugh to the NFL.
We all know how the rest of that story played out. The Wolverines went on to win out, including a rout in the national title game against Washington.
Our piece back in October pointed out three paths that Michigan and Harbaugh could find themselves going on, where Harbaugh leaves college football on his own accord for an opportunity in the NFL, which happened to take place as he landed with the LA Chargers.
Today, the NCAA announced a (basically hollow) show-cause penalty for violating recruiting and inducement rules, engaging in unethical conduct, and failing to promote an atmosphere of compliance. Harbaugh was hit with effectively banning the him from college football and if he were to take another head coaching job at the college level he would have to serve a one-year suspension during his first season of employment.
The discipline came out 48 hours after Harbaugh stood at a podium and said, "Never lie. Never cheat. Never steal."
This clearly isn't an actual punishment for Harbaugh, who is exactly where he wants to be back in the NFL with (likely) no plans to return to college football, but as our own Zach Barnett points out, the NCAA is using Harbaugh case to send a message to their other coaches on how seriously they'll deal with these types of violations moving forward.
It also, again, shines a light on the complete ineptness of the NCAA when it takes them 4 years to investigate infractions like this.
Now that his NCAA discipline has been handed out, it got me thinking back to a related precedent we covered back in October that I previously alluded to.
Back in the late fall, NFL Network Insiders Ian Rapoport and Tom Pelissero reminded us of all of how a previous precedent could lead the NFL to adopt a similar punishment from the NCAA regarding Harbaugh, citing the ironic precedent from Ohio State's "Tattoogate" scandal under Jim Tressel in 2011.
Ohio State suspended Jim Tressel, as well as star Buckeyes quarterback Terrelle Pryor, for five games, and the NFL carried Pryor's suspension over to his professional career.
Tressel later resigned at Ohio State, but landed in the NFL with the Colts in a consulting role months later, and the organization faced pressure to also carry over his discipline from the NCAA.
As it played out, Tressel didn't officially join the Colts for game days until week 7 of the 2011 season, and there's no formal NFL bylaw saying that they have a responsibility to enforce NCAA punishments.
However, the discipline handed out today to Harbaugh is from the COVID recruiting violations from years ago, and Harbaugh and a number of other Michigan staffers (a handful of which joined him in LA), are also under NCAA investigations for violations both related to the Stalions scandal that broke last year, or other violations.
The NCAA investigation into the scandal involving Connor Stalions and if Harbaugh had any knowledge or involvement in it remains ongoing, and will likely drag out for a few more years.
Following the show-cause announcement, the chatter from fans bringing up the Buckeyes punishment carrying over into their NFL roles in from over a decade ago picked back up again. While there is really nothing similar other than NCAA discipline in the two cases (and there's no world where Harbaugh serves a show-cause in the NFL), it's not stopping what are probably hardcore Ohio State fans out there from bringing this back up because they want to see their rivals punished in any way possible.
That may be the most convenient argument, but it's not the most recent or even most similar.
Las Vegas Raiders head coach Antonio Pierce was widely considered the ringleader in Arizona State's NCAA recruiting violations during the COVID dead period that led to a show-cause for Herm Edwards, as well as program-wide discipline that include four years of probation, an undisclosed fine, vacated games, reduced scholarships and recruiting restrictions, and self-imposed one-year bowl ban.
For reasons I'll leave to you to come up with on your own (and may have to do something with the OSU-UM rivalry), there was little-to-no outcry of Pierce serving a suspension when he landed the Raiders job.
The reality is under current rules with NIL legal now, Ohio State's "Tattoogate" wouldn't be as big of deal today as it was then. Heck, they gave Reggie Bush his Heisman back, and level-headed people are clearly looking at previous NCAA violations through a modern lense, so it's hard to get behind seeing Harbaugh's penalties in this particular instance carry over.
Now if the NCAA finds (3-4 years down the road at this rate) that he had knowledge of the Stalions operation in this next big investigation, and he's been adamantly denying it for years, you're going to have a whole new set of fans wanting their pound of flesh and to see him held accountable even though he left Ann Arbor for the LA and the NFL.
When it comes to rules, especially those involving integrity, you shouldn't be able to run away and skirt the punishment.
Just for fun, I thought I'd share the best funny takes on what the NCAA's punishment of Harbaugh felt like to some folks out there that summed it up so much better than I could.
@BuckeyeFett"High school principal tells graduate student that he has detention if he ever decides to re-enroll"
@TomFornelli
"NCAA giving Harbaugh the 4-year show cause is like deleting your girlfriend’s contact info after she dumps you."
@CFBRep
"The NCAA banning Harbaugh after he leaves for the NFL is the equivalent to blocking your ex after they blocked you."