John U Bacon: potential NCAA reprimand for football, adding to Harbaugh's frustrations

Submitted by AndrelAnthonyCarter on January 5th, 2023 at 11:01 AM

Published on his blog this morning, copying some here since a hungry fanbase crashed his website:

Sources have told me Harbaugh is fed up with the NCAA, and all the hassles that go with coaching college football vs. the NFL – something just about every coach would understand. The NCAA is famous for punishing misdemeanors while ignoring felonies. As Jerry Tarkanian famously said, “The NCAA is so mad at Kentucky that they’re going to give Cleveland State another year of probation.”

Another unknown factor: Harbaugh and/or his staff will likely receive some form of reprimand from the NCAA, for what I’ve heard is a relatively minor recruiting infraction from two years ago. What exactly the infraction is, what the NCAA’s response might be – with the NCAA, it is impossible to predict — and how Harbaugh and Manuel will react to the NCAA’s conclusions aren’t yet known. U-M insiders believe the NCAA will be announcing what the infraction is and what the penalty will be, if any, within the next few weeks.

Gree4

January 5th, 2023 at 11:06 AM ^

The recruiting violation has been hinted at for weeks. It was during the covid year, and the guy behind the violation is no longer with the program.

Joined: 09/04/2020

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GOBLUE4EVR

January 5th, 2023 at 11:44 AM ^

so first Dudek couldn't do the math's correctly (allegedly promised/told to many kids that they could enroll early for the 2021 class but didn't have enough open scholly's to back date them against) and he also committed a recruiting violation in that same cycle, god this guy was a piece of work...  

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Amazinblu

January 5th, 2023 at 1:28 PM ^

5

I think you may be “off”, just a bit.  Think of Pre NIL, bag men with Adidas bribing coaches and players is “ok”.  You buy a milkshake for a prospect and his family, or - just say hello while you walk the halls at his high school - and, it’s like you have erred egregiously.

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KC Wolve

January 5th, 2023 at 11:11 AM ^

I'm def not a doom and gloomer like a lot of UM fans seem to love being, but holy shit. 2 years, beating OSU, 2 years winning the BIG, 2 years making the playoff......and instead of those things benefiting everything about the program like they would at most schools, UM gets recruiting torpedoed by a waffling coach 2 years in a row and potential NCAA violations. Its pretty remarkable honestly. 

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rc15

January 5th, 2023 at 11:23 AM ^

You're right, Warde should've been working on a better contract between the B1G Championship and CFP to avoid this. It's clearly what Harbaugh wants, but Warde made him use his leverage of the NFL.

Harbaugh has 4 years left on his contract. Back-to-back losses to OSU and he'll be back on the hot seat going into a contract renewal like 2020. Give him 10yrs $100M, $30M buyout both ways. Impossible to hire or fire. We'll never hear about the NFL again.

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mackbru

January 5th, 2023 at 11:36 AM ^

Amazing how some people just default to blaming Warde for everything that goes wrong, especially when most things go right. You really think Warde has any control over what Harbaugh does? You think he could have somehow chained him to a poll to keep him? Harbaugh will do whatever he wants to do. He has all the leverage. He probably wouldn’t have signed a huge buyout deal. Stop being such a lazy thinker. It’s like blaming the president for the price of gas. 

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rc15

January 5th, 2023 at 11:45 AM ^

If Harbaugh wanted to, or wants to leave, he will. But it seems pretty clear from the messages he's put out that he wants to be at Michigan but wants a better contract.

That should be done well before Black Monday. Harbaugh only gets a week or so to truly sell himself and interview with NFL teams. If Warde's attitude is "we'll get it done eventually this offseason" then this is the move Harbaugh has to play to get an offer from Michigan before or at least at the same time as an NFL team.

Harbaugh deserves to be made a top 5 paid coach, along with a # of years and buyout that shows we're committing to him for the rest of his career if we expect him to commit to Michigan.

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HateSparty

January 5th, 2023 at 12:59 PM ^

I am enjoying the "lazy thinker" trope on this site (and elsewhere) as the dig.  It always comes from a person who only thinks things through from their own perspective.  Do you ask why someone is blaming Warde?  Was there unmentioned inference or beliefs that led there?  Is there a sound rationale that might lead someone who is thinking about the same things to lead you to blame Warde? 

Nope, just "You do lazy thinking!"

I love irony.

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mackbru

January 5th, 2023 at 1:22 PM ^

Yeah it’s lazy to blame the AD for whatever Harbaugh does because he simply has no control over what Harbaugh does. Harbaugh has proven, perhaps more than any coach, that he’s gonna do what he’s gonna do. 
 

It’s also lazy to constantly auto-blame the AD for running a department that is by most accounts quite successful. He’s made good hires for the most part. The department is flush. The teams are mostly successful. The NIL issue is largely determined by the university, not Warde Manuel. What the hell else do you want? 

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MadGatter

January 5th, 2023 at 11:11 AM ^

Very interesting blog post. My takeaways:

1. Bacon doesn't know anything to suggest it is obvious Harbaugh is pursuing the NFL. Last year he told recruits and reached out to teams. This year he isn't doing that but is letting his agent field calls

2. Michigan is putting together a big contract offer for him to make him one of the highest paid coaches in cfb

3. Since December 23rd when Manual sent the NIL email, they have raised 7-8 million dollars for the football team.

4. There's a minor NCAA recruiting violation coming up. I dont really give a shit tho. Fuck the NCAA

Number 3 most interesting to me. Perhaps the money cannon has been fired now that Warde has actually directed it somewhere? This goes along with another report from Zach Smith (yes that Zach Smith, who is starting his own OSU NIL collective LOL ) who has recently said Michigan is putting together the best NIL plan in the conference. 

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ldd10

January 5th, 2023 at 11:11 AM ^

Rumor has it UM had at least one recruit in for a visit during the strict rules during covid when no visits were allowed anywhere.

I have to imagine this was much less widespread than what happened at ASU, but they got nailed by it.

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Sopwith

January 5th, 2023 at 11:14 AM ^

Yeah, but the primary frustration is probably that after spring ball, summer two-a-days and fall camp, 4 months of daily practices, and bowl prep week... we couldn't execute a clean handoff on 1st-and-Goal from the one yard line.

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