Michigan's Jim Harbaugh was threatened with suspension by NCAA last fall for lawyer's social media criticism. <CBS Sports article by Dodd>
In a "letter of admonition" to attorney Thomas Mars obtained by CBS Sports, current NCAA Committee on Infractions chair Dave Roberts wrote in October 2023 that if Mars didn't halt his posts criticizing the NCAA's investigative process "the COI will consider appropriate penalties, including immediate suspension of your client."
The letter ends with seemingly a final warning from Roberts that read, "There will not be any further admonitions …"
I found the fact that the NCAA released their statement and punishment of Michigan over some essentially meaningless infractions today on the very day the portal opens up to be another petty shot by a flailing organization against its favorite whipping boy - A whipping boy that just so happens to hold the largest crown under their organization’s purview. It’s amazing when the NCAA behaves like a sparty or buckeye troll, and yet we continue to wear the crown. 🏈🤴🏿
April 16th, 2024 at 10:43 PM ^
Find it fascinating that "Mars did not respond to the NCAA and continued his critical posts but it seems Roberts took no further action."
Lesson: Don't cower to the NCAA.
Like all bullies, they back down if you stand up to them. Take heed, Warde.
Warde is the guy that backs down in the name of appeasement.
April 17th, 2024 at 10:09 AM ^
Neville Chamberlain reincarnated.
April 17th, 2024 at 12:19 PM ^
The NCAA has shown us over and over again that they have no stomach for a fight.
It's crazy how many posters here are like "let's just appease them."
If you legitimately think Michigan deserved this punishment, I respect that, I think you're wrong but I respect it.
But lots of people agree with me that this is trumped up nonsense but still didn't want to fight it, which I don't get.
April 16th, 2024 at 10:43 PM ^
The ncaa is full of bitter, garbage human beings
My hate for humanity grows every day
April 16th, 2024 at 10:46 PM ^
That’s how higher-ups are everywhere.
I think that's unfair to the C-levels. There's a good example in UM sports history. Compare these two football players from the early '70s: David Brandon and Jim Hackett. Similarly accomplished, right? I can certainly imagine Brandon doing something insecure, but not Hackett.
Not unfair at all. Any organization that doesn't have strong outside pressure to perform rather than be performative is chock full of spineless petty bureaucrats. At this point in my life I assume it's just part of the human condition.
April 16th, 2024 at 11:29 PM ^
Arrogant bureaucrats who have never held a job where anyone can tell if they do a good job or a bad job. They spend most of their time trying to convince people they are important.
April 17th, 2024 at 12:10 AM ^
"Leader": Doesn't give you the information nor appropriate objectives to succeed.
Manager (me): looks like an idiot asking my team to sail a boat missing its sails.
Team: wtf
Me: sorry y'all, hand we've been dealt
Client: I've cc'd your manager about why you have barnacles on your boat
Leader: throws me under the bus, makes more promises we can't deliver on
I'm quitting next Monday and taking a few clients with me, btw.
To be fair, the world is full of bitter, garbage human beings. some of them just happen to work for the NCAA.
I temper my hate with hope, which may be foolish, but I've long been a sucker for hope.
April 17th, 2024 at 11:51 AM ^
Am I missing something here or is it abject absurdity to make a rule restricting conversation between a potential recruit and a coach, i.e. a dead period? That the University rolls over and accepts punishment for such a heinous crime makes a case that Warde needs to go along with the Regents who support accepting punishment for something so ridiculous.
From the perspective of antitrust law, I suspect a strong case could be made that regulations such as this are unduly restrictive.
April 16th, 2024 at 10:44 PM ^
Bunches of petty losers!
Yes. Another tire on the fire.
April 17th, 2024 at 11:59 AM ^
I'm just curious why the NCAA thinks they need to provide additional evidence that they are petty losers. We get it already.
April 16th, 2024 at 10:50 PM ^
Another interesting aspect is “where” Roberts was before.. and that was USC. So, one might also infer a conflict of interest on Roberts part.
There is little doubt that a number of entities felt threatened by the points Harbaugh was advocating.
April 16th, 2024 at 10:55 PM ^
If Warde got a warning like that from the NCAA he'd commit seppuku.
April 16th, 2024 at 11:02 PM ^
Seppuku is what we're calling shitting your pants now.
Edit: Maybe that was shartuku. Japanese is confusing.
April 16th, 2024 at 11:33 PM ^
I believe that’s the Columbus bukkake.
OSU fans gather in a circle and proceed to poo in the same cooler.
Is that what Just for Men was doing in the middle of that circle? It did look like some sort of ritual.
April 17th, 2024 at 10:23 AM ^
Ruth, oh my?
April 17th, 2024 at 11:41 AM ^
+1 This needs an urban dictionary listing
April 16th, 2024 at 11:07 PM ^
With a dull blade and no second. It would drag on forever and be far more painful than it needed to be.
I'm not sure Warde would do that. That sounds like a lot of work.
It's tough to do while hiding under your desk.
Fire Warde.
April 16th, 2024 at 11:06 PM ^
Why hasn't the NCAA dissolved yet?
April 16th, 2024 at 11:25 PM ^
Vlad? You're a Jets fan now? I thought you were a Lions fan.
Rooting for the Jets and the Lions guarantees you've always got at least one team in the Super Bowl.
April 16th, 2024 at 11:38 PM ^
Welcome comrade.
J-E-T-S JETS! JETS! JETS!
Ah, the Jets. The NFL’s most dysfunctional team. A most worthy successor to the Lions.
Jets:NFL::Russia:Nuclear Powers
April 16th, 2024 at 11:07 PM ^
They came at the King; and they sure did miss.
April 16th, 2024 at 11:11 PM ^
What fuckin ass clowns. Their skin is about as thick as a slug on a pile of salt. They got their 200lbs of flesh and that isn't good enough I guess.
Hey Warde - when that one dickhead kid knows that you're the only kid he can take and you're never gonna fight back - you're getting your ass kicked every day.
April 16th, 2024 at 11:19 PM ^
If there was any doubt, this confirms signgate was a revenge witch hunt. This also makes Harbaugh look better for going back to the NFL because no coach should ever have to deal with petty crap like this.
This was exactly my thought as well. I've said from the very beginning of this nonsense last September that this anti-Michigan witchhunt was personnel and directed squarely at Harbaugh. He poked the bear repeatidly with Satelitte camps, advocating for player pay and openly questioning officiating in games where we got obviously screwed. And the NCAA did not like that one bit.
It would not surprise me to learn that Warde slow-played the contract and didnt publicly back Jim because of his buddies at the NCAA told him "if he goes, your troubles with us go. And if he stays, prepare for endless shit from us."
This was clearly a vendetta.
I don't think Warde and his buddy Stapleton can count on Harbaugh keeping his mouth shut about college player pay now.
You can bet Jim will talk about that more.
April 16th, 2024 at 11:21 PM ^
Honestly the whole thing validates that Warde didn't like Jim because between Purdue and Penn State the support completely halted. Michigan is way too invested in capitulation.
April 16th, 2024 at 11:24 PM ^
brie-eating capitulation tchotchkes
April 16th, 2024 at 11:30 PM ^
If this letter exists --- it would be a significant "trump card."
But if it exists, I'm also surprised Mars wouldn't have played that card back in October/November 2023, when the whole NCAA kerfuffle mattered 100000x more as regards the still-ongoing Michigan season.
The NCAA announcement this morning, eh, whatever. No major ramifications and it essentially closed the COVID part of things. Isn't it simply being over a win of sorts?
Or maybe Mars is just playing 11-dimensional chess ........
Honestly --- my read on Mars, he's just one of those guys who LIKES and RELISHES drama. For those familiar with him and his Walmart legal council days, he had a ton of drama there too (in that case, he was siding WITH the more powerful death star entity, as opposed to his current role opposing it).
April 16th, 2024 at 11:53 PM ^
Curious NittanyFan, as you and BuckeyeChuck seem rational fans of opposite teams, rivalries perhaps. Is their any rational to this entire situation? What are you/were your thoughts with all this? I mean no harm, but genuinely curious how reasonable people from fan bases who hate UM, and in my (maize and blue lens) eyes, not find this to be complete insanity?
April 17th, 2024 at 12:42 AM ^
I do find this all insane --- but perhaps for different reasons.
(1) On the COVID violations. OK, Matt Dudek reported Michigan. Kind of a dickhead thing to do, but he did it. And he apparently kept the receipts. What's insane to me is that everyone just didn't admit it. LSU & Air Force committed COVID impermissible contact violations too: their penalties were all Level-2. Take the Level-2 penalty, which admittedly isn't insignificant, and move on, you got caught. Harbaugh's alone, for whatever reason, in risking "leveling this up" to a potential Level-1 violation. That's insane to me.
(2) On signgate. I've said this before, but there's one particularly curious question at this point. That's "wait, was that Connor Stalions at the CMU @ MSU game?!?" At this point, I think it's still an open question. If it wasn't him, the proof likely would have made the news (his cell phone pinging off an AA tower, or him having a Chipotle receipt from that night, or his key card being used at Schembechler Hall, et cetera). And sure he could have been acting as a lone wolf by being in East Lansing, but it's not unfair to speculate as to various other ways he could have found his way to the CMU sideline. It's insane to me that "did any Michigan agents have a hand in getting Stalions there?" could even possibly be on the table. But I think it still is.
- Other than Harbaugh's "obstruction of justice" or whatever, wasn't it all Level 2 violations at Michigan?
- It's not that I'm totally disinterested in the CMU thing, but as it stands right now, it's not really that interesting anymore, is it? I think it's pretty clear it was CS. And it's pretty clear someone from CMU got him on the sideline, unless you think he figured out on his own how to get his hands on the exact CMU coaching outfit and also used his super secret spy skillllllzzzzzz to sneak onto the sideline. And it's pretty clear he did this at the behest of someone from CMU to help decode MSU's signs, or perhaps it was his own dumb ass idea for the lulz and he convinced his buddy to help him. Lots of possible CMU connections for him, most likely Kostner. I know the rival school's fantasy is that Minter or Harbaugh told CS to go do this, but it's undeniably more effective to use his standard M.O. of sending someone to video tape from the stands, to say nothing of the fact that videoing from the stands is also far less risky. All of which is to say, there's nothing left to that story that's particularly intriguing and it continues to stand simply as an example of how weird a dude CS is.
"Other than Harbaugh's "obstruction of justice" or whatever, wasn't it all Level 2 violations at Michigan?"
“But other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?”
Well, I was responding to this part:
What's insane to me is that everyone just didn't admit it. LSU & Air Force committed COVID impermissible contact violations too: their penalties were all Level-2. Take the Level-2 penalty, which admittedly isn't insignificant, and move on, you got caught.
But everyone did admit it. And as someone else pointed out, Harbaugh didn't even really deny it, he just said he didn't remember, which the NCAA determined was a lie, because they evidently have access to Harbaugh's memories.
And NitFan says take the Level 2 violation, which is exactly what Michigan has done.
Maybe Harbaugh will personally get hit with a level 1 violation, but the program is not.
You didn’t answer it, really. You do seem to imply, “Look! Look” as if anything of significance occurred. What if he was there? What if he was recording ? This is the part that makes me laugh at and scorn the other bases. It is silly the attempt to imply it offered any help. Silly is kind.
- As I understand it, Michigan admitted all of it. Harbaugh refused to admit he intentionally mislead anyone. It got to be a grudge match with Harbaugh. The NCAA position is that "I don't recall" isn't good enough. Jim says, I don't recall so take the evidence you have and do what you have to do.
- Stalions is incompetent. I find it hard to believe that anything he did was of any value and if it were of value then everyone would know it and be involved. His methods were not approved and went unnoticed. Primarily because they were a failure. It was possibly a violation of a cost saving rule.
April 17th, 2024 at 11:51 AM ^
What is insane is:
The NCAA demanded years of Harbaugh’s personal texts and Mars rightly told them that was outrageous under any law. That’s not Harbaugh leveling up. That’s an NCAA continuing to act as though it has the unilateral power of Joffrey Baratheon.
Mars says he filed a long brief with the NCAA on behalf of Harbaugh and has been ghosted ever since. The NCAA can’t come up with any reasonable justification for their behavior in response so they just move forward with their Kangaroo Court.
The NCAA threatened Mars and Michigan because they didn’t like him publicly pointing out their ridiculous behavior.
Conner was clearly at Central and clearly freelancing (the dude was hard up for money and constantly trying to find ways to make more by repairing vacuum cleaners and buying prairie land in Colorado) at Central yet people want still suggest otherwise.
And finally the #1 insane thing, Nittany Fan suggesting the letter mentioned by Mars was a fabrication.
I think if you read NittanyFan's posts about signgate, your conclusion won't be "rational".
I'm thoroughly confused by every part of your post here.
You say "if this letter exists." Dodd says CBS Sports obtained it. Are you suggesting we should consider that Dodd is lying about this?
And it's a trump card how? That Mars could have used it to dunk on the NCAA back in October? I don't see how that would have changed anything other than to make the NCAA even more antagonistic.
Also, I think you're implying that Mars has made this public now in retaliation for the Burger-gate sanctions. Yes? No? That might be true. I don't think it's obviously true. But even if it is true, why would Mars leak it anonymously? And why would Mars/Harbaugh just be glad that burgergate is over? For them, it is not over at all--or it was over as soon as Harbaugh left Michigan. Regardless, I think they're both very much just holding a grudge against the NCAA. I don't think they're worried about Michigan's sanctions at this point.