In a release titled “Michigan committed NCAA violations in football program,” the NCAA on Tuesday afternoon revealed the results of one of the two ongoing investigations into the Michigan football team.
In a press release, the sport’s governing body stated that “Michigan and five individuals who currently or previously worked for its football program have reached an agreement with NCAA enforcement staff on recruiting violations and coaching activities by noncoaching staff members that occurred within the football program, and the appropriate penalties for those violations.”
The University of Michigan Athletic Department and a number of current and past employees are the subject of today’s joint resolution, according to a written statement from Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel in response to the announcement. We are happy to have resolved this issue so that our football program and student-athletes can continue. We are unable to comment further on any other part of the NCAA’s inquiries as we do not possess any new information.”
The infractions that fans frequently call “BurgerGate” were identified by the NCAA as “impermissible in-person recruiting contacts during a COVID-19 dead period, impermissible tryouts, and the program exceeding the number of allowed countable coaches when noncoaching staff members engaged in on- and off-field coaching activities (including providing technical and tactical skills instruction to student-athletes).”
Those were all considered Level-II offenses a year ago, meaning they were very minor in nature and probably wouldn’t result in harsh punishments. Things took a turn for the worst when the NCAA said on Tuesday that there had been a “head coach responsibility violation and the former football head coach failed to meet his responsibility to cooperate with the investigation.”
The NCAA deemed this a Level-I infraction, which ultimately resulted in Jim Harbaugh, the head coach of Michigan, being suspended for the first three games of the 2023 campaign.
According to the NCAA’s statement, “the school’s agreement” on Harbaugh’s breach of accountability was included in the resolution. It said that “the school also agreed that it failed to deter and detect the impermissible recruiting contacts and did not ensure that the football program adhered to rules for noncoaching staff members.”
According to a release from the NCAA, “one former coach did not participate in the agreement, and that portion of the case will be considered separately by the Committee on Infractions, after which the committee will release its full decision.” It said that “the committee’s final decision — including potential violations and penalties for the former coach — is pending.”
The NCAA’s decision to pursue different resolution options, which is the fourth time it has ever done so, seems to imply that the NCAA is no longer holding Michigan accountable for Harbaugh’s compliance, even though it does not specifically say that Harbaugh is the coach refusing to participate in the agreement.
The NCAA specified the sanctions that had been agreed upon for Michigan and said they will consist of:
– “Three years of probation for the school”
– “A fine and recruiting restrictions in alignment with the Level I-Mitigated classification for the school”
– “The participating individuals also agreed to one-year show-cause orders consistent with the Level II-Standard and Level II-Mitigated classifications of their respective violations.”
Apart from Harbaugh’s punishment, Michigan’s athletic department also imposed a one-game penalty on current head coach Sherrone Moore and offensive line coach Grant Newsome last September. The suspensions are thought to have been an attempt to avoid fines from the NCAA later on.
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