The enormous venue where the football team called the Wolverines competes bears the most succinct possible name: Michigan Stadium. It does not carry the brand of a corporate sponsor, nor the name of a program legend, as many fine candidates as there might be, from Tom Harmon to Bo Schembechler to Desmond Howard to some guy named Brady.
This is where Jim Harbaugh coaches a half-dozen times or more each autumn – or less, if he’s being disciplined. He does not own the place, though. He runs the team, and whenever that ceases to be the case, the cool helmets and the six-figure crowds will endure.
Which is why making this “SignalGate” scandal strictly about Harbaugh is too limiting.
This is about Michigan football: not just the person in charge, or those most closely involved with running the team on both sides of the scrimmage line, or even the inscrutable gentleman whose statement upon resigning from his position on the UM staff granted us the most tangible permission to accept the veracity of what had been reported by various media outlets.
The Big Ten did the right thing Friday by suspending Harbaugh from coaching on the sideline until the end of the regular season. It just wasn’t quite right enough.
Michigan gained advantages through scouting
To counteract the apparent advantages gained by Michigan through the use of in-person scouting that has been against NCAA rules for more than three decades, it would have been reasonable to keep more than just the head coach from the sideline during the Wolverines’ three remaining games, which includes two Game of the Year-type showdowns: Saturday at noon at Penn State, and Nov. 25 at home against archrival Ohio State.
When the staff member at the heart of this controversy, Connor Stalions, resigned his position last week, he sought to make it clear that “to his knowledge, neither Coach Harbaugh, nor any other coach or staff member, told anyone to break any rules or were aware of improper conduct regarding the recent allegations of advanced scouting,” according to attorney Brad Beckworth.
It is not necessary to assert guilt on the part of anyone involved, though – not even the head coach – to recognize Michigan’s opponents were put at an unfair disadvantage, and the best remedy for this is to disadvantage the Wolverines for a similar period. The time frame need not be identical, and the presence of only three games on the schedule makes for a convenient time frame.
MORE ON MICHIGAN SIGN-STEALING:
- A timeline of Jim Harbaugh's controversies
- What suspension means for Michigan's CFP chances
- Inside Jim Harbaugh's coaching history at Michigan
Harbaugh is not the primary playcaller for either the UM offense or defense, though, which means his value on game day might not be exorbitant. The Wolverines will have to make the big decisions without him, such as whether to go for it on a crucial fourth down or when it might be prudent to attempt a 2-point conversion. But their offensive and defensive operations will be relatively unimpeded, and that seems unjust. The Big Ten should have removed the offensive and defensive coordinators for the same period as Harbaugh -- "unsidelined" them, so to speak -- if it wanted to more closely balance the scales tipped in Michigan's favor during Stalion's scheme.
It was disappointing to find Michigan focusing on the alleged rapidity of the investigation into these allegations and promising court action to counteract the penalty. The Wolverines are nearing the goal line of a season that, to date, has produced a perfect record and No. 3 ranking by the College Football Playoff committee. Efficiency is not so appealing in such a circumstance.
The Big Ten Conference, however, provided a 13-page document citing numerous items of evidence this activity occurred. And the Oct. 20 suspension of Stalions does not exactly serve as a declaration of innocence. For all of UM’s posturing on the pace of the process, Big Ten commissioner Tony Petiti quoted the league’s Sportsmanship Policy as requiring him to assign a sufficient punishment “as expeditiously as possible.”
Honestly, UM should consider itself fortunate the league did not reach for the big club: ineligibility for the Big Ten Championship game.
There have been concerns cited in many discussions of this circumstance regarding how fair any penalty might be to the current Michigan players. It will be disruptive for their head coach to be absent for their most important games to date. It will not be as disconcerting as running a pass route into double coverage that might not ordinarily have been there, or for an offensive tackle to watch a linebacker slip inside a block as if – as if? – he knew where the running back was ordained to carry the ball.
One element of this chicanery has not been pondered openly enough, thoughtfully enough: Does this hazardous sport carry even greater risk if the opponent knows in advance the choreography of all or most strategies?
Michigan scandal unlike any other
Much more energy has been spent on haranguing Harbaugh, in small part because he’s the square-jawed face of the program, in greater part because his curious demeanor and unique approach to running a college football program make him a larger-than-life target.
Debating whether he knew about the in-person scouting program, or whether he merely chose not to question how the opposition research was being compiled, is to miss the point of the issue at hand.
This is not like any recent scandal we’ve seen in college athletics. We have seen myriad issues about acquisition of talent, and more than a few involving whether those competing at various schools were doing their share of legitimate academic work, but the active debasement of fair competition is something altogether different.
If a program at what we used to call a “renegade” D-I program paid $100 grand to a a shooting guard in pursuit of a place in the men’s Final Four, he still had to hit threes and defend opposing wings. Those games still were decided by which team scored more points over the regulation 40 minutes. The power forward who cut class and had his work done by a rogue academic advisor still had to grab rebounds and block shots.
For however many games Michigan illegally obtained knowledge of its opponent’s play signals, though, the playing surface tilted downhill for the Wolverines. Barring Harbaugh from short-term involvement in competition is a warranted punishment. It is not enough, though, to be deemed as sufficient.
