Bruce Feldman suspects Jim Harbaugh will not coach Michigan against Penn State
Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti is expected to hand down a punishment for Michigan and head coach Jim Harbaugh shortly, under the conference’s sportsmanship policy. Among the punishments being considered is a suspension for Harbaugh.
One person who thinks that’s likely is college football reporter, Bruce Feldman. In fact, Feldman thinks that Harbaugh will not be able to coach against Penn State on Saturday.
“My gut is that Jim Harbaugh may not be coaching on Saturday,” Feldman said. “I don’t know that. We’re going to find out probably in the next 18 hours, I would say, which is a weird spot to be because it’s like, you know how the football schedule works over the course of a week. I mean, it’s already Wednesday afternoon in the Big Ten and the uncertainty of how this is going forward is still a big TBD.”
This weekend, Michigan is traveling to Happy Valley to take on a ranked Penn State team. After that, the Wolverines have games against Maryland and Ohio State coming up. That comes as the Wolverines try and win their third Big Ten Championship in a row and go to the College Football Playoff.
“If he’s not the head coach, it’s a tough place to play and it’s a really talented opponent. If he’s not there, they did have three games where he wasn’t there. They were cupcake games relative to this.”
Under the Big Ten’s sportsmanship policy, the thought is that Harbaugh could be suspended for two games. However, it’s been reported that with executive board approval, that suspension could be longer than two games.
“I just don’t know what the pushback piece from Michigan is that, can you get a TRO [Temporary Restraining Order] to block it, to keep him on the field? I’m not an attorney, and even if I was, I wouldn’t be that familiar with their case at this point to know what may be coming out.
Paul Finebaum advises Big Ten’s Tony Petitti to ‘be careful’ with Jim Harbaugh, Michigan punishment
How Tony Petitti chooses to punish Jim Harbaugh and Michigan is going to have a massive impact on the Big Ten, Michigan, and Playoff race. With that in mind, Paul Finebaum says that Petitti needs to be careful with his punishment.
“I think Tony Petitti is doing the right thing by jumping in immediately, Greeny. But I think he better be careful before he starts handing down punishment. First of all, I’m sure Michigan lawyers are ready to go crazy with all kinds of lawsuits, and junctions, and who knows what else, and they may very well be successful because this is not really the normal protocol. I realize it’s within the rules of the Big Ten, but normally these things are handled through the NCAA,” Finebaum said.
“So, I applaud Petitti on one hand, I think the real issue is, is he going to let Jim Harbaugh coach a team when most people in this point in time, that’s not the measure but that’s what most people think, that he has broken and shattered the rules.”