Colin Cowherd: Alleged Michigan violations are a 'witch hunt'

As far as Fox Sports talking head Colin Cowherd is concerned, the ongoing NCAA investigation into Michigan football — including a number of former coaches now with the Los Angeles Chargers — is a “witch hunt.” He expanded on his thinking during his show on Tuesday.

While Cowherd didn’t offer anything up to dispute the facts of the allegations reported to be a draft Notice of Allegations — the NCAA equivalent of an indictment — his general disposition was that much of what was outlined is picayune. Things that shouldn’t be violations nowadays, anyways, Cowherd seems to think

And he strongly pushed back against the notion that then-head coach Jim Harbaugh was responsible.

“There is nothing in this ruling, nothing, that proves Harbaugh knew any of it,” Cowherd said.

While it’s possible Harbaugh himself was, indeed, ignorant of the various alleged violations and the main impetus of the investigation, Connor Stalions and his advanced scouting operation, NCAA rules also state that a head coach can be held responsible for violations from those under their direction.

Further, Cowherd opened his argument by trying to countenance some of the alleged violations at Michigan with the fact that recruits can now effectively be paid in NIL dollars to come play at certain schools.

Though Cowherd’s argument, in this regard, didn’t entirely hold water.

One of the alleged violations is that Michigan coaches texted a recruit prior to them being eligible for contact from college coaches, which happens in the summer prior to an athlete’s junior year of high school. Cowherd argued that if such a player could get a big-money NIL deal to play in college, then it shouldn’t be a problem for Michigan coaches to be texting the player, even though the two rules are unrelated and the no-contact rule would presumably stave off the ability for much NIL interaction.

As for Harbaugh, specifically, Cowherd suspects that the NCAA might be trying to push hard on punishing him or his former program as he was deemed to be non-cooperative in the investigation, largely because he apparently refused to turn over his cell phone and messaging.

“The other part of the draft that I found interesting, it says ‘He did not identify possible red flags.’ I didn’t know he was the director of internal affairs at Michigan. I thought he was the football coach,” Cowherd said.

He continued, lambasting the NCAA as an organization.

“The NCAA’s a forgone era, it’s a dinosaur, it’s Jurassic. It’s a relic. They have no power anymore. And this is a witch hunt. Day 1 on Jim Harbaugh’s Michigan watch, they were going after him,” Cowherd said.

The current violations Michigan faces seem to exclusively stem from actions taken during or after the Covid-19 pandemic hit in 2020; Harbaugh began his Michigan tenure in December 2015. He faced some early NCAA scrutiny for quirky recruiting efforts, including satellite camps. But both the investigation into the impermissible scouting and the earlier violations, which resulted in Harbaugh’s school-imposed three-game suspension at the beginning of the 2023 season, were looking at violations that occurred within the last five years.

Even still, it seems Cowherd is on the warpath against the NCAA, and in defense of Harbaugh for what he’s deemed a “witch hunt.”

“You’ve gotta be kidding me. This stuff is nonsense,” Cowherd said.