College football insider weighs in on the NCAA's 'aggressive' response to Jim Harbaugh situation

The NCAA did not mince words Saturday when it released a statement on Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh. Harbaugh was supposed to serve a four-game suspension to start the 2023 season over an alleged recruiting violations, including meeting recruits during a COVID-19 dead period and buying them burgers.

But after Harbaugh continued to deny any wrongdoing in response to the alleged violations, the NCAA rejected that proposal. Vice President of Hearing Operations Derrick Crawford stated clearly that the infractions are “related to impermissible on and off-campus recruiting during the COVID-19 dead period and impermissible coaching activities — not a cheeseburger.”

Joining On3’s Andy Staples, Ralph Russo of the Associated Press explained that the strong response is unusual for the NCAA and what it means for Harbaugh.

“That statement pops into my messages and I’m like, ‘oh, really? That’s an interesting approach,'” Russo said. “The NCAA tends not to be that aggressive. To a degree, they’re right. We keep using the same phrase when it comes to this whole Harbaugh mess. It’s not the crime, it’s the cover up. Michigan really has sort of portrayed this as ‘listen, this is a minor thing.’ But that’s the point.

“It was a minor thing until Harbaugh did the whole Harbaugh thing for whatever reason, whether he was just forgetful or weird Harbaugh or truly just lying. Any of the above or all of the above, all of a sudden this becomes something where a slap on the wrist, maybe a scholarship here or there and some limits in recruiting to now we’re talking about suspending the head coach of a possible national championship contender.”

Had Harbaugh been more willing to cooperate with the NCAA, it is likely he would have served the four-game suspension and been done with it. The two sides had been working on a deal for several months in effort to move on.

However, with the NCAA’s recent statement, the coach now finds himself several more months away from reaching a conclusion. The college football season is set to kick off in less than two weeks, meaning many of the people who will be involved in the hearing will be far too busy to address this for a while.

“I haven’t talked to anybody about the timing, but we’ve been through enough of these to know that once you get to the point where you’re not going to have a resolution and it’s going to go to the committee on infractions, now you’ve got to get on their calendar,” Russo said. “These people have other jobs.

“Just so people understand, the committee on infractions is made up of people who work in schools athletics departments. Commissioners, athletic directors. People along those lines. So to say, ‘we just need to slap it on the calendar,’ that could easily be 6-7 months. Then you have to have the hearing and they have to process that. He could be the coach of the Raiders by the time this is over.”

But for now, Harbaugh will be ready to lead the Wolverines into the season opener on Sept. 2 as he aims to make the College Football Playoff for the third consecutive year. Once the season is over, he’ll again have to turn his attention back to the violations and try to finally reach a resolution.