Michigan investigation is 'highly unlikely' to be finished by the start of 2024 season, per Pete Thamel

The Michigan investigation is “highly unlikely” to be finished by the start of the 2024 season, according to ESPN’s Pete Thamel.

To this point, there is a notice of allegations against the program, as well as Wednesday’s news of the NCAA slapping former coach Jim Harbaugh with a four-year show cause. But to this point, the final punishment and penalties won’t come anytime soon.

According to Thamel, it’ll take a bit.

“So macro, seven coaches from the ‘23 staff are alleged to have wrongdoing in this draft of the notice of allegations, and we should put all the qualifiers in here,” Thamel explained on the College GameDay podcast. “Drafts of notice of allegations can change. It’s just a draft. And a lot of times Reece, these are inflection points to start working towards a negotiated resolution, which Michigan had tried to do around this time last year. In this case, if you look at precedent, because there’s a lot of repeat violator things going on here, I don’t know if we’ll get to a negotiated resolution. 

“I was told it’s all like just in terms of timeline and precedent, it’s really highly unlikely any of this is going to be resolved before the start of the season.” 

Michigan investigation a slow burn?

Sherrone Moore, the current head coach, was suspended one game last year for previous violations. The michigan coach could see Level II violations amid the sign stealing scandal as well.

However, that might not happen until 2025.

“As a Level II, I would think ultimately that gets distilled to a short suspension of some kind,” Thamel said. “It could be no suspension, it could be a short suspension. I don’t think we’re looking at anything — it’s hard. If you look at what happened in the college basketball scandal, it’s hard to have a significant — you’ve really got to break some rules to do that.”

As far as Harbaugh is concerned, he’s with the Los Angeles Chargers. But his punishment is not related to the Michigan sign stealing allegations. He received a four-year show-cause and a one-season suspension.

The violations Harbaugh is now being penalized for had to do with impermissible recruiting contacts and inducements during the COVID-19 dead period. An NCAA report indicated that Harbaugh’s violations are Level II violations, but “his unethical conduct and failure to cooperate with the membership’s infraction process” rose to a Level I violation.Even in an ever-evolving situation, Thamel and College GameDay host Rece Davis don’t expect any wins or title vacation as part of the punishment.