Pete Thamel: Big Ten reviewing Michigan, Jim Harbaugh responses, no timetable on decision

According to ESPN’s Pete Thamel, the Big Ten is reviewing the responses from Michigan and head coach Jim Harbaugh to a letter the league had sent warning the Wolverines of potential punishment stemming from the sign stealing scandal.

The Big Ten recently received some information from the NCAA’s investigation into the matter, and perceived the evidence shared to be enough to warrant some kind of punishment for Michigan. However, after warning the school that they could be punished, Michigan immediately fought back, sending their own letter warning Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti not to rush to judgment on the issue.

Now, per Thamel, the conference is reviewing that response from Michigan, as well as one from Jim Harbaugh‘s legal team. Here was his tweet Thursday morning with that news:

“Source: The Big Ten is reviewing the lengthy written responses from both Michigan and Jim Harbaugh. There’s no indication of any timetable on a decision on potential Big Ten discipline in the case of Michigan’s alleged illegal signal stealing.”

Per Yahoo Sports, who obtained some of the Michigan letter, the Wolverines were aggressive in prompting the commissioner to slow down his disciplinary process in regards to the sign-stealing, because, after all, Michigan believes the practice occurs with several other Big Ten schools as well.

“The conference should act cautiously when setting precedent given the reality that in-person scouting, collusion among opponents, and other questionable practices may well be far more prevalent than believed,” Michigan’s letter stated.

It also called for the completion of the NCAA’s investigation before Petitti and the Big Ten step in to do anything rash. The school would like for the Big Ten to allow for “due process” before penalizing Michigan.

As for Jim Harbaugh, while he is not able to directly comment on the matter, his attorney, Tom Mars, did pen a letter to the Big Ten defending his client’s role in this whole scandal. He argued that since other Big Ten teams have acquired signs by watching for them on game film, it was reasonable for Harbaugh to assume Stalions was getting the signs via the same methods — thus, he would not have suspected any foul play from his staff member.

“When other teams had been legally acquiring Michigan’s signals with 100 percent accuracy for at least two years by studying Michigan game films, there was no reason for Coach Harbaugh or anyone else to believe that (Stalions) had not acquired his information about other team’s signals by using the same methodology,” Mars wrote, per Yahoo.