NCAA President Charlie Baker: Michigan won National Championship 'fair and square'
The Michigan Wolverines are legitimate National Champions, and the detractors will have to get used to that. NCAA President Charlie Baker shared with the media on Wednesday night that its title win and 15-0 season was earned “fair and square.”
Baker told national media outlets that the NCAA’s “unusual decision” to disclose information to teams about the cheating allegations at Michigan helped eliminate any doubt that the Wolverines were granted a substantial competitive advantage from its alleged illegal sign-stealing operation.
Harbaugh was suspended for three games at the end of the regular season by Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti, but it did not stop Michigan from continuing to win, ultimately capturing an undefeated season, a third-straight Big Ten title and trip to the College Football Playoff and the program’s first national title since the 1997 season.
“I don’t regret doing it because sitting on that information, given the comprehensiveness of it, I think we would have put everyone including Michigan in an awful place,” Baker said Tuesday night while speaking to a small group of reporters at the NCAA Convention. “At the end of the day, no one believes at this point that Michigan didn’t win the national title fair and square. So I think we did the right thing.”
The investigation into Michigan’s operation remains open, and discipline for individuals involved could still come, but Baker’s comments seem to put to rest any notion that the season could be vacated or titles will be stripped.
“We do have a series of discussions going on with the infractions folks about whether or not we can’t do something to speed up the pace of our investigations,” Baker said. “Certainly in a case like this, we’d like to be able to move a lot more quickly.”
Titles will remain, and banners are going up. And without any compelling evidence, the Wolverines are being recognized as a legitimate champion.
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“It went exactly how we wanted it to go to win every game,” Harbaugh said on Monday night. “The off-the-field issues, we’re innocent and we stood strong and tall because we knew we were innocent. And I’d like to point that out.”
Baker hopes that the NCAA investigation will pick up and that the case can be put to bed sooner rather than later. He also said that he was not sure how potential discipline would be altered if Harbaugh jumped to the NFL.
Harbaugh has ruffled feathers with his comments about the state of college sports and player compensation, but Baker gave the Michigan head coach props for his right to express his opinion.
“I think coaches have a platform that is earned and deserved and they should feel free to talk about whatever they want to talk about,” Baker said. “Those are big-time jobs with big-time audiences and big-time impact.”
