Michigan Football - 2024 Season.

[AlabamAlum]

Like I said, they CAN be ignored as long as the conference (read presidents as well as the commissioner) and non conference schools ignore it, as well. I’m not sure that’s a complete slam dunk at this point in time.

[AlabamAlum]

Maybe the idiocy the NCAA levels at Michigan will be their undoing. We can only hope.

[THE_WIZARD_]

I think it's damn close...for football anyway.

[AlabamAlum]

It’s needed to happen for 50+ years. Wildly disparate kangaroo court punishments and edicts. If you asked why, they’d just grin and shoot back, “Fuck you, that’s why.”

[AlabamAlum]

Just keep in mind, conference mates and rival teams will let you down. You'll get a lot of "Well, you need to stop cheating." answers when you ask for support.

[THE_WIZARD_]

Probably true. We'll need for several member instructions to revolt. But I don't see the NCAA really hammering anyone anymore. Mostly they are just slaps on the wrist with as you say "because fuck you"...basically to justify their existence. It's like NY City cops going after serious crimes but no real punishment...wait...that is happening too...

[lineygoblue]

The waters are becoming less muddied every day. Its now apparent that Manuel has been the sticking point in all this. He's likely the one who has stonewalled any new contract or extenstion for Harbaugh, because he's afraid of what the NCAA is going to do. Harbaugh has tried to force his hand by dallying with the NFL. I believe this, because I think if Harbaugh was really heart-set on going to the NFL, the deal would have already been made. Some team would have grabbed him. Instead, Harbaugh has went thru some 'interviews' but gotten no offers, probably because the interviewers knew he wasn't serious about coming back to the NFL.

So what Harbs has done in the meanwhile, is to enlist the help of Santa Ono to force Manuel to either make the contract offer to Harbaugh, or get out of the way. I think that's what happened earlier this week. Ono moved Manuel out of the way, and guaranteed Harbaugh a better contract. Manuel still wants to wait on the NCAA's findings.

At the end of all this, Harbaugh is going to get his new contract, including raises and job security for his coaches. He'll likely get a NIL deal going at Michigan that Manuel doesn't like. Which, .. will grease the rails for Manuel to take his ball and go away.

As far as 'penalties', and knowing the absolute stupidity of the NCAA, I'd expect Harbaugh to get suspended for about 4 games, which will later be reduced to about 2 games when Santa Ono lambastes them for such a severe penalty. M will likely lose a few schollys, and a few recruiting visits as well, because those are a favorite target of the NCAA.

Warde Manuel will not be the AD at Michigan much longer. He'll leave of his own choosing by June.

That's how it appears from here.

[THE_WIZARD_]

Fuck the NCAA...and Marty's investigator buddies...

[Jeff Buchanan]

Has any NCAA member institution ever mounted a legal challenge to the NCAA's authority to penalize members, who I believe volunteer to be governed by the NCAA, for rules violations? I have no idea what kind of enforceable agreements are in place between a member institution and the NCAA but I bet some smart lawyers can look into this and find legal reasons why the NCAA does not have enforcement authority.

If you look at the NCAA enforcement rules, it seems to me that these are very much like college honor boards. A student is alleged to have cheated on an exam, for example, goes before the board, due process is allegedly carried out and the board assigns a penalty that then has to be reviewed and approved by school administration. There are all kinds of legal pitfalls along the way involving due process and challenges to the legal right of the honor board to pass judgement and/or levy undeserved penalties.

I suspect the U, as defined by Ono - is going to fight this and the means by which that fight takes place will be a legal challenge to the NCAA's authority to investigate an alleged violation and enforce legislation that they implement, potentially without a legal basis to do so. The way I see it going down is that there will be a written challenge submitted to the NCAA who will then, seeing it's a legal fight that if they lose it, they are done, and some sort of agreement will be reached that spares Harbaugh or the U. I cannot believe that Ono would get behind JH, knowing that a fight could be brewing between the U and the NCAA, without first having U lawyers look at some of this and say, we can beat this.

Grabs box of popcorn.

[lineygoblue]

I've been doggone proud of Harbaugh these last two seasons, especially for sucking up his pride, and improving his coaching methods after the disasterous 2020 season. I didn't think I could be more proud of him after these last two years.

Today, I'm even more proud of Coach Harbaugh. I know that's going to get howls of remarks in here, but I'll take that.

Tear the NCAA's leg off like a pit bull, Coach.

https://www.mlive.com/wolverines/2023/01/report-jim-harbaugh-wont-admit-he-lied-to-ncaa-investigators.html?utm_campaign=wolverines_sf&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR2ocElT0KJC6P8QmtaMxfkRQT43TFXffhn3KFTcxaDvwTeZgeAj6HrtMT0

16594028486914189711?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mlive.com%2Fresizer%2FxPimAy6z3AIdQIhmkB6_yDGgYPY%3D%2F1280x0%2Fsmart%2Fcloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com%2Fadvancelocal%2FGCZPIOFUMRBEJMOZ5QOTLOQB5Q.JPG&fb_obo=1&utld=mlive.com&stp=c0.500

[Jeff Buchanan]

Continuing to speculate about any challenges, legal or otherwise, that the U can mount, apparently, Harbaugh has refused to sign an NCAA document that said he lied. Given that he won't sign it, the Level I allegation is going to be dead in the water. This may be the point of attack.

The U doesn't care about the other stupid shit the NCAA has alleged. The NCAA is left therefor with proving Harbaugh lied. This is really hard and I think people at the U advising the parties in the matter know this. If I have this correct, the primary way that testimony is proven to be false is with corroborating evidence from other witnesses stating that it is false. In this case, another person would have to testify that he heard Harbaugh admit that he lied, i.e., he actually did know he had paid for the burger in question and, instead, when interrogated about it, he told NCAA investigators he didn't recall.

An approach like this avoids the hassel of trying to take the entire NCAA down (I'd like to see that) and instead just focuses on this one aspect of the case: The NCAA can't prove that JH lied. End of story.

[hack]

Meanwhile, some consideration for the real victims, over at Cleveland State...

[THE_WIZARD_]

NCAA = Keystone Cops

[AlabamAlum]

Jeff,

It’s a voluntary membership with an assortment of policies. Michigan, and the rest of us, signed off on giving the NCAA administrative authority to become a member institution of the association. Collectively, our presidents give them their power.

Their standard line has always been, “If you don’t like It, withdraw from the Association.”

Real change can only occur through a collective effort.

[Tom W]

To paraphrase a quote from Apocalypse Now: The NCAA wants to hand out speeding tickets at the Indy 500.