In a statement released Friday afternoon, the league said it has found U-M in violation of the Big Ten Sportsmanship Policy "for conducting an impermissible, in-person scouting operation over multiple years, resulting in an unfair competitive advantage that compromised the integrity of competition."
Jim Harbaugh has found (and earned) a cushy existence. I don't know all the perks of course, but he earns about $10 million a year now and made tens or hundreds more before that. These suspensions are really goofy--earlier this season he missed one-fourth of the schedule, but only for games. Now he is seemingly suspended for threee more, which makes for half the season. The season is only about three months or a fourth of the year anyway.
Obviously it is longer than that with training, practices, recruiting, and all the other functions. Harbaugh has an enormous staff and budget for that. Still, it all hinges on him, his leadership, experience, expertise, network, and all that goes with it.
Will he and they damage that? As noted, he is already comfortable and situated in his life. Think about Sam Bankman-Fried and risk. What are he and they risking? Perhaps it includes bad blood from the season-beginning suspension and everything before that.
He and they are taking that risk. They all feel it is worth the smaller downside.
They know fully they are the "big boys" in any fight. They are Michigan, the biggest game on everyone's schedule. They provide the ratings. More to the point, they know everyone is gunning for them, especially when they are good on the football field.
Even realizing that, they feel a legal fight is something they should or have to do. It goes all the way up to the president and the board.
Read the first paragraph of this column. These are serious infractions.
It is 7AM Mountain Daylight time in Colorado. The Penn State game starts in three hours. You know, it doesn't matter much for the game. It is more or less a figurehead, symbolic penalty anyway. Jesse Minter and Sherrone Moore are capable of running the team and they have done it before. The actual players in the game have done it before too.
One thing, before I close. Connor Stallions is an idiot of epic proportions. Michigan should sue him instead of the Big Ten.
Everyone is expendable. The game stars in 2 1/2 hours.
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