Big Ten Botched Michigan, Jim Harbaugh Punishment With Clumsy Investigation

Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti made a hasty decision to suspend Harbaugh from the sideline for the rest of the regular season. It’s a move that the Wolverines won’t soon forget.

Tony Petitti has no idea how badly he just botched his job, but here is a hint: In a meeting last week, Michigan’s regents discussed possibly leaving the Big Ten if Petitti suspended coach Jim Harbaugh without what the school considered due process, a person familiar with those discussions told Sports Illustrated.

That may sound like an empty threat, but the fact it was even discussed should tell you how angry Michigan is right now about how Petitti has handled this. The process that led to Harbaugh’s three-game suspension was a clumsy execution of mob justice, and it is by no means over. Michigan is expected to take the Big Ten to court Friday night to try to allow Harbaugh to coach Saturday. (A Michigan spokesperson declined to comment publicly Friday night.)

Petitti handed down a punishment for Harbaugh that will not allow the Michigan head coach to be on the sideline for the remainder of the regular season :: Robert Goddin/USA TODAY Sports

Michigan should be angry. Petitti fell for the dodge. He got suckered into thinking he is standing up for the integrity of the game, when he is really just revealing how little he knows about college football. The Big Ten commissioner suspended Harbaugh for three games, including the two most important ones of the season, for a sign-stealing scheme, even though:

1. There is no public evidence that the Wolverines benefited more from the scheme than they would have from stealing signs legally. Maybe it exists, but where is it? If Stalions got all the signs from a friend on another staff (more on that below!), that would have been legal. As SI and other outlets reported last week, that is exactly what Ohio State and Rutgers did last year, when they furnished Purdue with a sheet with all of Michigan’s signs before Purdue played Michigan in the Big Ten title game.

2. Nobody has shown that Harbaugh knew staffer Connor Stalions was using illegal means (videotaping opponent’s signs in person in other stadiums) to get information; Harbaugh explicitly denied it; and, though some fans are convinced that Harbaugh orchestrated the scheme, other coaches have said privately that they highly doubt he knew anything about it.

3. The NCAA’s letter regarding its investigation only supports Michigan’s argument that Stalions acted alone. There is nothing in there that indicates he told anybody above him how he was getting his information.

4. Michigan players found out 20 hours before their biggest game of the year so far, at Penn State, that the conference suspended their coach. A Michigan source says the Big Ten did not even inform the school until a half hour after ESPN reported the news. That is the sign of a commissioner who has no idea what he is doing.

Within the Big Ten, there is a widespread perception that two of the programs that have expressed the most outrage are Ohio State and Penn State. In related news, the two coaches who have to explain to their fan bases why they have been losing to Michigan lately are Ohio State’s Ryan Day and Penn State’s James Franklin. The outrage on a conference call with Petitti, followed by leaked “coaches are demanding action!” stories, were a tactic to convince Petitti that he had to act before the NCAA finished its investigation. Those coaches must be thrilled right now—not just because Harbaugh got punished, but because Tony Petitti just helped convince their fan bases that they didn’t really lose straight-up to Michigan, they lost to cheaters.

Why would coaches with a clear personal interest in the outcome deserve any influence in this? I looked through the Big Ten bylaws. I didn’t see anything about appearing before a jury of the peers you have been beating.

Harbaugh and his players received word of the decision on Friday afternoon, less than 24 hours before a matchup with Penn State :: Abbie Parr/AP

The public narrative is detached from the known facts of the case. Case in point: If you have followed this at all, you have probably seen pictures of Stalions apparently standing on Central Michigan’s sideline at Michigan State earlier this season. You probably naturally assumed that Michigan infiltrated another team to spy on its instate rival.

But did you know that Stalions is a longtime friend of Central Michigan coach Jacob Kostner, a former Michigan student assistant, according to someone who knows them both? Does Petitti know? Has he asked Kostner if he knew Stalions was there (if, indeed, he was there), if Kostner helped Stalions get there, and, if this was indeed a case of a spy sneaking onto Central Michigan’s sideline, why Chippewas coach Jim McElwain said his program was “totally unaware” Stalions was there? McElwain has not provided an update since; the latest reason is that it is part of an NCAA investigation. If that was indeed Stalions, was he working on behalf of Michigan, Central Michigan, neither, or both?

A person who wants the full story would ask these questions. A person who has followed due process would share the answers. A person who wants Jim Harbaugh punished would not want to wait for the answers. (I asked a Central Michigan representative if I could ask these questions of Kostner and have not received a response.)

If college football were a sport of reasonable people who prioritized fairness above all else, then the NCAA would finish its investigation, release everything it had, and it would be possible—possible to reach the conclusion that somebody in Harbaugh’s program broke a rule, he didn’t know, and the penalty would be in proportion to the crime. Instead, college football is full of people claiming to be pristine and complaining that somebody else is dirty. Harbaugh has done that himself, and now others have done it to him. A lot of people fall for that trick. It’s just incredible that one of them is the commissioner of the Big Ten.

A more adept commissioner would have issued a fine and announced that he retained the right to administer further punishment at the conclusion of the NCAA investigation—and then told angry coaches that he was treating Harbaugh as he would treat them. Instead, Petitti got played.

Of course, Michigan is unlikely to leave the Big Ten—but the school might do its damnedest to make sure Tony Petitti does.