Recruiting Violations by MSU's Arch-Rival Michigan Revealed
Michigan State's biggest rival, Michigan, enters the 2024 college football season as the reigning national champion, but the violations the program has committed over the past few years continue to make headlines.
Before the Wolverines' sign-stealing scandal, there were the recruiting violations from 2021 that resulted in former Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh serving a three-game suspension to start the 2023 season.
These violations were finally made public by the university in an 11-page Notice of Allegations (NOA it had received from the NCAA in December, per Angelique S. Chengelis of The Detroit News.
According to Chengelis, the NOA detailed five violations the program had committed. They were as follows:
1. A Level II violation involving recruiting visits from three prospects during the COVID-19 dead period.
2. A Level II violation committed by an unidentified coach, who, in an interview with investigators, "failed to cooperate and provided misleading or false information," per Chengelis.
3. A potential Level I violation in which Harbaugh "violated the NCAA principles of ethical conduct and failed to cooperate" when interrogated by investigators in 2022.
4. A Level II violation that, according to Chengelis, "involved the football staff's involvement in on-campus evaluations and the use of non-coaching staff as hands-on coaches “in the presence of the assistant football coaches.”
5. A Level II violation regarding the first two violations. The NOA stated that Michigan "did not a. ) effectively deter and/or detect the football program's impermissible in-person on-campus and off-campus interactions with prospective student-athletes and b. ) ensure the football program's compliance with noncoaching staff member legislation."
The NOA confirmed that Harbaugh had, in fact, met with the aforementioned recruits and their fathers.
The NCAA announced in April that Michigan would serve a three-year probation for the recruiting violations committed during the COVID-19 dead period.
Michigan and the NCAA settled on a negotiated resolution that concluded Michigan would pay a fine. The coaches involved also agreed to one-year show cause orders.
Harbaugh is now entering his first year as head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers. Sherrone Moore, who served as interim coach during the final stretch of the Wolverines' 2023 regular season, is now Michigan football's head coach.
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