Bad News Piling Up as Information Emerged in Spartans' Rival Wolverines Cheating Scandal
As the season nears, the Michigan State Spartans are looking to turn a new leaf under head coach Jonathan Smith. The Michigan Wolverines are trying to do the same with Sherrone Moore. His predecessor, Jim Harbaugh, and the baggage he left behind, make it exceedingly difficult to do so.
According to one report, a former Wolverines recruiting director told the NCAA that Harbaugh dismissed the COVID-19 dead period and told staffers to "go up to the line and cross it."
NCAA reports, per Eleven Warriors, show the director's statements to the NCAA in "multiple interviews with enforcement staff and investigators conducted in 2022."
"The NCAA revealed the director's statement in a 48-page report issued Wednesday, soon after the organization handed Harbaugh a four-year show-cause penalty for violations he committed during the pandemic-related dead period," Chase Brown of Eleven Warriors wrote. "According to the NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions, Harbaugh 'violated recruiting and inducement rules, engaged in unethical conduct, failed to promote an atmosphere of compliance and violated head coach responsibility obligations.' The former director's statement, in addition to other findings of fact, helped the committee reach that conclusion and deliver punishment.
"In early 2021, multiple football prospects visited Michigan's campus on these informal visits ... According to the recruiting director, Harbaugh urged him to 'get guys to campus. ... The football staff had no process in place to alert the athletics compliance staff when prospects were planning to visit campus ... the football staff took no precautions during the visits to avoid in-person contact with the prospects ... the culture wasn't to be safe, the culture was to go up to the line and cross it if you had to.'"
Harbaugh, now head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers, has repeatedly denied the allegations -- including those stemming from the Connor Stalions sign-stealing scandal.
"Never lie. Never cheat. Never steal," Harbaugh has told the press. "I was raised on that lesson. I have raised my family on that lesson. I have preached that lesson to the teams that I've coached. No one's perfect. If you stumble, you apologize and make it right. Today, I do not apologize. I did not participate, was not aware of nor complicit in those said allegations. So ... it's back to work and attacking with an enthusiasm unknown to mankind."
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MICHAEL FRANCE