Opinion: Jim Harbaugh, Michigan Deserve College Football’s Death Penalty

I don’t believe Harbaugh should be allowed to continue leading the Michigan Wolverines.

Jim Harbaugh and the Michigan Wolverines find themselves at the center of a cheating scandal that is impossible to justify.

I’m assuming what’s been reported by several credible reporters at major national publications is true, without having seen the evidence myself. The damage caused to the University of Michigan and college football at large because of their alleged cheating scandal is irreparable and I think the Wolverines and coach Harbaugh need to be given the stiffest penalty in college football history.

Is sign-stealing illegal? No. Is it safe to assume that most teams are looking to gain a competitive advantage, which includes trying to decipher what play their opponent might be signaling in from the sidelines? Of course. Is major college football a hyper-competitive environment, perhaps now more than ever? You bet. Do some programs - including Michigan’s arch-rivals in Columbus - hold themselves to a standard of excellence that is almost impossible to routinely attain? Absolutely … and that ratchets up the pressure to win at all costs.

None of that matters. Morally, the ends never justify the means.

Cheating is cheating. You either play by the rules or you don’t. There’s no gray area.

It doesn’t matter if you think certain rules are dumb or antiquated. It’s irrelevant that the rule about in-person scouting and using electronics to record signals was enacted as a cost-control measure. I’ve heard and read every excuse you can imagine over the past week.

If you’re making those arguments in favor of Michigan, you’re missing the point.

There are still so many things that need to be brought to the surface. But if what’s been reported by the Washington Post, ESPN and Yahoo! Sports is indeed true, there is only one acceptable outcome here.

And it needs to happen quickly.

Personally, given the breadth and depth of this scandal, I don’t think Michigan should be allowed to compete the rest of this season. Might that seem harsh? Too bad, actions have consequences.

I think it needs to be made abundantly clear that altering the integrity of the game is the worst possible offense a program could commit. Whether that punishment comes from the NCAA, the Big Ten, the College Football Playoff committee or the University of Michigan themselves, I don’t really care.

For what it’s worth, I don’t think the NCAA will act that severely AND that swiftly. There’s too much money to be made on Michigan football and the legal battles that would ensue probably wouldn’t be worth the headache.

The University of Michigan’s Board of Trustees and president Dr. Santa Ono need to send a message they don’t condone what has happened and they need to terminate Jim Harbaugh’s contract. Anything short of that is unacceptable.

There are only two possibilities here: either Harbaugh knew they were cheating, or he didn’t know … and I’m having a hard time deciding which is worse.

If he knew they were cheating - and even if it wasn’t his idea and he never told anyone to do it - he besmirched the integrity of the game and impugned his reputation forever. If what is being reported is true, how is what he did any different than what Pete Rose did in baseball? Being labeled a cheater isn’t something that you just erase.

If he didn’t know … if he was completely and totally 100 percent in the dark … how in the world could Michigan (or any NFL franchise) trust him to run a program/lead a team ever again? How can something so egregious happen under your watch without your knowledge? It’s quite literally your job to know. If that’s true, what an incredible condemnation of his ability to lead.

And even if he didn’t think that the sign-stealing information they acquired was done so illegally, did it never occur to him that they must have the best intel on sign stealing in the history of college football?

Both outcomes are unquestionably fireable.

Forget the actual X’s and O’s part of the job for a moment. When you’re a football coach, you have a responsibility to mold young men. You’re supposed to teach the values of teamwork, sacrifice and integrity by living them in your daily life. You’re supposed to lead by example, because now more than ever, actions speak louder than words. Any coach worth their weight would tell you that being called coach is sacred, no matter what level of football you’re coaching. A man’s integrity is everything, even more so when he occupies a leadership role.

Let’s not forget that Harbaugh already lied to the NCAA earlier this year about a minor recruiting violation. He doesn’t have a leg to stand on here. If he lied about something as minor as buying food for recruits during a dead period, why should we believe him about something this important?

I don’t know of any other program in America who has someone in Connor Stalions’ position with that kind of access to the coordinators on game day and who is that involved in the game plan. He’s been on staff for several years. It’s not like this has only been going on for a couple months this season. The Washington Post, ESPN and Yahoo! Sports have all claimed there is evidence available suggesting this has been going on for multiple seasons.

I can’t comprehend some of the arguments I’ve read or listened to from Michigan fans over the past week. There is no turning back here. There is absolutely no way that Michigan’s administration should allow coach Harbaugh and his staff to continue leading this program. Nothing could justify that.