Jim Harbaugh's lawyer reacts to NCAA decision

Tom Mars, the famous lawyer who has handled cases against the NCAA before, had a customarily humorous and snarky reaction to the decision against Jim Harbaugh.

Ex-Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh was slapped with a four-year show-cause order by the NCAA. / Melanie Maxwell / USA TODAY NETWORK

After the NCAA issued a four-year show-cause penalty against former Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh, his lawyer offered his response to the decision. Well-known attorney Tom Mars didn't much care for hearing the NCAA's opinion on Harbaugh, or anything.

"The way I see it, from Coach Harbaugh's perspective, today's COI decision is like being in college and getting a letter from your high school saying you've been suspended because you didn't sign the yearbook," Mars said.

"If I were Coach Harbaugh's shoes and had an $80 million contract as head coach of the Chargers, I wouldn't pay any attention to the findings of a kangaroo court which claims to represent the principles of the nation's most flagrant, repeat violator of the federal antitrust laws," he added.

Mars has been known to give his unfiltered opinions of the NCAA in the past. To that effect, rumors emerged this offseason that the NCAA threatened to suspend Harbaugh for his lawyer's "satirical social media comments" targeting the body.

Weeks later, Mars ripped the NCAA again, accusing it of hypocrisy amid its investigation into allegations involving the Michigan football program and the sign-stealing claims against it.

In its decision, the NCAA announced that Harbaugh would be effectively banned from coaching at the college football level until August 2028.

A show-cause penalty means a school that wants to hire a coach serving the penalty has to appear before the NCAA committee on infractions to explain why it wants to do so.

So if Harbaugh wanted to coach in college again, he would be suspended for the first full season and after that, from other athletic activities, including practice, travel, recruiting, and game-planning.

Of course, it's a virtual certainty Harbaugh won't ever have to face that punishment given he accepted the Chargers' head coaching position this offseason.

The NCAA said that Harbaugh "engaged in unethical conduct, failed to promote an atmosphere of compliance and violated head coach responsibility obligations," relating to his impermissible contact with recruits and players during the Covid-19 dead period.

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