By Kyle Golik
When the NCAA’s Committee of Infractions deems a school has failed to display:
- Adequate compliance measures
- Appropriate education on those compliance measures
- Sufficient monitoring to ensure the compliance measures are followed
- Swift action upon learning of a violation
That school is seen by the NCAA that it lacks institutional control. With what has transpired at Michigan under Jim Harbaugh, how can the university claim it maintains any control?
Outside of the Stalions espionage issue, the Wolverines program has endured issues from the following coaches:
- Former offensive coordinator Matt Weiss, who was terminated in January, is currently being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) that Weiss had “inappropriately accessed” University accounts when Michigan’s Information Security department received a report describing “fraudulent activity involving someone accessing university emails accounts without authorization,” according to the university police log.
- Football staffer Alex Yood was terminated after a video revealed he was allegedly soliciting a 13-year-old girl, asking the girl if she was cute and inquiring about her virginity.
- Shemy Schembechler lasted three days as an assistant in the recruiting director’s role. Schembechler resigned after liking extreme political social media posts containing various offensive and racist content. It was reported by Chris Vannini of The Athletic, Michigan knew of Schembechler’s tendencies and turned a blind eye and hired him anyway.
- Harbaugh himself served a school imposed a three-game suspension for violations he had during the COVID-19 dead period.
With Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti in Ann Arbor to take in the Big Ten field hockey tournament, he will be meeting with Michigan president Santa Ono. The question is, what can Ono possibly say to give Petitti confidence that Michigan is in full control of its program?
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With Michigan coming off of a bye against Purdue, another allegation from Boilermakers head coach Ryan Walters that they know Michigan stole their signals.
https://twitter.com/TonyGerdeman/status/1720224001862111653
“It’s unfortunate, and what’s crazy is there weren’t allegations,” Walters said.
“It happened. And there’s video evidence, there’s ticket purchases and sales that you can track back, and we know for a fact that they were at a number of our games, and so we’ve had to teach our guys a new language in terms of some signals, and we’ll operate differently offensively. You might see us in a huddle for the first time this season.”
— Purdue HC Ryan Walters
Petitti has taken calls from the Big Ten coaches and athletic directors. They also seemed resolute that Michigan does not deserve the spoils of their perceived stolen victories.
One of the more vocal proponents for Petitti to act on Michigan is Michigan State athletic director Alan Haller, who, according to ESPN’s Pete Thamel, said that the Big Ten has a double standard for Michigan that the league suspended eight Michigan State players before authorities could conclude their investigation the league had a rush to judgment for Michigan State. But when Michigan has an issue, they are extended due process and afforded time in the situation.
An anonymous coach told Bruce Feldman of The Athletic, “They (Michigan) have been manipulating the game and cheating the game for two-and-a-half years. To know exactly what the other team is doing, Michigan might as well have been playing with 15 guys on the field,” he said. “What’s the message the Big Ten is sending now by doing nothing? Win now, pay later? We might as well just send people to (scout) their practices and their games. It doesn’t encourage anybody to follow the rules. It’s just telling them to do the opposite and say, f— it.”
According to sources, Petitti is leaning inward to some sort of punishment for Michigan. He understands the frustration of the rest of his members and needs to find a proper balance. It is mentioned that Petitti doesn’t want to overstep his bounds with the NCAA because he could quickly have legal ramifications for both himself and the league.
There is one thing for certain: no matter what Ono says to Petitti when they meet, there is nothing Ono can do or say to deter Petitti from thinking that Michigan has institutional control over its football program. The events of the last year prove they don’t.
