The NCAA has punished former Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh with a four-year show-cause order and a one-year suspension for violating head coach responsibility obligations and violating recruiting and inducement rules.
The NCAA said Harbaugh “engaged in unethical conduct” and “failed to promote an atmosphere of compliance.” The punishment centers around impermissible recruiting contacts and inducements during the COVID-19 dead period.
Earlier this year the university and five people who currently or previously worked for the Michigan football program reached an agreement with NCAA enforcement staff on violations concerning recruiting and coaching activities by non-coaching staff members that occurred within the program. The school also agreed that it failed to monitor the football program.
The penalties, announced on April 16, include three years of probation, a fine and recruiting restrictions “in alignment with the Level I-Mitigated classification for the school.” Officials did not elaborate on what the recruiting restrictions include and the amount of the fine was not immediately disclosed.
Harbaugh, who left to become the Los Angeles Chargers head coach after winning a national championship last season, was not part of that agreement, so his case was resolved separately. The NCAA on Wednesday issued its decision resolving that portion of the case, detailed in a 52-page document.
“Throughout the investigation, Harbaugh denied his involvement in the violations, which were overwhelmingly supported by the record. Harbaugh also refused to participate in a hearing before the committee,” the NCAA said in a press release.
Harbaugh's violations of the COVID-19 recruiting dead period are Level II violations, but the NCAA said his “unethical conduct and failure to cooperate” with the membership's infractions process — specifically, “his provision of false or misleading information” — is a Level I violation.
“Head coaches are presumed responsible for violations that occur within their programs. Due to Harbaugh's personal involvement in the violations and his failure to monitor his staff, he could not rebut the presumption, resulting in a violation of head coach responsibility rules,” the NCAA said.
Under the show-cause order, Harbaugh will be “barred from all athletically related activities, including team travel, practice, video study, recruiting and team meetings, at any NCAA school that employed him.”
If he were to be hired by an NCAA school during the show cause — which runs from Aug. 7, 2024 through Aug. 6, 2028 — Harbaugh would be suspended for the entirety of the first season at that school. The results of those contests during Harbaugh's suspension would not count toward his career coaching record.
The panel noted that Harbaugh's "intentional disregard for NCAA legislation and unethical conduct amplified the severity of the case and prompted the panel to classify Harbaugh's case as Level I-Aggravated."
Harbaugh's attorney Tom Mars on Wednesday released a statement on X, saying "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."
"If I were in 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," the statement said.
The punishment handed out Wednesday is not connected to another scandal hanging over the Michigan football program that stems from alleged sign-stealing and off-campus, in-person scouting scheme.
Last Sunday reports surfaced that new head coach Sherrone Moore could be among those to face punishment in connection with the scandal, as he allegedly deleted a thread of 52 messages with ex-staffer Connor Stalions.