Don't expect any asterisks on Michigan's national championship. Don't hold your breath for vacated wins. The title isn't tainted, according to the NCAA.
NCAA president Charlie Baker told reporters Tuesday that the organization's "unusual decision" to join forces with the Big Ten and share details in the middle of this season about sign-stealing allegations against Michigan, which prompted a three-game suspension for Jim Harbaugh handed down by Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti, legitimized the Wolverines' perfect season in the end.
"I don't regret doing it because sitting on that information, given the comprehensiveness of it, I think we would have put everyone including Michigan in an awful place," Baker said, via Yahoo! Sports. "At the end of the day, no one believes at this point that Michigan didn't win the national title fair and square. So I think we did the right thing."
There is no evidence that Jim Harbaugh was aware of, much less involved in the sign-stealing scandal, which was spearheaded by a low-level and since-fired analyst named Connor Stallions. Michigan went 8-0 after the scheme was publicly exposed, ending its season by beating five ranked teams -- four of them top-10 teams -- in its final six games: Penn State, Ohio State, Iowa, Alabama and Washington.
“Part of the reason I thought it was important to talk to the Big Ten and Michigan about this was it might affect the outcome of games,” Baker said. “I don’t believe at the end of the season that it did.”
While the Big Ten's investigation into Michigan's sign-stealing scheme is closed, the NCAA's remains open. The program is also still under investigation for alleged recruiting violations, for which Harbaugh served another three-game suspension at the start of this season, which was self-imposed by Michigan.
Both Michigan and Harbaugh, who maintained his program's innocence in regard to sign-stealing after the Wolverines won the national championship Monday night, could be facing additional sanctions from the NCAA depending on the outcome of those investigations.
Baker told reporters that he does not know what those penalties might be or when they might come down. But the Wolverines, at this point, have been vindicated.