Michigan Football: Heading To Rome Is The Next Logical Step

Since the NCAA has passed a proposal in response to Michigan football’s spring break trip last year, the Wolverines should push the boundaries again.

There were many feathers ruffled last year when Jim Harbaugh took his Michigan football team to Florida for a week during the school’s spring break.

Part of that was obviously because it was the middle of the offseason and we were all dying for something college football-related to talk about. But it was also because it represented a larger theme of Harbaugh continuing to push the boundaries of what he can do and still be within the NCAA’s rules.

With the NCAA recently passing a proposal that would ban trips during vacation periods, it stands to reason that Harbaugh will obviously take the next step and find an area where he can still operate within the rules while drawing attention to the program.

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That next step, according to The Wolverine, is a trip to Rome, Italy at the end of April.

The reported trip would work because Michigan students would be done with their finals (which are taken from April 20-21 and 24-27), and it would serve as an educational trip where student-athletes could go as far as staying in Europe to study abroad.

The Wolverine reported that this has been in the planning stages for months and that it could become an annual trip for the program.

This isn’t quite as good as satellite camps or wrestling with recruits and climbing trees in the backyard, but it’s a definite commitment to continue the development and evolution of the football program in a very popular direction. (Granted, its popularity seems to be funneling to fans and those who aren’t attached to Ohio State, Michigan State or the SEC.)

Athletic director Warde Manuel tossed his support behind Harbaugh, though he didn’t comment specifically on the reported Rome trip. Manuel called the proposed legislation “flattering” while questioning why the NCAA zeroed in on a particular sport.

The most promising part that came out of Manuel’s comments was his stated commitment to “think creatively about what’s in our best interest and how we can provide opportunities for our students to participate in athletics. So we’re going to keep driving that and we’ll let people react as they need to.”

That sounds like a fun and promising future.

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Perhaps Michigan will be in Rome at the end of April, creating another firestorm of controversy and, God willing, more legislation.

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