Michigan Football: Jim Harbaugh is free, for 2023

The verdict is in and according to Dan Wetzel of Yahoo Sports, Jim Harbaugh will be on the sidelines for every game in the 2023 season and not be suspended.

The agreement between the NCAA and Michigan football head coach Jim Harbaugh is off. He was supposed to serve a four-game suspension, but as Yahoo Sports stated, the terms of the deal fell through. Therefore this predicament will now drag on to 2024 if anything even comes out of it at that point.

The infractions occurred during the covid-19 dead period. Many believed it was about buying a recruit a meal, but it might have something to do with watching them workout on a Zoom meeting instead. The story also mentioned that Harbaugh was not truthful with the NCAA and because of that, the harsher punishment was justified in their eyes.

Harbaugh was cooperating with the process and the agreement between the two sides was inevitable, until Saturday.

Now we’ll all have to wait another year. Wetzel also brought up the fact that Harbaugh could jump to the NFL. If that happens then the NCAA would probably come after the new coach in charge or just drop the case altogether, but that’s just hearsay for now.

Regardless, giving Harbaugh a four-game suspension for either of these violations seems to be a little absurd, to say the least.

There are a lot worse things that coaches and programs can do nowadays that will have the NCAA breathing down their necks. It may be a case of the NCAA wanting to make an example of Harbaugh and Michigan football for such minor violations.

Now that this is in the rearview mirror for the time being, Harbaugh can shift his focus to nothing but winning football games. Rival fans will throw a conniption fit and call him a cheater over and over on social media, which means nothing by the way. So complaining about it is going to get them nowhere and it’s as useful as touching grass.

Harbaugh’s resiliency paid off for him in the end and the ultimate middle finger to the NCAA would be to go out and win it all in January. Unfortunately for them, he’s got all the weapons to do it. The Michigan football team has already said that they will rally around him no matter what the case and now they know exactly that.

Putting the finishing touches on this Michigan football team won’t happen until the end of the season, but they are working towards perfecting their craft in practice and making that a realization. Learning from this experience should only give Harbaugh a better understanding of running a clean program and staying out of unwanted trouble.