Michigan football paying price for NCAA issues on recruiting trail too

Michigan football is also self-imposing penalties that have to do with recruiting stemming from the NCAA violations. 

The more I learn about the steps Michigan football is taking to appease the NCAA, the more it angers me.

Michigan football is having head coach Jim Harbaugh serve a three-game, self-imposed, suspension. Imposed by the school, not the head coach, just to be clear.

Offensive coordinator Sherrone Moore will also miss the East Carolina game as part of a self-imposed suspension. The NCAA has at least accepted that as punishment for Moore’s role in the infractions committed by Michigan football.

The NCAA hasn’t said if it will accept Harbaugh’s three-game suspension as a sufficient penalty. On top of that though, the Wolverines are also skipping two recruiting weekends as part of the self-imposed punishment according to EJ Holland of The Wolverine.

More self-imposed penalties for Michigan football

This first started getting reported by Holland on Monday. Michigan football reportedly told recruits to cancel their visits for the East Carolina game.

Now, Holland is reporting that the same thing will happen for the UNLV game next week. The Wolverines have a large 2024 haul at this point with 27 commitments.

So it’s not like the Wolverines need to host a bunch of visitors, for the 2024 class at least. But it’s definitely a missed opportunity to host some 2025 recruits for visits and having recruits on campus for games is always a big plus.

That being said, Holland also indicated it shouldn’t hurt too much. Still, it’s annoying that the Wolverines are having to adjust their recruiting calendar and cancel visits in order to appease the NCAA.

It seems like that’s what this is all about. The Harbaugh and Moore suspensions, as well as this cancelation of recruiting, feel like asking the NCAA for forgiveness and that just feels wrong.

The NCAA is in the wrong here. Michigan probably didn’t follow every single rule, but it wasn’t taking part in intentional wrongdoing either and stopped doing things like watching workouts over Zoom when it found out that that wasn’t allowed.

Beyond all that, I doubt Alabama or USC would take the steps Michigan has taken. They would fight the NCAA and there’s part of me that thinks Michigan should have done that instead of this appeasement process.