Michigan football: ‘Optimism high’ on Jim Harbaugh contract extension, latest on NCAA investigation

According to reports, there has been progress between Michigan football and Jim Harbaugh on a new contract, plus the latest on the NCAA investigation. 

I’ve been saying since the start of this entire “Sign Gate” mess that Michigan football should ignore all the noise and sign Jim Harbaugh to a long-term contract extension.

There may have been some rules broken by Connor Stalions — maybe — the rule is poorly written and open to interpretation. But even so, the rule is minor and the NCAA described it as providing minimal competitive advantage a couple of years ago.

So the idea that this is the greatest scandal in Big Ten history, as Tony Pettiti said, is beyond ridiculous, which is just one reason of many why he shouldn’t be the Big Ten commissioner.

That’s especially true when Ohio State and other Big Ten programs were colluding to trade signals of the Wolverines that they stole, “legally” according to them.

At any rate, according to Josh Henschke, it sounds like Michigan and Jim Harbaugh are making progress on a new contract. Henschke also notes that Michigan is working to keep Jesse Minter and Sherrone Moore. On Harbaugh specifically, he reported that “Optimism is high.”

Chris Balas of The Wolverine even reported that there has been talk of making Moore the head coaching in waiting. That would be a spectacular thing in my view.

Moore has already won “The Game” and beaten two top-10 teams. He’s proven he can do the job and if Harbaugh ever leaves, he would be the perfect guy to take over.

Latest on NCAA investigation

What’s even more interesting is that Henschke notes this could be lining up with the end of the NCAA investigation, which would come at the end of November (this week).

It wouldn’t be shocking to me at all if the NCAA didn’t find anything else significant. If Jim Harbaugh knew or directed it, surely, there would have been some information on his phone or computers and there wasn’t — we’d know if there was (it would have been leaked to ESPN and Yahoo Sports instantly).

There was the firing of Chris Partridge, but as he clarified on Monday, that had nothing to do with destroying evidence — another falsehood reported by the national media.

And in terms of punishment, Harbaugh has already served a six-game suspension (half a season). Name another coach who has faced worse. Even for numerous level-1 violations?

Bill Self only served a four-game suspension (which in football terms is basically one game) and he was caught up in an FBI investigation for paying players. If the NCAA tries to punish Harbaugh further, Michigan should absolutely go to court.

The NCAA can’t punish Harbaugh more harshly because it doesn’t like him. NCAA by-laws also probably aren’t going to hold up in court, meaning it might even be hard to prove Stalions even broke a rule, so six games — for everything — feels more than fair.

Hell, it was way too much and Michigan still overcame it. So get Jim signed, hope the investigation wraps up, and move on.

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