Former Michigan football assistants agree to toothless penalties from NCAA

Michigan football is back in the headlines after two former assistant coaches, Jesse Minter and Steve Clinkscale have agreed to punishments with the NCAA infractions committee.

This was first reported by Trevor McCue of the Maize and Blue Review.

"The NCAA has reached separate resolutions with former University of Michigan football assistant coaches Jesse Minter and Steve Clinkscale regarding recruiting violations, separated from the university's ongoing investigation. These agreements, approved by the NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions, allow both coaches to begin serving their penalties while the broader case against Michigan and other individuals continues.​"

According to McCue, Clink will receive a two-year show cause from the NCAA. Minter will also get a one-year show cause that will prohibit teams from hiring him for "athletic duties" for one year.

If Clink is "hired within the first year he must be suspended from 50 percent of the football regular season contests."

Thoughts on punishments for Michigan football coaches

This is another example of the NCAA acting like it did something, without doing much of anything. Minter certainly won't be impacted. He'll be a head coach in the NFL soon enough. Jim Harbaugh will have him for another season or two before Minter is hired away.

Maybe if he was unsuccessful, he'd return to the college game, but this rule will have zero impact on his future career aspirations. The same can be said for Clink who is an assistant with the Chargers.

He'll probably be in Los Angeles as long as Harbaugh is. If Clink wants to get back into college football in a couple of years, again, there won't be a big hindrance.

The NCAA likes to act tough, especially when it knows that its punishments are completely meaningless. That's why it's a no-brainer for Minter and Clink to agree.

Just be done, take the stupid and meaningless penalty, then move on.