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The NCAA laid down a harsh penalty on Jim Harbaugh on Wednesday, just in time for Harbaugh’s first season with the Chargers.
The penalty is not related to the Michigan sign-stealing scandal and won’t impact the coach unless he makes a return to college football before 2028.
Harbaugh’s lawyer compared the decision to “being in college and getting a letter from your high school saying you’ve been suspended because you didn’t sign the yearbook.” Tom Mars, the lawyer, wrote on social media, “If I were in Coach Harbaugh’s shoes and had an $80 million contract as head coach of the Chargers, I wouldn’t pay any attention to the findings of a kangaroo court which claims to represent the principles of the nation’s most flagrant, repeat violator of the federal antitrust laws.”
The NCAA said Harbaugh denied the allegations of recruiting violations, and refused to cooperate with its investigations. “Harbaugh’s violations of the COVID-19 recruiting dead period are Level II violations, but his unethical conduct and failure to cooperate with the membership’s infractions process—specifically, his provision of false or misleading information—is a Level I violation,” the NCAA said.
The NCAA gave Harbaugh a four-year show-cause order—a strict series of punishments that follow individuals wherever they coach in college football—and a one-year suspension, which would kick in only during those four years. The punishments expire Aug. 6, 2028.
“During the show-cause order, Harbaugh would be barred from all athletically related activities, including team travel, practice, video study, recruiting and team meetings, at any NCAA school that employed him,” the NCAA said in its announcement.
After winning the national championship with Michigan, Harbaugh signed a five-year deal with the Chargers. If he makes it to the end of that contract, he would evade the NCAA’s punishment entirely.
In April, the NCAA split Harbaugh and the other staffers into two separate cases because Harbaugh did not “participate in the agreement” made with the others, the governing body said. The school’s sign-stealing allegations are under a separate NCAA investigation.
“No one’s perfect. If you stumble, you apologize and you make it right. Today, I do not apologize,” Harbaugh said about the investigation in a recent Chargers press conference. “I did not participate, was not aware, nor complicit in those said allegations.”
