The NCAA, which already had been investigating Michigan and its head coach Jim Harbaugh on unrelated matters, is now investigating Michigan for stealing signals of opposing teams.
Harbaugh’s lawyer, Tom Mars, has issued a statement on the matter.
“I’ve spoken to Coach Harbaugh about what we’ve read in the sports news and if NCAA rules allowed him to make a public statement I am sure he would deny having any knowledge of what was reported,” Mars said, via Dan Wetzel of Yahoo.com.
It’s a deft move by Mars, and a not-so-subtle commentary on the stupidity of the NCAA rule that apparently prevents Harbaugh from saying anything on his own behalf.
I wasn’t aware of that rule. Many likely weren’t. Many likewise weren’t aware of the 1994 rule that prevents teams from sending advance scouts to games involving upcoming opponents, all in the name of collectively saving money.
Mars’s statement requires close analysis. He’s not saying that Harbaugh would say it did not happen. Mars is saying that Harbaugh would say he had no knowledge of it. This leaves the door open for the possible claim that it was happening without Harbaugh’s knowledge.
That would seem to be a tough needle to thread. How could the CEO of the football operation not know if Michigan was gathering and implementing advance scouting in blatant violation of the rules to gather information about what the hand signals of opponents meant?
There’s another question that merits consideration, given the ongoing and separate investigation of Michigan and Harbaugh. Is the NCAA selectively enforcing the advance-scouting rule against Michigan? More specifically, had the NCAA become so irritated with Harbaugh that it targeted the program for anything else it could find?
The fact that it has been couched as something that sounds so salacious and Belichickian (STEALING SIGNS!) instead of sending scouts to the upcoming games of opponents for any information they could glean points generally to the perception that someone is determined to make Harbaugh look as bad as possible in this.
The whole situation will serve only to increase speculation that Harbaugh, who interviewed with the Vikings last year and the Broncos earlier this year, will be looking for a path back to the NFL in the next hiring cycle. At some point, he’ll decide it’s just no longer worth dealing with getting chased around by a toothless band of bureaucrats who are looking to gum him into submission.