I don’t often support Michigan football, but I do hope Michigan and Jim Harbaugh prevail in their court hearing on Friday.
Unfortunately, it won’t affect the latest set of rulings by the NCAA, banning JMU and 2 other schools from most postseason play options and suspending Ferris State’s coach from this weekend’s playoff game because his players smoked cigars in the locker room after winning last year’s championship game.
Just out of curiosity why do you support Michigan in the lawsuit?
I don’t know the details of the lawsuit, but generally believe what makes the B1G stable is the strength of the conference office.
No one team dictates policies to the others.
No talk of unequal revenue sharing.
No talk that X team gets favorable calls. As much as I think the officiating isn’t great it does seem to be equally marginal.
etc.
The additions of PSU and Nebraska didn’t change the conference office as far as I could tell. Maryland and Rutgers were too weak to exert influence. We will see whether our western brethren will have a deleterious affect given the fact the Pac Ten has seemed to lack unity and direction for quite awhile.
Having a cancer in your conference(Texas comes to mind) can bring destruction.
Allowing Michigan to violate the rules and avoid punishment would weaken the B1G as I don’t think Minnesota could do the same thing and get away with it.
If you think Michigan (among others) doesn’t dictate policy to the Big Ten, then why is Michigan exempt from having games on Fridays? They’ve said “We won’t do that” and the Big Ten has said, “OK”. They probably won’t end up with a lot of games on Peacock streaming, either.
The Wall Street Journal has a story today comparing the Michigan situation to the Houston Astros, for which Tony Petitti had a ringside seat in the MLB office reporting to the Commissioner. I think the wrong people got punished in Houston, but the Commissioner screwed that one up himself, something he ls pretty good at doing, to be blunt.
I’ve also seen it compared to Deflate-gate with the Patriots and with Sean Payton’s suspension at New Orleans for the bounty system.
Do I think Michigan broke the rules by having scouts at games? Yeah. Do I think those rules make sense in the 21st century? No way.
My understanding is that the NCAA has ruled against radios in helmets several times, though I’m wondering how Gallaudet is getting away with using those helmets shown in the AT&T commercial. (Maybe they don’t play in a conference under NCAA jurisdiction?) But as I noted a few days ago, the NCAA takes decades to adjust to technology that changes in a much shorter time frame.
If the NCAA wants to throw the book at Harbaugh, perhaps doing something extreme like vacating several years worth of wins or suspending him for the 2024 season, I’m OK with that, but let the due process stuff work itself out. Rushing to judgement is seldom a good idea, and I think the Big Ten office is guilty of that.
On the JMU issue, the Virginia AG is threatening to sue.
Years ago, in my MBA Business Law class, the professor (a lawyer, accountant and former vice-chancellor for business at UNL) said that lawyers will eventually run everything----into the ground.
I’m not sure where I come out on Michigan ( Full disclosure here: I’m a New England Patriot fan here where the Patriots were caught doing something not that dissimilar ) but I think the NCAA cops must be looking for things to do to justify their jobs. With money now being given to athletes over the table ,and the Portal allowing much easier transfers , there probably is a lot less to do for these folks
As an aside when the regulators inspected my firms investment management business , they wrote a page and a half discussing violations relating to my business card ! To me it was a good sign that they didn’t find anything substantive , and only that the inspector had to make sure everyone knew he was needed. (Wonder if Bernie Madoff had the same guy😊)
Harry
Harry, I suspect if one checked the records, the number of people (especially lawyers) employed by the NCAA has gone up in the Transfer Portal/NIL era. :sigh:
Michigan has withdrawn their suit and Harbaugh has agreed to the 3 game suspension, so no hearing tomorrow.
The Big Ten agreed to stop their investigation, which may lead to speculation that there were other issues Michigan was concerned about being investigated.
I seem to remember some attempted lawsuits to overturn the old National Rankings when they were done by a vote of the writers, or the coaches.
And I’m still waiting for the lawsuit to overturn some “bad call” that costs a team rankings or a bowl bid. (or standing in the playoffs for the NFL) Can you imagine a 5 judge panel watching the instant replays to make sure no infraction was actually committed? - wait a minute, don’t we have that now with instant replay?
Go B1GCats
rsl
I have never had a problem with the writers or coaches ratings, as long as they disclose who voted for whom, but the computer rankings were often wacko.
Another twist in the tale, Michigan has fired LB coach Chris Partridge, effective immediately, for not cooperating with the NCAA probe into sign stealing.
Makes me think there’s more to this story than we’ve been led to believe by the various parties.
Mike Nolan