It didn’t take new Michigan head football coach Jim Harbaugh long to catch the eye of the Big Brother of the college sports world, the NCAA.
According to multiple reports, the University of Michigan has self reported four minor violations of NCAA rules since Harbaugh took over as the school’s football coach earlier this year.
All four situations are considered Level III violations, which don’t bring any punishment with them. Unless these infractions continue, the extent of action the governing body will take is to help Harbaugh’s staff educate themselves on NCAA guidelines.
According to the Detroit Free Press:
Jim Harbaugh sent an autographed team helmet and jersey to an auction organized by a former high school classmate of his to benefit suicide prevention and awareness. The donation was not reviewed beforehand by Michigan’s compliance office, and the items that were auctioned ended up being used to assist a scholarship fund in the name of a student who had committed suicide, something Harbaugh was not aware of, according to U-M’s self-reported violation.”
Another violation occurred when safeties coach Mike Zordich spoke publicly about cornerback Wayne Lyons, who was in the process of transferring from Stanford. This came before Lyons had officially committed to Michigan, which is a violation of NCAA rules.
As you can see, all these infractions are minor. The more interesting thing here is that these were actual violations.
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