Friday morning, the NCAA released its penalties against the Michigan Wolverines for cheating.
The Wolverines got hit with a huge fine, but no bowl ban, nor did they take away their national championship, as some speculated.
The biggest hit came for the coaches involved, including former Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh, who is now with the LA Chargers.
The NCAA hit Harbaugh with a 10-year show cause, meaning any NCAA program that hires Harbaugh would have to show cause as to why it should not be sanctioned for hiring him.
The NCAA stated: “Harbaugh did not embrace or enforce a culture of compliance during his tenure, and his program had a contentious relationship with Michigan’s compliance office, leading coaches and staff to disregard NCAA rules.”
More than likely, Harbaugh is never coming back to coach college ball, so this punishment long-term means nothing for him unless the NFL decides to pursue something, which, according to some, they may just do.
Harbaugh bolted the program right before the NCAA investigation. It was quite obvious that Harbaugh left because he knew what was coming and knew he and the school would be punished for their actions.
And while Harbaugh may have gotten away from the NCAA, the NFL can enforce its own punishment for what he had done, and it wouldn’t be the first time they did it.
The NFL has taken action against both Terrelle Pryor and coach Jim Tressel, who had broken NCAA rules while they were at Ohio State. The NFL made it clear two years ago in a statement that: “No one should escape discipline by leaving college for the pros.”
It sounds like the NFL is stating no one is above the law, including coaches. The NFL could suspend or fine Haraugh if it chose to, but so far, the league has not said if there will be a punishment handed down to the Chargers' head coach.