Jim Harbaugh gives muted response after NCAA announces 4-year, show-cause order

Updated Aug. 8, 2024 10:05 p.m. ET

Associated Press

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. (AP) — Los Angeles Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh had a muted response one day after the NCAA announced a four-year, show-cause order for the former Michigan coach due to impermissible contact with recruits and players during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I’m stopping the engagement there with commenting. My only hope is that one day college athletics will be about what’s best for the young men and young women who participate. That’s really all I have to say about it," Harbaugh said on Thursday after practice

The show-cause order effectively bans Harbaugh from college athletics until August 2028.

The response to the penalty was markedly different from his reaction on Monday, when he continued to deny having any knowledge of the impermissible scouting operation that triggered an NCAA investigation of Michigan during its championship run last year.

“Never lie. Never cheat. Never steal. I was raised with that lesson. I have raised my family on that lesson. I have preached that lesson to the teams I’ve coached. No one’s perfect. If you stumble, you apologize and you make it right,” Harbaugh said. “Today, I do not apologize. I did not participate. I was not aware nor complicit in those said allegations. So for me, it’s back to work and attacking with an enthusiasm unknown to mankind.”

The recruiting case is unrelated to the NCAA’s investigation into impermissible in-person scouting and sign-stealing allegations that roiled Michigan’s 2023 championship season and resulted in the Big Ten Conference's three-game suspension of Harbaugh.

The NCAA said Harbaugh, who left his alma mater to coach the Chargers, “failed to promote an atmosphere of compliance and violated head coach responsibility obligations.”

“Harbaugh engaged in unethical conduct and failed to cooperate when he denied any involvement in impermissible recruiting contacts despite substantial information to the contrary,” the NCAA said in a 48-page decision that several times suggested the coach was not truthful with investigators.

Harbaugh will only face the punishment if he makes an unexpected return to college football within the next four years.

The order runs through Aug. 6, 2028. It requires any school hiring Harbaugh over the next four years to suspend him for the first full season. After that, Harbaugh would be still be barred from athletics-related activities, including team travel, practice, video study, recruiting and team meetings until the order expires.

Harbaugh’s attorney, Tom Mars, said on Wednesday the coach was not invited to participate in the settlement process nor was he aware that an agreement had been reached between the school and the NCAA. He blasted the NCAA’s punishment.

“The way I see it, from Coach Harbaugh’s perspective, today’s COI decision is like being in college and getting a letter from your high school saying you’ve been suspended because you didn’t sign your yearbook,” Mars posted 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.”

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