Michigan finds itself at the center of the college football world in regard to an alleged scheme to illicitly scout opponents in person in hopes of decoding their play-calling signals.
Although the NCAA remains in the midst of its investigation of the scandal, the Big Ten Conference stepped in Friday and suspended coach Jim Harbaugh for the rest of the regular season. The school is pursuing a temporary restraining order to pause that penalty, with the belief that the conference has circumvented due process.
Now comes the bombshell revelation that the Wolverines’ leadership has discussed a possible drastic measure in response to the Big Ten’s handling of the situation.
Michigan’s board of regents has engaged in conversations about potentially leaving the Big Ten if the conference punished Harbaugh without due process, a source familiar with the discussions told Sports Illustrated’s Michael Rosenberg.
“That may sound like an empty threat, but the fact it was even discussed should tell you how angry Michigan is right now about how [Big Ten commissioner Tony] Petitti has handled this,” Rosenberg wrote Friday evening. “The process that led to Harbaugh’s three-game suspension was a clumsy execution of mob justice, and it is by no means over.”
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The Michigan athletic department released a statement Friday strongly admonishing the conference for its handling of the situation.
“Commissioner Petitti’s hasty action today suggests that this is more about reacting to pressure from other Conference members than a desire to apply the rules fairly and impartially,” the statement said. “By taking this action at this hour, the Commissioner is personally inserting himself onto the sidelines and altering the level playing field that he is claiming to preserve.”
It would be a radical move for Michigan to leave the Big Ten, which is set to expand to 18 teams next year. The Wolverines first became part of the Big Ten in 1896, when it was known as the Western Conference.
