In the world of sports, "better late than never" is not a phrase that comes up often. We more often get some version of Lombardi’s, "If you’re not five minutes early, you’re already 10 minutes late." Only airlines, when they are fortunate enough to be operating on schedule, tend to be less forgiving on the subject of time.
Nothing about the Michigan football scouting scandal has fit convention, though. So even though the decision of coach Jim Harbaugh and the university to drop their legal case against his three-game suspension may be six days late, it can be viewed as a welcome development.
The school issued a statement Thursday afternoon informing us of this development, which means the Wolverines will face Maryland and its mammoth battle against archrival Ohio State with Harbaugh watching a television somewhere away from the stadium. The Game can be more about football, now.
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Within the brief text of the announcement, the inclusion of the phrase, "to return the focus to your student-athletes and their performance on the field" could not have been more accurate or appropriate. The zeal to succeed that, according to the Big Ten Conference’s finding, led to an elaborate scheme that violated the league’s sportsmanship policy has drawn so much of the attention from what otherwise would have been a flawless football season (to date).
This is not anyone else’s fault, but Harbaugh, and Michigan had the power to change it by accepting the penalty issued last Friday by the Big Ten, less than 24 hours before the Wolverines were to play league contender Penn State at Beaver Stadium.
The prudent choice would have been the immediate recognition of the league’s authority and the legitimacy of the penalty, since it already was gentler than would have been appropriate. This’ll do, though. It ends nearly a week of rancor that did not flatter this proud program.
The university acted Oct. 20 to suspend the figure alleged to be at the center of the scouting controversy, football analyst Connor Stalions, just a day after Yahoo! Sports first reported the NCAA had informed Michigan of "highly credible evidence of a wide-ranging, multi-year in-person, off-campus scouting scheme orchestrated by a non-coaching staff member.” A subsequent article on ESPN.com presented details about the purchase of tickets in stadiums of scheduled opponents and stadium cameras showing occupants of those seats filming in the direction of those teams’ sidelines. Stalions resigned his position Nov. 3.
It’s hard to reconcile those developments with the outrage that followed the Big Ten’s Nov. 10 announcement Harbaugh would be suspended by the league for the final three regular season games. There were only so many penalties the conference could have applied, but given he can work with the team during the week of preparation – just not on the sideline until the Wolverines are finished with their Nov. 25 battle against Ohio State – this has only a modest impact on the program’s function.
The University of Michigan nevertheless filed for a temporary restraining order, almost immediately, in Washtenaw County Circuit Court to prevent that punishment from being enforced. A hearing was schedule for Friday, which meant he Harbaugh would miss the Penn State game regardless. He did, and they won comfortably, anyway.
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Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel then issued a statement called the Big Ten’s actions “unethical” and “insulting” relative to the standard NCAA infractions process. In a tweet the following day, university president Santa Ono referenced the scandal with the statement, "Like any community, we face our share of challenges and adversity."
Monday, Harbaugh told reporters he would have his day in court, “not looking for special treatment, not looking for a popularity contest – just looking for merit of what the case is.” It is unclear what developed that convinced him to stand down and allow the Wolverines to continue their pursuit of the Big Ten and College Football Playoff championships without additional distraction.
One thing we can say for sure, though: It’s about time.
