The NCAA officially tells Michigan football that they have broken rules about recruits.
A draft notice of allegations (NOA) about alleged Level II recruiting violations was sent to Michigan football almost a year ago.
This led to a Level I violation directly against coach Jim Harbaugh. Now, the school has officially receive an allegation of wrongdoing.
The university has gotten the notice, according to Kim Broekhuizen, who is in charge of public relations at U-M, and Kurt Svoboda, who is the associate athletic director. Both of them told the Free Press on Wednesday.
Wolverines coach Jim Harbaugh is facing a Level I violation for reportedly not cooperating and for misleading NCAA investigators with respect to the alleged violations, according to sources. Michigan is also facing four Level II violations, which are less serious.
Michigan suspended offensive coordinator Sherrone Maxwell for one game and coach Jim Harbaugh for three games to start the season in August as part of a deal to settle the matter.
The self-imposed punishments were meant to lessen the effect of an NCAA punishment. They were put in place soon when the NCAA’s infractions committee turned down a settlement offer for Harbaugh that would have led to a four-game suspension.
In August, the NCAA also did something very unusual: they released a statement about how bad the alleged violations were with Michigan while the probe was still going on.
“The Michigan infractions case is about illegal on- and off-campus recruiting during the COVID-19 dead period and illegal coaching activities—not a cheeseburger,” Derrick Crawford, NCAA vice president of hearing operations, said in a statement.
He was responding to the simplistic way that the violations were described in some news stories.
“It’s not unusual for them to want to know more about important facts before agreeing.” Another thing the COI can do is turn down an NR [negotiated resolution] if it thinks the deal is bad for the association or the penalties are too harsh.
“If the involved parties cannot resolve the issue through the negotiated resolution process, it can move to a hearing, but the committee feels cooperation is the best avenue for quickly resolving issues.”
Michigan is being looked into by the NCAA again for illegal off-campus scouting and signal-stealing that was reportedly led by Connor Stalions, a former staff member who quit on November 4.
The Big Ten suspended Harbaugh for three games because of bad behavior, even though Michigan hasn’t been told about the accusations yet.
The coach had to sit out the last three regular-season games. As head coach, Harbaugh could be charged with a Level I crime for breaking the rules more than once.
Harbaugh went back to coaching on December 2 for the Big Ten championship game against Iowa.
On January 1, Michigan will play Alabama in the CFP Semifinal at the Rose Bowl, a Bowl Game presented by Prudential, and Harbaugh will be the coach.
After 90 days, Michigan has to react to the notice of allegations. The NCAA then has 60 days to respond.
The NCAA is charging Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh with a Level I violation for allegedly giving false or misleading information during the COVID-19 dead time during an investigation into recruiting violations. This was confirmed by a source with knowledge of the investigation on Tuesday.
A spokesman for Michigan’s athletic department, Kurt Svoboda, confirmed that the school got an official notice of allegations received from the NCAA this week. Michigan has 90 days to reply to the NCAA’s charges, which were first laid out in a draft notification of allegations sent in January.
The draft notice listed four Level II charges, such as having inappropriate contact with recruits or analysts who were teaching, along with the Level I charge of not cooperating against Harbaugh.
Even though they were able to negotiate some other claims, Michigan and the NCAA could not settle the Level I complaint against Harbaugh. That newspaper was the first to report the violation.
Regulations from the NCAA say that Michigan has exactly three months to write and send in an answer before the NCAA’s Commission on Infractions takes over the case.
During this time, the university has the chance to respond to and explain its position on the claims made in the Notice of Allegations.