The University of Michigan and head football coach Sherrone Moore were dealt sanctions from the NCAA earlier this month after concluding their investigation into the 2023 sign-stealing scandal spearheaded by former Michigan assistant coach Connor Stalions. But for the most part, Jim Harbaugh, who coached the Wolverines to the national championship in 2023 before going tot the NFL’s Los Angeles Chargers, largely walked away from the situation scot-free. ESPN college football talk show host Paul Finebaum takes issue with that.
Harbaugh wasn’t entirely absolved of guilt in the sanctions handed down from the NCAA, receiving a 10-year show-cause ban that essentially bars him from landing a job in college football again until at least 2038. But given the fact that Harbaugh seems to be thriving in his return to the NFL with the Los Angeles Chargers, the ban largely doesn’t affect him all that much.
Finebaum understands that it is hard to enforce sanctions for someone like Harbaugh, who no longer coaches at the college ranks. But on Friday’s edition of First Take, Finebaum made light of the fact that Harbaugh has never taken accountability for what happened under his watch at Michigan, which he believes Harbaugh owes to college football fans.
“What Jim Harbaugh has done is highway robbery,” said Finebaum. “He stole a national championship, it’s as simple as that. He used Connor Stalions, and then he lied and obfuscated; he misled, it’s truly beyond hypocrisy. This is the same guy that shot arrows at everybody a couple of years earlier, he accused Nick Saban of cheating, he accused Kirby Smart.
“He just blanketly accused everyone, and now look at him holding up a banner. And as soon as he gets the (national championship) bonus, he hightails it out of town with no penalty. Now, do I expect anyone at the Chargers or the NFL offices to do anything? Of course not. But it would be nice if somebody acknowledged it. It’d be nice if Harbaugh even addressed the situation, which of course he has not and will not.”
Finebaum would go on to add that while there were some further sanctions handed down to the University of Michigan, the program hasn’t “suffered” to any degree, avoiding any kind of postseason ban or long-term suspension of current head coach Sherrone Moore.
“Listen, this whole thing stinks, and I realize nothing is going to happen, because that’s the world we live in,” added Finebaum. “But you act like Michigan has suffered here. They haven’t suffered, they wrote a check. But so what? This is a very wealthy university, and if you don’t believe me, just ask any Michigan graduate anywhere in the country. They’ll tell you how great they are. And this is not a school that wins a lot of national championships either. They’ve won 2 ½ national championships in 70 years. I think Alabama won that many just walking down the street yesterday.”
Finebaum does certainly have a point. We have seen other programs receive both a loss of scholarships and postseason bans for infractions that are potentially less severe than this sign-stealing investigation.
It seems as if Finebaum isn’t willing to go as far as former Ohio State coach Urban Meyer, who called for Harbaugh to be dealt a suspension from the NFL, as they did with Jim Tressel following the infamous Ohio State Tattoogate scandal in 2010.
We don’t hear Harbaugh talk much about anything other than his current obligations to the Chargers nowadays. So maybe we will never hear any kind of acknowledgement from Harbaugh about the sign-stealing scandal. But until he does, we likely won’t hear all that much positive commentary about Harbaugh’s tenure at Michigan come out of Finebaum’s mouth.