Big Ten bans Harbaugh from sideline amid probe

The Big Ten on Friday suspended Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh for the remainder of the regular season as the conference disciplines the program under its sportsmanship policy amid the ongoing NCAA investigation into the school’s in-person sign-stealing ring.

Hours later, Harbaugh and the university requested a temporary restraining order in Washtenaw County Trial Court. They filed an emergency ex parte motion, which, if granted, would give the judge the ability to stop Harbaugh’s suspension before hearing arguments from the defendants: the Big Ten and commissioner Tony Petitti.

The judge could rule on the restraining order before the No. 3 Wolverines (9-0) play a critical road game against No. 10 Penn State (8-1) on Saturday at noon ET.

Michigan’s plane landed in Pennsylvania on Friday afternoon, shortly before the suspension was announced. If Harbaugh’s restraining order is not granted, a source told ESPN that one possible replacement as acting head coach in Happy Valley would be Mike Hart, the team’s running backs coach.

Michigan was found to be in violation of the Big Ten’s sportsmanship policy for “conducting an impermissible, in-person scouting operation over multiple years, resulting in an unfair competitive advantage that compromised the integrity of competition,” the conference said in a statement.

In a 13-page letter sent to Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel, Petitti said that, in an effort to sanction the university, he decided to suspend Harbaugh because it would allow the team to play out the rest of its season while still providing substantial consequences for violating Big Ten policies.

“This is not a sanction of Coach Harbaugh,” the conference said in its report. “It is a sanction against the University that, under the extraordinary circumstance presented by this offensive conduct, best fits the violation.”

Harbaugh’s suspension bans him from the “game venue” on game days. He is allowed to coach the team the remainder of the week.

Michigan president Santa Ono expressed his displeasure with what he deemed to have been a rushed process by the Big Ten.

“Like all members of the Big Ten Conference, we are entitled to a fair, deliberate, and thoughtful process to determine the full set of facts before a judgment is rendered,” Ono said in a statement. “Today’s action by Commissioner Tony Petitti disregards the Conference’s own handbook, violates basic tenets of due process, and sets an untenable precedent of assessing penalties before an investigation has been completed. We are dismayed at the Commissioner’s rush to judgment when there is an ongoing NCAA investigation — one in which we are fully cooperating.”

Manuel and an attorney for Harbaugh also raised concerns that the league was moving too quickly in letters they sent to the conference Wednesday. They said a punishment from the Big Ten would be ignoring both due process and the conference’s bylaws.

Petitti pushed back on the idea that he didn’t have the authority to punish Michigan in his letter Friday. He said “it could not be clearer” that the league’s rules give him “wide discretion” to impose discipline for a violation of the sportsmanship policy. While there is a section of the Big Ten’s handbook that says the conference should defer to NCAA investigations before imposing any additional punishment for NCAA violations, Petitti argued it does not exclude him from acting separately on a sportsmanship violation.

He said Michigan did not deny a violation in its response, instead offering “only procedural and technical arguments designed to delay accountability.”

The NCAA issued a statement after the discipline was announced to say that it takes “competition integrity seriously.”

“When the Association has reason to raise time sensitive issues with schools and leagues concerning competitive integrity it has and will continue to do so,” the NCAA’s statement read. “The NCAA received consent from the school before sharing the information referenced in the document. NCAA investigative and infractions processes will continue in this matter.”

In its motion for a temporary restraining order against the Big Ten, Michigan argued that the conference “breached a contract, succumbed to pressure, and threw procedure out the window in pursuit of summary punishment” in suspending Harbaugh. The university said the Big Ten did not follow its own procedures and misused its sportsmanship policy as a basis for the punishment.

The motion stated that suspending Harbaugh would cause “irreparable injury” to Michigan’s team, a provision for the granting of a TRO, and cited both reputational damage for Harbaugh as well as the team suffering from his absence for the stretch run.

“The harm to the University’s student athletes would be irreversible,” the motion reads. “Now 9-0 on the season, it is undisputed that the team is in contention for the National Championship. Standing between the student athletes and a chance at this extraordinary opportunity are three Big Ten Conference games against Penn State, the University of Maryland, and Ohio State University. … These are once-in-a-lifetime events: the games cannot be replayed.

“Suspension of Coach Harbaugh deep into the team’s season would irreparably harm the University’s chances of success.”

Harbaugh’s suspension comes more than three weeks after the Big Ten took the rare step of announcing the NCAA investigation into Michigan’s alleged illicit sign stealing on Oct. 19. Petitti said the NCAA informed him in early November that the association “knew and could prove” that a staff member — presumably analyst Connor Stalions, who resigned last week — had orchestrated a scheme that violated NCAA rules. Petitti wrote that he personally saw Stalions’ “master spreadsheet” that detailed a schedule for in-person scouting and that he also received evidence of ticket sales from other Big Ten schools that lined up with the schedule laid out in what the NCAA had shared with him.

Petitti said Michigan was initially uncooperative when it asked for permission to view more evidence gathered by the NCAA, causing a small delay in reaching a final decision.

The league’s timing comes in part because Michigan asked for an extra day for its response to a notice of potential discipline, which the Big Ten first sent Saturday. Michigan sent responses to the conference from Manuel and Harbaugh’s attorney, Tom Mars, on Wednesday evening.

Michigan and Harbaugh’s attorneys argued Wednesday that recent evidence of other schools engaging in schemes to learn the Wolverines’ playcalling signs made it clear the team did not maintain an exceptional competitive advantage through any of its staff’s efforts. They also noted that Petitti could be setting a difficult precedent if he used the sportsmanship policy to punish any program or coach who was widely accused of stealing signals.

Petitti wrote he was not aware of any other allegations of “impermissible advanced in-person scouting, let alone a scheme of the size and scale like the one at issue here.” He said if the Big Ten learned about other potential violations, it would take appropriate action.

“However,” Petitti wrote, “the Conference vehemently rejects any defense by the University or any other Conference member that cheating is acceptable because other teams do it too.”

The point spread on the Michigan-Penn State game was sitting at Wolverines -4.5 at most sportsbooks before Harbaugh’s three-game punishment was announced Friday. The line ticked down to Michigan -4 (-115) at ESPN BET after the initial report but was holding steady at -4.5 at most sportsbooks. (ESPN BET odds are provided by Penn Entertainment.)

The Big Ten’s discipline does not conclude the ongoing NCAA investigation regarding allegations of off-campus scouting and signal stealing by Stalions.

In 1994, the NCAA banned off-campus, in-person scouting of future opponents during the same season. There has been only one known violation of the policy in major college football, in November 2016, when then-Baylor assistant Jeff Lebby was suspended for the first half of a game against Oklahoma after being on the sideline the previous week when Oklahoma faced Tulsa.

Stalions, a Naval Academy graduate who became a Marine Corps captain before joining Michigan’s staff in 2022, resigned last Friday after initially being suspended with pay pending the outcome of the investigation. Sources told ESPN that Stalions refused to attend a meeting with Michigan officials or to comply with the NCAA investigation, possibly on the advice of counsel. In a statement released to The Athletic, Stalions’ attorney, Brad Beckworth, said Stalions had no knowledge of Harbaugh or other Michigan staff members telling anyone to violate rules regarding off-campus scouting, nor were they aware of any such activities.

“I do not want to be a distraction from what I hope to be a championship run for the team, and I will continue to cheer them on,” Stalions said in a statement to The Athletic.

On Oct. 18, the NCAA notified Michigan and the Big Ten that it was investigating allegations of off-campus signal stealing by the Wolverines. The Big Ten initially informed Michigan State and Michigan’s other upcoming conference opponents and said in a statement it would “continue to monitor the [NCAA] investigation.”

Manuel said in a statement that the athletic department would cooperate fully with the NCAA and remained “committed to the highest standards of ethics and integrity for all members of our community.” Harbaugh, in a statement, said he and his staff also would cooperate and that he did “not have any knowledge or information regarding the University of Michigan football program illegally stealing signals, nor have I directed any staff member or others to participate in an off-campus scouting assignment.”

After ESPN reported Stalions had bought tickets to games at 12 of the 13 other Big Ten stadiums and for games involving possible College Football Playoff opponents for Michigan, the Big Ten hinted its involvement would increase through the sportsmanship policy, which gives Petitti the “exclusive authority” to determine violations and propose discipline. A Big Ten source told ESPN on Oct. 24 that the conference could step in before the NCAA’s lengthy investigative and infractions process finished but would want to have “as full of a picture of what the facts actually are, if we were to act.”

The urgency for Petitti to act increased last week, after ESPN first reported Oct. 30 that Central Michigan was investigating a man it could not identify who resembled Stalions and appeared on the team’s sideline dressed in CMU-issued gear for the Sept. 1 opening game at Michigan State. The unidentified man had one of the 50 bench credentials teams are allowed for non-roster personnel.

Petitti then held calls on consecutive days with Big Ten coaches and athletic directors, several of whom voiced their outrage with Michigan — Harbaugh and Manuel were not on the calls at the time — and urged the commissioner to impose punishment. Last Friday, Petitti met with Ono on campus and outlined the evidence he had about the signal stealing. Ono had emailed Petitti the night before their meeting, sharing the letter with other Big Ten presidents and chancellors, and asked the commissioner to respect due process and the ongoing NCAA investigation before penalizing Michigan.

The signal-stealing investigation is the second ongoing NCAA inquiry involving Michigan, which in January was notified of alleged recruiting violations during the COVID-19 dead period. In August, Michigan self-imposed a three-game suspension for Harbaugh to begin the 2023 season, as well as a one-game suspension for offensive coordinator Sherrone Moore. The first NCAA investigation of Michigan is expected to be resolved in 2024.

Harbaugh, who faces charges around failing to cooperate with NCAA investigators, could be charged as a repeat violator under head-coach responsibility, a Level I charge.

Information from ESPN’s Dan Murphy, Tom VanHaaren and David Purdum was used in this report.