Michigan’s loss of integrity is the greatest success in the Connor Stalions scandal, not the penalty of the NCAA

Once upon a time, a future renowned temple coach lost his job in disgrace for having been lying on an NCAA compliance form, claiming that he did not know any unconcluded violation of the NCAA by his players. The conviction was hard, in particular fans of his archrival who had tired of losing against him each year.

“Save us the hymns’ p-potters,” wrote Mgoblog. “Jim Tresl East was a football coach, not a social worker. In doing so, he transformed the boys into men like every football coach. It makes him a football coach. It is also a hypocrite and a liar who was up to the nickname of the “senator” at the end, his moral rectitude just a blanket. »»

My, how the tables have turned. These days, the expression “hypocrite (s) and liar” must be added to the words of “Hail to the Victors”.

On Friday, the NCAA offenses committee commented on what we have long been suspected in the Michigan football program under former coach Jim Harbaugh. Forget to lie while filling out documents. These guys lied to people’s face. Again and again.

“The effort to obstruct (the survey) and the non-cooperation have aggravated what happened here,” said COO Director, Norman Bay. “This made what would have been an even more serious serious violation.”

Former coach Jim Harbaugh, now rushing under the Sun Los Angeles, first put the Wolverines in difficulty last year for lies in the NCAA investigators to meet a recruit in a joint hamburger for a period when recruitment visits were prohibited. He claimed not to remember it, despite the receipts and the photos suggesting the opposite.

The spin of the database of fans of Michigan: Big Deal is a hamburger.

But Burgergate was only a Spygate prelude, the very chronic program by which the former member of the Connor Stalions support staff spent three years buying tickets for friends to go to the games of Michigan opponents and film their signals. In a fun way, we now know that he called them the KGB.

If you looked at the Netflix documentary from last year “Shener sign”, you know that Stalion is to people as nonchalantly as a cat chewed furniture. He would make you believe that he was a Stubhub broker with too zealous friends. “It’s a bit like when your aunt gives you a Christmas present that you already have,” he said. “You are not going to be rude and say to me:” Oh, I already have that, I don’t need it. »»

According to the report of the NCAA, Poor, Put-Upon Stalion also did things like throwing his phone incriminating in a pond before the investigators can grasp it, tell a player to cover it if it is interviewed and ask a few trainees to destroy the evidence.

The spin of the database of Michigan fans for all this has also become the official response of the school.

“Michigan noted that the limitation of screening in person had been adopted as an economy measure – and not as an attempt to reduce the competitive advantage by limiting the observation of adversaries,” wrote the Co. Consequently, Michigan argued that screening is not linked to honesty, sporting spirit or competitive balance.

Because nothing says honesty and sporting spirit as a secret operation nicknamed “KGB”.

Likely you think Stalion was the only one to destroy evidence, the report confirms that the current head coach Sherrone Moore, then Harbaugh’s offensive coordinator, deleted 52 text messages with Stalion, “about 30 minutes after staging allegations.” His initial response when he was asked on this subject was: “He tried to blame the lack of retention on the storage space”.

For having essentially committed the same NCAA SIN TRESL, Moore will serve a suspension of three games – two this year, one next one. But only after Michigan exceeded its great Oklahoma match during week 2. Harbaugh is now exiled from university training until 2038. He doesn’t care. The cause of the exposure of the Stalions is eight years. No one cares about it.

Whatever the sanctions taken by the Committee, were never going to satisfy the detractors of Michigan. It has been strongly sterilized since 2011. Members have moved away from post-season bans because they “unfairly penalize students-athletes for the actions of coaches and staff who are no longer (there)”. Instead, the Committee has published an eight-digit fine equivalent to two years of after-season income. It is not a small thing in the era of income sharing, while even Michigan Athletics will manage a deficit, but it is unlikely that the Harbaugh or the following stallions.

NCAA cannot take away the Michigan National Championship in 2023, because the university football playoffs are not an NCAA championship. And Bay explained on Friday that the release of victories is only used in cases involving ineligible players.

Consequently, Michigan retains its national title, and now nothing can prevent it from competing for another this year. To which Wolverine fans will surely say – are worth it. But the reputation that school has taken over the past two years is not a little thing.

“Everyone Cheats” has long been a mantra in university athletics, but Michigan, more than most, has long sold integrity as a basis for their brand. Harbaugh, you will remember it, has been hailed once like “the man of Michigan” final.

There is no official criterion that makes a “Michigan Man”, in addition to having played or trained in Michigan, but Harbaugh himself tried to define him during his press conference after winning the national championship.

“Doing something bigger than for yourself,” he said. “Worry about someone other than you. Never get out, do well. You don’t lie, you don’t cheat, you don’t fly. “”

So much for that.

(Photo: Maddie Meyer / Getty Images)