NCAA prez: Michigan earned title ‘fair and square’
- Dan Murphy, ESPN Staff WriterJan 10, 2024, 07:33 PM ET Close Covers the Huge 10 Signed up with ESPN.com in 2014
- Graduate of the University of Notre Dame
PHOENIX– NCAA president Charlie Baker stated Michigan’s football championship game was made “reasonable and square,” and that his company’s “uncommon choice” to share info about cheating accusations during the season must assist to eliminate doubts about the legitimacy of the Wolverines’ title run.Baker said
the NCAA chose to alert both Michigan and the Big Ten concurrently this October after it got “extremely compelling” info that the Wolverines were involved in a broad and unusual sign-stealing scheme.Those conversations led to the Big Ten suspending coach Jim Harbaugh for the final 3 games of the routine season. They likewise prompted Michigan analyst Connor Stalions to resign and the group to fire assistant coach Chris Partridge in November.Editor’s Picks 1 Related Bringing those accusations into the general public domain, Baker
stated, allowed Michigan and its opponents to adjust and eliminated any potential unreasonable advantages for the Wolverines during the last month of the regular season and throughout its postseason run.Michigan finished its 15-0 season by beating 5 ranked challengers in its last 6 games, all of which came after Stalions resigned.”I don’t regret doing it because resting on that info, given the comprehensiveness of it, I think we would have put everybody including Michigan in an awful place, “Baker said Tuesday night while talking to a small group of reporters at the NCAA convention.” At the end of the day, nobody thinks at this point that Michigan didn’t win the national title fair and square. So I think we did the right thing. “The NCAA’s investigation into Michigan’s alleged unfaithful plan stays open. The football program is likewise under examination for alleged recruiting offenses, for which Harbaugh served a university-imposed three-game suspension at the start of the 2023 season.Harbaugh and the group might get additional sanctions for both pending cases.Baker stated he did not know what those charges might be or when they would get here.
He stated the NCAA violations team is dealing with finding ways to move quicker with its procedure. In the sign-stealing case, Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti needed to employ a controversial analysis of the league’s sportsmanship policy to impose any penalty throughout the season in which supposed infraction took place.”We do have a series of conversations going on with the offenses folks about whether or not we can’t do something to accelerate the pace of our examinations,”Baker said.
“Certainly in a case like this, we ‘d like to be able to move a lot quicker.”Baker stated he hopes the examination will gain ground now that the season is over and the Michigan training personnel will be quicker offered to talk to private investigators.”
I get that individuals had a lot on their plates, “Baker said.Meanwhile, Harbaugh declined to address questions about his future with Michigan in the hours after their champion triumph Monday night, as
several NFL teams are apparently considering working with him.If Harbaugh does return to the expert level, Baker stated he was not sure how that would affect the NCAA’s potential sanctions of Michigan or whether they would work with the NFL to try to hold him responsible in some way.Harbaugh spoke at length Tuesday early morning about the
biggest problem on Baker’s plate in the coming year– the push to share more money with athletes. The coach said he thinks coaches and administrators in college sports should all be willing to take a 5%to 10%pay cut to supply
more to the players. “We’re all robbing the same train,”Harbaugh stated, before informing his players they need to attempt to form a union.”… Everyone is maximizing every single income source there is, but they’re not sharing it with the talent. There’s no service where that would ever fly. “Baker last month presented a proposal for rule modifications that would allow schools numerous new opportunities to share some of their revenue with athletes. When asked if remarks from a prominent head coach like Harbaugh were positive for the sport, Baker stated he supported any coach using their significant platform to go over the changes they wish to see.”I believe coaches have a platform that is made and deserved and they must feel free to talk about whatever they want to speak about,”Baker said.”Those are big-time tasks with big-time audiences and big-time effect. “