This story was updated at 5:33 p.m. to include a statement from Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh.
After months of back-and-forth between Michigan and the NCAA stemming from an investigation into Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh’s recruiting violations first reported in January, multiple outlets including The Detroit News report that Michigan’s own athletic department will act on the discussions, self-imposing a three-game suspension on its head coach to start the 2023 season.
On Monday afternoon, Michigan released a statement from athletics director Warde Manuel on the suspension.
“While the ongoing NCAA matter continues through the NCAA process, today’s announcement is our way of addressing mistakes that our department has agreed to in an attempt to further that process,” Manuel said. “We will continue to support coach Harbaugh, his staff, and our outstanding student-athletes. Per the NCAA’s guidelines, we cannot comment further until the matter is resolved.”
Harbaugh later released a brief statement of his own through Michigan PR.
“I will continue to do what I always do and what I always tell our players and my kids at home, ‘Don’t get bitter, get better,’ ” Harbaugh said.
In July, reports surfaced that the Wolverines and the NCAA were nearing an agreement on a four-game suspension for Harbaugh to address a Level I allegation that Harbaugh lied to NCAA investigators about a series of Level II violations.
The initial agreement also included one-game suspensions for offensive coordinator Sherrone Moore and tight ends coach Grant Newsome. That discipline, however, was shelved as the agreement with the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions (COI) fell through, seemingly delaying any disciplinary actions to next season by placing it in the NCAA’s disciplinary system for the 2024 offseason.
That delay seems over, with Michigan opting to address the situation and end the Harbaugh discipline saga internally now, instead of leaving it to the NCAA following the season. However, the NCAA has not yet closed the investigation, and it can still levy its own sanctions against Harbaugh and the Michigan program.
Later on Monday, members of the Michigan football team met with the media for a pre-scheduled press conference. When asked about the suspension, they declined to share the specifics of Harbaugh’s announcement to the team earlier that day, instead emphasizing that the team is focused and its confidence unaltered by the news.
“We rally behind him,” sophomore defense tackle Kenneth Grant said. “… I was surprised a little bit, but it really doesn’t affect us. The group of guys we got, we’re really resilient, so we’re going to come with even more firepower.”
The sentiment was echoed throughout the presser.
“There’s not much (to) really talk about, like this is a very focused team, so everything that happened there we kind of just keep to ourselves,” junior tight end Max Bredeson said. “… We’re just going to keep pushing and doing the same thing we’ve been doing.”
As it stands, the Wolverines will be without their head coach for their non-conference home-opening slate against Eastern Carolina, UNLV and Bowling Green. Harbaugh would return for the Big Ten opener against Rutgers on Sept. 23.