The NCAA Committee On Infractions (COI) ruled on the Connor Stalions espionage scandal that took place at Michigan.
The COI levied the followed punishments to Michigan:
- Four years probation
- Fines that could surpass $30 million based on budgets and postseason revenue
- 25% official visit reduction for recruiting plus a 14-week communications restriction during probation period
- Jim Harbaugh: 10-year show-cause order, starting in 2028 following current four-year show-cause penalty
- Sherrone Moore: 2-year show-cause order; 3-game suspension (2 games in 2025, 1 in 2026)
- Connor Stalions: 8-year show-cause order
- Denard Robinson: 3-year show-cause order
It was stated by NCAA President Charlie Baker long before the COI ruled on the Michigan scandal that the CFP national championship would not be vacated.
You also had to have a feeling that the Big Ten didn’t want the hammer to hit Michigan hard because of the financial implications of having to keep CBS, FOX and NBC happy with content.
Personally, my prediction wasn’t too far off.
Jim Harbaugh basically got a lifetime ban with his show-cause order. If Harbaugh wanted to coach in college football again without such an order he would be 72.
Stalions, who in my mind should have got a lifetime ban, got off light with his punishment.
I have to imagine the thought process is Stalions will be in a different vocation during the next eight years and may turn a new leaf.
What doesn’t change is Michigan is still eligible for the College Football Playoff, which I feel is fair considering throughout NCAA history many innocent souls paid for past transgressions they weren’t involved in.
So did Penn State get justice with this ruling?
It’s complicated.
Justice didn’t serve those on the 2022 Penn State team that surrendered 418 yards, the third worst in program history.
Michigan was consistently good at rushing against Penn State and had a few 200 plus yard games.
In 2016, Michigan gained 327 yards and six rushing touchdowns against a defensive unit that was banged up from Pitt where they were gashed for 341 yards and three rushing touchdowns.
ANN ARBOR, MI – OCTOBER 15: Penn State Nittany Lions defensive coordinator Manny Diaz reacts during a college football game against the Michigan Wolverines on October 15, 2022 at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Michigan. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Icon Sportswire)
But a healthy Penn State team that gave up an average of 76.6 rushing yards per game in their 11 other contests and 2.4 yards per rush really on the straight and narrow really surrender 418 yards on the ground without advance information?
Michigan running back Donovan Edwards, who once boasted that he will be up there with Walter Payton and Barry Sanders, looked it when he averaged nearly 11 yards a rush against Penn State.
Michigan’s rushing “prodigy” never could reclaim his “heroics” when he averaged more than seven yards per carry in 2022.
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.When Edwards didn’t benefit from advance knowledge, he was an average running back that went undrafted this spring, signing a free agent deal with the New York Jets.
Covering the 2022 game, the vibe was clear that something was off but no one said anyone about cheating. If they did it would come off as sour grapes.
The difficulty I have is I don’t want to get off “crying over spilled milk,” but it cannot be overlooked that Michigan cheated Penn State (and others) out of true competition.
Over the past three years, I have reflected on this situation with Ben Franklin’s quote from The Morals of Chess:
“No false move should ever be made to extricate yourself out of a difficulty, or to gain an advantage. There can be no pleasure in playing with a person once detected in such unfair practice.”
Michigan has handed Penn State some brutal defeats, like Doomsday Day 1997 where Penn State looked like it didn’t belong on the same field as Michigan, Tom Brady’s comeback in 1999, falling short in overtime in 2002, Mario Manningham as time expired in 2005, and a consecutive pair of Blowouts in the Big House in 2016 and ‘18.
Knowing now what we know and what happened in the 2023 contest that saw it first come to light, it exacerbates the loss even more.
In the aftermath, some of the Michigan’s most boastful supporters, like Barstool Sports’ David Portnoy, demonstrate a hubris like they got away with something.
It’s only complicated because the NCAA COI did rule and hand down punishment. But until Penn State can deliver a consequential blow to Michigan, like Michigan has done to the Nittany Lions consistently over the year, “football justice” won’t be served.
Just remember Harbaugh’s own words after Michigan won the national championship of what it means to be a “Michigan Man.”
“Just doing something that’s bigger than for yourself, caring about somebody other than yourself, never being outworked, doing right. You don’t lie. You don’t cheat. You don’t steal. And you give it the very best to your God-given ability. That and more.
“I mean you could probably write a book, what it means to be a Michigan man. But someday, when they throw dirt over the top of me, if somebody who is eulogizing me, who was on this team or one of my teammates, when I was playing at Michigan, if they would simply say, “He was a Michigan man.”
