A former Michigan football recruiting director told the NCAA that Jim Harbaugh cultivated a culture of indifference during the COVID-19 dead period, imploring Wolverine staffers to "go up to the line and cross it."
The former director made that statement to the NCAA in multiple interviews with enforcement staff and investigators conducted in 2022. The NCAA revealed the director's statement in a 48-page report issued Wednesday, soon after the organization handed Harbaugh a four-year show-cause penalty for violations he committed during the pandemic-related dead period.
According to the NCAA Division 1 Committee on Infractions, Harbaugh "violated recruiting and inducement rules, engaged in unethical conduct, failed to promote an atmosphere of compliance and violated head coach responsibility obligations." The former director's statement, in addition to other findings of fact, helped the committee reach that conclusion and deliver punishment.
Jim Harbaugh receives a four-year show-cause penalty over COVID-19 dead period recruiting violations unrelated to the organization's sign-stealing investigation. https://t.co/ZZxGPrBOXT
— Eleven Warriors (@11W) August 7, 2024
“In early 2021, multiple football prospects visited Michigan’s campus on these informal visits,” the NCAA report states. “According to the recruiting director, Harbaugh urged him to ‘get guys to campus.’”
The former director also reported that "the football staff had no process in place to alert the athletics compliance staff when prospects were planning to visit campus," that "the football staff took no precautions during the visits to avoid in-person contact with the prospects" and that "the culture (in the football program) wasn't to be safe, the culture was to go up to the line and cross it if you had to."
During the NCAA probe, Harbaugh told investigators he was "aware of and compliant with" COVID-19 recruiting restrictions. However, the NCAA found at least two examples of Harbaugh having in-person contact with visiting recruits, the first of which occurred in February 2021, when he met a four-star prospect and his father at a local diner.
“In an interview with the institution and (NCAA) enforcement staff, (the recruit) stated he and his father had ‘pretty much a one-on-one breakfast with Coach Harbaugh’ where they discussed (the recruit)’s future and potentially playing football at Michigan,” the report states.
The report also states that the former director couldn’t recall the recruit's visit specifically, but he could remember “being present at a breakfast with Harbaugh and a prospect at the diner during the COVID-19 recruiting dead period.” The director even provided an expense report proving he paid for the breakfast, which included the purchase of a bacon cheeseburger.
“Specifically, (the recruit) recalled that Harbaugh ordered a hamburger for breakfast, which ‘kind of stood out’ to him," the report states.
Harbaugh later said multiple times he had no recollection of meeting with the recruit or his father despite evidence to the contrary. NCAA investigators revealed Harbaugh admitted to remembering the recruit and his visit to campus during the recruiting dead period in October 2022, providing them with a text message he sent to the prospect acknowledging his “trip to Ann Arbor!” Yet, he continued to deny having in-person contact with the recruit and his father during their visit.
Harbaugh's second in-person visit with a prospect came in March 2021, according to the report. The former director and a coach arranged for the recruit to meet a member of the Michigan football team and another recruit at a local restaurant.
“The following day, the recruiting director arranged for (the prospect) and his father to meet with Harbaugh and (two) assistant coaches at the same diner where Harbaugh previously met with (a recruit) and his father,” the report states.
Harbaugh also denied that visit, but the NCAA enforcement staff “obtained supporting documentation, including travel documentation for (the recruit) and his father, as well as the recruiting director’s expense report and receipt for breakfast.”
Harbaugh later told NCAA investigators he would "dispute that” meeting while acknowledging his memory isn’t what it used to be.
“I used to have a mind like a steel trap. Now, it’s more of an aluminum trap," Harbaugh said, according to the report.
Harbaugh's four-year show-cause order is the final chapter in an NCAA investigation that originated in April 2021. Over the past three years, the NCAA has launched probes into the Wolverine program over COVID-19 dead period violations, off-field analysts coaching during practices and the Connor Stalions sign-stealing scandal.
The NCAA has yet to issue penalties to the Michigan football program or Harbaugh for the Stalions case.
On Sunday, ESPN reported details from an NCAA notice of allegations draft that Harbaugh, current Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore and former Wolverine staffers Chris Partridge and Denard Robinson committed Level 1 violations related to the Stalions case. The draft states both Harbaugh and Moore could face show-cause penalties for their involvement, while Moore could also face a suspension.
Sherrone Moore could face a show-cause penalty and possibly a suspension for allegedly deleting a thread of 52 text messages with Connor Stalions in October 2023. https://t.co/1Z2cqidMLr
— Eleven Warriors (@11W) August 4, 2024
In a press conference for the Los Angeles Chargers on Monday, Harbaugh denied knowledge of Stalions' sign-stealing scheme in response to the reported NCAA notice of allegations draft.
"Never lie. Never cheat. Never steal. I was raised with that lesson. I have raised my family on that lesson. I have preached that lesson to the teams that I've coached," Harbaugh said. "No one's perfect. If you stumble, you apologize and make it right. Today, I do not apologize. I did not participate, was not aware nor complicit in those said allegations. So for (me), it's back to work and attacking with an enthusiasm unknown to mankind."
