Wednesday, August 07, 2024

Now there's some progress

Former Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh has been banned from NCAA coaching for four years,  and his attorney is reduced to insulting the NCAA instead of addressing the allegations.  This is really bad news for the stinky weasel football program.  For comparison's sake, when Michigan basketball boosters were found to have wrongly made large loans to Michigan players, the program was required to vacate all of its wins in which those players participated, but head coach Steve Fisher (who ought to have noticed his star players were living large and asked some questions) was not penalized.  Yes, I personally think that was a mistake.  Players shouldn't need to have monastic vows of poverty, but when they're spending thousands on tattoos, strippers, and the like, I'd have to argue that that NIL money is getting out of hand and preventing them from doing what they're there to do--"study".

I'm hoping that Michigan gets to give up all of its wins--and again, that "national championship"--along with five scholarships for the next five years.  And, again, that the NCAA follows the NFL and finally allows signals to be sent in via radio to the QB and middle linebacker.

Stretch goal is what Harbaugh himself noted in 2007 when he was coaching Stanford; admit that too many college athletes are taking cream puff courses to maintain eligibility, and remind coaches and athletes alike that they are primarily there to learn, not play sportsball.  It's long past time to end creampuff coursework for athletes.

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