Jim Harbaugh will not be on Michigan’s sidelines Saturday against Penn State, after all.
Beyond that is still unclear.
According to ESPN and other reports, Michigan was not granted the temporary restraining order it sought in time for Saturday’s game, which would have permitted the head coach to coach the Wolverines despite the Big Ten conference having announced Friday it was suspending Harbaugh for the remainder of the 2023 regular season, having found the football program conducted “an impermissible, in-person scouting operation over multiple years, resulting in an unfair competitive advantage that compromised the integrity of competition.”
The restraining order seeks to allow Harbaugh to coach games until the case is heard, and a hearing is reportedly set for Nov 17.
“We look forward to presenting our case next week where we intend to demonstrate that the Big Ten has not acted legally or fairly,” Michigan said in a statement.
In addition to the Penn State game, Harbaugh’s suspension covers Michigan’s games against Maryland and rival Ohio State.
Offensive coordinator Sherrone Moore will be acting head coach on Saturday in Harbaugh’s absence.
Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel railed against the Big Ten’s decision.
“No one here, and no one at other universities around this country, wants to be convicted and penalized without due process of a complete investigation and with significant harm to our student-athletes,” Manuel said in the statement. “This is a fundamental principle of our justice, NCAA and, until yesterday, our conference systems. Sadly, that is not what happened yesterday.
“Yesterday, under the guise of the NCAA Rule regarding Head Coach Responsibility the Big Ten decided to penalize Coach Harbaugh without knowing all the facts, and I find that completely unethical, insulting to a well-established process within the NCAA, and an assault on the rights of everyone (especially the Big Ten) to be judged by a fair and complete investigation.
“Not liking someone or another university or believing without any evidence that they knew or saying someone should have known without an investigation is not grounds to remove someone from their position before the NCAA process has reached a conclusion through a full NCAA investigative process.”
Michigan is under investigation for an alleged sign-stealing scheme masterminded by now ex-staffer Connor Stalions, in which he attended games of upcoming Wolverines opponents and recorded hand signals.
Stalions, a former Marine, resigned from Michigan last week.
“All of the Head Coaches in the Big Ten (some who have been accused of actively participating in the trading of signals of opponents) and my Big Ten AD colleagues can rejoice today that someone was ‘held accountable,’ but they should be worried about the new standard of judgment (without complete investigation) that has been unleashed in this conference,” Manuel said.
On Friday, after the suspension by Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti was announced, Harbaugh and Michigan filed for a temporary restraining order following a statement by the school saying, in part, that the ban “disregards the Conference’s own handbook, violates basic tenets of due process, and sets an untenable precedent of assessing penalties before an investigation has been completed. We are dismayed at the Commissioner’s rush to judgment when there is an ongoing NCAA investigation – one in which we are fully cooperating.”
Judge Carol Kuhnke, who earned a bachelor’s degree from Michigan in 1990, will make the ruling.