As it turns out, Michigan’s administration and its attorneys were absolutely correct last week when they accused the Big Ten of acting too hastily in issuing their three-game suspension of Jim Harbaugh: The Big Ten should have waited a week for the next shoe to drop in the Wolverines’ in-person scouting scandal.

Michigan on Thursday suddenly withdrew its furious filing for a temporary restraining order against the Big Ten and commissioner Tony Petitti, apparently deciding Harbaugh’s suspension no longer qualified as “irreparable harm.” …

As Yahoo first reported, the NCAA turned over new evidence to the school this week alleging that a booster named “Uncle T” — an absolute classic for a cheating booster name — …
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… Nobody goes to prison for sign-stealing. Nobody died.

It was the brazenness of the operation, openly defiant of a well-established NCAA rule, all conveniently documented in a “mater spreadsheet” a mystery investigator handed over to NCAA officials.

Now, the new emerging details take this scandal to another level.

If standard sign-stealing is the football equivalent of going 70 MPH in a 65 MPH zone, then doing it through illicit in-person scouting is more like driving 90. Sorry, sir, but we have to give you a ticket. When you throw in an ill-intentioned booster — the long-time scourge of NCAA investigators — and an assistant allegedly covering up evidence? Now we’ve reached “go directly to jail, do not collect $200” territory.

All of which makes Michigan’s original scorched-earth, self-victimizing response to Harbaugh’s suspension even more bewilderingly aloof than it was at the time.

[This isn’t going to stop at Harbaugh: It’s going to take out Santa Ono, too. AND IT SHOULD.]

First, the school took its conference to court, casting themselves as mere noble defenders of the right to “due process,” as opposed to, say, intentionally obfuscating and delaying in an attempt to push any potential punishments until after its ongoing championship quest.

“This shoot first, ask questions later approach to sanctions is a flagrant breach of fundamental fairness,” its attorneys wrote…

Then, athletic director Warde Manuel came spitting hot fire in a statement released shortly before last Saturday’s Penn State game: “Not liking someone or another university…”

[And it’s going to take out Manuel. Basically the University of Michigan is going to be decapitated. AND IT SHOULD.]

Manuel went on to mock Big Ten coaches and his fellow ADs who “can rejoice today that someone was ‘held accountable.’” It’s the kind of rhetoric you’d think someone only uses if they believe their closet to be completely clean.
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But lo and behold! It appears NCAA investigators did in fact prove capable of busting someone — specifically Partridge, who Yahoo reported is not believed to have had prior knowledge of Stalions’ scheme but later attempted to destroy computer files documenting it.

[Pause. How can someone destroy something that he didn’t know existed? Unpause.]

Without yet knowing what else the NCAA might still uncover, one thing is clear. Harbaugh’s game-day suspension was a wrist slap compared to some alternatives Petitti would now be fully justified in imposing…
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The primary reason Petitti got involved rather than waiting on the NCAA was that Stalions was buying tickets as recently as the Oct. 21 Penn State-Ohio State game. In his formal notice to Manuel last week announcing Harbaugh’s suspension, Petitti wrote, in part, “Enforcing the Sportsmanship Policy with appropriate discipline this season in light of the University’s established violations this season is thus of the utmost importance…”
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And so, he refrained from invoking a more impactful punishment, like Michigan having to forfeit games and/or be rendered ineligible for the conference championship game.

[WHICH HE SHOULD HAVE]
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Harbaugh may not have specifically known about Stalions’ actions, but it was only two months ago, after returning from his first three-game suspension, that he pledged the program would become a “gold standard” for rules compliance. That, like a lot of things coming out of Michigan Men’s mouths lately, now seems laughable. If anything, Michigan has become the sport’s most renegade program.

Among the headlines surrounding the Wolverines over the last year: The NCAA’s original investigation into impermissible recruiting during the 2020-21 COVID-19 dead period; co-offensive coordinator Matt Weiss’ January dismissal over alleged computer-access crimes for which the FBI is now investigating; Harbaugh hiring as an assistant recruiting director Shemy Schembechler, son of Bo, only to fire him three days later after Internet sleuths uncovered a trove of racist comments he had “liked” on Twitter; and now … all of this.