Shocking: Michigan may voluntarily suspend its head coach again, though the outcome should differ this time
Sherrone Moore is reportedly following in the footsteps of his predecessor, with Michigan again choosing to enforce a voluntary suspension. But the outcome should be a bit different:
The institution or The Institution
Personally, I do feel like the NCAA has been handling these recent issues in an inordinate way, but not because of the Michigan program itself. Harbaugh has never been one to bow down to authorities, and his antics have surely made him some enemies within the NCAA. Maybe that animosity still lingers with his successor and his former program, but it does seem like he is at the center of any escalation.
While the self-imposed three-game suspension feels like a failure because of the later penalties Harbaugh received from the recruiting violations, that decree feels far from objective. For one, Harbaugh was out of college athletics by the time the ruling was decided, making the penalty more or less performative. Michigan’s willingness to fight vs. settle was also compromised as the former head coach had already moved on.
Moore, meanwhile, is the future of the program. Michigan hopes and expects him to be here for a long time and will surely do what it needs to in front of the NCAA to keep him around. This is not to suggest that the Wolverines simply threw Harbaugh (or Jesse Minter or Steve Clinksdale) under the bus, but the parameters change when a coach is actually still in Ann Arbor vs. the NFL.
That leads me to believe that Michigan would only go down the self-imposed suspension route if it had confidence in its effectiveness. Suspending Moore for any amount of time is a big deal, and after seeing how the recruiting violations played out despite the self-imposed Harbaugh suspension, there is no way the program would repeat the same tactics without thorough investigation.
So yes, it appears that the three games Harbaugh missed at the start of 2023 was a pointless exercise, but an entire era of drama played out between that decision and the finalization of the associated penalties. The circumstances are much different this time around which should give some encouragement to fans and Moore alike.
