Did anyone really expect the NCAA to deal seriously with Michigan over its “elaborate, impermissible scouting scheme?”
My opinion…a tap on the wrist.
As if to say, “We see what you did, Michigan. Don’t let it happen again, and we’re all good.”
Yet, a punch in the mouth to the reputation for one of the most storied programs in sports history.
Veteran columnist Jeff Gilbert writes Ohio State football and OHSAA sports for Press Pros Magazine.com.
The NCAA confirmed Friday that Jim Harbaugh’s former program was engaged in an “elaborate, impermissible scouting scheme.” How many times did Harbaugh, et al., claim ignorance of the entire scheme? So many times they probably began to believe they were truly innocent. TTUN will never stand for The Truth Up North.
However, reputations can be rebuilt. But the NCAA’s lack of institutional fortitude is why August 15, 2025, will be remembered as a day it failed to do its job.
At its wishy-washy worst, the NCAA claimed there was “insufficient evidence” that cheating influenced who won and lost. So it’s not what you do? Wrongdoing only matters if someone gets hurt? Can I logically conclude that if the NCAA had proven a game outcome had been affected, the penalties would have been stiffer? Problem is, how do you prove that beyond any reasonable doubt. The NCAA always had that as a cop out for leniency.
Instead of a postseason ban or vacating wins and championships – punishments with clear historical precedence – the Wolverines will be a little lighter in their wallet, play an additional inconsequential game without their head coach and be on probation.
And there is the rub, the one that rubs non-Michigan cultists the wrong way. The rub that makes you want to do what the late Pittsburgh Penguins broadcaster Mike Lange used to say: “Scratch my back with a hacksaw.”
Friday’s NCAA ruling once again proves that there is no punishment commensurate to the crime…because as a nation of misplaced empathy we don’t have the stomach for it. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
Lange said it when good things on the ice excited him. That quirky phrase came to mind more from an emotion of extreme frustration, frustration that confirms the system is broken.
Be mad at Michigan all you want. But save your strongest criticism for the NCAA. They continue to trend toward a softer, gentler governing body, one that delays justice interminably, or ignores it completely.
And now we know for sure that the NCAA is an irrelevant rule maker and lackluster enforcer. The newly formed College Sports Commission owns the revenue-sharing and NIL third-party business. That group will enforce those rules. The NCAA is now little more than a championship event planner.
With Friday’s toothless announcement, the NCAA made it clear that college athletic programs, at least high-profile types like Michigan football, won’t be scared to operate outside the integrity of the game. We’ve seen that for decades with recruiting violations and misdemeanor-like punishments.
While equating one scandal to another is difficult, there was a day when Michigan would have gotten something akin to what Penn State, Ohio State or SMU got. But not in our enlightened age of lower standards and misplaced empathy. The NCAA said it didn’t want to penalize Michigan players who had done nothing wrong. There was no precedent for that decision. And it’s an admission that the punishment didn’t fit the crime.
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Michigan will easily scrounge up enough couch change to pay the NCAA $30 million in fines. The 2026 opener against Western Michigan without head coach Sherrone Moore won’t impact the season. And being on probation for four years sounds a lot worse than what probation actually is. Unless there is a double-secret probation we don’t know about.
Whatever you felt toward Michigan – from anger to disappointment – as dishonest deed after dishonest deed was revealed about Connor Stalions’ sign-stealing conspiracy, you shouldn’t be surprised.
Big and blue-city prosecutors don’t have the stomach to punish criminals like they used to in favor of rehabilitation efforts. Some criminals turn their life around, but recidivism rates generally run well over 50%. If you’ve raised kids, you understand the correlation between going easy on them and the likelihood they will do it again.
I was working in the yard Friday morning with my carefully curated and eclectic Spotify list playing in my ears when Stevie Wonder started singing about doing nothing.
We are amazed but not amused
By all the things you say that you’ll do
Though, much concerned but not involved
With decisions that are made by you
But we are sick and tired of hearing your song
Tellin’ how you are gonna change right from wrong
‘Cause if you really want to hear our views
You haven’t done nothin’
Stevie’s words were aimed at Richard Nixon as his presidency crumbled. In another era, those words reflected what I figured was coming from the NCAA Friday. And a couple hours later that was the news. The NCAA called their actions “very significant.”
But if you really want to hear my view, they haven’t done nothin’.
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