Similar to when another Big Ten coach let his emotions dictate the postgame interview following a landmark win, some college football commenters weren’t as moved by Moore’s words than others.

Specifically Stephen A. Smith at ESPN.

“I don’t know what the hell you’re doing on national television crying for, like Jim Harbaugh got fired, like he lost his job. He got three days off because, remember, you’re allowed to be with the team and coach them throughout the week,” Smith said on First Take Monday morning.

Smith doubled down when challenged on his take explaining why Michigan shouldn’t be celebrating overcoming adversity when the penalty that suspended Harbaugh was ruled because they allegedly had an unfair advantage in the first place.

“Bottom line is, if the players received an advantage, that is a disservice to the other players at the other program,” Smith said.

I hope what I’m about to say is not categorized as being a Debbie Downer. I’ve thought about the situation a lot, so I hope the following can be accepted as realistic expectations.

With Regard To The NCAA—The NCAA has not completed their investigations. Their findings so far, which are the basis of the penalties meted out by the B1G Commisioner, appear to be sufficient to justify Level 1 NCAA violations. Looking at how such violations can be settled, it doesn’t appear likely that a Negotiated Settlement will be an option. More likely the violations will be headed for a full hearing by the NCAA Committee on Infractions. This kind of violation is new to the full COI hearing process, so there isn’t a pattern of penalties which might be expected from the COI. But Level 1 violations are serious and typically result in meaningful penalties.

With Regard To The Big Ten—However this Friday’s hearing on Michigan’s lawsuit requesting a TRO turns out, the Big Ten’s case will remain open. Based on the eventual ruling of the NCAA and their penalties, it’s reasonable to expect that the Big Ten will re-open the case to consider the totality of the NCAA evidence, ruling and penalties. Having only penalized Michigan with a 3-game suspension, the Big Ten would still have the full palette of penalties available to them to penalize Michigan. There have been so few cases of serious violations heard by the Big Ten, there is no prototypical pattern of penalties they might assess.

@Josh Henschke now that you have had an opportunity to get some rest and breathe a little can you shed any light on who the people were on the committee that approved Petitti'sa action against Michigan and Harbaugh?

Obviously there was sufficient reason for terminating his relationship with Michigan.

That chapter is over, time to move on.

Still no evidence of allegations of Harbaugh, coaches or staff not associated with Stallions has emerged.

Now is the time to confirm more details. I am confident that Michigan has the pertinent information that if (it has been rogue) moves by Stalions without Harbaugh's consent or knowledge, it is a mute point, no infrastructure committed.

Michigan will win this and come out clean with Stallions having taken it upon himself to be stupid.

However, watch Stalions get picked up by UGA, Alabama, Auburn, Tennessee, LSU, Texas, T-A&M, etc. When he is, he will be given strict guidelines that he f crossed will result in his termination.

Now the true witch hunt of Harbaugh will be exposed for all to see.

@Josh Henschke curious what you are hearing about the expedited NCAA investigation. When will it wrap up? What does that meaningfully mean? Etc.

Saw a rumor that NCAA was at Michigan and CMU again.

Less than half hour until tip on FS1 so we’ll get started a little early. Let’s do this!

Michigan gets career-hi's in points from Nimari Burnett (21) and Dug McDaniel (26) to help down St. Johns 89-73.
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Harbaugh vs Big Ten Amicus Brief
"The law firm Rushing McCarl LLP, in partnership with local counsel, is writing a pro bono amicus brief supporting the University of Michigan’s efforts to block the Big Ten’s suspension of Head Coach Jim Harbaugh. We believe the suspension violates Big Ten rules while endangering the Wolverines’ pursuit of a Big Ten title and national championship.

Amicus briefs are submitted by nonparties whose point of view could be helpful to the court. This brief is a grassroots, fan-driven effort intended to share the perspective of Michigan alumni who love the football program. Its author is the California-based litigation firm Rushing McCarl LLP, which was co-founded by Michigan alum Ryan McCarl. The brief will be co-signed by many other alumni who choose to add their names to the brief. (We acquired over 100 signatures within 30 minutes of announcing the brief, so we’re expecting hundreds or even thousands of alumni to sign on.)"

Yes you do have to be an alumni to sign as it makes you verify. But non alumni please share it around!

If Kenneth Grant departs from state college at 3pm and Gatlin Bair leaves Boise at 5pm, when will they meet in Ann Arbor?

The ACC is absolutely a dead league, locked in a long-term GOR where its members make substantially less than Michigan. Even assuming (correctly) that adding Michigan would cause the network to reopen the contract, and Michigan is worth an upward revision of 15-20% (which it is believed to add to the B1G deal), that still results in TV money in the $38 range.

What does make sense is the most valuable ACC members coming to Michigan to dissolve the GOR and form a new league. It takes at least 8 existing ACC members to dissolve the GOR. We know for a fact that the most valuable members of this league are despondent about the current and future gaps in revenue between them and the SEC/B1G until 2036. The problem the Florida States and North Carolina have is there are not 8 members of the ACC that have standing invites to the B1G or SEC. While it's likely that the B12 would have an interest in 4-6 schools, no ACC schools wants to make a lateral move (at best) to the B12. Schools like Pitt or NCState, as an example, would rather ride it out in the ACC for now and hope that by 2036, the timing works out such that their programs have improved to a point where the B1G or SEC would have an interest.

Enter Michigan. If Michigan approached the top schools of the ACC and indicated an interest in starting a brand new league, it could work. It would have to include at least 8 members ( to dissolve the GOR). You wouldn't want the league to be too large because then you have the same revenue issues as the ACC--too many schools in the league would not justify their own value in a TV contract commensurate to what the SEC and B1G make. Even though we're in the world of 16-18 team conferences, I think you'd stay with 12 to start. That leaves open the possibility to add 4 additional schools down the road.

But if you're Michigan, you also want to make this an attractive association for purposes of the academic side with the idea that you'd be building a similar association to the CIC.

What would be in this for the ACC schools? More money for one. Associating with Michigan as opposed to say BC and Wake Forest would put a lot more dollars in your pocket. Second, adding a group of schools from the ACC would allow these schools to maintain rivalries whereas if they went to the B1G or SEC, they'd be going it alone or at best with 1-2 other schools.

What should matter to Michigan? You wouldn't want to be the only school in a southern league. The group of schools should be somewhat geographically diverse so that everyone has some form of travel costs. The schools that may not bring eyeballs for purposes of a TV deal should bring some added benefit-whether that's a presence in a fertile recruiting area, a large TV market, etc.

Something like this would be ideal for Michigan if this scenario were to come to pass

Michigan
Pitt (close geographical fit)
North Carolina
Duke (basketball doesn't generally drive TV, but Duke is an exception)
Virginia
Georgia Tech
Florida State
Miami
Clemson
Stanford
Cal

I wish I knew how to post videos etc. the boos are electric lol. Slow grind. Freezing

Can anybody explain why the accusations of collusion aren’t gaining much press? Why hasn’t the NCAA or Big Ten come out and said, we are opening an investigation into this? This, if true just seems SO much more of a violation than what Stalions did. UM vs Everybody, 100….p

So there will be a hearing, and Jim will either be on the sidelines for Maryland and Ohio State or not.

That's pretty binary.

What's layered and fascinating to me is how we proceed next. What's very telling to me is how measured Gene Smith, Urban Meyer and Herbstreit seem to have been on this.

I've heard Smith has not been one of the vocal ones. Meyer has strange deflections every time it comes up that I've heard and Herbstreit yesterday seemed almost annoyed that a great Michigan team was given this fuel.

I don't think I'm going out on a limb when I guess that we have information that could impact legacies in Columbus. For 100 years the adults in the room didn't go snooping around each other's closets. That's probably because the calculus pointed to an end game where everyone lost.

Well now someone, hired by someone, entered our closet and the reputation of our program and to a little extent institution has taken a beating.

How do we react? There are wicked smart professionals assisting Warde and Santa with this and the reaction will be calculated and layered.

Part of that reaction I'm sure will be trying to get to the bottom of who hired the (professional) clowns that got into a drive/server of ours. If it ends up pointing back to OSU with evidence, things get even more interesting.

Stock up on popcorn. This one is going to remain interesting for a long time.

Aside from others on this board that say "trust me". Which no offense, I do believe it is likely, but after the whole injunction confidence, can't trust 100%, is the following:

Ono, after meeting internally, went 100% public supporting Harbaugh. He didn't dodge the question, he has been the most visible in his tenure, and is 100% in support of the coach and team. In my opinion, there is no way he would be doing this if he had any doubt. When all this broke he must have called internal meetings and demanded every single shred of evidence, and he had to walk away feeling that A- Harbaugh (although responsible) wasn't aware of the extent of Stalion's actions, and B- this was a personal attack by teams who have done a lot worse.

We got two votes!

Movin’ on up

Speed in Space!!

Michigan
10 Toes Down

Need a T-shirt with that.

I found it interesting that Josh Pate had word of Michigan having some ammunition of its own in the chamber. Not that it's odd that he has sources, but he doesn't just say stuff like that out loud without having good information. Just adds to the mystery. WHERE IS THE MONEY LEBOWSKI?

Pulled the trigger and suspended Harbaugh, are we expecting anymore leaks to come out about other teams in the B1G? @Josh Henschke you guys are killin it! Keep up the good work

Calm but passionate

we are living in the middle of a Jerry Springer show? Hopefully the B10 will send some adults to the Friday hearing.

Former Wolverine Jim Scarcelli goes over the film from Michigan's win over Penn State this past weekend. Scar also talks about Jim Harbaugh not being able to coach his team on Saturday.
Breakdown
Open 00:00-3:13
UM/PSU 3:14-11:29
Maryland 11:30-15:57
Postseason honors 15:58-24:34
PSU film 24:35-1:17:44
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