Jim Harbaugh, the football coach at Michigan, won’t be watching from the sidelines. His team plays Ohio State on Saturday in an attempt to record its 1,000th victory in programme history, or it plays them the following week with a trip to the Big Ten championship game at stake.
The university made an announcement on Thursday afternoon stating that Harbaugh had accepted his suspension for the duration of the regular season and the school and he had “resolved their pending litigation” with the Big Ten.
“The University, Coach Harbaugh, and the Big Ten have settled their ongoing legal dispute this morning. Kurt Svoboda, associate athletic director, issued a news release saying, “The University and Coach Harbaugh agreed to accept the three-game suspension, and the Conference agreed to close its investigation.” “In order to put the attention back on our student-athletes and their on-field performance, Coach Harbaugh made the decision to accept this sanction with the support of the University.
“The Conference has reaffirmed that it has no knowledge of any material indicating Coach Harbaugh’s connection to the accusations. The University is still giving the NCAA’s investigation its full cooperation.”
Sherrone Moore, the offensive coordinator, was the acting head coach against Penn State last week (as well as against Bowling Green in September when Harbaugh was suspended for an unrelated incident). On Saturday, Moore will lead the team against Maryland in College Park, Maryland, and the following week, against Ohio State in Ann Arbour.
The Big Ten issued a statement shortly after U-M made its announcement.
“The Big Ten Conference’s commitment to student-athletes, sportsmanship and the Commissioner’s duty to protect the integrity of competition will never waver,” said the statement. The Conference and the University aim to uphold high standards and values, as demonstrated by the University of Michigan’s decision today to rescind its legal challenge against the Conference’s Notice of Disciplinary Action dated November 10.
