Head coach Jim Harbaugh of the Michigan football team, along with other teammates, responded to the Big Ten’s decision to suspend him for three games in unison.
Tom Brady, a former Wolverine quarterback and seven-time Super Bowl winner, is also affected. The conference declared on Friday that Michigan will play the remainder of the regular season without Harbaugh, though he will still be able to guide the team in workouts.
The Big Ten said the football team was “found in violation of the Big Ten Sportsmanship Policy for conducting an impermissible, in-person scouting operation over multiple years, resulting in an unfair competitive advantage that compromised the integrity of competition.”
Michigan will retaliate against the suspension ruling, as reported by Dan Murphy and Pete Thamel of ESPN:
The announcement is made the day before the No. 3 Wolverines visit Happy Valley to play the No. 10 Penn State Nittany Lions.
The Michigan players have demonstrated their unity in support of Harbaugh in the past, especially following the school’s self-imposed three-game ban of him due to recruiting infractions.
Harbaugh lost most of the 2023 season as a result of that. Before the first play of their second drive against East Carolina, Michigan’s offensive players responded by holding up the No. 4 in line and unity, leading to a 30-3 victory.
When Harbaugh was a standout quarterback for Michigan in the middle of the 1980s, he famously donned No. 4.
McCarthy also wore a “Free Harbaugh” shirt before to that ECU game.
Now that the unbeaten Wolverines are in charge of their own fate in terms of a Big Ten championship and a College Football Playoff berth, the stakes are a little greater.
The Michigan Wolverines take on Penn State at noon ET on Saturday, so we’ll soon find out if the team has any on-field or gameday plans to back Harbaugh.
