There has been a lot of talk about the Michigan football sign-stealing situation this week as ESPN released an article summarizing a draft of the NCAA’s Notice Of Allegations (NOA) for the Wolverines. Nothing in the article is official as it is just a draft, and nothing has been officially issued at this point. However, based on the article, it sounds like a big issue that Michigan had was with noncompliance, and that includes Jim Harbaugh.
So, how did Jim Harbaugh fail to cooperate? Well, his attorney at the time was Tom Mars, and Mars shared some emails via X, formerly known as Twitter, from the investigation. Mars was given 6,199 emails to search, and because of the software that he was using, it would have taken him an estimated 51 hours to review the emails.
Obviously, 51 hours is a long time, and a lot of hours for a lawyer. Because of that, it would cost Jim Harbaugh more than $38,000 in legal fees for this to happen. Mars wrote the NCAA staff about his concerns, and he noted at the very least, he would need until February 20th, 2024 to complete the search. On January 30th, the NCAA staff had a response for him, and noted that he had to complete the search by January 31st, 2024, which was the next day.
Tom Mars wrote back and obviously said that he didn’t have the time to go through the nearly 6,200 emails in the next day as he had other stuff that also needed his attention, and according to Mars, that is the noncompliance that the NCAA is talking about in regard to Harbaugh.
There could be more to the story that Mars did not disclose, but these emails are certainly important for people to see.
Michigan football still has not received an official Notice Of Allegations, but when they do, this whole story should become a lot more clear.
Follow Us
Subscribe