As the Michigan football sign-stealing scandal rages on, there is more drama building each day, both serious and ridiculous. Toward the latter end of that spectrum, it appears that the lawyers for head coach Jim Harbaugh blatantly ripped off a Michigan football fan’s blog post in a letter they sent to the Big Ten.

On Nov. 9, Yahoo! Sports college football writer Dan Wetzel posted a 10-page letter that Harbaugh’s attorney, Tom Mars, sent to the Big Ten. The letter is nine and a half pages of legal jargon, cited and footnoted, that even quotes Wetzel toward the end.

However, there is one part that is not credited to anyone other than Mars and another lawyer who signed the letter, Jeffery A. Klein.

The section discusses Rule 32.2.2 (C) in the Big Ten Handbook and reads:

“Rule 32.2.2 (C) is unambiguous and has no exceptions. There is no rule in the Big Ten handbook that would allow the Commissioner to bypass the NCAA (and the Big Ten's Compliance and Reinstatement Subcommittee) only because the Commissioner feels pressure to act quickly.”

However, eagle-eyed Twitter user @nycsouthpaw noticed that this passage sounded eerily similar to something a user named “rym” — a self-proclaimed lawyer, Michigan alum, and football fan — wrote on the MGoBlue blog in an article titled, “Legal analysis: Big Ten rules don't allow insta-punishment of Michigan.” In that, the author wrote:

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“That provision is unambiguous and lists no exceptions. There is no rule in the conference handbook that would allow the Commissioner to bypass the NCAA (and the Big Ten's Compliance and Reinstatement Subcommittee) because the Commissioner feels peer-pressured to act quickly.”

While the seemingly blatant plagiarism is not a good look from two highly-paid lawyers, “rym” likely doesn’t mind as their blog post and the letter to the Big Ten on behalf of John Harbaugh have the same goal. All involved are trying to keep the coach on the sideline this season as the conference contemplates suspending Harbaugh as punishment for the Michigan football sign-stealing scandal.

For those curious (but don’t want to read the dense, legalese-filled blog post or letter) what Rule 32.2.2 (C) is, it is basically a provision in the Big Ten Handbook that states the conference should wait to issue punishment in investigations triggered by the NCAA. They ultimately have the right to add additional penalties, but not until after the NCAA has handed down their punishment.

Food for thought as this wild sign-stealing scandal threatens to derail a potential national championship season for the No. 2 team in the country.