Jim Harbaugh gives muted response after NCAA announces 4-year, show-cause order

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Jim Harbaugh gives muted response after NCAA announces 4-year, show-cause order

2024-08-09 10:05 Last Updated At：10:10

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. (AP) — Los Angeles Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh had a muted response one day after the NCAA announced a four-year, show-cause order for the former Michigan coach due to impermissible contact with recruits and players during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I’m stopping the engagement there with commenting. My only hope is that one day college athletics will be about what’s best for the young men and young women who participate. That’s really all I have to say about it," Harbaugh said on Thursday after practice

The show-cause order effectively bans Harbaugh from college athletics until August 2028.

The response to the penalty was markedly different from his reaction on Monday, when he continued to deny having any knowledge of the impermissible scouting operation that triggered an NCAA investigation of Michigan during its championship run last year.

“Never lie. Never cheat. Never steal. I was raised with that lesson. I have raised my family on that lesson. I have preached that lesson to the teams I’ve coached. No one’s perfect. If you stumble, you apologize and you make it right,” Harbaugh said. “Today, I do not apologize. I did not participate. I was not aware nor complicit in those said allegations. So for me, it’s back to work and attacking with an enthusiasm unknown to mankind.”

The recruiting case is unrelated to the NCAA’s investigation into impermissible in-person scouting and sign-stealing allegations that roiled Michigan’s 2023 championship season and resulted in the Big Ten Conference's three-game suspension of Harbaugh.

The NCAA said Harbaugh, who left his alma mater to coach the Chargers, “failed to promote an atmosphere of compliance and violated head coach responsibility obligations.”

“Harbaugh engaged in unethical conduct and failed to cooperate when he denied any involvement in impermissible recruiting contacts despite substantial information to the contrary,” the NCAA said in a 48-page decision that several times suggested the coach was not truthful with investigators.

Harbaugh will only face the punishment if he makes an unexpected return to college football within the next four years.

The order runs through Aug. 6, 2028. It requires any school hiring Harbaugh over the next four years to suspend him for the first full season. After that, Harbaugh would be still be barred from athletics-related activities, including team travel, practice, video study, recruiting and team meetings until the order expires.

Harbaugh’s attorney, Tom Mars, said on Wednesday the coach was not invited to participate in the settlement process nor was he aware that an agreement had been reached between the school and the NCAA. He blasted the NCAA’s punishment.

“The way I see it, from Coach Harbaugh’s perspective, today’s COI decision is like being in college and getting a letter from your high school saying you’ve been suspended because you didn’t sign your yearbook,” Mars posted on social media. “If I were in Coach Harbaugh’s shoes and had an $80 million contract as head coach of the Chargers, I wouldn’t pay any attention to the findings of a kangaroo court which claims to represent the principles of the nation’s most flagrant, repeat violator of the federal antitrust laws.”

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Man City crisis deepens after 2-1 defeat to Aston Villa in the Premier League

2024-12-22 00:04 Last Updated At：00:10

Manchester City’s stunning slump continued Saturday with a 2-1 loss to Aston Villa in the Premier League.

Goals from Jhon Duran and Morgan Rogers at Villa Park consigned the four-time defending champion to a ninth defeat in 12 games in a season that is unravelling. Pep Guardiola’s team has won just once during that run.

“We have to stay positive, even though it’s difficult, and we have to keep working hard,” City striker Erling Haaland said.

Phil Foden pulled a goal back for City in stoppage time, but it wasn’t enough to spark a late comeback.

City dropped to sixth in the standings — nine points below leader Liverpool, having played two games more. Villa climbed to fifth.

City’s remarkable fall shows little sign of stopping, with Guardiola admitting last week that he had not been good enough to turn his team’s form around.

Defeat meant the once-dominant City is without a win in any of its last eight away games in all competitions. While it looks unlikely to win a fifth-straight title, a place in the top four and Champions League qualification could also be in jeopardy.

“We concede the goals we don’t concede in the past, we (don’t) score the goals we score in the past,” Guardiola said. “We have to think positive and I have incredible trust in the guys. Some of them have incredible pride and desire to do it. We have to find a way, step by step, sooner or later to find a way back.”

Only once under Guardiola has City managed to win the title when losing six times in the league. That was in the 2020-21 campaign, when it lost two of its last three games, having already been confirmed champion.

City lost nine times when Liverpool won the title in '19-20, but its sixth defeat didn't come until the February of that campaign. Guardiola also lost six times in the league in his first season in English soccer in '16-17 and City finished third in the standings.

The latest defeat could have been even more emphatic against a dominant Villa. Duran scored his sixth goal in as many starts in the 16th minute from Rogers’ assist.

Duran had a goal disallowed for offside in the second half and Rogers hit the post before doubling Villa’s lead in the 65th.

Foden's goal in the third minute of added time came too late for City.

James Robson is at https://twitter.com/jamesalanrobson

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer