Pete Thamel reveals new details involving Jim Harbaugh's availability during four-game NCAA suspension

Jim Harbaugh is expected to serve a four-game suspension, but there’s some interesting stipulations for the Michigan head coach, according to ESPN’s Pete Thamel.

Harbaugh might miss the first quarter of the season, but that doesn’t mean he won’t prepare his team. He’s actually allowed to coach at practice and as of this writing, could still be at Big Ten Media Days this week.

Thamel joined Get Up to explain the latest with Harbaugh’s expected punishment.

“The phrase in NCAA parlance is negotiated resolution and essentially there was an NCAA investigation into elicit COVID-19 visits,” Thamel said. “Michigan had faced four Level II violations. There was some type of failure to cooperate on Harbaugh’s part. And because of that, one of those violations, a new one, was added to Level I, and that’s when he became in the suspension crosshairs.”

The biggest sigh of relief for Michigan is that Harbaugh can still coach his team, just not on Saturday’s against the first four opponents. To clarify, Thamel did not mention anything about the expected one-game suspensions for OC Sherrone Moore and tight ends coach Grant Newsome.

“So they’ve gone back and forth for months in January, we reported that he refused to tell investigators that he lied to them,” Thamel said. “So this negotiated resolution basically comes down to Jim Harbaugh admitting recruiting violations, although a source told me yesterday he still did not put in the document that he did lie. 

“So it’s a little bit of semantic gymnastics here and Jim Harbaugh will likely miss the first four games. I think an important nuance to where we are Greeny, is that he can coach practice. So he won’t be on the sideline for those four solitary days, but he will still be able to shape his team all September.”

Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger reported how it could’ve been over fast, but that ended up not being the case for Harbaugh in January.

“A quick resolution broke down in January after Harbaugh refused to admit that he lied to NCAA staff,” Dellenger wrote regarding Harbaugh and his expected suspension. “The 59-year-old coach has maintained he didn’t recall the events when first speaking with investigators but that he was never purposefully dishonest.”

According to the report, Harbaugh acknowledged the program committed Level II violations but refused to sign any document or publicly state he was untruthful. But as Dellenger put it, the negotiated resolution is a “signal” the coach acknowledged he was partially dishonest.