Urban Meyer believes lying to the NCAA should end coaching careers

The Michigan Wolverines recently announced a two-game suspension for head coach Sherrone Moore, stemming from the sign-stealing case in 2023. At the time, Moore was accused of deleting text messages to conceal them from the NCAA, which caught former Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer‘s attention.

Meyer appeared on The Triple Option to discuss the suspension. There, he made the argument that if a coach lies to the NCAA, they should be banned from coaching.

“I don’t personally believe the NCAA will ever do this,” Urban Meyer said. “Because they’ll get litigated. It will be outrageous. I don’t believe it will happen, but if you put a rule in the rulebook, 1A, and it says if you do not tell the truth. If you lie to the NCAA, your career is over in college football.”

It’s a very bold stance for Meyer to take. It’s also one that, as he noted, likely wouldn’t stand up in court. However, clearly, punishment has been on the mind of the Michigan program, too. In his suspension, Moore will be away from the team for Michigan’s third and fourth opponents of the year: Central Michigan and Nebraska. He can not be a part of any team activities during those weeks.

In August of 2024, Michigan received an official Notice of Allegations from the NCAA. In it, the NCAA accused Michigan of “numerous factually unsupported infractions, exaggerates aggravating factors and ignores mitigating facts.” It was also reported by ESPN at the time that Moore faced allegations for deleting text messages and that the NCAA considers him a “repeat violator” for past recruiting violations.

For Meyer, while there is blame on those who broke the rules, there is also blame for the NCAA. That’s because he doesn’t think punishments have been harsh enough.

“The NCAA is to blame for a lot of this. Obviously, those who commit the activity, illegal activity, and that’s what it is. Not by law, but according to the laws of the NCAA, and I would come out pretty strong and say that. They said, if you do that, you’re done playing sports. That sport, not for a game, not for two games, not like the marijuana. It used to be marijuana where it was up to the school. This was not up to the school. If you got caught with steroids and performance enhancing drugs, you know what happened? You just went away,” Meyer said.

“Because the risk reward for an athlete was, don’t do that, or my career is over. If you lie as a college football coach to the NCAA, in my personal opinion, you’re finished. You’re done. That’s not making a text message, that’s not going to lunch with someone you’re not supposed with, all the level three’s and all that nonsense. But when they got you, and they said, ‘did you do this?’ and they refuse to cooperate or they lie — in my very strong opinion, you’re finished coaching in Division I college football.”

It remains to be seen what punishment, if any, the NCAA has planned. However, it’s pretty clear Urban Meyer thinks it should be a harsh one.