Joel Klatt on Michigan investigation: ‘Why is the NCAA still a thing?’
Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh was investigated by the NCAA for failing to admit he allegedly lied about taking recruits to breakfast on their impromptu visit to Ann Arbor. The committed recruits apparently stopped in on a whim during a COVID-19 shutdown period when the coaches weren’t supposed to have contact, so they were fed before they left.
Fox analyst Joel Klatt, one of the best in the business, scoffed at the allegations during his most recent podcast in wondering aloud, “why is the NCAA still a thing?”
“This whole notice of allegations from the NCAA seems serious – 4 violations, there’s a level 1 violation, there’s a level 2 violation. Basically … there’s a couple very moderate violations, one that was self-reported,” Klatt said. “The other was a contact issue during what was supposedly like a COVID dead period … and then once the NCAA was investigating some of these things, there was an analyst that went out on the field in practice and maybe was coaching, and you’re not supposed to do that. They reported themselves.
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“And then during the investigation, some hard-up investigator says, ‘I don’t feel like Harbaugh is being forthright.’ So here comes the NCAA and they’re like, ‘oh, you are under investigation. I believe you had contact during a dead period for COVID.’ It’s like, ‘what? Wait … WHAT?’”
Like 99.9 percent of the country, he was incredulous at the NCAA’s response. They’re reportedly prepared to take this to litigation to get Harbaugh to admit he “lied” to them, and Michigan has his back and is prepared to fight it.
“So, No. 1, let me get this straight — the NCAA still exists? All right,” Klatt said. “Well, that’s news to a lot of us based on what’s going on in the world of intercollegiate athletics that the NCAA is going to step up and thankfully protect those kids from getting, what … a text message? A Five Guys burger during a COVID dead period? Because … man. I just don’t know if I could live if I knew players were being contacted during COVID dead period.
“My goodness. Because in that COVID dead period, all of us were just so busy sitting in our sweatpants trying to look at the 8 millionth zoom of whatever we enjoyed. So, the NCAA apparently is still out there. Hey. How about that? But for this? Wait … what? WHAT? For a covid dead period violation?”
Klatt then poked fun at the sensationalism in some of the articles about “level 1 violations” and their seriousness.
“I’m sorry … what are we doing?” Klatt said. “Have you not looked around college football? Because I have. And I can tell you, from 2005 to 2023, this has gone completely nuclear as far as what the staff sizes around college football are. Basically, the biggest programs in the country in 2005, if you looked at their team pictures, they’d have like 25 staff pictures … at the biggest programs in the country.
“Now … the staffs are enormous in college football. And the NCAA is going to be hard up because one of the analysts coached a player when he shouldn’t have? Aren’t we there for the players’ benefit anyway? I thought the NCAA’s main goal was to be there for the benefit of the student athlete?
“What are we doing? And this is what the NCAA is going to get upset about? Okay. Okay.”
Klatt then compared it to 5-star quarterback Jaden Rashada’s $13-million Neal falling apart at Florida, to which the NCAA had no comment whatsoever.
Watch Klatt break it down here:
