In the process of knocking off the rust after being away from the college game for a handful of years, Jim Harbaugh -- and some on his new staff -- have bent a few NCAA bylaws along the way.
According to mlive.com, "[t]he Michigan football program self-reported four Secondary/Level III NCAA violations from December to April.” All four of the violations are considered minor in nature and will result in no real punitive measures from the NCAA.
In fact, the only tangible punishment for the offenders was to be schooled on the rules by UM’s compliance department.
One of the violations involved Wayne Lyons, a graduate transfer from Stanford. One of Harbaugh’s assistants, safeties coach Mike Zordich, spoke about the defensive back joining the team before he had actually joined the team. Lyons’ mother, who landed a job in the UM football department earlier this year, also tweeted about her son moving on from the Cardinal to the Wolverines, which is also a no-no.
The other violations included Harbaugh sending an autographed helmet that was used in a high school auction to benefit a scholarship fund honoring a student who had committed suicide (college coaches are not permitted to donate anything to high school scholarship funds); allowing a prospective recruit sit in a premium seating area with coaches during a UM hockey game; and what the website described as “an electronic correspondence/recruiting materials violation where electronic materials were created and/or sent to a recruit (who is not named).”