PHOENIX – NCAA President Charlie Baker watched on television as Michigan football won the national championship Monday night and was impressed. During a meeting with a small group of reporters at the annual NCAA convention this week, Baker said the Wolverines were clearly “the better team” and won their title “fair and square.”
He was asked Wednesday to reflect on his unprecedented decision to include both the Big Ten and the University of Michigan in an ongoing NCAA investigation that paved the way for Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti to suspend head coach Jim Harbaugh for the final three games of the Regular season suspension Before the investigation was completed, Baker stood by his actions.
“I have no regrets because, given the completeness of that information, I believe we would have put everyone, including Michigan, in a terrible position,” Baker said. “As it was, it was open to the public and people either made adjustments or not.
“Ultimately, at this point, no one believes that Michigan didn’t legitimately win the national title. So I think we did the right thing.”
Baker said he also had no doubts about the outcome of the championship game, believing he took the right actions in a complicated situation. Because the NCAA investigation focused on an illegal reconnaissance and sign-stealing operation on campus, the rules violation may have impacted games still to be played in the 2023 season. Baker believed that Michigan and its conference deserved the right to act in a timely manner to preserve the fairness of the competition rather than waiting until the end of a lengthy investigative process.
“It could affect the outcome of the games and I don’t think it did at the end of the season,” Baker said. “And I think that’s important.”
Baker confirmed that the NCAA's investigation into the program began when a third party contacted the NCAA claiming it had extensive information about an illegal sign-stealing and spying operation by Michigan. (The identity of that third party has not been released.) Baker said that after the third party made contact, the NCAA told him to take the information to Indianapolis for review, which it did. Baker said the NCAA investigative team also reviewed any tactics the third party may have used to obtain the information.
“Something like that (NCAA vice president of law enforcement) John Duncan and the gang would work pretty hard, and they did,” Baker said.
Additionally, Michigan, Harbaugh and the NCAA continue to work to investigate recruiting violations the program allegedly committed during the COVID-19 dead period, for which Michigan itself imposed a three-game suspension on Harbaugh earlier in the season. The school received its formal Notice of Allegations for the case in December, in which the NCAA charged Harbaugh with a Level I violation for allegedly providing false or misleading information in an investigation. The NCAA has not yet issued a statement on the allegations in the sign-stealing case.
Baker said he believes the pace of the sign-stealing investigation should pick up now that coaches have more time to talk to investigators.
“I hope things go a little quicker now that the season is over,” he said. “I understand that people are busy.”
Baker was asked whether Harbaugh's possible NFL future could influence the investigation and said he didn't know the answer to that question. He declined to say whether the NCAA would release materials from the NCAA investigation to the NFL if the league was interested in punishing Harbaugh.
At his postgame press conference Monday night after winning the title, Harbaugh brought up the spying and sign-stealing investigations and maintained his innocence.
“We are innocent, and we stood strong and steadfast because we knew we were innocent – that's what I want to point out,” Harbaugh said. “These boys are innocent. Overcoming that wasn't so difficult because we knew we were innocent.
“(The season) went exactly the way we wanted it to.”
News of the NCAA investigation broke in late October, and the employee at the center of the investigation, football analyst Connor Stalions, was suspended with pay from the school on October 20. He later resigned from his position on November 3. Michigan went 8-0 without Stallions on the team, including wins over four top-10 teams in Penn State, Ohio State, Alabama and Washington.
Michigan players and staff repeatedly expressed after their 34-13 win over Washington on Monday night that they believed they had proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that they were the best team in the country and that their national championship was not compromised.
“With everything we've had to deal with, with all the people out there hating and spitting and wishing this would bring us down, this is the culmination,” athletic director Warde Manuel said.
(Photo: Stacy Revere/Getty Images)