The NCAA is over. They had one last punch in them to do the right, and completely whiffed. The worst part in all of this is we all knew this was coming. While I will never be in favor of having teams vacate wins, championships and whatnot, Michigan toed the lines of ethicality throughout the Jim Harbaugh era en route to three straight College Football Playoff appearances and one national championship.
In the wake of the burger scandal, the NCAA had overwhelming evidence to do what was right in college football in the Connor Stalions sign-stealing scandal and crapped the bed uncontrollably. Outside of a handful of fines, some recruitment reductions and a boat load of show causes, many of which to people no longer part of the program, Michigan largely gets out of this mess unscathed.
As everyone in Ann Arbor is doing cartwheels in the streets over what will be the Wolverines' biggest victory of the season, I get the sense that the rest of the college football world is P-I-S-S-E-D, pissed! The dawn of NIL made the evidence against Michigan look no longer as damning. Programs like USC, Notre Dame and Ohio State are livid over it because of what the NCAA took away from them recently.
ESPN's Pete Thamel shared over X the full list of punishments that will be handed out to Michigan.
Full Michigan punishments here. pic.twitter.com/DPcGYiYM6A
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) August 15, 2025
I am not in favor of vacating wins or a title, but I just come away from this latest scandal totally empty.
Like this tweet if you’ve mentally vacated Michigan’s 2023 title
— Brooks Austin (@BrooksAustinBA) August 15, 2025
And least now we can finally all agree that Michigan's title in 2023 was built on cheating.
— Peter Burns (@PeterBurnsESPN) August 15, 2025
The NCAA, The Big 10 and even Michigan themselves admitted they cheated and broke the rules.
Title tainted.
The recurring theme of the two Michigan/Harbaugh NCAA investigations is everyone lied and lied and lied. https://t.co/GgoVDgwkxL
— Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) August 15, 2025
So over the Michigan thing
— Liam Blutman (@Blutman27) August 15, 2025
They cheated. They won the Natty. They got caught.
Plenty of other programs cheated. They did not win the Natty that year but probably won it another year. They didn’t get caught.
Can’t take the Title/Games away, we all saw it happen.
Zzz
I am laughing away like The Comedian on my way down to the sidewalk because the NCAA is a joke.
College football world reacts to punishments of Michigan's latest scandal
Look. This is a team that I think could contend for the fourth College Football Playoff spot out of the Big Ten this year behind Ohio State, Oregon and Penn State, in some order. If freshman quarterback Bryce Underwood is as good as advertised, this team can win 10 games and play for a national championship. However, the hilarity of the punishments doled out by the NCAA has me in stitches.
I really want to point to the four show causes handed out. Michigan legend Denard Robinson gets three years. I did not realize he was that big of a part in all this, but the NCAA apparently thought so. Stalions gets an eight-year show cause. It is not like he is ever going to work in college football again. Jim Harbaugh gets another 10 years added onto his four for the burger suspension. What a world!
What are the chances Harbaugh will still be with us when his combined 14 years of show causes finally end? All I know is he will have precisely zero Super Bowl rings to show for it while leading the Los Angeles Chargers because Justin Herbert has no dog in him whatsoever. The real thing I am wondering is if J.J. McCarthy's NFL career lasts as long as Harbaugh's two combined show causes!
Look. I am not going to stand atop a high horse and tell you what is right and wrong. The legal system has not been balanced for a very long time. What I am curious to see is if Moore can actually coach, which leads me to my other hilarious takeaway from all this. His two-game, self-imposed suspension for deleting every text message under the sun from Stalions was simply not enough for the NCAA...
So after serving a suspension for Weeks 3 and 4 of the season vs. Central Michigan and at Nebraska, because Moore really wants to see if his team can beat his alma mater of Oklahoma in Norman, he must serve one more game to satisfy a new three-game suspension. This will now be Week 1 of the 2026-27 college football season. I feel like I am watching the yearlong trial on Europa for Adrian Veidt.
In the end, we now have closure in all of this, and we can move on with our lives. If you want to hate Michigan, you can go right ahead. If you want to celebrate their legal victory, be my guest. Right now, all I care about is seeing what this team can do with Underwood at quarterback and Moore at head coach. I am cautiously optimistic, but I do not feel this is a playoff team for the second year in a row.
In the meantime, I am sure the rest of the internet will react accordingly to this Friday news dump.