Michigan files for temporary restraining order against Big Ten’s suspension of Jim Harbaugh, Michigan has not announced a potential interim coach for the latest three-game ban for Harbaugh.
A temporary restraining order has been sought by the University of Michigan over the Big Ten’s decision to ban football coach Jim Harbaugh due to the program’s sign-stealing scam. Judge Timothy Connors of the Washtenaw County Circuit Court is the judge in Michigan’s case. He teaches at the U-M Law School as well.
The Big Ten declared that Harbaugh will be suspended for the rest of the regular season after it was determined that Michigan had violated NCAA rules by operating an in-person scouting program for potential opponents for years, in violation of the conference’s sportsmanship code.
The school expressed its dismay at Harbaugh’s three-game suspension in a statement posted on Friday afternoon. The suspension will apply to games against Maryland on November 18 and Ohio State on November 25, but Harbaugh will be permitted to coach during the week. The game against No. 9 Penn State is scheduled for Saturday.
Prior to the game on Saturday, Michigan issued the statement soon after the team’s plane touched down in State College, Pennsylvania. The squad and Harbaugh were in the air when the punishment was revealed.
Should the application be accepted, Harbaugh’s suspension would be postponed until a judge could evaluate the case’s merits. In order to avoid any interference with its perfect season on the field, Michigan is urging the NCAA to conduct the probe to its conclusion.
Because of the restraining order, U-M may be eligible to receive a preliminary injunction, which is a short-term remedy meant to maintain the status quo—in this case, the investigation—until a court can rule on the case’s merits. With an injunction, a party can ask the courts to stop another party from doing anything specific, like suspending Harbaugh early, or from carrying out their existing plan of action.
A heavy burden of proof must be met in order to get a preliminary injunction if one party’s specific activity is creating damages that cannot be resolved through monetary damages or a final settlement.
Michigan claims that the Big Ten erred in imposing the ban and that the NCAA inquiry should not have been concluded, thereby satisfying the second burden of evidence.
The application for an injunction must be filed in court by Monday, according to Michigan. However, a judge may offer them an ex parte hearing to discuss the restraining order.
In an emergency, you can petition the court ex parte without notifying or serving the other parties. This is known as an ex parte move. If approved, the Big Ten’s activities would be momentarily put on hold until both parties have the opportunity to present their cases before a judge. In that case, Harbaugh would be free to lead this weekend.
Should the Wolverines go to the Big Ten title game and possibly a bowl game, Michigan would receive Harbaugh’s return if the ban is upheld.”Like all members of the Big Ten Conference, we are entitled to a fair, deliberate, and thoughtful process to determine the full set of facts before a judgment is rendered,” the statement continues.
Commissioner Tony Petitti’s conduct today defies fundamental principles of due process, disobeys the Conference’s own guidelines, and establishes an unacceptable precedent of imposing fines prior to the conclusion of an investigation. We are shocked by the Commissioner’s snap decision given that the NCAA is still conducting an investigation, with which we are fully compliant.
“Commissioner Petitti’s hurried action today implies that this is less about following the law and more about caving in to pressure from other Conference members.” The Commissioner is putting himself on the sidelines and changing the level playing field that he is purporting to protect by acting at this hour. Furthermore, it is scarcely neutral to try to prevent the University from requesting urgent legal relief on Veteran’s Day, a court holiday.
Along with coach Harbaugh, we plan to request a court order to stop this disciplinary action from happening in order to guarantee justice in the proceedings.”In a statement released earlier Friday, the league said it found U-M in violation of the Big Ten’s sportsmanship policy “for conducting an impermissible, in-person scouting operation over multiple years, resulting in an unfair competitive advantage that compromised the integrity of competition.”
Harbaugh is serving his second suspension of the season. He was previously suspended for the first three games of 2023 due to a school-imposed penalty for allegedly violating NCAA recruiting rules during the COVID-19 dead period and for not fully assisting the NCAA in its investigation into those rules. Under a series of temporary coaches, the Wolverines emerged victorious in all three games.