What is a show-cause? Explaining former Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh's NCAA punishment

USA Today

a day ago

On August 15, about 22 months after much of the country first learned of the name Connor Stalions, the NCAA announced its long-awaited findings and punishments following its investigation into alleged in-person scouting by the Michigan football program.
Per the NCAA's report, it found what it called "overwhelming" evidence of illegal in-person scouting, and punished several figures within the Michigan program at the time of the infractions and the athletic department.
The scandal and its potential ramifications have followed the Wolverines since news of the probe was first publicized in October 2023.
Much has changed in that time. Michigan won its first national championship since 1997. Head coach Jim Harbaugh left his alma mater to return to the NFL, with Sherrone Moore taking his place.
Now, that seldom straightforward saga will be nearing a conclusion.
One of the biggest questions heading into the NCAA's announcement wasn't just what kind of punishment awaited the Wolverines' program or how it would affect their coaches and players, but what impact it might have on someone who's now thousands of miles from the school's Ann Arbor campus.
Harbaugh is entering his second season as the head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers, a job he left for a few weeks after guiding Michigan to a College Football Playoff championship game victory against Washington in January 2024. Though he wasn't directly implicated in Stalions' in-person scouting operation, which violated NCAA Bylaw 11.6.1 and led to Friday's punishment, Harbaugh presided over the program during that time and wasn't shielded from the NCAA's wrath.
In addition to a four-year show cause penalty leveled upon Harbaugh for impermissible contact with recruits and players during the COVID-19 pandemic's dead period, Harbaugh suffered an additional 10-year show-cause for his role in the sign-stealing scandal. With stacking, that means Harbaugh has a 14-year show-cause overall.
What, exactly, does that mean for Harbaugh and a potential future at the college level? Here's a closer look at the show cause and what comes with it:
Is Jim Harbaugh banned from college football?
By receiving the punishment he did for the COVID-era transgressions and his involvement in the Michigan sign-stealing scandal, yes, Harbaugh is banned from the sport, for all intents and purposes, as his show cause includes a one-year suspension, which would serve as a significant deterrent to any school interested in hiring him.
Harbaugh's show cause is set for 14 years (four years for the recruiting violations and 10 years for the sign-stealing), meaning that he is effectively outlawed from coaching college football until August 2038, by which point the former Michigan and NFL quarterback will be 74 years old.
In its ruling for the recruiting violations, the NCAA said Harbaugh "engaged in unethical conduct, failed to promote an atmosphere of compliance and violated head coach responsibility obligations." Harbaugh dismissed allegations that he failed to cooperate with NCAA investigators over the course of the probe.
"The panel noted that Harbaugh's intentional disregard for NCAA legislation and unethical conduct amplified the severity of the case and prompted the panel to classify Harbaugh's case as Level I-Aggravated, with penalties to include a four-year show-cause order. Subsumed in the show-cause order is a one-season suspension for Harbaugh," the NCAA said.
In its latest ruling on Friday, August 15, the NCAA wrote:
"The underlying violations resulted in a head coach responsibility violation for former head football coach Jim Harbaugh (Harbaugh), and a failure to monitor violation for the institution. Further, several individuals failed to cooperate with the investigation and processing of this case."
In Harbaugh's punishment, the NCAA repeatedly referenced his status as a repeat violator and a consistent failure to cooperate with investigative bodies.
Thankfully for Harbaugh, he may not have to worry about returning to college football.
Last season, he led the Chargers to an 11-6 mark, a six-win improvement from the previous season, and a spot in the NFL playoffs. As an NFL head coach, Harbaugh is 55-25-1. He previously coached the San Francisco 49ers for four seasons, leading them to three NFC championship games and a berth in Super Bowl XLVII.
What is a show cause?
A show cause is an NCAA penalty primarily reserved for coaches who have been found to have committed major rules violations.
The punishment lasts for a specified period of time and is applicable to any NCAA member institution, meaning that if a coach commits NCAA infractions at one school, the show cause they received would apply at another university that's under the NCAA's jurisdiction. In effect, it means a coach is outlawed from coaching at an NCAA university. The measure is meant to prevent a coach from avoiding accountability for their role in rule-breaking.
Should a school want to hire a coach serving a show cause penalty, it would have to appear before the NCAA's committee on infractions to explain why it wants to do so.
In Harbaugh's case, there are several wrinkles to his show cause that the NCAA outlined when it handed down the initial punishment. If a school wants to hire Harbaugh, it would have to suspend him for the first full season. Additionally, he would be barred from all athletically related activities, including team travel, practice, video study, recruiting and team meetings, at any NCAA institution that employed him.
Harbaugh's hardly the first prominent coach to be slapped with a show cause.
In football, Jim Tressel received a five-year show cause for his role in the Ohio State tattoo scandal and Jeremy Pruitt got a six-year show cause (which remains active) for a slew of recruiting violations during his ill-fated stint as Tennessee's coach. Two of the four head coaches in last year's men's basketball Final Four had received show causes over the previous 20 years. Houston coach Kelvin Sampson served a five-year show cause for impermissible phone calls to recruits during his short-lived tenure at Indiana while Auburn's Bruce Pearl received a three-year show cause for lying to the NCAA during an investigation over an impermissible recruiting visit to his home while he was at Tennessee. Auburn made the unusual move of hiring Pearl five months before his show cause expired in August 2014, which meant that Pearl was unable to be in contact with recruits during that summer's recruiting period.