What to expect when Michigan and Jim Harbaugh take on the Big Ten in court
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Dan Murphy
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Dan Murphy
ESPN Staff Writer
- Covers the Big Ten
- Joined ESPN.com in 2014
- Graduate of the University of Notre Dame
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Pete Thamel
The extent of head coach Jim Harbaugh’s involvement in the rest of No. 3 Michigan’s regular season games will be determined Friday in an unprecedented mid-season courtroom battle in Ann Arbor.
Harbaugh said he plans to be inside the relatively small courtroom at the Washtenaw County Courthouse at 9 a.m. on Friday when a judge will hear his plea to effectively eliminate the remainder of a three-game suspension handed down by the Big Ten last week. He will be joined by lawyers representing Michigan and the Big Ten, standing in front of Judge Timothy Connors and six rows full of onlookers, to argue over whether the coach should be allowed on the sidelines for the Wolverines’ two remaining regular season games against Maryland and No. 2 Ohio State.
Harbaugh said Monday he’d like a chance to speak at the hearing, but didn’t know if that would be possible. Lawyers for Michigan did not respond to calls seeking comment about the hearing. Preliminary injunction hearings can include witnesses called to the stand but more often rely on arguments made by the attorneys, according to Donald Shelton, who served as chief judge in Washtenaw County before retiring to teach in law school at UM-Dearborn.
“If there is a dispute about the facts, which I doubt there will be, the judge may require witnesses or documents,” Shelton said. “The conference then has the similar opportunity to present arguments or evidence.”
Rather than disputed facts, the judge’s decision is more likely to hinge on his interpretation of the Big Ten’s authority to punish the coach through its sportsmanship policy and how the conference rulebook overlaps with the NCAA’s enforcement process.
Connors has an ample amount of discretion, according to legal experts, on how he wants the hearing on Friday to unfold and when he will issue a decision.
For Harbaugh to coach again during the regular season, his lawyers will have the burden to convince Judge Connors that: 1) They have a reasonable chance of proving during a trial that the Big Ten is ignoring its own rules in doling out a punishment now, and 2) Harbaugh’s absence from the team on the next two Saturdays could cause irreparable harm to him, the football program and the university.
Based on what both sides have shared in court filings and a volley of heated letters to one another in the past week, their arguments are likely to focus on two specific parts of the Big Ten rules.
The first is Rule 32, which says when the NCAA initiates an investigation of a Big Ten school, the conference can decide to hand out additional sanctions after the NCAA takes action. In this case, the conference learned of the cheating allegations against Michigan after the NCAA opened an investigation in October. Michigan’s lawyers contend in court documents that the Big Ten and commissioner Tony Petitti “threw out the procedure” in a rush to punish Harbaugh due to pressure from other coaches and athletic directors around the league.
Petitti wrote in a letter explaining the suspension last week that Rule 32 does not exclude him from using a different part of the Big Ten rulebook — the Sportsmanship Policy — to issue punishments when he believes the integrity of competition has been compromised.
Petitti wrote that the evidence he saw from NCAA investigators and other members of the conference provided enough information for him to conclude the in-person scouting operation orchestrated by former staff member Connor Stalions did impact the integrity of competition in Michigan’s games. He said it was up to his discretion on whether to use the sportsmanship policy or the “slower-moving procedures set forth in Rule 32.”
“This language could not be clearer,” Petitti said. “When sportsmanship issues, including the integrity of competition, are implicated by the offensive conduct, the Commissioner is authorized to use the procedures and authority prescribed by the Sportsmanship Policy, even if that offensive conduct also may involve a violation of NCAA or Conference rules.”
Michigan’s lawyers also argued in their motion for a restraining order that the Big Ten’s sportsmanship policy doesn’t give the league the authority to specifically punish Harbaugh. The policy says the Big Ten commissioner can hold accountable either someone “found to have committed an offensive action” or the institution responsible for that person.
“Coach Harbaugh is neither,” his attorneys wrote in their legal filing last week.
Petitti said in his letter Friday the conference did not have any evidence that suggested Harbaugh was aware of the impermissible conduct. Instead, he attempted in delivering his sanction to make a distinction between punishing the institution by removing its head coach from the sidelines and specifically punishing Harbaugh. He said he felt it was an appropriate penalty that avoided harming players by taking away their ability to compete in games while also noting that “the head coach embodies the university for purposes of its football program.”
“This is not a sanction of Coach Harbaugh,” Petitti wrote.
Judge Connors will be asked to parse the semantics of those rule interpretations presented by both sides on Friday. There is no deadline for a decision, but it’s unlikely he would rule directly from the bench during Friday’s hearing. Because the underlying complaint in this case is a civil lawsuit in which Michigan and Harbaugh are seeking damages, the two sides could also agree to a settlement outside of court at anytime including before a restraining order decision is made.
MILWAUKEE — The Cincinnati Reds lost 1-0 to the Milwaukee Brewers on Thursday night to become only the second team in the live-ball era (since 1920) to lose three consecutive 1-0 games.
The Reds joined the Philadelphia Phillies, who lost three straight in the same fashion in 1960, according to ESPN Research.
“Nobody’s happy with what’s happened the last three games,” Reds manager Terry Francona said after the string of 1-0 losses continued in the opener of a four-game series at Milwaukee. “We’ll figure it out together. I feel strongly about that.”
Cincinnati’s lineup showcased its potential Monday in a 14-3 victory over the Texas Rangers, but the Reds haven’t scored since.
Texas’ Nathan Eovaldi outdueled Carson Spiers on Tuesday. Jack Leiter and four Texas relievers combined for 10 strikeouts Wednesday as the Reds wasted a brilliant performance from Hunter Greene.
Milwaukee’s Nestor Cortes shut down Cincinnati on Thursday, allowing one hit, striking out six and walking two over six innings.
Cincinnati’s Nick Lodolo gave up four hits and one unearned run in 6⅔ innings Thursday, but he took the loss because the Reds mustered just two hits.
“It’s part of the game, you know?” Lodolo said. “I’ll be honest with you. Obviously I want us to score, but I’m not really thinking about it. I’ve got to do my job at the end of the day, regardless. We’ll turn it around. I guarantee that.”
That’s the attitude Francona wants to see from his pitchers as Cincinnati’s hitters try to break out of their slump.
“We’re not going to have a situation where it’s ‘us’ when we win and it’s ‘they’ when we lose,” Francona said. “We’ll do this together.”
Francona said there’s no common thread between the games that explains his lineup’s struggles. The Reds have faced different styles of pitchers each time.
Eovaldi is a veteran right-hander who went the distance while allowing four hits and no walks. Leiter’s a hard-throwing rookie right-hander. Cortes, a veteran left-hander, doesn’t have the velocity of Eovaldi or Leiter but effectively mixed his cutter and changeup with his fastball.
Cincinnati’s struggles Thursday may have been particularly frustrating because Cortes looked so awful in his last start, a 20-9 loss to the New York Yankees. Cortes allowed homers on each of his first three pitches that day and ended up yielding eight hits and five walks in two innings of a game that drew attention to the Yankees’ use of “torpedo bats.”
The Reds made Cortes look like an entirely different pitcher.
“It was embarrassing, what happened to me last time,” Cortes said. “I think, as a starter, you’ve got 30 or 32 of these. There’s going to be a lot of bad ones throughout the way. You’ve just got to learn how to brush them off and go to the next one. That’s what I did.”
The Reds’ lone hit off Cortes came from Jose Trevino, who delivered a one-out double in the third off his former Yankees teammate. Cincinnati’s only other hit Thursday was a single by Jeimer Candelario off Elvis Peguero in the seventh.
Cincinnati has a combined nine hits, three walks and 27 strikeouts during the skid.
“To be totally honest, you see this all the time throughout a baseball season,” Trevino said. “Pitchers will pick up the hitters and the hitters will pick up the pitchers. It will all switch at some point. We’re going to need them. They’re going to need us. And at some point, we’re all going to be together. That’s just how the baseball season goes.
“Right now, our pitchers are doing really well and our hitters, we’re grinding. It’s not like we’re out there trying to give outs away. We’re out there putting some good at-bats together. We’re going to turn this thing around. I have full confidence in this team.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman, who slipped and fell in the shower Sunday morning, was put on the injured list for his ankle injury, the team announced Thursday.
The move is retroactive to Monday. He hasn’t played since Saturday and is 3-for-12 this season with two home runs and four RBIs.
The incident happened at home during the Dodgers’ off day. Freeman’s wife had to drive him to Dodger Stadium on Sunday for a three-hour treatment session. By the time it was over, he was able to drive himself home. An X-ray showed no serious damage.
Freeman sprained his right ankle on a play at first base in late September and struggled in the first two rounds of the postseason, but it was hardly evident during the World Series. He homered in the first four games and had 12 RBIs, earning the World Series MVP award as the Dodgers beat the New York Yankees in five games.
He had debridement surgery in December to remove loose bodies in the ankle.
The Dodgers (8-0) begin a three-game series at the Philadelphia Phillies on Friday.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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