Earlier this week, Joel Klatt spent ten minutes on his show reacting to, and criticizing much of, the punishment forMichigan from the NCAA as a result of the sign-stealing scandal. That included some almost disbelief in how they went about punishing Sherrone Moore.
Klatt discussed the results of the sign-stealing storyline, with the punishment all having been since appealed by the Wolverines, on Monday. Of his issues with it included the picking and choosing of when Moore would be suspended, with Michigan self-imposing a specific two-game suspension this season in2025 and the NCAA doubling down on that by, while adding an additional game to it, pushing it to the start of next season in 2026.
“Sherrone Moore, the head coach of Michigan, does get an extra game suspension on top of the self-imposed suspension that he and the school gave to us, the program gave to us for this season. So, he’s going to sit out games three and four this year, which conveniently misses the week two game in Norman against Oklahoma – by the way, where Sherrone Moore went to school,” explained Klatt. “That additional game? I immediately thought to myself, like, ‘Oh, okay. They gave him the Oklahoma game as well? The third game is the Oklahoma game’. The NCAA grew a spine and said, ‘No, no, no. That’s not enough so you’re also going to sit out the Oklahoma game’ – which would hurt them as a team and, more specifically, (Moore) personally since he went to Oklahoma.”
“But, no, no, no. That’s not what the NCAA did. They said, ‘Hey, you’re going to sit out an extra game, but it’s going to be the opening game next year when you go to (Germany) and face Western Michigan!’. What?!” Klatt said, at this point chuckling out loud to himself. “Like, what are we doing? Honestly? Okay. Okay.”
Klatt continues criticism of NCAA, their sanctions, penalties of Michigan
Klatt went on with his criticism of what was levied against Michigan on Monday. That said, that was less against the result and more about the concept and problems of the NCAA.
“The Michigan ‘penalties’ – and, yes, those are air quotes if you’re listening on audio – comes down from the NCAA. And, even before you read what the penalties are, even before that? You don’t even have to tell me what the penalties are for me to immediately roll my eyes and think to myself, ‘The NCAA has zero teeth’ because it’s so late. It drags on for so long. They have so much red tape,” said Klatt. “They are completely inept in governing college football – completely. That being, they do still have a role – or at least they think they do.”
In going through all the sanctions, Klatt did think that the fine-related and recruiting-related punishments were critical considering the need for money nowadays in college athletics. They proved they can still get things done despite those fines but, at some point, that’s still several million dollars at the end of the day.
“Mostly a monetary penalty. A lot of details of, like, how the fines happen – 10% of this, 10% of that…Basically, if you start to add all of this up, it’s going to come out to about $30 million…It’s really more like $30 million, which, by the way, is a massive deal,” said Klatt. “As we now get into revenue-sharing, what’s about the most penalizing thing you can do to a program – really, really, in real-time that affects them right now for things that took place? Take away revenue. So, the fine of upwards of $30 million is not a small fine. Now, some will say, price of doing business. Pay that every year if you guarantee us a national championship. Okay, well, that’s fine. But, in the era of revenue share, I will tell you that every athletic director that I talk to across the country? All they talk about is revenue. All they talk about is finding money because they don’t feel like they have enough to keep themselves as a program, the entirety of the program up to speed…When you fine a school, like Michigan, $30 million? It’s not small. I think that that was, in large part, kind of the right way to go for them.”
“The other thing that you can do is hinder their ability to build a roster,” Klatt went on. “They’ve got to do some convoluted things about when you recruit, and how many recruits and so on and so forth. But it doesn’t seem to be hurting them all that much up to this point.”
But, as far as Moore’s suspension and the three show-causes handed down, Klatt thought they were nothing at all. That’s especially so with Jim Harbaugh gone to the NFL as head coach of the LA Chargers with no effect from what is now technically a fourteen-year show-cause.
“What else did they thrown down? Jim Harbaugh got a ten-year show-cause penalty. That’s nothing. He’s never coming back, so, whatever,” said Klatt. “Connor Stalions got an eight-year show-cause? Okay.”
Klatt did note the impact of the Big Ten’s three-game suspension of Harbaugh to end the regular season back during all this in 2023. Still, all in all, Klatt knew, considering he’s personally against postseason bans this far after the fact, few would feel this was enough for the said sign-stealing up in Ann Arbor.
“I think, for some people, this punishment is not going to go far enough, and that’s fine. I totally understand that,” said Klatt. “I think, if you’re Michigan, you look at this and you even think like, ‘Man, I think we got off pretty easy.’”
“This Michigan thing? I get it. I get it. People are upset…I’m glad they’re getting punished because, clearly, rules were broken. Then, the question becomes like, well, was the punishment fair? Did it fit the crime?” Klatt said. “You’re never going to make anybody happy with this…I don’t think that there’s any way you can make this fair. There’s just none, and that largely speaks to the inept nature of the NCAA.”