The Wolverine

May 2016 Issue

The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports

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schools faces far greater issues — ones actually involving integrity, or the total lack thereof — on the re- cruiting front? He obviously won't have to wait long for an opportunity. Meanwhile, Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany met the news of the ban with an ardent shrug, honoring four decades plus of antipathy harbored by the conference for anything re- motely pro-Michigan. Harbaugh operates off the Bo Schembechler dictum: "If you cheat, you've already lost." The SEC and certain SEC-like schools from other conferences cast the approach a bit differently: "If you ain't cheatin', you ain't tryin'." Evidently, the NCAA embraces the latter with a wink and a nod and full knowledge of how its nest gets feathered. When it so desires, it can act and act quickly. For Harbaugh and Michigan foot- ball — which had already planned some satellite camps for the summer of 2016 — this hurts. It's not a Jordan Spieth presenting a green jacket that just got ripped out of his own blazer closet kind of hurt … but it hurts. If you're not going to the dark side of the NCAA rules — which Michi- gan football never has in its history, aside from some horrific and lam- entable extra stretching a few years back — you have to work extra hard to compete. Harbaugh does that and will continue to do so. He'll push to the limit the rules as they exist, in order to maximize his program's chances against others that have no regard for limits what- soever. He'll probably cause more furrowed-brow NCAA representa- tives to concoct further restrictions down the road. Maybe, just maybe, the governing body could quell its money lust long enough to realize that using bear spray on mosquitos when there are grizzlies in the tent isn't a good look. Then again, probably not. *** LaVall Jordan helped John Beilein's basketball program to the national championship game in 2013, and a play away from the 2014 Final Four. Some thought the U-M assistant might take a handoff for the head coaching job here someday. That could potentially still happen, but Jordan has other fish to fry first, on the other side of Lake Michigan. He's the new head coach at Milwau- kee, a job for which he's been well prepared through the years. He was a finalist for the head coaching job at Butler a few years back, and it's no huge surprise that he's getting an opportunity now. Jordan insists he'll stress defense and rebounding in his new assignment, after soaking up a host of unique of- fensive concepts here. Whether or not he comes back, he'll be successful. He played a significant role in a pair of Big Ten championships and more, and de- serves this shot. ❏ Editor John Borton has been with The Wolverine since 1991. Contact him at jborton@thewolverine.com and follow him on Twitter @JB _ Wolverine.

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