MICHIGAN LOSES

Chris Dufresne of The Los Angeles Times

What has allegedly transpired in Ann Arbor in recent months is less an indictment of Michigan football and more a black mark on the already controversial hiring of Rich Rodriguez. Michigan football has been built on a foundation of years. It can’t be torn down in days. This isn’t a systemic problem, it’s a now problem. Michigan has become the winningest program in college football history without ever getting hit with major NCAA violations. What they’re talking about in Ann Arbor were parking tickets in the old Southwest Conference.  The “too-much-practice-time” violations alleged here are probably  violated everywhere with the old coaches’  “wink” of all this being “voluntary.” If there’s a paper trail here tying RichRod to the letter of NCAA law, though, Michigan may get sent to the time-out corner. The bigger problem may have been hiring a coach who knowingly violated NCAA rules and then committed the much more egregious crime of going 3-9 his first year.