When the NCAA’s committee on infractions announced its penalties for Michigan’s sign-stealing scandal Friday, it included heavy penalties for Los Angeles Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh.
Harbaugh received a 10-year show-cause order and a prohibition from ‘all athletically related activities.’ The new penalty will be added onto the back of a previously issued four-year show-cause order, which the NCAA had previously levied on the former Michigan head coach for violating recruitment rules in 2021.
The current Chargers head coach was one of four people named directly in the NCAA’s announcement of penalties.
Here’s what his show-cause order means and whether it will affect the Chargers:
What was Jim Harbaugh’s punishment?
The NCAA hit Harbaugh with a 10-year show-cause order for his involvement in Michigan’s illicit ‘off-campus, in-person scouting scheme’ in 2023.
It will begin on Aug. 7, 2028, after his active, four-year show-cause order – handed out in 2024 because of recruiting violations in 2021 – ends.
What is a show-cause order?
A show-cause order is essentially a college football-wide ban on hiring a person to join their coaching staff, barring proof the team hiring the coach will foster an environment that will engender an equal playing field.
If Michigan or any other college football program wanted to hire Harbaugh, it would have to appear before the NCAA’s committee on infractions and make a strong case for why it specifically wants to hire him.
In addition to Harbaugh’s new, 10-year show cause, he has a one-year suspension from coaching college football – should he ever return – that the NCAA levied at the same time as Harbaugh’s original, four-year show-cause order.
The name ‘show cause’ comes from the case that the prospective employer must make to the NCAA, showing reasonable cause to believe that previous infractions would not happen again if a previous offender is hired at a new program.
Show-cause orders are a somewhat common penalty imposed on coaches or other personnel found to have violated major rules.
How does Jim Harbaugh’s punishment affect the Chargers?
Harbaugh’s punishment was one enacted by the NCAA, which has no jurisdiction in NFL matter. His punishment at the hands of college football’s governing entity will have no affect on his current head coaching job with Los Angeles.
