The University of Michigan’s head football coach, Jim Harbaugh, is reportedly facing a four-game suspension from the NCAA. His crime? Buying two recruiting prospects cheeseburgers, which apparently may be a violation of the association’s rules about incentivizing prospects. His team is also accused—quelle horreur—of texting prospects during the Covid pandemic “dead period.” (The state of emergency and its special rules and non-rules come even for college sports.)  

Laying aside my affinity for Harbaugh, who is one of maybe five conspicuously decent men in high-level American sports, this seems like de minimis stuff. It is especially comical as that grand old authority is angling to broker the single greatest compromise of collegiate sporting integrity in history—profit-sharing with companies exploiting our newly free market for sports gambling. Come on!