Can Jim Harbaugh return to college football as a head coach? Closer look at latest NCAA penalties against Michigan

Former Michigan Wolverines coach Jim Harbaugh left college football with an unbeaten, national championship-winning season. He signed with with the Los Angeles Chargers of the NFL. There were some blemishes though, with several pending investigations with the NCAA during his chaotic final season.

On Wednesday, the NCAA released a report that sanctioned him for unethical conduct during a long-running investigation into improper recruiting practices during the COVID-19 dead period, a period of time when access to recruits was restricted for health safety reasons.

The Chargers coach has been suspended for a year and also been handed a four-year show-cause order because even after the investigation began, Jim Harbaugh still failed to comply with the set stipulations and as such, he was handed a separate punishment from Michigan.

The show-cause penalty means that Harbaugh is ineligible to coach in college football until at least 2028, and any program that attempts to hire him will have to justify the reason to the NCAA committee on infractions.

The coach would still be suspended for a year if he was hired by any program and even after the ban expires, he would not be allowed to engage in activities related to the team including recruitment, practice, or even tape study until he meets the penalty imposed on him.

The NCAA released a 48-page document on Wednesday explaining the decision to punish Harbaugh and why he was punished in addition to a punishment administered to the Michigan Wolverines program.

"Harbaugh engaged in unethical conduct, failed to promote an atmosphere of compliance and violated head coach responsibility obligations.

"The panel noted that Harbaugh's intentional disregard for NCAA legislation and unethical conduct amplified the severity of the case and prompted the panel to classify Harbaugh's case as Level I-Aggravated, with penalties to include a four-year show-cause order. Subsumed in the show-cause order is a one-season suspension for Harbaugh," the NCAA said.

Jim Harbaugh lawyer comments on the NCAA ruling

When the decision by the NCAA was released on Wednesday, Tom Mars, the Los Angeles Chargers' coach's lawyer immediately reacted on X (formerly known as Twitter) to the penalties imposed upon his client.

"The way I see it, from Coach Harbaugh's perspective, today's [Committee on Infractions] decision is like being in college and getting a letter from your high school saying you've been suspended because you didn't sign your yearbook," Mars tweeted.

"If I were in Coach Harbaugh's shoes and had an $80 million contract as head coach of the Chargers, I wouldn't pay any attention to the findings of a kangaroo court which claims to represent the principles of the nation's most flagrant, repeat violator of the federal antitrust laws."

With the steep penalties levied against Jim Harbaugh, it is almost unlikely that any program will hire him if they cannot utilize his services immediately.