Jim Harbaugh's twisted fate takes a wild turn as Big Ten bans Michigan HC from being on sidelines for remainder of 2023 season: Reports

It has been a strange year for the Michigan Wolverines and their coach, Jim Harbaugh. Despite going undefeated in the season with a nine-game winning streak, Harbaugh has been finding himself in the midst of different controversies.

He initially served a three-game suspension at the beginning of the season over a violation of rules regarding recruitment during the COVID-19 dead period.

Now, Jim Harbaugh finds himself suspended for the remaining three games of Michigan's regular season over the alleged sign-stealing accusations. It saw staff member Connor Stalions dubbed the mastermind behind the operation.

While Stalions resigned, Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti went on to suspend the Michigan coach as well.

According to the statement, Jim Harbaugh is found in violation of the conference's Sportsmanship provision. Furthermore, the suspension is only levied on game days, which means that Harbaugh can still coach the team during the week in practices.

"As a penalty imposed on the institution, the University football team must compete without its head football coach for the games remaining in the 2023 regular-season effective immediately," the statement read. "This disciplinary action shall not preclude the University or its football team from having its Head football coach attend practices or other football team activities other than the game activities to which it applies."

"For clarity, the Football coach shall not be present at the game venue on the dates of the games to which this disciplinary action applies," the Big Ten statement added.

This means that Jim Harbaugh will not be present on the sidelines when his team faces the Penn State Nittany Lions this upcoming weekend. The other two remaining games of the Michigan Wolverines in the regular season schedule are against Maryland and Ohio State.

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The Michigan Wolverines to take legal action against the suspension of Jim Harbaugh

In response to the three-game ban imposed on Harbaugh, the university will be taking legal action. They will be seeking a court order in order to prevent their coach from receiving disciplinary action.

The school also released an official statement calling the suspension a 'hasty action' taken because of pressure from other conference members.

"Commisionner Petitti's hasty action today suggests this is more about reacting to pressure from other conference members than a desire to apply the rules fairly and impartially," Michigan's statement read. "By taking this action at this hour, the Commisionner is personally inserting himself onto the sidelines and altering the level playing field that he is claiming to preserve."

If the suspension is not overruled, it will be interesting to see if Michigan can preserve its winning streak without Jim Harbaugh on the sidelines.