NCAA report: Harbaugh viewed Michigan compliance staff as ‘thorn in his side’

While Connor Stalions and his sign-stealing operation at Michigan took center stage Friday, there was a behind-the-scenes feud bubbling over between Jim Harbaugh and the school’s compliance department in 2023.

The NCAA’s 74-page report described a disdain and lack of respect for compliance, the folks charged with making sure rules are being followed. NCAA officials used interviews with several folks in and close to the program to paint a picture of a lack of oversight and control of the program, prompting further penalties for Michigan football and a 10-year show-cause order for Harbaugh.

“Harbaugh and his program had a contentious relationship with Michigan’s compliance office, leading coaches and staff members to act, at times, with disregard for the rules,” the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions wrote. “Compliance efforts were a one-way street.”

Stalions’ impermissible advance scouting activities from 2021 to ’23 netted Michigan four more years of probation, fines expected to total in the tens of millions, a suspension for head coach Sherrone Moore and lengthy show-cause orders for several. Stalions and Harbaugh were both in violation of Level I rules, with Harbaugh being labeled a repeat violator after earning a four-year show-cause penalty for pandemic-era recruiting violations.

During the NCAA probe into advance scouting, the governing body for college athletics found a football program and compliance office “at odds with another.” Elizabeth Heinrich, the school’s executive senior associate athletic director and chief student development and compliance officer, did what she could, the report said, but was often met with resistance from those inside the football program.

“The culture of the football program, however, was more powerful and won the day,” the NCAA wrote. “The efforts of the chief compliance officer and her staff were not welcomed. Instead, they were rebuked, dismissed and disregarded by the football program.”

In an interview with the NCAA, Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel said he observed “tension” between the football program and compliance office, while Heinrich later told officials that her and her staff’s authority was often questioned.

“In her interview, the chief compliance officer also stated that she was ‘perceived as a thorn in [Harbaugh’s] side,’” the NCAA report reads.

A former coach on Harbaugh’s staff, Chris Partridge, cleared of any wrongdoing by NCAA officials on Friday after being fired by the school in November 2023, told the NCAA that football staff members viewed compliance as a “roadblock.”

“Putting it much more bluntly, one recruiting staff member said in a text exchange that Michigan’s compliance staff are ‘shitty at their jobs and actively working against us from the inside,’” the NCAA report said. “‘True scum of the Earth.’”

The recent report from the NCAA paints another picture of an unruly and rogue Michigan football program under Harbaugh. In 2022, former Michigan recruiting director Matt Dudek told NCAA investigators that Harbaugh urged staffers to push boundaries when it came to recruiting, even going “up to the line and cross it if you have to.”

Heinrich told NCAA officials that education efforts with the football program were often initiated by her and her staff, even going as far as to say “I can’t think of (a) time when we scheduled a meeting at football’s request.”

In fact, it got so bad that NCAA officials found no education plan for interns, some of whom got caught up helping Stalions get rid of his cell phone and computer hard drive. Harbaugh declined to produce records and meet with the NCAA’s enforcement staff during the advance scouting probe. “A pattern of noncompliance” was listed as an aggravating factor for Harbaugh in his punishment from the NCAA. He has since moved on to the NFL, where he took a job as head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers in January 2024.

Sherrone Moore was named Harbaugh’s successor, but he too has gotten caught up in the NCAA’s web. Moore served a one-game suspension in 2023 for recruiting violations and is set to sit out two more games this fall for deleting a thread of 52 text messages with Stalions. As of now, Moore is also facing a two-year show-cause penalty and must sit out Michigan’s 2026 season opener against Western Michigan. The school plans to appeal Friday’s ruling.

“Importantly, Moore—Michigan’s current head football coach—explained his views on compliance and the culture of compliance he intends to instill in his program,” the NCAA wrote. “Michigan’s chief compliance officer confirmed that Moore has taken a new and different approach than his predecessor. The panel factored this positive development into Moore’s violation, classification and ultimate penalty.”