Harbaugh strikes back against Hart, Carr
Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh is not backing down.
In fact, he seems to be on the attack more than ever in the wake of disparaging comments he made in May about Michigan's academic standards for football players.
While Harbaugh would not comment to the Detroit media last week, following tailback Mike Hart’s rebuttal at Big Ten media days in Chicago, Harbaugh had no problem taking the offensive in an ESPN.com column posted Wednesday.
The U-M alumnus took an unsolicited shot at head coach Lloyd Carr: "Mike Hart is just repeating their messages," he told columnist Pat Forde. "When I was a player, there would have been nobody saying anything like what Mike Hart said about me. We would have been too afraid of the consequences. That wouldn't have happened while Bo was there. I'm glad, as the head coach of Stanford, I don't have to deal with those repercussions."
Forde’s column takes a clear stance in support of Harbaugh’s assertion that too many players are being steered into the “general studies” program.
The Academic Progress Rate, the NCAA’s measurement of graduation rates, was released in May. It found that U-M ranks in the 70th to 80th percentile of all football programs in its graduation of athletes. Harbaugh’s University of San Diego program -- where he coached before taking over Stanford after last season -- was just a bit higher, in the 80-90% range, though it does not offer athletic scholarships.
MICHIGAN -- http://web1.ncaa.org/app_data/apr2006/418_2006_apr.pdf
SAN DIEGO -- http://web1.ncaa.org/app_data/apr2006/627_2006_apr.pdf
It makes his attack on the players’ majors a bit subjective. Many football players are listed as majoring in general studies, but does that mean their degree is worth something less? Does it mean they were not educated appropriately, despite graduating?
There are multiple reasons the U-M media guide is unable to list majors for the entire team. As a university official told ESPN.com, many Michigan students do not declare a major until their junior year.
Forde stated that “only one junior has declared a major, according to the guide (in movement science). In 18 years of covering college athletics, I've never seen virtually an entire junior class without a major.”
That’s outdated information. That was from the spring media guide, before most juniors declare majors in the summer. In the fall media guide released last week, only two juniors (of 19) remained undeclared, and one is Antonio Bass, who has missed significant school time because of his leg injuries.
And to use a media guide as the basis for the research is a bit limiting and selective, given Forde has no idea why some majors are listed and some are not.
Would it be better to list a variety of majors, as Ohio State does, and rank in the 40th to 50th percentile of the APR? Or Michigan State, in the 30th to 40th of football programs?
Harbaugh seems content to explain the truth as he sees it, especially regarding Carr’s and Mike Hart‘s comments last week.
"It seemed very orchestrated and organized, especially coming two months after my comments were made," he told Forde.
As a beat writer for the Wolverines, I can attest that the comments came now because it was the first in-depth access writers had with Carr and Mike Hart since spring practice. But it would not fit Harbaugh's argument if he couldn’t spin it as he sees fit.
When Carr was asked about Harbaugh’s comments in June, he tried to avoid the topic. Even last week, when pressed, he tried to take the high road, discussing the wide range of opportunities given to students and athletes from less privileged backgrounds, before being prodded into making a statement about the verbal attack.
Harbaugh is at a school, Stanford, where the academic standards are as high as anywhere in Division I football. Realizing this -- and with the challenge of fielding a competitive football team of valedictorians -- he has shifted the spotlight to the only other program he knows.
His criticism of U-M’s majors might be based in fact if, as Forde did, he looked only at the media guide.
But Harbaugh’s working knowledge of U-M’s policies -- at least according to his public statements -- is not recent. He has not served in any official U-M capacity, outside of the charitable golf tournament he was involved with, since he left the school in 1986.
Is that a reasonable basis for his "facts"?
This is an argument that will not fade anytime soon, but has kept the attention off Stanford’s one-win season last year.
That seems to be exactly what Harbaugh wanted.
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