JR Interview with Chris Vannini

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Visit felixcatinsurance.com slash terms for all terms and limitations. It's the Jara Sportbreeze Show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. We know the afternoon, the evening, damn it the whole week it seems like has been all about Michigan and Jim Harbaugh. We found out this afternoon that he's been banned for Michigan's final three games of the season. He'll be able to coach throughout the course of the week but not available on the sidelines and this comes down on a Friday afternoon as Michigan steps off of its plane to go ahead and take on Penn State with a little legal action or ramifications.

Well possibly that might be the case. To talk about it all right now we're being joined by senior writer from the athletic covers all things college football, it's Chris Venini. Chris, thank you for taking time on this busy evening to join us here on CBS Sports Radio.

Yeah, thanks for having me. No doubt about it. So I guess we know about the suspension, we all heard about the timing of it and my understanding now is that there has now been a temporary restraining order that's been filed.

What is really the latest? Is there any possibility to see Harbaugh on the sidelines tomorrow against Penn State? Yes, it's possible. I mean we couldn't, we might know later tonight possibly. Yeah, as Michigan threatened to do they have submitted a restraining order to get in junction against the Big Ten to stop its suspension of Harbaugh. We don't know when that could be ruled upon but that could get him back on the sideline but otherwise he's suspended for three games.

Chris Venini joining us here CBS Sports Radio, the chair of our sport brief show. Obviously the timing of this seemed to be on purpose to try to prevent any any additional illegal action. What are your thoughts on the the timing that the Big Ten decided to hand out this punishment? I don't think that was the case you know in the letter in the documents that the Big Ten put out today it said Michigan had requested an extension earlier this week from the seventh to the eighth that pushed it back. It sounded like Michigan was also late in getting some stuff to the Big Ten so I don't think the Big Ten was doing it at this time on purpose. I don't think they wanted it to happen when Jim Harbaugh is on the plane and the Michigan team is on the plane.

Things just there's a lot of lawyers involved and it seemed like they needed a bit more time to kind of get everything together so as far as conspiracies go I don't think that was part of it. If Jim Harbaugh is not on the sidelines tomorrow for Michigan how do they they plan to to lead the team? Well they'll do what they did earlier this season. Jim Harbaugh didn't coach the first three games of the regular season because he had a self-imposed suspension by Michigan over alleged recruiting violations so you'd probably turn to and they had I think four different interim head coaches during those three games. Each of the coordinators and two other assistant coaches each had a half so I guess it's either Jesse Mitchell the defense coordinator, Sharon Moore the offensive coordinator, one of those two probably takes over head coaching duties if Jim Harbaugh is not there. Well as we look towards tomorrow's game and then obviously there's Maryland, Ohio State, another one potentially the college football playoff. What impact do you believe if any this can have or can this have on Michigan standing as one of the top four teams? I don't really know if it'll have much of an effect because he's still allowed to be with the team all week.

He's still allowed to game plan, coach practice, all those other things. I personally think Michigan's going to handle Penn State with ease tomorrow. They won't have any issues with Maryland and so then it just comes down to the Ohio State game and is Jim Harbaugh on the sideline the difference between losing against Ohio State?

Possibly but you know in terms of that's ultimately where it goes. It's what the Ohio State game is. We'll see if Penn State has a chance tomorrow. I personally think it won't be but you know Michigan's been through this before.

Chris Venini is joining us, senior writer for The Athletic here on CBS Sports Radio. There's been a lot of conversation about what's permissible. You know is it okay for other teams to share information versus scouting opponents in person at games beforehand? What do you think about this rule that has been in act since 1994?

Are we now soon to see the end of it through this whole nonsense? I don't think so. You know a couple years ago it was up for discussion. They discussed the possibility of rescinding it on the idea that hey everybody can just get signals from the game tape anyway and we don't know how advantageous it is but they the division one council said no they kept the rule in place.

They didn't make any determinations over how valuable it was. I talked to somebody on the council who said they were concerned that if they allow it then everybody's going to have an entire you know pre-game off in-season scouting team that's going to be going to games all year and they didn't want to open up that box. So I don't think that's going to change. However, we are getting helmet communication, wristband communication, sideline tablets that is coming in bowl games. If both teams agree to it they can use it and test it out in bowl games. If that whole experiment goes well, possible it could be included full-time next season. Now that's not because of Michigan, they actually approved this in the summer. It's kind of a coincidence but we could get some changes on that front.

Now I was just going to ask you Chris about the technology helping to move things forward. Chris Venini here joining us from the Athletic. We are hearing a lot about Tony Petitti trying to throw his weight around to kind of set a standard for who he is and what he's going to do here in the Big Ten. What do you think about the influence or the idea that a lot of the other teams, the Rutgers and Ohio states have kind of pushed towards this and he's cowered towards it? You know it's look it's his first major thing he has to deal with as commissioner and he has to set a tone and the Big Ten made its case in the letter it sent to Michigan that you know you may think that hey everybody else is pressuring us to suspend you.

Well if we don't do anything then it's going to look like favoritism you know and we can't have that either. So commissioners always have to weigh this. I talked to a couple commissioners yesterday at the CFP meeting. It was like hey how do you handle discipline within your conference? Like there's a lot of things you got to work with because the commissioner ultimately works for the president. The commissioner is not all powerful in that sense. So I don't it makes sense that Tony Petitti would want to hear the other teams out.

You probably want to hear hey how impactful is this if someone is stealing your son and I'm sure the schools would say hey it's the biggest deal in the world. They have a vested interest in Michigan being punished but I don't think nothing in the Big Ten's letter in the case that it made felt that it had anything to do with that. I mean there it seemed like they had a pretty clear documented case of what Connor Stallions was doing. Chris, final question here for you. Knowing that Harbaugh has been in and out, interviews in the NFL etc says he's committed and is not committed. What do you think about his future in Michigan?

Are we going to be seeing him for the last few games this season? Hard to say. You know he was in discussions with the school for a big contract extension that went on pause when this whole thing came up but then it was unpaused and now you hear that they're working on it again and perhaps he gets it. So it's hard to say if he gets that big extension you got to see what the buyout is and the other part is the NFL has to want you too. You know I know Harbaugh's flirted with the NFL the last few years but nobody was really interested in interviewing him last year. You know like the Raiders who are open they didn't interview him two years ago so it it's kind of a two-way street it's hard to say you can never really predict what Jim Harbaugh is going to do.

Yeah I don't know if that's a good or a bad thing. Well Chris thank you for taking the time for for enlightening us on the latest here. Where can people follow you and your work on the college football side with The Athletic? Yeah just theathletic.com we've got a bunch of stuff up there as uh as the news continues to evolve. Yeah it's rolling in by the hour so we legitimately might move up to the hour in the minute where I may wake up in the morning and not know whether or not he's coaching. It's possible. Wild stuff well listen Chris thank you so much all the best to you in covering this interesting story thank you for joining us. Yep thanks for having me.

No doubt about it that Chris Venini senior writer covering all things college football at The Athletic. Selling a little or a lot. Shopify helps you do your thing however you cha-ching. Shopify is the global commerce platform that helps you sell at every stage of your business from the launch your online shop stage to the first real life store stage all the way to the did we just hit a million orders stage. Shopify is here to help you grow whether you're selling scented soap or offering outdoor outfits. Shopify helps you sell everywhere from their all-in-one e-commerce platform to their in-person POS system. Wherever and whatever you're selling Shopify has got you covered. Shopify helps you turn browsers into buyers with the internet's best converting checkout.

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