Don't get too excited, but the NCAA is officially investigating Michigan

For readers who can remember all the way back to the final days of the preseason, they'll recall the flap that followed a Detroit Free Press article that alleged possible rules violations at Michigan, where a handful of current and former players suggested Wolverine coaches pushed players beyond NCAA-mandated limits on football-related hours. The resulting fallout -- centering on whether most of the hours in question qualified as "voluntary," whether the Freep was out for coach Rich Rodriguez's head and whether it even mattered, since all big football schools flout workout and practice limits as a matter of course -- had mostly faded by the end of the Wolverines' opening-day rout of Western Michigan, and was certifiably old news by the time freshman quarterback Tate Forcier led a late, dramatic comeback to beat Notre Dame in Week Two. That win ended any lingering notions of a "hot seat" for Rodriguez and put the sting of the workout accusations clear...