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Urban Meyer questions whether Jim Harbaugh should be suspended over Michigan scouting saga

Originally posted on Michigan Wolverines on SI
By Seth Berry | Last updated Aug 22, 2025 12:41 PM ET

Former Ohio State head coach and current Fox analyst Urban Meyer has spoken up about the Michigan scouting saga.

Meyer, who last coached in 2021 in the NFL for the Jacksonville Jaguars and was fired after going 2-11, which ended as the shortest tenure in league history, said on The Triple Option podcast that commissioner Roger Goodell should con sider a suspension for Harbaugh on the heels of the NCAA's COI decision to hand Harbaugh a 10-year show-cause at the college level.

"There'll be an asterisk there," Meyer said on the podcast when referring to Michigan's 2023 National Championship. "There's an elephant in the room here, boys, though, that no one's talking about. When Jim Tressel was fired at Ohio State and he was given a suspension, Roger Goodell, commissioner of National Football League, came out and said that we're going to honor that suspension. And you remember, he went to the Indianapolis Colts to work in the replay room or something. The Colts, because of the respect they had for the NCAA and the suspension, you realize they suspended Jim Tressel so he was unable to perform his duties for the first six games of the year for the Indianapolis Colts. Any chance that Roger Goodell and the NFL [do something similar]? Of course not. And I don't know why."

Meyer's comment about an asterisk being attached to Michigan's title may be an image he painted in his own head or one of his fantasies, but the fact of the matter is that the Wolverines' accomplishments will stand based on the NCAA's ruling and there will be no asterisk to speak of in the official record books.

His reference to Jim Tressel refers to sanctions that were enacted by the NCAA on Ohio State's program in 2010 when former Buckeye players were found to have sold championship rings, jerseys and awards in in exchange for tattoos. The sanctions resulted in suspensions of multiple OSU players for the 2011 season and led to Tressel's firing, with the Indianapolis Colts suspending Tressel for six games before he was allowed to join the team in his role the following season.

The NCAA later went on to vacate Ohio State's victories from the 2010 season and enact a postseason ban for the Buckeyes for the 2012 season, which impacted Meyer's first season with the program as he led OSU to a 12-0 record in year one.

The facts of the matter with Tressel slightly contradicts what Meyer said in the podcast as he implied it was Goodell who was the one that decided to suspend Tressel, when it was in reality a self-imposed suspension from the Colts themselves. Goodell, however, did go on to say he supported the suspension and that he would have suspended Tressel if the Colts didn't.

When appearing with Colin Cowherd on The Herd, Meyer also went on to compare "tattoo gate" to Michigan's "sign gate" and insinuated the Wolverines' situation was worse than what OSU was punished for at the time.

"Someone brought up the Reggie Bush thing—did that give USC a competitive advantage on the field? They brought up Jim Tressel's situation—did that give them a competitive advantage on the field? No of course not," Meyer said. "Guys were trading in memorabilia for tattoos. The thing that this is—and I've heard people say 'oh come on, what's the big deal?' If it wasn't a big deal, Colin, why would they risk their reputation or careers or a $30 million fine for the university for the Wolverines? I'll answer that question—it's a huge deal. If the defensive players know run or pass, the amount of time—I would probably say at least 30 or 40 hours per week, the defensive players are trying to figure out—from the stances of the offensive linemen, to the weight on their fingertips, to the stance of the receivers, is it run or pass? It it that much of an advantage? I can't over emphasize, of course it is."

Surely, coaching at the highest levels of college football and in the NFL, Meyer has to know a thing or two about pushing the gray areas of the rules to try to gain an advantage for your team. In fact, in 2000, when Texas reeled in B.J. Johnson as part of a loaded Longhorns' receiving corps that year, Johnson revealed an interesting story about Meyer when he was recruiting Johnson when Meyer was at Notre Dame.

"Hell, Urban Meyer locked me in an office in my school, and no BS, asked me straight up," Johnson said during a podcast interview. "He was like, 'BJ. How much?' And this was when he was at Notre Dame at the time. And, it caught me off guard because I just thought we (were) talking football. And he was like, ‘Nah, how much?' So, it's been going on."

Johnson was referring to players getting paid to join college football programs well before the days of NIL. Meyer has denied that allegation, but based on Johnson's comments, it seems like something the NCAA would have looked into at the time if the allegation would have been made then.

Even though Meyer denied being biased against Michigan in the podcast, it seems like his OSU ties are at least playing some sort of role when it comes to his opinions on the Wolverines' scouting saga and his thoughts on Harbaugh.