What Urban Meyer's Jim Harbaugh Take Means For Ohio State-Michigan Rivalry

There's no love lost between the Ohio State Buckeyes and Michigan Wolverines, and that's a trend that holds true for people who used to be in the rivalry but are no longer active in it.

That would certainly be the case for former Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer and former Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh. They're both legends for their respective programs, so even though Meyer is now a college football analyst and Harbaugh is the head coach of the NFL's Los Angeles Chargers, their personas still play a big role in this rivalry.

And what that means is that Meyer's recent thoughts on Harbaugh and the punishment (or lack thereof) the NCAA handed down to him for his involvement in the Connor Stalions sign-stealing scandal will absolutely spark a flame between these two fan bases.

Harbaugh, who won the national title and then skipped town for the NFL, was given a 10-year show-cause order, which will begin in 2028, when he finishes a four-year show-cause order for a previous offense. That means Harbaugh can't be involved at all in coaching college football, but it's basically meaningless because that has no impact on what he does in the NFL.

For one, Meyer was clear on a recent podcast episode that he thinks Michigan's 2023 championship win is tainted.

"They'll be an asterisk there," Meyer said on "The Triple Option" podcast, according to Bryan DeArdo of CBS Sports.

Meyer then referenced what he called "an elephant in the room", which is the fact that Harbaugh has basically gotten off scot-free now that he's in the NFL. That wasn't the case for former Ohio State head coach Jim Tressel, though, when he was punished by the NCAA for a violation that was inarguably far less serious than what Harbaugh had going on at Michigan.

Tressel also went to the NFL, but his NCAA punishment followed him there, as Meyer recalled.

"And you remember, he [Tressel] 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."

Meyer wondered out loud for a second whether or not NFL commissioner Roger Goodell would follow suit with Harbaugh, but he quickly answered his own question.