Harbaugh Spring Break Trip Outrage Is Hypocritical Nonsense

Michigan scheduled part of spring practice at recruit-laden IMG Academy in Florida. This ruffled feathers in the SEC. Because this is “amateur” athletics. Harbaugh had to justify the trip by praising the academic opportunities. The SEC had to justify its opposition by claiming players were spending too much time on sports.

Now, Mark Emmert has weighed in in favor of the SEC line. In the context of what actually happens in major NCAA athletics, this sentiment is laughable.

If the NCAA is espousing to promote academics and respect “student-athlete” time off. Let’s look at what Michigan’s basketball team is doing in concert with Michigan’s academic calendar.

Thanksgiving break? Michigan’s basketball team was in the Bahamas, playing three games in three days in a tournament sponsored by a resort company.

Finals? Michigan’s exam period fell between Dec. 16 and Dec. 23. Michigan basketball played THREE home games that week. Vital ones to be sure against Northern Kentucky, Youngstown State, and Bryant.

Winter Break? Maybe players got home for Christmas, after the night game on the 23rd, but not for long. Big Ten play began. Road game against Illinois. Home game against Penn State.

Spring Break? Michigan has its final two B1G games.

At least the billion-dollar basketball tournament they are trying to win ends a week or two before final exams. But, hey, bringing other sports into this makes it complicated. Let’s keep the discussion to college football.

Thanksgiving break? Michigan’s season used to end the Saturday before Thanksgiving against Ohio State. Now, the final regular season game comes on Thanksgiving weekend. Players did not receive a Thanksgiving break. It was a home game. So, Michigan students may have been discouraged from travelling home as well.

Final Exams? The week before Christmas is when most schools have final exams. College Football held not one, not two, but ten bowl games before Christmas, and docked schools for unsold tickets as kids who were taking finals could not make it.

Winter Break? College football held 30 bowl games over this period. Players were granted the opportunity to spend their Holidays being the toast of Birmingham, Shreveport, El Paso and Detroit. All to funnel money into the pockets of bowl partners.

Perhaps college football has respected the sanctity of Spring Break. Probably because no one has found a way to exploit it, until now. It’s not clear why the right to binge drink became the crux of the athletic time commitment debate…unless it was only superficially about the athletes involved.

Perhaps, it’s worth noting the biggest impact on those having this free trip to Florida inflicted on them. Their spring game is a week earlier, so they get their week off later, to prepare for final exams.

No word on whether the Spring Game occurring on April 1st impinges on student-athletes’ inviolable right to pull lame pranks.