Ferris State HC Tony Annese suspended for first round of D2 playoffs in eerily similar NCAA overreach
Jim Harbaugh isn't the only Michigan-based head coach facing unprecedented sanctions this week. Ferris State, the two-time defending NCAA D2 champion, will be without their head coach for the first round of this year's playoffs...for the rules violation of his players smoking victory cigars.
Jim Harbaugh won't be the only coach in Michigan not able to accompany his team this weekend
The parallels in these real-life tales can't be overlooked:
- Institutional overreach against the most successful members
- Unprecedented sanctions targetting head coaches
- Suspension for games against bitter rivals
To be fair, the NCAA had no way of knowing that Ferris would face Grand Valley St. in round one of the D2 playoffs--or did they??? I'm not one to embrace conspiracy theories, but the similarities make me wonder if the NCAA action might have been the kernel of an idea for action against JH.
We live in interesting times.
November 14th, 2023 at 5:22 PM ^
Absolute joke. Cigars?? The players are all 18. Saban or Eddie O didn't get punished for Mac Jones and Joe Burrow cigars. GTFO with this!
November 14th, 2023 at 6:03 PM ^
Selective enforcement/outrage? The NCAA has never been guilty of that!
November 14th, 2023 at 6:22 PM ^
Maybe the NCAA is so mad at Michigan and Jim Harbaugh they're going to punish Ferris State's coach instead.
November 14th, 2023 at 7:12 PM ^
This is incredibly unreasonable and eerily similar to Harbaugh's treatment. i wish Fox Sports would pick it up and give it national exposure. It might take off and further degrade the NCAA's reputation.
(I say Fox because ESPN would undoubtedly bury it.)
November 14th, 2023 at 6:24 PM ^
Not to be that guy, but....
That Guy: Cigars are now a 21 and over item.
November 14th, 2023 at 6:28 PM ^
I missed that entirely!
November 14th, 2023 at 6:32 PM ^
Seriously?
I guess it's time to make military service a 21 and over item.
November 14th, 2023 at 6:39 PM ^
The inconsistency with which we apply standards for "adulthood" has always puzzled me.
November 14th, 2023 at 8:33 PM ^
Thank you for your service and your lifetime of PTSD now kindly fuck off with your request for a beer, cigar, or rental car.
November 14th, 2023 at 6:59 PM ^
Still seems extreme, fine worthy vs. suspending the coach.
November 14th, 2023 at 7:46 PM ^
Careful. It's Boy Scout hunting season.
November 14th, 2023 at 5:24 PM ^
We don't live in interesting times. We live in times that have completely jumped the shark on stupidity.
November 14th, 2023 at 7:29 PM ^
No need to drag McElwain into this!
November 14th, 2023 at 7:47 PM ^
Yaup. The whole CFB system is already on its way to collapsing on itself
November 14th, 2023 at 5:26 PM ^
Still waiting for sanctions of any kind on a relevant SEC team.
November 14th, 2023 at 5:27 PM ^
Ridiculous overreach, but also a terrible article -- what is the procedural posture of this investigation? Did the NCAA levy this punishment before issuing a Notice of Allegations and the 90-day window to respond? If you click on one of the hyperlinks, it takes you to an article from March when this suspension was announced -- kind of important information that is completed omitted from the article.
November 14th, 2023 at 5:32 PM ^
Burn it all down. Seriously.
November 14th, 2023 at 6:03 PM ^
Smoke it!
November 14th, 2023 at 5:32 PM ^
State of Michigan vs. everybody.
Welcome aboard, Ferris fans. T-shirts are available in the lobby.
November 14th, 2023 at 5:34 PM ^
Cigars? Bob Marley joints, I could see. Maybe.
November 14th, 2023 at 6:03 PM ^
Phatty blunts
November 14th, 2023 at 5:35 PM ^
Were they smoking in a “No Smoking area”? Was it on the bus from the Stadium? Near a fire pit on campus?
Red Auerbach would be happy with this decision.
November 15th, 2023 at 8:02 AM ^
this article is terrible and far be it for me to bring facts to an NCAA bashing party BUT
these games take place at high school stadiums. there is a strict no tobacco policy. Ferris did this same thing two years ago. They were warned and knew of severe repercussions in advance of this past season's championship game and they did it any way.
We can debate whether or not the punishment fits the crime and whether the NCAA is a pile of horseshit or not but when someone tells you "don't do x or y will happen" and you do x you have no one to blame but yourself.
November 14th, 2023 at 5:41 PM ^
NCAA: “Nope, you’re good, UNC—we don’t care that you’ve made a mockery of academic standards.”
NCAA: “Mr. Self, even though the FBI has you on tape, we sentence you to a light tap on the wrist.”
NCAA: “OMG, players old enough to fight and die for our country in uniform smoked cigars? This heinous act cannot go unpunished, and Coach Annese must pay right now.”
November 14th, 2023 at 6:00 PM ^
Wait are you sure Ferris wasn't getting penalized FOR the UNC and Kansas transgressions???
November 14th, 2023 at 7:30 PM ^
Reminds me of an old comment by a black coach, "everytime a blueblood breaks the rules, the ncaa will punish an hbcu"
November 14th, 2023 at 7:56 PM ^
It’s just shocking how much hypocrisy is within the ncaa
November 14th, 2023 at 5:49 PM ^
Is FootballScoop from the future? How do they know Harbaugh will not get the PI in hand on Friday?
November 14th, 2023 at 5:57 PM ^
He will not be accompanying the team to Maryland as of now. I don't think they meant anything beyond that.
November 14th, 2023 at 5:54 PM ^
I think the punishment of first future playoff game is utterly ridiculous, but you left out some context (I am unsure if this was intentional or not).
sources share that Ferris players did the same thing after their first national title, and they were issued a fine by the NCAA and were warned to not do it again. Sources in attendance share that the potential use of tobacco was addressed by Annese and the Ferris staff at the game, but two players chose to ignore those warnings
So it was not their first offense and the coaches addressed it, yet two players still chose to ignore that.
It is dumb and the punishment is unprecedented, but I was a lot less surprised when I saw it was their second offense.
November 14th, 2023 at 6:10 PM ^
Aha! Missed that. So what would the NCAA do once two players do it this time around as well? Ban the whole team?
This is just entertainment. Sometimes NCAA takes itself too seriously!
November 14th, 2023 at 7:59 PM ^
I think in that case you suspend the players. Adult punishment. There really isn't any reason to suspend the coach, although it could have been under the new rule that holds the coach accountable for pretty much any transgression committed by any member of the team. Seems like a very bad and very lazy rule.
November 14th, 2023 at 8:00 PM ^
If they do it three times, the NCAA will execute them at midfield during halftime of the National Championship game, right after the Dr. Pepper Challenge.
November 14th, 2023 at 6:02 PM ^
And yet teams buy players for decades and go unpunished.
November 14th, 2023 at 6:08 PM ^
According to some OSU fans on X, it doesn't impart the same advantage as stolen signals!
November 14th, 2023 at 7:59 PM ^
I thought there were SOME normal buckeyes out there …nope was way wrong
those morons are delusional and Michigan has broken that whole school
November 14th, 2023 at 6:05 PM ^
Doesn't osu have a tradition of a victory cigar if they win The Game? I think it was even featured in one of the pieces about the rivalry.
November 14th, 2023 at 6:39 PM ^
Nobody tell them about Google Images, they might accidentally type in "Tennessee and bama players smoking cigars".
November 14th, 2023 at 7:02 PM ^
Hard to violate the no cigar rule if you don't win "the game" for two years in a row.
November 14th, 2023 at 6:07 PM ^
It happened at a high school facility. The school district should be leading the punishment, NOT the NCAA. Does it say in any NCAA document that one cannot smoke in certain places?
Weird! very weird. There has to be more to this than just smoking.
November 14th, 2023 at 6:17 PM ^
Interestingly, GVSU and Ferris State are ranked #2 and #3 in the country yet they're not the #1 seed in their own region. GVSU gets the #2 seed and has to play their biggest rival in the first round of the playoff.
November 14th, 2023 at 6:41 PM ^
SUSPEND SABAN!
November 14th, 2023 at 6:45 PM ^
its all good. those are special rule-following blunts. no violation here. move on.
November 14th, 2023 at 6:59 PM ^
smoking a cigar is an NCAA rules violation?
November 14th, 2023 at 7:03 PM ^
Smoking cigars on grounds where it’s strictly prohibited is. Ferris was warned, they warned their kids, and they did it again anyways. Obviously as a GVSU alum I think this is hilarious but at the same time if there was going to be a suspension it should’ve been in season and not during the playoffs
November 14th, 2023 at 7:32 PM ^
No seriously, is that an ncaa rule?? If they violated a local city ordinance or something, then the city should punish them, not the ncaa.
November 15th, 2023 at 9:16 AM ^
It's more of a state law that there's no smoking on public school grounds.
November 14th, 2023 at 7:23 PM ^
It is, and Alabama has been a smoke free campus since 2015, yet the NCAA doesn’t do anything at all when the entire team and fans are lighting up after they beat Tennessee.
The rule and punishment are dumb. But like many other things with the NCAA, this would sit much better with folks if they didn’t apply the enforcement unevenly.
November 14th, 2023 at 7:13 PM ^
Come in here, dear boy, have a big car, just don't smoke a cigar
You're gonna fly, but don't have a burger and fries
Or your coach is gonna fry and we won't love you
Well, we've always believed in fairness and we mean that most sincere
The team is just fantastic, that is really what we think
Use your cell phone and we'll call the precinct.
And did we tell you the name of the game, boy?
Don't fuck with our gravy train
November 14th, 2023 at 7:21 PM ^
Burn it all down.