So this is where we are with Jim Harbaugh, and to a greater extent, the Michigan football program.

This ridiculous circular nonsense of defending cheating — a moment that in any other time, in any other era of college football, would be utterly laughable — is somehow roundly accepted.

Michigan and Harbaugh: The perfect match in the imperfect conspiracy.

“Never lie, never cheat, never steal. I was raised on that lesson,” Harbaugh, now the coach of the NFL’s Chargers, said this week when asked about a draft of the NCAA’s notice of allegations against Michigan that read, in part, that the Wolverines lied, cheated, and yeah, you know. Stole signals.

Harbaugh says he didn’t cheat. New coach Sherrone Moore says he made mistakes but has moved on.

And Michigan defends it all.

In the months since former Michigan staffer Connor Stalions was accused of scouting and taping future opponents — the tentacles reaching Harbaugh, Moore, another assistant coach and eventually the soul of the Michigan program — the university has, in no uncertain order:

— Backed Harbaugh, and publicly ripped the Big Ten for not backing Harbaugh.

— Twice suspended Harbaugh for a total of 6 games; 3 to begin the 2023 season, and 3 to finish the regular season. A self-sanction to appease the NCAA, of course, whom they also publicly ripped.

— Suspended Moore, then the offensive coordinator, a game for his role in the scheme, and 4 months later — after Harbaugh decided to return to the NFL — hired Moore (a known NCAA cheater, by their suspension/definition) as head coach of a Playoff-ready team.

And now — here’s the best part — the raging river of indignation begins. Harbaugh kicked things off this week during a Chargers press conference, saying, “No one’s perfect. If you stumble, you apologize and make it right.”

Then, without a hint of hesitation, declared, “Today, I do not apologize.”

Why would he?

No one at Michigan has lost in this ordeal yet. And by no one, I mean no one.

Harbaugh is back in the NFL, where he desperately wanted to return all along, and doesn’t have to deal with the NCAA.

Moore has a top-10 coaching job, and Michigan has no option but to continue backing him like it did Harbaugh. Because Michigan knew Moore, according to the NOA, deleted 52 text messages with Stalions the day the future scouting scheme was exposed — and hired him, anyway.

Then there’s Michigan, which before Harbaugh returned to his alma mater, couldn’t get out of its own way under Rich Rodriguez and Brady Hoke — an odd coaching duo that combined for a 46-42 record in the 7 years following Lloyd Carr’s retirement.

The Wolverines won 40 games in the final 3 seasons under Harbaugh, when hoity-toity Michigan had enough of losing to Ohio State and decided to — what’s that Harbs said again? — lie, cheat and steal to win it all.

Why would Harbaugh apologize for bringing Michigan its first national title since 1997? For beating Ohio State 3 straight times and stuffing the insufferable Buckeyes deep in a hole of despair — one that includes unfathomably trying to run a coach who has won 56 of 64 career games.

Harbaugh is the same guy who boorishly boasted Buckeyes coach Ryan Day was professionally “born on 3rd base” — knowing full well that Day’s father committed suicide when Day was 8. At the very least, the optics of that were horribly offensive.

Besides, if Day was born on 3rd base, Harbaugh — who grew up in a stable, happy football family with a wildly successful coaching father — was born touching home plate before ever rounding the bases.

“So for me,” Harbaugh said, wrapping up his comments about the notice of allegations, “It’s back to work and attacking with an enthusiasm unknown to mankind.”

This is the coach who knew nothing of Stalions’ scheme that, like it or not, gave Michigan a competitive advantage. An obsessively detailed and organized coach who was on top of all things Maize and Blue for each of his 9 seasons in Ann Arbor, didn’t think to ask any of his assistant coaches who Stalions was and why he was there?

And why in the world did they immediately change formations and play calls during critical, win-at-all-cost games after this low-level staffer screamed out play calls coming from the opposing sideline — while standing right next to Harbaugh.

Jim Harbaugh, the man who said Stanford and later Michigan would win with character and cruelty, is going to stand on the sideline and allow some flunky to scream about play calls — and allow his assistant to change play calls — and know nothing about it?

Know nothing about the how and why this all came about, and why he was entrusting game day decisions to a low-level staffer who apparently had a beautiful mind. This nobody with a scheme no one knew nothing of had his arms around big time college football.

It’s absolutely comical.

Yet Michigan and Harbaugh keep shoveling it, and for some reason, everyone keeps buying it.

Look at Harbs, what a cool cat he is.

Look at Harbs, sticking it to the mean NCAA, baby.

Meanwhile, Moore is still the head coach at Michigan, because if Michigan were to admit that Moore knew about the scheme, Harbaugh’s cover is gone.

So is the national title.

And wouldn’t you know it, there is Stalions, the villain of this story, now selling his soul to Netflix for cash. Stalions, Harbaugh and Michigan.

The perfect match in the imperfect conspiracy.

Lying, cheating and stealing to the bitter end.