Let me try to explain this in the simplest way possible. The NCAA has 2 ongoing and separate investigations of the Michigan football program.

Michigan, meanwhile, is getting ready to hire offensive coordinator Sherrone Moore to replace Jim Harbaugh as coach.

Moore is a central figure in the first investigation — including a 1-game suspension in the first month of the 2023 season for his part in it — and could be again for the 2nd.

And the 2nd investigation — the illegal future scouting scheme by staffer Connor Stalions — could be much more problematic.

Yet here we are in this bizarro world of what you see isn’t really what you should believe, and Michigan is doubling down. From placating and protecting one coach at all cost (Harbaugh), to potentially being put in the same situation with his replacement (Moore).

What in the world is Michigan doing — other than winning football games at the cost of its reputation?

It wasn’t so long ago that hoity-toity Michigan looked down at lowly Ohio State and Michigan State, demeaning its rivals and their rogue ways of pressing the envelope to win at all cost.

They’re Michigan, and you’re not — and never, ever, shall there be any doubt.

Then Rich Rodriguez landed Michigan on probation for the first time ever. Then his failed tenure led to the even worse tenure of Brady Hoke, which led to Harbaugh, which eventually led to the magnificent 2023 season — warts and all.

Let me be very clear here: Of course Harbaugh knew of Stalions’ illegal scouting scheme. Just like Harbaugh misled NCAA investigators during the first investigation for illegal contact with players during the COVID season — the same thing he accused Ohio State of during the COVID season.

Do you really think the head coach of a football team — much less, the head coach of Michigan or any other blue-blood program — would allow some flunky, low-level staffer to stand on his sideline and call out opponent signals, and then allow his coordinators to adjust accordingly, if he didn’t know exactly what was going on?

Coaches are control freaks. Coaches at the blue-blood level are megalomaniacal control freaks.

Guess who else knew about Stalions and his scheme? Every coach on the Michigan staff.

Why would Harbaugh give Stalions that access, and that ability to help his coordinators change calls in the heat of the moment, without completely vetting the how and why Stalions got his information? It’s inconceivable to think anything else.

Harbaugh: How do you know these signals?

Stalions: I’m a savant with a beautiful mind.

Yeah, that’s not reality.

If you don’t think Stalions explained to the entire staff how it worked, you also probably don’t believe it was Ohio State who sicced the NCAA on Michigan and Stalions in the first place.

And the NCAA, already furious because Michigan tried to skirt the first investigation by self-imposing penalties, will not back down on the second investigation until it finds confirmation.

In fact, they’ll go hard to find a way to prove everyone of significance on the Michigan staff knew of the Stalions scheme. Everyone, including Moore.

The NCAA already lost control of the football postseason with the advent of the BCS in 1998. It still — for now — has control of rules enforcement.

This, of course, brings us back to Moore — who would be a fantastic replacement for Harbaugh. Players love him, and he has proven his ability to get a team prepared to play and win big games.

ESPN’s Chris Low is reporting that Moore is the choice to replace Harbaugh — but under Michigan law, the job must be publicly posted for 7 days before it can be filled.

So Michigan will go through the dance of talking to other potential candidates, but there’s little doubt where this is headed. All you have to do is look at what happened at Alabama once Nick Saban retired to understand what could happen to the Wolverines’ roster if they hire an outsider.

Michigan doesn’t want all of Harbaugh’s hard work — and their placating and protecting of Harbaugh in the championship season — to go to waste by changing course now. The last thing they need is 30 players in the transfer portal, and starting over as the college football landscape completely changes in 2024.

So they’ll double down and hire Moore, and then eventually have to make a decision about how to protect Moore from the NCAA. The “blame Stalions at all cost” will work until the NCAA finds a leak.

Or maybe the NCAA won’t.

Remember, what you see really isn’t what you should believe.

Unless you’re a savant with a beautiful mind.