Michigan really doesn’t want its roster to get into anyone’s hands before it’s absolutely necessary.

Not long ago, NJ.com filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, hoping to obtain Michigan’s roster for a story idea regarding New Jersey football players competing on B1G rosters. All of the other programs in the conference had updated rosters.

Apparently, though, Michigan has denied the request, claiming “there is no roster” nor is there a scholarship list. Ryan Dunleavy of NJ.com was the one to report the news.

Here’s how the university responded to the request:

We understood your request to be for the football program roster, and that if walk-on student athletes on the roster were unknown or yet to be determined, you would accept a partial roster.

As there is no roster, and from your message below I now understand your request to be for other types of records “listing all active Michigan football student-athletes on scholarship/financial aid,” we will consider your request clarified and will proceed with determining whether there are other types of records that may be responsive.

Jim Harbaugh stated in a tweet recently that football tryouts won’t start until Aug. 28 and a full roster won’t be known until Aug. 3o, which would be the release date.

The reluctance to post the roster not only frustrated many reporters, but it’s gotten under the skin of Florida head coach Jim McElwain. At a recent press conference, the Gators leader told reporters “when you guys get their roster let me know, so maybe I can figure out who we’re playing.”

Whether or not Harbaugh was trying to upset so many people isn’t really known, but it’s certainly had a significant impact on the college football world leading up to kickoff weekend.