Jim Harbaugh is pleading not guilty.
The polarizing Michigan coach said this week as a guest on the Pardon My Take podcast run by Barstool Sports he got a "bum wrap" when the university refused to release its football roster in compliance with a Freedom of Information Act request by NJ Advance Media.
"I was really innocent of that whole thing," Harbaugh said. "I got a bum rap on that. There are 105 guys that teams are allowed to bring to (training) camp, 105 only. But your roster is 130 or 125.
"More people should be allowed to come to camp, and then that's your roster. Your entire team. It doesn't seem right not to let another 20 guys or the entire amount of your team come to training camp. It's a silly rule to me. I don't understand it."
Harbaugh makes an interesting point about the NCAA-mandated maximum, though he never offered that as an explanation during the August back-and-forth about his roster.
Instead, Harbaugh, who pushes NCAA boundaries whenever possible and seems to enjoy being difficult, let the school's lawyers do the talking.
Michigan's initial FOIA reply was to delay and followed up by saying there was no "responsive document" for a list of football players on scholarship or financial aid.
NJ Advance Media published both replies, which led to a viral storm that got Harbaugh's attention and led him to Tweet an Aug. 30 release date for the roster to accommodate walk-on tryouts. A list of scholarship players -- the bulk of the roster -- was sent and published a few days before Harbaugh's roster release.
"The roster is not complete until you've made your entire team," Harbaugh said on the podcast. "A la the NFL. The NFL (team) releases their roster one week before the game. After it's finalized! Not while it is a work in progress."
That's stretching the truth a little bit. Most, if not all, NFL teams keep an up-to-date public roster on the team's official website as year-round transactions are made.
The podcast co-hosts, who jokingly offered to be Harbaugh's "PR team," fed into a common fan misunderstanding that happened as the scope of the story grew, by saying, "Why would you ever release a depth chart before you had to? It's crazy. It doesn't make any sense."
A depth chart is a list of first- and second- and sometimes third-teamers categorized at each position. Many college football teams do not release depth charts.
A roster is a list of players on the team. Michigan was the only Big Ten team -- and one of the only in the nation -- that did not have a current online roster during training camp, instead using last season's that included players in NFL training camps and none of the 2017 newcomers.
Harbaugh told the co-hosts "we are allies."
Ryan Dunleavy may be reached at rdunleavy@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @rydunleavy. Find NJ.com Rutgers Football on Facebook.