For readers who can remember all the way back to the final days of the preseason, they'll recall the flap that followed a Detroit Free Press article that alleged possible rules violations at Michigan, where a handful of current and former players suggested Wolverine coaches pushed players beyond NCAA-mandated limits on football-related hours. The resulting fallout -- centering on whether most of the hours in question qualified as "voluntary," whether the Freep was out for coach Rich Rodriguez's head and whether it even mattered, since all big football schools flout workout and practice limits as a matter of course -- had mostly faded by the end of the Wolverines' opening-day rout of Western Michigan, and was certifiably old news by the time freshman quarterback Tate Forcier led a late, dramatic comeback to beat Notre Dame in Week Two. That win ended any lingering notions of a "hot seat" for Rodriguez and put the sting of the workout accusations clearly on the back burner.

So just as a tiny reminder that the charges haven't been resolved, word comes from the university today that its ongoing internal investigation is now cooperating with a very Official NCAA Investigation:

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman today (Monday, Oct. 26) announced that the University has received a "Notice of Inquiry" from the NCAA, indicating it will continue its investigation of allegations made about the U-M's intercollegiate athletics football program. The investigation is being conducted in cooperation with the University.

The NCAA works in mysterious ways, but those ways are inevitably very slow, which means we can expect another six months or so of silence before a judgment (or an absolution, which may only be determined by the absence of any official judgment) comes down out of the blue, followed by multiple rounds of appeals, recommendations, more appeals, etc. In the meantime, the investigators will investigate at their own pace, one brick at a time.

That's all. As you were.