Rodriguez is entering his third season as Michigan’s head coach and, according to his contract, if the NCAA determines he has committed a major violation of NCAA rules during prior employment, he could be fired by Michigan.

“He may be terminated as provided in Sections 4.02 and 4.03 of the Agreement,” the contract reads.

If there are violations during prior employment, in this case, West Virginia, Rodriguez’s Michigan contract indicates he “may be subject to disciplinary or corrective action as set forth in the provisions of the NCAA.”

Clearly, the purpose of this recent NCAA trip to Morgantown is to explore Rodriguez’s behavior here.

UM tried to say Rodriguez’s mistakes were the result of an oversight issue — compliance people there must love that — while the NCAA said Rodriguez essentially didn’t much bother with compliance conformity.

So now the NCAA begins to see if this was a one-time thing or a pattern. What happened at WVU may matter with regard to what happened at UM.

Michael Buckner, a Florida attorney who has represented universities in NCAA investigations, said if similar violations are found from Rodriguez’s tenure at West Virginia, that could hurt Michigan’s defense in the current case.

“Then it’s going to be hard for him and/or Michigan to argue that this was an isolated incident,” Buckner said.