MSU was part of an 18-university group that filed a brief last week supporting Ohio State in its bid to overturn a $2.4 million award to former men's basketball coach Jim O'Brien.
O'Brien was fired in 2004 after he admitted giving $6,000 to the mother of a 7-foot-3 Serbian recruit, Aleksander Radojevic.
The Ohio Court of Claims ruled earlier this year that although O'Brien committed NCAA violations, the university improperly fired him by not following the terms of his contract.
All 10 Big Ten schools other than Ohio State signed the brief, as did the Big Ten, Pacific-10 and Big 12 conferences.
"NCAA member institutions must now choose between taking meaningful action to correct NCAA rules violations and avoid further violations, and avoiding contract damages to a coach who has shown a blatant disregard for the best interests of the institution," the colleges and conferences said in the brief.
An NCAA investigation after O'Brien's termination resulted in several punishments for the athletic program and university. A three-year probation was given to the men's basketball program, and the university had to return $800,000 in tournament revenue. The Buckeyes also had to erase any references to the 1999 Final Four tournament appearance that came under O'Brien.
The MSU administration received a request last month from the office of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman to help Ohio State in its bid to get O'Brien's award revoked.
MSU associate general council Mike Poterala handled the request and said it's not uncommon for MSU to file in support of another university.
"We feel that the trial court judge doesn't understand how big of a problem it is to have a coach paying a recruit," Poterala said. "It's not good for universities with major sports programs to not be able to terminate coaches with these violations. It's bad for the sports team, bad for the university, bad publicity.
"If we want to compete in intercollegiate athletics, we have to comply with the NCAA's rules. We need to do that. We want to do that."
Big Ten spokesman Scott Chipman said the conference had no comment on the suit.
MSU Athletics Director Ron Mason did not return repeated phone messages seeking comment.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
