My "totally reading between the lines and making assumptions that are likely baseless" read is this:
The updates on the situation throughout this waiting game indicated that Harvey was facing strong pressure from family and friends both ways. According to the Des News story, Harvey just recently got back his NFL evaluation. This morning, Harvey's dad told the DesNews that Harvey was coming back to get his degree, set records, and help the team.
My baseless read is that it might have been Harvey's dad that was pushing for him to stay in school, and when Harvey decided to go pro, Dad decided to take a last stab at getting Harvey to stay by 'leaking' that he was staying to get the expectations of the Cougar faithful up and put pressure on Harvey not to back out.
Just my conspiracy theory side shining through.