Michigan sign-stealing scandal: NCAA will announce punishments Friday
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The NCAA's Committee on Infractions will make a recommendation for a punishment, which Michigan will have the chance to appeal.
In January, the Wolverines accused the NCAA of "grossly overreaching" and "wildly overcharging" the program in response to an August 2024 notice of allegations that cited 11 NCAA infractions, including six Level I violations, the most serious offenses in the NCAA rulebook.
The university has tried to be proactive in dealing with the potential fallout of the case, suspending head coach Sherrone Moore for two games during the upcoming 2025 season (Weeks 3 and 4 vs Central Michigan and Nebraska, respectively). Moore was Michigan's offensive coordinator during the sign-stealing saga and was alleged to have deleted 52 text messages from Stalions.
The Wolverines, the No. 14 team in the preseason US LBM Coaches Poll, open their season on August 30 against New Mexico.
Michigan football sign-stealing allegations
In October 2023, in the middle of what would be a national championship-winning season, Michigan football became the subject of an investigation into alleged impermissible advanced, in-person scouting.
The probe centered around an operation engineered by former Wolverines analyst Connor Stalions, which involved Michigan staffers or those working on behalf of them attending games of upcoming Wolverines opponents and filming the sideline during the game to record the hand signals used by coaches.
Though sign-stealing is widely practiced and isn't technically against NCAA rules, using technology to scout an opponent in person is outlawed, according to NCAA Bylaw 11.6.1.
The advantages Michigan would have received from such an operation were immense.
"That's huge. There's no other way to say it," a power conference head coach told The Athletic. "That's as big as it gets. It's the biggest advantage in college football, I would say. How does it get any bigger?"
Stalions reportedly purchased tickets to 52 games across the country to scout upcoming opponents on the Wolverines' schedule or schools Michigan may be in line to face in the College Football Playoff. In perhaps the most bizarre subplot to an already bizarre story, someone who appeared to be Stallions was spotted on the Central Michigan sideline wearing a Chippewas hat during an August 2023 game at Michigan State. The Wolverines play the Spartans in an annual rivalry game, which Michigan won 49-0 that season.
The NCAA was reportedly roped into the case when an outside firm approached it with computer drives containing evidence of illicit scouting that were accessed and maintained by multiple Michigan coaches.
Stalions resigned from his position in November 2023 after refusing to cooperate with internal and external investigations. That same month, linebackers coach Chris Partridge was fired after reportedly destroying evidence related to the investigation, a claim Partridge, now an outside linebackers coach with the Seattle Seahawks, has disputed.
Then-Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh was suspended by the Big Ten for the final three games of the 2023 regular season for what the league said was a violation of the league's sportsmanship policy. Even without Harbaugh on the sidelines, and with then-offensive coordinator Sherrone Moore serving as the interim head coach, the Wolverines won each of the three games, including victories against top-10 Penn State and Ohio State teams.
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