Timeline for NCAA ruling on Michigan sign-stealing allegations beginning to form

USA Today

05-05-2025

Timeline for NCAA ruling on Michigan sign-stealing allegations beginning to form
After what seems like a timeline longer than a major highway construction project, we're starting to get a timeline on a potential NCAA ruling stemming from the Michigan advanced scouting (aka, sign-stealing) allegations.
For starters, news broke today via ESPN's Pete Thamel and Dan Wetzel that Michigan will be self-imposing a two-game suspension for head coach Sherrone Moore because of his involvement in the ordeal. He deleted 52 text messages between him and Stalions on the day the news of the allegations dropped, and was on staff during the timeline the alleged cheating took place.
On the heels of that, Pat Forde of Sports Illustrated has cited sources that the hearing between Michigan and the NCAA's Committee on Infractions is set to take place on June 6 and 7. A quick look at the calendar tells us all that's just about a month away, so things should move quickly after that. In fact, we may even expect to hear a final ruling and any further sanctions for the Wolverines before the start of the 2025 season. For those counting, the season begins in less than four months.
Yes, that's right. We can hopefully, finally, put this thing to bed and report whether or not Michigan is going to receive any significant penalties from college athletics' governing body, or if the NCAA will simply be a paper tiger, declawed and defanged for the world to see. If one thing is clear to anyone outside of Ann Arbor, the language the NCAA has used thus far should at least point to an effort to lay out some fairly significant sanctions and/or penalties, we just don't know what yet.
We also don't know if and what the NCAA will be able to do if this thing ends up in a messy court battle.
I'm not a betting man (not always at least), but if I were, I would put money down on a self-imposed two-game suspension falling way short of what Michigan will have to deal with -- especially since it sure looks like a cherry-picked two games with little meaning.
Hopefully, someone starts talking on this and we get some pre-hearing juicy nuggets before early June, but if not, we'll have more when the NCAA comes out of the witness protection program to render a verdict.
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