Mike Farrell Sports

College Football Recruiting, Opinion, and Analysis

Michigan Wolverines: A Timeline of Cheating and Scandal

Inside Michigan football’s shocking cheating scandal: Lies, sign stealing & NCAA fallout

Stephen Leonard
Pin
Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh looks on from the sidelines during the Wolverines' game against Indiana on Oct. 14
Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh looks on from the sidelines during the Wolverines' game against Indiana on Oct. 14

By Stephen Leonard

It’s that time again, the offseason, so let’s talk about the Michigan Wolverines and the “alleged” cheating scandal. Thanks to the NCAA, this scandal goes back to 2023. “SpyGate” is just the icing on the cake as the University of Michigan football program has been under the NCAA microscope for years.

Back when it was all about just some hamburgers, no one cared, as Mike Farrell so perfectly explained.

“In my best Allen Iverson voice, here it goes—’We’re talking about hamburgers. Not bags of cash. Hamburgers.’ A billionaire booster can offer a kid millions to come to his favorite school, and we’re focused on Harbaugh buying burgers?”

Below is the timeline of an insanely lengthy NCAA rap sheet. We should not be talking about burgers or COVID dead period recruiting. 

To be honest, I would agree if burgers and recruiting violations were the only infractions and this would be much to do about nothing. However, it is not and now know the scandals are much deeper and far more serious.

The Timeline

Jan. 5, 2023

Michigan received Notice of Allegations (NOA) for recruiting violations during the COVID dead period. Jim Harbaugh had some burgers with recruits. Also included in the draft was the allegation of an off-field analyst engaged in on-field coaching, violating NCAA rules. Harbaugh denied memory of the situation. The first slap in the face from Michigan to the NCAA

More Sports News

The Matt Weiss story is significantly more heinous than we even imagined at the time.

Jan. 20, 2023

Weiss, who was the co-offensive coordinator, was fired for unauthorized access to computer accounts. The University of Michigan police investigated potential computer crimes, later joined by the FBI.

August 2023

Harbaugh and Michigan self-impose a three-game suspension for the first three games of the 2023 season (East Carolina, UNLV and Bowling Green). Harbaugh was still able to coach practices and slap No. 2 from Michigan to the NCAA.

Sept. 2, 2023

Connor Stalions was “possibly” on the sidelines for a Central Michigan’s game against Michigan State. Off-campus scouting violations or “SpyGate” officially begins.

Oct. 17, 2023

NCAA received evidence from an outside investigative firm. Not Ryan Day’s brothers firm as Wolverine faithful were hoping. The NCAA received documents and videos from computer drives accessed by Michigan coaches, alleging an illegal sign-stealing operation involving in-person scouting of opponents, which violated NCAA Bylaw 11.6.1, which prohibits off-campus, in-person scouting of future opponents.

Oct. 19, 2023

The Big Ten Conference received notification from the NCAA of its investigation into Michigan’s alleged sign-stealing.

Oct. 20, 2023

Michigan suspended Stalions with pay pending the investigation.

Oct. 25, 2023: 

ESPN reveals the Stalions scheme, alleging he purchased tickets to more than 30 games at 11 Big Ten schools over three years to scout opponents, forwarding tickets to associates. It was revealed that Penn State at Ohio State tickets were purchased by Stalions. Both teams were upcoming on the Wolverines schedule, but those tickets were ultimately not used.

Nov. 3, 2023

Stalions resigned from Michigan and stated Harbaugh had no knowledge of the scheme but refused to cooperate with the NCAA. To make matters worse, just a day prior FOX News and other outlets reported on Michigan Wolverines staffer Alex Yood being filmed allegedly trying to solicit a 13-year-old girl.

Nov. 6, 2023

The NCAA had been unable to find direct connection between Harbaugh and Stalions’ sign-stealing. Athletic director Warde Manuel recused himself from the College Football Playoff selection committee meetings to focus on the investigation.

Nov. 10, 2023

The Big Ten suspended Harbaugh for the final three games of the regular season (Penn State, Maryland and Ohio State) based on violation of the conference’s sportsmanship policy. Harbaugh and Michigan slap the Big Ten in the face this time with an attempted restraining order.

Nov. 16, 2023

Michigan and Harbaugh dropped a planned court hearing to challenge the Big Ten suspension after already serving the Penn State game. New NCAA evidence then emerged insinuating a booster (“Uncle T”) allegedly funded Stalions’ operation.

Nov. 17, 2023

Michigan fired linebacker coach Chris Partridge for allegedly instructing players on how to respond to sign-stealing questions and possibly destroying computer evidence. Partridge denied his involvement in illegal scouting.

2023 Summary

Michigan fired two coaches, OC Matt Weiss and Chris Patridge. The sign-stealing extraordinaire, Stalions, resigned. Harbaugh missed six total games with two separate three-game suspensions. Despite the scandals, Michigan went on to go 15-0 and won the national championship.

Back in 2023 the Michigan faithful scoffed at the idea a sign stealing scandal even existed and several national media echoed that tune. Time to reminisce with some of these X posts from 2023.

The media in defense for Michigan was similar to Jeff Saturday’s take. All the other teams were stealing signs or trying to and it was up to you to stop it.

The problem: Only one team was purchasing tickets for the purposes of advanced scouting. We can say “allegedly” a million more times or just trust the credibility of the Big Ten who suspended Harbaugh as a result of the mountain of evidence provided by the NCAA. Joel Klatt echoed the sentiment by carrying the company torch. Let’s face it, FOX had a lot of skin in the game for Michigan to win and win big.

Lately, Klatt has flip flopped, but in 2023 he was clearly out of touch with the coaches squaring off against a Michigan team that likely knew their plays in advance.

Penn State coach James Franklin explained the impact from his standpoint. 

Sonny Dykes was warned in advance by other coaches around the nation prior to TCU’s 2022 CFP game against Harbaugh’s Michigan team. He stated point blank: “I think it certainly helped us” and “I don’t know if we would have been able to win that game, had we not gotten some of that information.” 

TCU won that game 51-45. At the time it seemed as if Klatt was stating coaches Dykes and Franklin didn’t know ball.  Dykes clearly felt his use of dummy signals was the difference in the game.

January 2024

Harbaugh left Michigan for the NFL and took half of his staff with him to the Los Angeles Chargers. Defensive coordinator Jesse Minter, defensive line coach Mike Elston, defensive backs coach Steve Clinkscale and strength and conditioning coach Ben Herbert all joined Harbaugh. Former OC Sherrone Moore was left the scraps but promoted to head coach after going 3-0 during the Harbaugh suspension.

May 14, 2024

More bad news as Denard Robinson resigned from Michigan’s staff due to an arrest for operating a vehicle while intoxicated.

Aug. 7, 2024

The NCAA issued a four-year show-cause order and a one-year suspension for Harbaugh for his role in the COVID recruiting violations, and was upgraded to a Level I violation due to “unethical conduct and failure to cooperate.” Harbaugh escaped any consequences being safe and secure in the NFL.

Aug. 25, 2024

The NCAA delivered a NOA to Michigan for the sign-stealing scandal, accusing seven staffers from the 2023 team of violations. A draft NOA from earlier in the month suggested Moore could face a suspension and show-cause penalty for deleting 52 text messages with Stalions on Oct. 19, 2023, which was a Level II violation. The messages were later recovered and Michigan was given 90 days to respond.

Aug. 27, 2024

The Netflix documentary about Stalions was released. Although the quality was excellent the documentary was fairly uneventful in terms of any new information released. However, it did reveal a couple questionable details. First, Stalions was given a game ball for the Iowa game in 2022. Obviously Harbaugh was aware of the importance of Stalions’ signal deciphering skills. Nothing screams “cheater” like a staff member receiving a game ball for sign stealing. Although not a smoking gun, it was obvious Harbaugh knew about the scheme. There was no doubt the NCAA should’ve handed down some kind of punishment.

The second questionable detail came from Stalions’ lawyer, Brad Beckworth. He asked the NCAA if the information used in their investigation was taken “without consent.” 

Despite Beckworth doing his job, he seemed desperate for a dismissal based on technicality and t admitted guilt. The NCAA refused to reveal their source and Beckworth’s response indicated the damning evidence was contained on Stalions’ personal devices no the university’s property.

May 5, 2025

Michigan announced a self-imposed two-game suspension for Moore for the third and fourth games of the 2025 season as part of the ongoing sign-stealing investigation. This will be reviewed by Committee on Infractions hearing on June 6-7.

Summary

Both Stalions and Harbaugh denied knowledge of any in-person scouting. Stalions later admitted to NCAA investigators that he had received some video from games he had forwarded tickets to but ultimately passed them off as signals he already knew. 

Harbaugh did not deny advanced scouting had occurred but said from his protected NFL podium, “Today, I do not apologize. I did not participate, was not aware nor complicit in those said allegations.” 

Michigan would later admit to illegal advanced scouting, at least according to Yahoo Sports and Ross Dellenger.

Klatt is now is no longer defending Michigan. So what changed?

Klatt is well connected and likely knows something, hence the change in tune.  Listen, FOX has already made their money from the 2023 National Champions and there no need to defend Michigan any longer.  

The situation will be reviewed by the Committee on Infractions hearing June 6-7. It’s not unquestionable that Michigan will become known as the “SMU Death Penatly” of this generation. Despite the lengthy timeline of scandal outlined above, I believe the “Death Penalty” is unlikely. The NCAA should, and I believe will, hit the Wolverines with a “Lack of Institutional Control” penalty. 

What will most likely happen to the Wolverines?  They will forfeit wins from 2021-2023 up until Stalions was suspended, a massive fine and will keep the 20023 National Championship in the trophy case.

 

Category: , Tag: , , , , , , , , , , ,
Pin

You’ll Also Like