Hail To The Cheaters! The Leaders And Best In Stealing Opponents Signs?

Last week, the college football world turned upside down when Ross Dellenger from Yahoo Sports reported that the University of Michigan is under investigation by the NCAA for in-person scouting violations.

At the time, there was only a little information about exactly what the NCAA was investigating and how Michigan broke these scouting violations. Still, as days passed, more information was brought to light.

Timeline Of Events

According to Yahoo Sports, The Big Ten Conference and the University of Michigan were notified on Wednesday, October 18th, by the NCAA that there is an investigation of allegations of stealing opponents' signs within the Michigan football program.

On Thursday, October 19th, reports came out from Yahoo and ESPN that the NCAA is investigating Michigan for in-person scouting violations.

Friday, October 20th, ESPN reported that Connor Stalions was the leader in the cheating allegations. Stalions is a retired captain from the United States Marine Corps who now holds a position as a football analyst for Michigan.

The school suspended Stalions last week after these allegations came to light.

Monday, October 23rd, ESPN's Pete Thamel reported Stalions purchased tickets in his name for more than 30 games at 11 Big Ten schools over the past three seasons.

Stalions also transferred tickets he bought for people around the country to go to these games and to scout the team's sideline.

In Pete Thamel's article, he states, "The NCAA is expected to receive video evidence this week of illegal technology used in scouting tied to tickets purchased by Stalions, according to sources. An opposing Big Ten school looked up in-stadium surveillance video from a game earlier this year, and sources said the person in the seat of the ticket purchased by Stalions held his smartphone up and appeared to film the home team's sideline the entire game."

Stalions also purchased tickets for last week's Penn State vs. Ohio State game and one ticket for each side of the field looking at the Penn State and Ohio State's bench.

On Tuesday, October 24th, another report showed that Stalions also purchased tickets for teams outside the Big Ten, including teams in playoff contention.

Yahoo Sports reported Stalions bought tickets in 2022 for games featuring Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Oregon, and Clemson and had tickets for the 2021 and 2022 SEC title games.

We still need to determine if Michigan illegally sent people to games and recorded teams' signs, but the evidence and reports are starting to come out, and I'm sure there will be a lot more information coming soon.

What Is Really Going On?

Let's dive into this entire scandal we have on our hands here. To sum up, Michigan supposedly sent people to games to record opposing teams' sidelines they would be playing in the future, which is very illegal.

You're allowed to pick up on opposing teams' signs from the broadcasts and in the game when you're playing the team with no technology, but you are not allowed to send someone to scout the team signs.

Michigan is already under NCAA investigation due to illegal recruiting violations during COVID-19. The NCAA suspended Jim Harbaugh for those violations for the first five games this season. Still, the NCAA took it back to gather more information, and Michigan decided to suspend Harbaugh for the first three games this season.

Everyone likes to say that the recruiting violation was over having a Hamburger with a recruit during the Covid dead period, which you weren't allowed to do, and yeah, that was part of it. Still, there was a lot more to these violations that Harbaugh lied to the NCAA about.

The NCAA is already coming after Michigan for one thing, and I bet it was music to the NCAA's ears when they found out about this sign-stealing scandal.

You don't want to piss off the NCAA, and that is precisely what Harbaugh and Michigan did, and now the NCAA will want to keep coming after them.

I think Michigan is an excellent football team, and they probably beat every one of their opponents last year with or without the sign stealing, but if they did cheat, you would have to ask yourself if they only won games because they knew the other teams' plays.

If Michigan is found guilty of these crimes, the program will have to get the death penalty. Harbaugh will have to be fired, scholarships and wins taken away, and even be banned from the College Football Playoff.

It's not much of a shock that Harbaugh now has another NCAA violation coming his way.

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