The NCAA has the goods to hammer the Michigan football program.
Does it have the guts?
That’s the question ahead of what looms as the knockdown battle of the offseason: the Division I Committee on Infractions vs. UM.
Your popcorn ready?
OK, maybe not.
If you’re tired of hearing about Michigan’s sign-stealing shenanigans — it happened so long ago that the coaches can’t remember any of it! — join the club.
Just be sure to buckle up.
Months after the NCAA reminded everyone it still existed and accused Michigan of 11 violations — including six of the most severe Level I variety — here come the Wolverines.
Like a cornered animal, they are snarling and ready to rumble.
Michigan this month sent a 137-page response to the NCAA — parts of which Yahoo! Sports obtained — accusing the association of “grossly overreaching” and “wildly overcharging” the football program without credible evidence that coaches and staffers knew of Connor Stalions’ illegal scouting scheme.
A hearing before the Committee on Infractions is expected to begin in the coming weeks.
Stay tuned.
At this point, it appears Michigan intends to keep relying on its defensive principles — deny, deflect, delay — and hope the NCAA loses interest at the same rate it has lost power.
But the governing body is still in the ring, and, if it’s prepared to go the distance, it might have the juice yet to land a vintage haymaker. (Think of the NCAA like a 58-year-old Mike Tyson.)
The Yahoo! report features fresh revelations from the NCAA’s notice of allegations and Michigan’s response that get right to the heart of the case.
Michigan continues to suggest that Stalions was a lone-wolf rogue, writing to the NCAA that there is no proof that “any coaches were aware of, much less participated in” his spy games.
The NCAA continues to reply: Listen, buddy, we might sleep 23 hours a day, but we weren’t born yesterday.
A couple relevant new details, as uncovered by Yahoo!:
● The tipster who alerted the NCAA to Stalions’ caper? It wasn’t Ohio State — as the internet surmised — but an anonymous whistleblower inside the Michigan program.
Yes, incredibly, a ham-handed three-year operation with a ton of moving parts was not a total secret.
No word if Ryan Day will still face RICO charges.
● “At least two members of the football program raised concerns about Stalions' process for deciphering opponents' signals,” the NCAA alleged in its notice of allegations.
One of them was staffer Michael Neyman, who brought it to the attention of then-linebackers coach Chris Partridge last season after Stalions asked him to rent a car to scout a game at Georgia — a possible postseason opponent. He refused. Partridge said he told Stalions: “You’re not using this kid in your signal organization stupid thing.”
Now, maybe Jim Harbaugh, his deputy-turned-successor Sherrone Moore, and all the Michigan coaches had bigger blind spots than an 18-wheeler and knew nothing about the stupid signal thing.
And maybe I was mistaken yesterday for Ryan Gosling.
I can’t recall.
In any case, the case moves forward, and your Ohio State and Michigan friends will continue to stare into the same Magic Eye image and see two completely different things. (Ohio State fan: “Is that an electric chair?” Michigan fan: “Looks like a nothing burger.”)
As always, we must note there is more nuance at play than either side will allow.
Two things can be true: The Leaders and Best were cheaters … and the best program in the Big Ten, then the country.
Ohio State could have legitimized the narrative that its rivals’ success was ill gotten if — weeks after the scandal came to light — it had won in Ann Arbor last season. It missed its chance, then lost to Michigan again this season, for good measure.
The reality: The Wolverines won the 2023 national title because of the same reason Ohio State won its championship last week. They had really good coaches and players, including 13 drafted into the NFL months later.
They were fantastic.
Still, the edge — if any — Michigan gained by coloring outside the lines is beside the point.
Rules are rules, and validation is not vindication.
Which is what makes the upcoming fight so compelling, or unsettling.
You can argue that Michigan’s current players should not pay for past sins, especially given that Harbaugh — and most of his top assistants — is gone now anyway.
Or you can wonder if the NCAA — tired of being trampled over — sees an opportunity to make an example of a uniquely defiant offender.
Remember, Michigan qualifies as a repeat violator.
It was just last year the NCAA put the program on probation and slapped Harbaugh with a four-year show cause, finding that the former coach "engaged in unethical conduct” and “failed to promote an atmosphere of compliance.”
Now, it’s digging into the spy drama and another possible cover-up that might or might not be worse than the crime.
And the fury of Michigan’s response suggests it is more than a little concerned about what's coming next. (My two cents: While times have changed, a postseason ban and vacated victories — the same punishment handed to Ohio State for Tat-Gate — should at least be on the table.)
The NCAA appears to have the goods.
We’ll see if it has the stomach for the fight.
First Published January 29, 2025, 8:38 p.m.
