The news surrounding the Michigan football investigation continues to take new twist and turns. It all started with allegations of illegal in-person sign stealing, and a low-level staffer named Connor Stalions was suspended from the Michigan football team shortly after the investigation began. It then became public that he had purchased numerous tickets to college football games across the country in recent years, and it is believed that he sent them to other people to use so they could video the sidelines of future Wolverines' opponents. While all of that is big, the whole situation took a major turn on Tuesday.

Tuesday was an interesting day for the investigation. News began to emerge that Jim Harbaugh was close to signing a new contract extension that would make him the highest paid coach in the Big Ten. Because of that, it sounds like the Wolverines aren't too concerned about the ongoing investigation. However, news also emerged yesterday regarding a mystery man on the Central Michigan football sidelines in a game earlier this season against Michigan State. The mystery man looks very similar to Connor Stalons, and the Chippewas are now investigating the photos.

“We're obviously aware of a picture floating around with the sign stealer guy,” Central Michigan head coach Jim McElwain said, according to a video posted to Twitter from Kennedy Broadwell. “Our people are doing everything they can to get to the bottom of it. We were totally unaware of it, certainly don't condone it in any way shape or form. I know that his name was not on any of the passes that were let out, now we keep tracing it back and tracing it back trying to figure it out, but it's in good hands with our people. There's no place in football for that.”

Before beginning his head coaching job at Central Michigan, Jim McElwain was the wide receivers coach for the Michigan football team. He coached the Wolverines in 2018, and he joined the Chippewas in 2019.

What's interesting about this situation is that if this mystery person was a Central Michigan staff member, it would've been very easy for the Chippewas to come right out and say who it is. Because that hasn't happened, it seems like this could be Michigan's Stalions.

It's also interesting that the mystery man spent the entire game on the Central Michigan sideline talking to other staff members. If he wasn't actually part of the team, how did nobody notice that? There's certainly a lot to unpack from this.

It's unclear what kind of effect this could have on the Michigan investigation, but it is definitely a major development.