With the Michigan football team in the national championship against Washington coming up on Monday, the sign-stealing scandal surrounding Connor Stalions that had the program in some hot water this year has come up again. And JJ McCarthy gave an interesting answer when asked about how his team benefitted, saying that it is commonplace in college football while specifically bringing up Ohio State.

“I also feel like it's so unfortunate because, you know, there's probably,  I don't want to say a crazy number, but I'd say a good number, 80% of teams in college football steal signs,” JJ McCarthy said, via Nick Kosko of on3.com. “It's just a thing about football.”

When talking about Ohio State, McCarthy said the Buckeyes' sign-stealing methods in either 2019 or 2020 made Michigan step up its methods.

“You know, it's been around for years,” McCarthy said, via Kosko. “We actually had to adapt because, in 2020 or 2019 when Ohio State was stealing our signs, which is legal. We had get up to the level that they were at, and we had to make it an even playing field.”

These comments will certainly catch the eyes of college football fans. Michigan fans will agree with the sentiment, while fans of rival teams, like Ohio State, will roll probably their eyes at McCarthy's comments.

It will be interesting to see how Michigan football fares on Monday against Washington. It will potentially change the discussion surrounding the sign-stealing scheme as well. McCarthy clearly feels his team was not in the wrong.