The Michigan football team is currently 8-0 and ranked #2 in the nation, but the biggest story surrounding their season is now regarding an NCAA investigation. News broke last week that the NCAA was investigating the Michigan football team because of illegal sign stealing. Since then, Connor Stalions, a low-level staffer for the Wolverines, has been suspended with pay. It was later announced that Stalions had purchased tickets to numerous Big Ten football games in recent years, and he had transferred them to other people. The investigation is still in the early stages and it will likely drag on for quite awhile, but there were some new developments on Tuesday.
Connor Stalions also bought tickets to the 2021 and 2022 SEC Championship games, and tickets to see four teams outside of the Big Ten that were College Football Playoff contenders, according to an article from ESPN. Another update surrounding Stalions' Big Ten tickets was released as well. The first report indicated that Stalions had purchased tickets for 11/13 other Big Ten team's games, but there is now a 12th school that has said he bought a ticket to one of their games. Right now, the number for Stalions is more than 35 games at 17 different stadiums across the nation.
It certainly seems like Stalions was doing some scouting for the Michigan football team, but the question is whether or not it was done illegally. The NCAA rules prohibit teams from doing in-person scouting, but Stalions didn't actually attend these games. There's a chance that he could've found a loophole in the rule book, but we won't know for certain until the investigation concludes. Based on the fact that the NCAA is still investigating the Wolverines for the minor recruiting violations that resulted in Jim Harbaugh's self-imposed suspension, this one could last awhile.
Michigan will take on Penn State and Ohio State in the final month of the season, and the results of those games may indicate if the Wolverines were really gaining a big advantage from the signs.