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The Connor Stalions sign-stealing drama is still alive and well as the battle between the Michigan football program and the NCAA rages on. The sign-stealing story came to light during the middle of the 2023 season, and after receiving a Notice of Allegations, Michigan is intending to fight back, according to a new report from Yahoo Sports.
“In a 137-page response to the NCAA obtained by @YahooSports, Michigan intends to fight allegations of the Stalions scheme, accuses NCAA of overreaching, defends Sherrone Moore’s deleted texts & reveals that the original NCAA tip came from its own campus,” Ross Dellenger said in a post.
There is a lot in this new report and it covers numerous aspects of the sign-stealing investigation and numerous members of the Michigan football program. Here is a brief summary of the important details:
Michigan intends to fight back
The biggest takeaway from this report is that Michigan doesn't think that the NCAA has substantial evidence to back up their claims. The university believes that this should be treated as a Level II standard case and not Level I, which is the most serious.
“In its response, Michigan believes that the notice of allegations, sent to the school in August, makes ‘numerous factually unsupported infractions, exaggerates aggravating factors and ignores mitigating facts,' the document says. The school requests that the NCAA apply ‘common sense and commitment to fairness” and treat the case not as a serious Level I infractions case but a ‘Level II standard case,'” The report states.
Sherrone Moore addressed his deleted text messages with Connor Stalions
Michigan football head coach Sherrone Moore was the offensive coordinator when the sign-stealing story surfaced, and his deleted text messages with Connor Stalions are a big part of this whole ordeal. Moore addressed those deleted texts, claiming that he wasn't trying to hide anything, but rather did it out of anger.
“So, (I) deleted all the information — all Connor, on my personal phone,” Sherrone Moore said in Michigan’s response. “And it wasn’t to hide anything, it was just that — I was just extremely angry of, you know, the type of person that would do that to this program and these kids.”
Moore did turn his phone in as he fully cooperated with the investigation, and the deleted texts were recovered. While some did involve sign-stealing, Michigan claims that nothing suggests that signals were being taken in an illegal way.
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The original tip came from the University of Michigan campus
One surprising aspect of this report is that the person that originally tipped off the NCAA to the sign-stealing scheme came from Michigan's own campus, and is believed to have worked for the school.
“According to the document, the tipster derived from Michigan’s own campus,” The report says. “The unnamed source, which the NCAA has not disclosed, appears to have worked at the school, at least at one point. Michigan believes the confidential leaker was used by the NCAA to produce at least some of the charges in the notice of allegations, something in which it expresses ‘concern.'”
Jim Harbaugh's involvement in the investigation
Los Angeles Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh was the head coach of the Michigan football team when this whole thing went down. The NCAA alleges that Harbaugh failed to cooperate with the investigation, but Michigan states that the allegations against Harbaugh are “without merit.” Harbaugh failed to provide imaging of phones/computers because of concerns regarding “personal and sensitive information and/or attorney-client communications.”
“Imaging of Harbaugh’s phones — his personal and work — were part of a large initial collection of data that included imaging of phones and other devices from 10 individuals, the school says, including two computers assigned to Stalions and an external hard drive owned by Stalions,” The report says. “However, there were ‘legitimate concerns' that the data being imaged contained personal and sensitive information and/or attorney-client communications, so images were withheld. The NCAA did not receive Harbaugh’s images by the deadline and deemed him to have failed to comply.”
To conclude, it sounds like Michigan doesn't think that the NCAA has valid evidence for a lot of these claims, and because of that, they plan to fight back. It sounds like the NCAA has found some evidence of sign-stealing, but that is something that regularly happens in college football. Stealing signs is perfectly legal, and Michigan doesn't seem to believe that the NCAA has substantial evidence that their sign-stealing is worthy of this being a Level I infractions case.
