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After almost two years, the Michigan football team is finally receiving its punishment regarding the program's sign-stealing scandal. Connor Stalions resigned during the 2023 season once the investigation came to light. Stalions was accused of illegal in-person scouting. Stealing signs is legal during games and from film, but actually attending games of future opponents is not allowed. That is where Stalions did wrong. The NCAA is releasing the punishment at noon ET Friday, but the entire punishment has surfaced already, per Pete Thamel:
“Four years of probation.
• Financial penalties:
• $50,000 fine, plus 10% of the budget for the football program. • A fine equivalent to the anticipated loss of all postseason competition revenue sharing associated with the 2025 and 2026 football
seasons.
• A fine equivalent to the cost of 10% of the scholarships awarded in Michigan's football program for the 2025-26 academic year.
• A 25% reduction in football official visits during the 2025-26 season.
• A 14-week prohibition on recruiting communications in the football program during the probation period.
• Connor Stalions:
• An eight-year show-cause order, restricting him from all athletically related activities during the show-cause period.
• Jim Harbaugh: • A 10-year show-cause order, restricting him from all athletically related activities during the show-cause period, which will begin on
Aug. 7, 2028, at the conclusion of his four-year show-cause order from a previous case.
• Denard Robinson:
• A three-year show-cause order, restricting him from all athletically related activities during the show-cause period.
• Sherrone Moore: • A two-year show-cause order, during which he is suspended from a total of three games. Michigan self-imposed a two-game suspension for Moore during the upcoming 2025-26 football season. The panel determined that a suspension for one additional game was appropriate. Therefore, Moore also will be suspended for the first game of the 2026-27 season. Apart from the three- game suspension, Moore is not prohibited from engaging in coaching or other athletically related activities during the show-cause.”
A lot of rival fans were hoping for vacated wins and championships, but that isn't what happened. At the end of the day, the Michigan football team won the national championship after all of this went down. NCAA president Charlie Baker said that the Wolverines won the title “Fair and square.” Sherrone Moore and the Wolverines have been punished, but it wasn't as serious as a lot of people made it out to be.
