In a matter of hours, the Michigan football team went from the best version of itself in the program’s proud history to the nationally criticized “Cheaters and Best.”
I did an elaborate study network of sign-stealing agents – or just a junior staffer, a former Marine Corps officer with a goal of dominating the college football world – really turns into Jim Harbaugh’s disappointing 2020 product in back-to-back Big Ten champions and Buckeye beaters in 2021-22 and the No. 2 team in the country in 2023?
This is the question that matters most to me, a Michigan alum who has passionately followed the ups and downs of this team for nearly 25 years now.
But the question that should matter most to NCAA investigators, who have Harbaugh firmly in their sights, is not whether the Wolverines benefited from stolen signs. Of course they did. This is also the case for most other teams and it is not against the rules.
What the NCAA needs to do now is find proof that Michigan went beyond accepted methods of decoding signs, like sending a staff member or someone even loosely affiliated with the program to a game future adversary and acquire intelligence in person.
Apparently — few even the most ardent college football observers knew until Thursday — the NCAA banned in-person advanced scouting in 1994 because schools no longer wanted to pay the spy freight.
If the NCAA Keystone Kops are able to piece together proof that Michigan broke this rule, then it’s a bad look for the Wolverines and they will pay for this mistake. If Harbaugh is implicated as knowing, then the punishment will get significantly worse and he will be sent to the social media gallows for self-righteous fraud. Some of his many critics are already there, but I encourage them to wait for facts before hanging this man.
Harbaugh released a statement Thursday claiming he had no knowledge of sign-stealing techniques that violated NCAA rules (funny enough, responding to the allegation in this simple manner could end up being another violation in his growing ledger).
Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh stands in front of his players before a game against Penn State in 2018.
(Léon Halip / Getty Images)
Right now, we don’t know much beyond the fact that the NCAA has opened an investigation — and the anonymous Big Ten coaches are stunned by it, along with the national media who despise Michigan or Harbaugh or the two.
We also know that the aforementioned former Marine officer, Connor Stalions, whose name was leaked to ESPN’s Pete Thamel Thursday night as a key part of the investigation, was suspended with pay by Michigan on Friday. A suspension with pay does not constitute an admission of guilt.
But here’s what I know with the utmost certainty: The events of the final day are straight out of the NCAA playbook, and I don’t need to steal any signs to know what proven play we’re seeing unfold in front of us.
Step 1: Set a goal.
Now why would Jim Harbaugh, the wholesome, football-loving, church-going, steak-eating, whole-milk-drinking man, become a target of the people who run the American college sports cartel?
Because he’s been a pain in the ass for the NCAA since returning to college football to coach his alma mater in 2015. He started out living in the gray area of the rules to run satellite camps all over the country, even down south -East. , purportedly to spread his gospel of the importance of football to young men, but his detractors saw it as a strategy to strengthen Michigan’s brand among recruits. Second, he was one of the strongest proponents of allowing players to transfer more freely.
Most recently, in August, without prompting, Harbaugh launched into an impassioned speech about why football players should receive a share of the television revenue they help generate.
“I don’t think the current system is going to survive,” Harbaugh said. “The status quo is unacceptable. It’s my opinion.
“When student-athletes call it a game, business people call it a business. When student-athletes call it a business, business people call it a game. … We are where we are. We have to try to make it work. We must try to improve it.
“What I don’t understand is how the NCAA, television networks, conferences, universities and coaches can continue to make millions and in some cases billions of dollars in revenue from the efforts of students- college athletes across the country without providing enough opportunities to share the ever-increasing revenue.
This came after Michigan announced Harbaugh’s suspension for three games to start the season, the school’s response to an NCAA investigation into alleged recruiting violations that occurred during the COVID dead period. As part of that process, the NCAA accused Harbaugh of lying to investigators about what he knew.
So, after the school made efforts to quell that storm, Harbaugh set his sights on the goose that laid the golden eggs: control of all television money, the most important vestige of the dying age of ” amateurism.
The NCAA probably wasn’t done with Harbaugh before this statement. After that, when someone accused Michigan of being elite in sign stealing in recent years, the NCAA had new ammunition that needed to be used.
2nd step: Start an investigation.
Step 3: Make sure the investigation is disclosed to reputable national journalists like Ross Dellenger and Dan Wetzel of Yahoo Sports.
Step 4: Sit back and watch the public shaming of your target and establish your narrative through millions of clicks, while your target is not allowed to respond due to the ongoing investigation.
Step 5: Look for evidence that will sufficiently support the desired outcome to issue a Notice of Allegations. During this time, also hold out hope that the publication of the investigation will lead to more accusations.
Step 6: Extend the survey as long as you want. Even if you haven’t found convincing enough evidence of a rule violation, the dark cloud will hang over the target in perpetuity.
USC understands very well what I describe here. Once NCAA officials decided that USC football under Pete Carroll was a target, he was going to find all the evidence he needed to tie someone on Carroll’s staff, assistant coach Todd McNairwith undue advantages received by Reggie Bush with potential agents. With the Trojans, the NCAA wouldn’t take no for an answer.
Have Harbaugh and Michigan reached that level? We’ll know in the next, oh, what, three to five years?
One of the more fascinating subplots here is whether Harbaugh will wait to find out at Michigan or decode this situation as a final sign that he needs to make another run in a Super Bowl ring. I could also see him being stubborn and sticking around to continue to poke the bear and maintain the culture he has built at Michigan through everything the NCAA throws at him. That said, will the university, usually quick to bend to the whims of the cartel by imposing sanctions, be at its side in the long term? We are still waiting for this contract extension that has been talked about for a long time.
If you listen to the connected folks at USC discuss the NCAA sanctions that crashed their program as I did, Michigan should move forward and prepare for the worst – regardless of what is revealed about its sign-stealing operation.
