The Michigan Wolverines football team has a total of three division titles, 44 conference titles, and 11 national titles, and is currently ranked No. 2 in college football. Michigan has loved to brag for years about how “they do things the ‘right way.’” However, this does not seem to be the case this time. Michigan has been accused of cheating this season.
The public started to realize and do more research when Connor Stallions, who was a part of Michigan’s recruiting department, specializing in analytics, used the public setting on Venmo to pay a sideline recorder. It was discovered that Stallions bought tickets for over 30 games, at least 12 of which were big ten schools.
It is common knowledge that in football, especially in college, everyone steals signs. What matters is how the signs are stolen.
The teams use signs because they cannot have any “in-helmet communication system between players and coaches,” so signs are used instead.
Reporter Steven Gophry once bumped into a staffer who was “rushing from the press box to the sideline after charting the opposing team’s signs for a quarter.” This further proves that stealing signs is fairly normal in college football, as they started to have a normal conversation with one another right after.
It is very hard to catch a team cheating, because oftentimes they are so good at it, only the bad ones are caught.
People were seen sitting in the seats bought by Stallions, filming “the home sideline with a smart phone.” Although there is no rule specifying what is legal and illegal in sign stealing, the NCAA Bylaw states that, “Off-campus, in-person scouting of future opponents (in the same season) is prohibited.” This means that Stallions broke this bylaw when he analyzed the game beforehand in person, and through videos taken by paid videographers.
This is nothing new though. In 2021, there was talk about a man who “was able to decode opposing teams’ signs.” He even admitted to stealing signs in 2021, but he was still stealing them through legal means. They are allowed to seal signs using past videos, or during the game while it is being played.
Ohio State had been warned just a few days before their game; unfortunately, they had no time to change their existing signs. However, they were able to warn TCU before their game in 2022, which led them to beating Michigan.
The Michigan head coach, Jim Harbaugh, claims to know nothing about the illegal means of sign stealing, but this seems very unlikely. Currently, Stallions is suspended while the investigation continues. No one knows how the NCAA will punish him.
Many are skeptical that the Stallions will be punished due to an incident at Baylor in 2021. Baylor University had failed “to report allegations of and address sexual and interpersonal violence committed on its campus,” but the NCAA did not punish them.
If the NCAA did not punish Baylor for failing to report sexual assault, then why would they do anyting to a coach who stole signs illegally? At this point, no one knows what is going to happen; all we can do is guess.
