The NCAA’s Committee on Infractions provided a ruling on the University of Michigan football program’s sign-stealing scandal that allegedly ran from 2021 to 2023, the same season that the Wolverines won the College Football Playoff National Championship. The punishments for the school include financial penalties that could exceed $30 million and an extra one-game suspension for head coach Sherrone Moore, according to ESPN.
The NCAA said that it would not impose a multi-year postseason ban on the team because that decision would “unfairly penalize student-athletes for the actions of coaches and staff who are no longer associated with the Michigan football program,” according to the Detroit Free Press. Though a two-year postseason ban was being considered, the NCAA “determined a more appropriate penalty is an offsetting financial penalty.”
The Michigan Wolverines football team will be placed on probation for four years. Additionally, the school will be forced to pay a $50,000 fine plus 10% of the university’s football budget, a fine equal to the expected loss of all postseason competition revenue sharing that might take place in 2025 and 2026, and a fine that equates to 10% of the cost of the scholarships given out to University of Michigan football players for the upcoming acadmeic year.
The NCAA is also imposing an extra one-game ban for Wolverines head coach Sherrone Moore, which will be served during the first matchup of the 2026-27 season. The university previously announced that it had imposed a two-game suspension on Moore for the upcoming season that will cause him to miss Michigan’s third and fourth games of the 2025-26 campaign.
The program will also face a 25% reduction in official recruitment visits for the 2025-26 season. Plus, Michigan will be barred from communicating with recruits for 14 weeks.
Lastly, the NCAA implemented numerous show-cause orders for current and former members of the Wolverines’ coaching staff. Former staffer Connor Stalions – “who masterminded the advance-scouting scheme,” as ESPN describes it – received an eight-year show-cause order, restricting him from taking part in all University of Michigan athletic activities during the show-cause period. Former Wolverines head coach Jim Harbaugh received a ten-year show-cause order, which will go into effect on August 7th, 2028, when his four-year show-cause order from a previous case expires. Former Michigan Wolverines assistant director of player personnel Denard Robinson received a three-year show-cause order, while Sherrone Moore was given a two-year show-cause order.
The NCAA’s report found that former Michigan Wolverines staffer Connor Stalions “orchestrated” an advanced scouting operation from 2021 to 2023 that was designed to help the football program decipher and understand opponents’ sideline signals. Moreover, the NCAA said that it counted 56 instances of off-campus, in-person scouting of future regular-season Michigan opponents.
“Stalions directed and arranged for individuals to conduct off-campus, in-person scouting of Michigan’s future regular-season opponents,” the report reads. “In doing so, Stalions purchased game tickets and transferred them to those individuals, who included another staff member, interns, and acquaintances of Stalions. The network of individuals was referred to as the ‘KGB.’ While in attendance, they filmed the signal-callers on the future opponents’ sidelines and then provided that film to Stalions. Using the footage they collected – which Stalions referred to as ‘dirty film’ – Stalions then deciphered opponents’ signals. Stalions and other individuals involved in the scheme acknowledged or corroborated this process. Additionally, on one occasion, Stalions personally attended a future opponent’s contest.”
The NCAA stated that the University of Michigan “failed to monitor” its football program under former head coach Jim Harbaugh. The organization went on to say that Harbaugh “ran a program that was largely dismissive of rules compliance. There was little, if any, emphasis on following the rules. To the contrary, his program saw compliance as the enemy, made their own decisions regarding interpreting the rules to their benefit, or outright committed rules violations.”
“Over the course of three seasons, the Michigan football program committed violations involving an off-campus, in-person scouting scheme, impermissible recruiting inducements and communications, head coach responsibility rules, individuals’ failures to cooperate and Michigan’s failure to monitor, according to a decision released by a Division I Committee on Infractions panel,” the NCAA said in a statement. “The scouting violations orchestrated by former football staff member Connor Stalions were corroborated by interview testimonies, ticket receipts and transfer data, and other evidence.”
The Michigan Wolverines’ 2025-26 season begins in a little over two weeks, when they play host to the University of New Mexico on August 30th. Kickoff for that game is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. EDT.
