The Michigan sign-stealing scandal is heading toward its conclusion.
Michigan will meet with the NCAA Committee on Infractions on Friday and Saturday. The Wolverines face 11 infractions, including six Level 1 violations.
The NCAA will issue its ruling within 45 days after the hearing. ESPN reports a resolution is expected before the start of the 2025 season.
Why Michigan faces NCAA punishment
The NCAA notified Michigan it was investigating allegations of play-sign stealing on Oct. 18, 2023. This came two days before the Wolverines’ game against rival Michigan State.
The investigation centers on whether Michigan violated NCAA bylaw 11.6.1, which prohibits off-campus, in-person scouting of future opponents.
Michigan staffer Connor Stalions became the center of the investigation. Stalions purchased tickets for games at other Big Ten stadiums and admitted in the Netflix documentary "Untold: Sign Stealer" that he obtained video from those games.
Stalions also faced allegations that he was in disguise on the Central Michigan sideline during a game against Michigan State on Sept. 21, 2023.
Stalions resigned on Nov. 3, but the role of other Michigan coaches in the scandal hasn’t been determined by the NCAA.
What is Jim Harbaugh’s role in scandal?
Michigan finished 15-0 and won its first national championship since 1997 in 2023. Yet Harbaugh served two three-game suspensions during that season.
The first three-game suspension was part of a school-imposed punishment for impermissible contact with recruits during COVID-19. Harbaugh faced a four-game suspension, but Michigan negotiated with the NCAA to push that down to three games.
On Aug. 7, 2024, Harbaugh was given a four-year show-cause penalty by the NCAA for his role in that case.
Harbaugh also served a three-game suspension issued by the Big Ten in 2024 for violating the conference’s sportsmanship policy. He missed games against Penn State, Maryland and Ohio State.
He left after the 2023 season to take a job with the Los Angeles Chargers in the NFL. He still hasn’t cooperated with the NCAA.
“I do not apologize. I did not participate. I was not aware nor complicit in those said allegations.”
What is Sherrone Moore’s role in scandal?
Moore was suspended for the season opener in 2023 when he was an assistant coach as a result of the first NCAA investigation involving impermissible contact with recruits during COVID-19.
Moore also faces a two-game suspension this season – a school-imposed sanction ahead of the meeting with the NCAA. Michigan proposed that Moore would miss games against Central Michigan and Nebraska in Weeks 3 and 4.
Moore faces a Level 2 violation for allegations that he deleted 52 texts in a thread with Stalions in October, 2023.
Unlike Harbaugh, Moore won’t be allowed to coach during the week leading up to the game against Central Michigan and Oklahoma as part of a new NCAA rule passed in 2024.
What are possible punishments for Michigan in sign-stealing scandal?
This is anybody’s guess given the NCAA’s unpredictability, but here are a few possibilities based on reporting on the Michigan sign-stealing and in-person scouting scandal:
Vacated wins and national title
Michigan beat Washington 34-13 in the College Football Playoff championship game on Jan. 8, 2024. NCAA president Charlie Baker said the Wolverines won the national championship "fair and square" two days later.
Would Baker walk that back if the Wolverines are forced to vacate wins and perhaps the national championship?
ESPN’s Pete Thamel and Rece Davis are among the analysts who do not believe that Michigan will be forced to vacate victories or the CFP championship by the NCAA.
Ohio State vacated 12 wins and were given a one-year postseason ban as a result of the "TattooGate" scandal in 2010. Five players including star QB Terrelle Pryor sold memorabilia for cash and tattoos. This case has been cited throughout the sign-stealing scandal.
Those student-athletes also have called for those wins to be reinstated given the new NIL in the NCAA.
Would the NCAA mirror the punishment? One scandal involved players off the field, and the other involved coaches and impacted results on the field. That’s a huge difference.
Fines, loss of scholarships and a postseason ban
If the majority of the 11 violations – including six Level 1 violations – are upheld by the NCAA, what would a proper punishment be?
Tennessee was fined $8 million for 200 infractions during the three-year tenure under Jeremy Pruitt from 2018-20. There was no postseason ban attached to Tennessee’s punishment.
The fine essentially made the Vols forfeit multiple years of bowl money but allowed the players to play in those games. Michigan could be forced to pay fines – which are costly in the new NIL era.
USC lost 30 scholarships as a result of the scandal involving improper benefits with star running back Reggie Bush during the Pete Carroll era. Carroll – like Harbaugh – was issued a show cause penalty but left for the NFL.
USC vacated 14 wins and Bush was stripped of the Heisman Trophy – which he got back in 2024. The NCAA could take away scholarships, but does that hurt as much in the transfer portal era?
A postseason ban also is a possibility, and they still exist. Akron was given a postseason ban in 2025 for failing to meet NCAA academic standards.
More punishment for Sherrone Moore
Is the two-game suspension enough? The curious part of Moore’s suspension is it’s the third and fourth game of the 2025 season.
Michigan opens with New Mexico before a Week 2 game at Oklahoma, where Moore played guard from 2006-07. Would the NCAA add more games to Moore’s punishment?
The other coaches who were punished during the Stalions scandal are no longer on staff.
Defensive coordinator Jesse Minter – who joined Harbaugh with the Chargers – has a one-year show-cause penalty. Assistant coach Steve Clinkscale – also an assistant with the Chargers – accepted a two-year show-cause penalty.
Assistant coach Chris Partridge was fired on Nov. 17, 2023, but he’s now the linebackers coach for the Seattle Seahawks under former Michigan defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald.
Verdict: What will Michigan’s punishment be?
Will the hammer come down on Michigan? Well, does the NCAA have a hammer in its toolbox?
The Wolverines fall under the repeat offender status, and that could be the leverage needed to increase the severity of the penalties. Those likely will be some combination of fines, scholarship losses and the potential for a postseason ban – which would hit harder in the 12-team College Football Playoff era.
That punishment also could be handed down during Big Ten media days, which are July 22-24 in Las Vegas.
This would be the third straight year Michigan would be forced to address an NCAA investigation at that event – another sign that a resolution is needed either way for the program to move forward.
It’s an unprecedented case, one that led to helmet communication being permitted in college football for the first time in 2024. That arguably is the good that came out of the Stalions’ sign-steal and in-person scouting debacle.
