Kirk Ferentz sounds off on Michigan sign-stealing scandal, how Big Ten can fix it

Michigan‘s 30-24 win over rival Ohio State solidified their spot in the Big Ten Championship game for the third straight season, as the Wolverines will take on No. 17 Iowa on Saturday for the conference title.

The conference championship game will represent Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh‘s return to the sidelines after serving a three-game suspension from the Big Ten amid the program’s ongoing sign-stealing investigation, a story that has dominated and surrounded the Wolverines since reports surfaced in October.

On Sunday Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz spoke about Michigan’s sign-stealing scandal ahead of the conference title game, providing an interesting big-picture perspective on the situation as a whole.

“If you want a bigger picture view, this is something that probably could be corrected really easily,” Ferentz said. “Whoever’s got to get together, just have a vote. And a lot of stuff, different technology has been talked about, it seems like, for maybe not quite a decade, but close to. And it’d be a simple way to fix everything. I know baseball had some issues, I think they’ve got that fixed. We could have fixed this probably a decade ago.”

“So it’s like a lot of things have happened in the NCAA and college football. We’re a really slow-moving train when it comes to being progressive, trying to improve things, just improve the quality of the game. So it kind of fits in that category. … That’s really, hardly a concern of mine. But one of these days, maybe we’ll take the steps needed to be taken just to take this off of the board as a topic for anybody,“ Ferentz explained.

Michigan’s sign-stealing investigation has come with its fair share of discourse surrounding every angle of the situation. Which has also included what Ferentz is referring to regarding the potential use of in-helmet communication between coaches and players on the field similar to the NFL to avoid further sign-stealing in the future.

Numerous factors would go into that technology being implemented at the collegiate level, none of which will be enacted prior to the Big Ten Championship game, as Ferentz shifted his dialogue to how Michiga’s sign-stealing scandal relates to the game on Saturday.

“Full disclosure, I really haven’t paid that much attention to it,” Ferentz admitted. “We’ve been in the middle of the season and we’ve been fighting for our lives every week. So that’s kind of where our focus has been, that’s where it’ll be this week. And I think that’s kind of, it’s a separate category. It really doesn’t affect our team, our players. And we’ll try to be as smart as we can, moving forward here with those things in mind.”

“But it’s not going to really impact us. What I’ve been impressed with is how their players play on the field,” Ferentz added. “Those guys are — they’re very aggressive, they’re very well-coached, good technique and they’re very talented. And again, that’s not a new phenomenon for Michigan. But that’s where our focus is and I think we’re gonna have our hands more than busy and more than full just trying to take on what they do so well.”

Ferentz and Harbaugh squared off in the Big Ten title game two seasons ago, and the Hawkeyes will be hoping for a different result this time around when they face off this Saturday in Lucas Oil Stadium at 8 p.m. ET.