Michigan sign-stealing allegations: Andy Staples addresses what's next as more claims arise

Things continue to look worse for Michigan as more details continue to come out about an alleged sign-stealing scandal. After it was initially reported that Wolverines analyst Connor Stalions paid for tickets to attend several Big Ten games over the past three seasons, the news spread outside the conference Tuesday.

ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported that Stalions bought tickets to four different campus games of four College Football Playoff contenders last year. That includes the 2021 and 2022 SEC Championship games as well as a Clemson game from the 2022 season when the Tigers were 8-0.

On3‘s Andy Staples addressed the news in a YouTube video Tuesday evening, spelling out where things go from here.

“These are accusations right now, but it keeps getting deeper and deeper,” he said. “On Tuesday night, Larry Williams of Tiger Illustrated reported that Stalion bought a ticket to a Clemson game. Ross Dellenger reported that he got tickets to games involving Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia. Pete Thamel of ESPN reported that there is a 12th Big Ten school that has now confirmed that he bought tickets there.

“So that’s now 12 out of the 13 that aren’t Michigan. It just keeps going and going and going. The Michigan folks, of course they’re saying he went rogue. They’re saying the coaching staff had no knowledge of this.”

Stalions has since been suspended with pay as a result of the allegations as the NCAA has launched an investigation. Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh has denied any knowledge of sign-stealing in a statement released last week.

As the accusations continue to pile up, however, many have wondered whether it’s possible for the NCAA to come through with any sort of punishment this season. The Wolverines are currently 8-0 and one of the top contenders to make the College Football Playoff, but if the cheating is proven true, it wouldn’t seem fair for them to get by with nothing.

However, based on the NCAA’s track record for dealing with situations like this, it seems unlikely that any punishment would happen this year.

“As we keep saying, the NCAA does not move quickly on these things and there’s not really a mechanism to do any sort of punishment in season,” Staples said. “So if it was found that Michigan was doing this in-season this season, I don’t know that that means that the NCAA or the Big Ten can do anything about it. If you’re Michigan, you’re gonna lawyer up to make sure that you can finish out this season and you can play in this postseason.

“Remember, the last time the NCAA went outside of its normal disciplinary process to punish a school was Penn State after all the Jerry Sandusky stuff. The NCAA ended up getting taken to court and having to walk those sanctions back. So I don’t think you’re gonna see that. There’s a little frustration when you talk to people from the schools because there’s not much right now that can be done.”

Coaches around the country have been asked about the situation, including Georgia‘s Kirby Smart. The Bulldogs were reportedly one of the teams Michigan was caught stealing signs from during the past two SEC Championships.

The Wolverines played Georgia in a College Football Playoff semifinal game in 2021, losing 34-11. Smart told reporters that there was “nothing about the Michigan game that makes me think that.”

“First of all, that last line was completely savage because he’s referencing that Georgia beat Michigan 34-11 in that game and it was never close,” Staples said. “So if Michigan had signs, it didn’t help. But what Kirby is saying is similar to what other coaches around the country are saying. For all you saying, ‘everybody does this,’ everybody does try to steal signs when they are in-game and they’re watching the other team signals. They are trying to decipher what’s going on. They’ve probably got somebody in the press box with binoculars. They’re probably watching when they get the coaches’ film to see if there’s anything that shows up that they can take. That’s every school doing that and that is not against the rules.

“Sending someone to a game that is not your own and especially having someone video tape that, that is a different story. Thamel from ESPN reported that the NCAA has an hour of video showing someone sitting in a seat bought by Connor Stalions videoing the sidelines. The most interesting thing about this, we’ve yet to find out whether anybody got to a TCU game last year. In case you have forgotten, TCU beat Michigan in the Fiesta Bowl 51-45.”

It will be interesting to see how much more information comes out this week about Michigan and it’s sign stealing. The Wolverines are on a bye but have their next matchup against Purdue on Nov. 4.