Report: Two more former Michigan athletes file class-action lawsuit against former football coach Matt Weiss

Former Michigan Wolverines assistant coach Matt Weiss is now facing another legal battle. According to a report by The Athletic, two more former Michigan athletes have filed a class-action lawsuit against Weiss. Along with Weiss, the university and its board of regents are named as defendants.

This latest lawsuit comes from two unnamed Michigan athletes, one of whom was a volleyball player and the other a soccer player. They were at the school from 2020 through 2024. Their lawsuit also names third-party vendor, Keffer Development Services, as a defendant.

The complaint claims that damages are expected to top $5 million. It also claims that they could affect more than 100 other potential plaintiffs.

Weiss was formally charged last Thursday with 14 counts of unauthorized access to computers and 10 counts of aggravated identity theft. In a statement at that time, the U.S. Department of Justice. announced that these were related to accessing “private, illicit photos of student-athletes between 2015 and 2023.” The release further states that more than 150,000 athletes allegedly were impacted by Weiss. That includes 2,000 “target athletes.”

In January of 2023, Weiss was fired by Michigan. That came after what was described as “computer access crimes” were reported in December of 2022 against him.

Weiss was originally hired by Michigan in 2021 as a quarterback coach. He was later promoted to co-offensive coordinator. Prior to that, he had a long history of working for the Harbaugh family. An NFL assistant under John Harbaugh from 2009 through 2020, that connection with then-Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh is part of what led to him joining the Wolverines. He coached the Wolverines in the College Football Playoff and the year he was fired came just before Michigan made its national championship season.

This lawsuit is similar to one filed last week by two other former Michigan athletes. That separate class-action lawsuit came from a soccer player and a gymnast. In it, Weiss is accused of using students’ information to hack into email, social media, and cloud storage accounts. That would have given him access to private information, including intimate photos and videos. He also is accused of downloading medical information of Michigan student-athletes.

In this most recent complaint, Weiss is accused of targeting female athletes. That would have put the unnamed plaintiffs at greater risk.

“The information that Weiss acquired due to the Non-Individual Defendants’ negligence is highly confidential, personal, and distressing when exposed without authorization, causing humiliation and embarrassment,” the suit argued.

Following Weiss’ firing, search warrants were obtained for his Ann Arbor home. Multiple devices were seized at that point in a multi-year investigation that culminated in the charges being leveled against him.