MSU AD Alan Haller delivers powerful message to Big Ten commish on Michigan sign-stealing

During Thursday’s meeting between Big Ten athletic directors and commissioner Tony Petitti about the sign-stealing allegations at Michigan, one voice emerged above the others, ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported. Michigan State AD Alan Haller offered a powerful message to the group during the conversation.

Haller brought up the changes Michigan State made in is preparation for its Week 8 game against Michigan, which took place the same week news broke of both the sign-stealing investigation into the Wolverines and the allegations against analyst Connor Stalions. During that matchup, the Spartans started going to the sidelines to get signals rather than relaying them to the quarterback on the field.

In addition, Haller pointed out the Big Ten’s handling of last year’s incident at The Big House, which saw Michigan State suspend multiple players before the investigation wrapped up. Haller said the Big Ten told MSU to issue the suspensions, and he wondered why the league was wanting to wait until the investigation into Michigan ended to hand out punishments this time around and called it “hypocritical,” according to Thamel’s report.

“Haller is not typically one of the more vocal athletic directors on calls, so both his voice and the passion he spoke with resonated with the athletic directors and Big Ten officials on the call, sources said,” Thamel wrote.

Thamel reported the sense was Petitti is taking the situation more seriously than he previously indicated, and the Big Ten commissioner confirmed he has spoken with the NCAA. However, Petitti said he still has to meet with conference presidents and officials at Michigan, as well as possibly talk to the NCAA again, which gave the indication a decision might not come soon. The Athletic’s Nicole Auerbach later reported Petitti is set to meet with Michigan president Santa Ono on Friday.

One thing’s for sure, though. Just as the conference’s coaches told Petitti on Wednesday, the athletic directors want the league to act.

“The athletic directors had a clear message — we believe the conference needs to step up,” a source told Thamel.

Petitti has the authority to punish Michigan because of the Big Ten’s sportsmanship cause, which is about the “integrity of competition” in the “competitive arena,” if the discipline is “standard” or “major.”

“Standard action includes a fine not exceeding $10,000 and a suspension of no more than two contests,” Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger and Dan Wetzel wrote. “Major action is anything exceeding those penalties and is subject to approval from the Big Ten executive board of presidents.”

The next big question about the situation is how long the NCAA’s investigation will take. Three weeks ago, the NCAA opened an inquiry into the Wolverines, and ESPN later reported it centered on Stalions, who has been suspended with pay pending the results of the investigation.

According to Yahoo Sports’ report, Petitti said the NCAA is putting the sign-stealing inquiry on an “accelerated” path.