Once more, the ongoing sign-stealing controversy has emerged as the leading story in Ann Arbor. On Tuesday, Yahoo Sports released a report outlining Michigan’s 130-page reply to the NCAA concerning the scandal, and it’s evident that U-M plans to contest the NCAA at every stage of this process. U-M, for its part, charges the NCAA with overstepping in several of its allegations. Even though U-M admits to some mistakes in its response, there is no sign that Michigan plans to take complete responsibility for what supposedly happened due to the sign-stealing scandal.
Here are the four most significant points from Michigan’s reply to the NCAA, according to Yahoo Sports:
Michigan plans to challenge the NCAA.
As noted in the introduction, Michigan strongly contested the NCAA allegations in its reply. While U-M admitted to certain errors, it also alleges that the NCAA did not provide evidence for many of its allegations.
In its reply to the association sent earlier this month, the university disputes numerous supposed rule violations and claims that the NCAA is “grossly overreaching” and “wildly overcharging” the program without substantial proof that other staff members were aware of Stalions’ unlawful in-person scouting system.
Other coaches in Michigan were aware that something was happening.
Before the Yahoo Sports report, many of us were convinced that Connor Stalions was a rogue individual – someone acting independently, pursuing his own agenda. According to Michigan’s own response, we now understand that other coaches were aware of the situation. Although Michigan contends that staff members were not fully aware of Stalions’ sign-stealing operation, it is evident that multiple staff members were informed that something was occurring.
One of the members was Mike Hart, the running backs coach at the time, who informed NCAA investigators that in September 2023, he got a call from a Rutgers staffer who claimed that Michigan was stealing signals and “going further” than others typically do. Hart highlighted this call to the then-defensive coordinator Jesse Minter. The staff member from Rutgers specifically mentioned Stalions.
A different junior staff member at Michigan expressed worries about Stalions’ sign-stealing system and declined to participate when Stalions asked him to rent a car to observe a football game at Georgia — a team Michigan might have faced in the playoffs eventually, though not on the schedule, allowing it to be scouted, as noted in UM’s response.
The staff member went to assistant coach Chris Partridge to let him know that he wished to opt out of the Stallions’ plan. Partridge approached Stalions directly and stated he informed him, “You’re not utilizing this kid in your signal organization’s foolishness, so, like, just make him a manager.”
Michigan admitted that Stalions and other personnel had been present at games.
For the first time in this whole saga, we finally witness Michigan acknowledging that Stalions was present at least once at a game with the obvious intention of capturing sideline signals. Furthermore, U-M admits that additional past employees – under Stalions’ instruction – were present at eight additional games likely to capture signals.
In its reply, the university argues that Stalions was present at only one of those games and that a current Michigan staff member attended just eight additional games — lower-tier managers assigned by Stalions to presumably capture sideline footage for his signaling system.
Michigan suspects that the NCAA received information from a former University of Michigan employee.
Although some in media circles promoted the idea that Ryan Day was responsible for starting the inquiry into the Michigan Football program, it seems that U-M thinks the NCAA was alerted by a former employee of U-M.
As stated in the document, the informant originated from Michigan’s campus. The NCAA has not revealed the identity of the unnamed source, who seems to have been employed at the school at some time. Michigan contends that the confidential leaker was utilized by the NCAA to generate at least a portion of the accusations in the notice of allegations, an issue about which it expresses “concern.”
Sherrone Moore clarifies the reason behind deleting messages with Stalions.
A significant detail regarding the NOA that was published months ago is that Sherrone Moore, who was an assistant coach at Michigan at the time, erased his text messages with Connor Stalions soon after the sign-stealing scandal emerged. Although Moore insists that there was nothing sinister in those messages, Yahoo Sports’ recent report offers additional context from Moore regarding why he asserts he deleted those messages.
“So, I removed all the data — everything about Connor, from my personal phone,” he stated in Michigan’s reply. “And it wasn’t about concealing anything; it was simply that — I was incredibly furious about, you know, the kind of person who would do that to this program and these children.”
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