Various thoughts on scandal-type substance du jour.
Nothing important will happen. The #1 rule of 2023 college football is "the networks are in charge." The networks would have a conniption fit if Michigan was barred from the postseason at any point, this year or next. They would savagely eliminate any athletic department that had the cojones to not play Michigan because they may or may not have their signs. Michigan is the only football program in the country to support a completely independent college football blog that isn't mostly clickbait garbage. QED.
Sturm und drang; the only meaningful impact here is that the Michigan program will be inclined to bounce any rubble they come across. Michigan's play here should be the Kansas play: cooperate. Very, very slowly.
The most likely explanation. Pete Thamel has a name: Connor Stalions, an analyst with the team. A post on our message board is unconfirmed but comes from a guy who's been around here for 13 years and sounds like a plausible explanation:
The staffer recruited a bunch of non-Michigan affiliated 3rd parties to attend games and record sidelines of future Michigan opponents. That's the so-called "vast network." Wait until the story comes out of how he recruited the "scouts." It's Bud Fox level hustle that would make Gordon Gekko smile.
Obviously he'll lose his analyst gig at Michigan and probably have a show-cause if he ever wants to get near a college AD again but he's 100% going to land a plum job doing corporate espionage work eventually.
The Michigan Difference.
I bet a dollar this is substantially correct.
[After THE JUMP: meh!]
I fundamentally don't care. This isn't baseball, where some guys banging trash can lids is a Stain Upon The Game. This is football. A few years back ESPN ran a piece on Mike Leach—then the Oklahoma offensive coordinator—planting a fake playsheet on the sideline before the 1999 edition of the Red River Shootout:
"That game might've been the most bizarre experience I ever had as a college football player," said Ahmad Brooks, a starting defensive back for the Longhorns. "I can't tell you how wrong we were in the first three or four minutes with every playcall we had. I've never seen anything like it.
"It was complete pandemonium, and it was complete confusion."
Everyone thought this was awesome, because it was. One reason that college football has not adopted NFL-style radios in the helmets is that some coaches like stealing signals:
Another concern among some SEC coaches wasn’t expressed publicly but has been suspected privately: Headsets would eliminate the ability to steal signals. The concept of stealing signals is an open secret in coaching, and some programs have elaborate operations.
I'm not about to put on a hairshirt if Michigan is the best sign-stealing team in America. Change your signs, dumbass.
I've gotten bent out of shape about a bunch of things but they're all things that make people's lives worse: Alabama massively oversigning before transfers were free; Michigan State blithely ignoring all the red flags about Auston Robertson; being forced to watch Rutgers play football. Being better at calling football plays than other teams does not rise to that level. .The Astros doing whatever they were doing is great and I hope they win the next 200 World Series. Opsec is important.
Nobody else seems to care either. JJ Watt and RG3 both said this was a nothingburger…
Hey JJ Watt & RG3, what do you two think about this so called ncaa rule pic.twitter.com/CKVomVqiv8
— Dre Dre (@crispcorp1) October 20, 2023
…as did 247's Bud Elliott:
This idea that sending someone to steal signs at an opponent's game -- a game played in front of 80,000 people, is somehow unethical or immoral is .
It is only "illegal" because in the 90s a bunch of schools didn't want to PAY to send scouts on the road and passed a rule.
— Bud Elliott (@BudElliott3) October 20, 2023
Paul Finebaum, of all people, asserted on ESPN this morning that "If this had been someone else, this investigation probably would not have gotten to this point." The parties that do care are reporters desperate for clicks and rival fanbases who would like to cling on to a reason Michigan caved their heads in.
This is the best kind of scandal because it is deeply funny and does not matter at all. I mean:
Upon learning of the pending investigation, Michigan State initially warned the Big Ten it might consider not playing Saturday’s game out of concern for health and safety for its players, according to two sources briefed on those conversations. On Thursday morning, MSU confirmed it will play the game.
If there's a program in the M-MSU rivalry that should be concerned about the health and safety of its players because of the other team, it's not MSU.
The provenance of this and reporting on it is sketch. The first person to allude to this investigation was Ohio State insider Bill Greene of Buckeye Scoop, the site that was blackballed by OSU for paying a walk-on to give them access to internal Ohio State information. The message board rumors that started up a couple of days ago also came from OSU sources, which point's a big ol' finger at Ryan Day as the primary complainer. I do not believe the message board rumor that Ryan Day hired a private investigator to get at all this… but I kind of do.
This is also extremely funny, especially because I've got the odd Buckeye fan in my twitter mentions making ominous references to how this all started in 2021. DO YOU REMEMBER THE 2021 GAME? Michigan passed four times in the second half. OSU couldn't move the ball because Aidan Hutchinson was beating the ass of whoever he lined up over. Signals intelligence did not matter. 2021 may have been the game least likely to be affected by playcalls in the history of the Michigan-Ohio State rivalry. Call whatever you want, Ryan. It doesn't matter because Aidan Hutchinson is going to be beating CJ Stroud to death with the dismembered arm of the left tackle.
Then we have the Ominous Quotes. I'm not sure why Pete Thamel printed this unsupported accusation, but he did:
The allegations have rattled coaches and administrators around the Big Ten.
"This is worse than both the Astros and the Patriots -- it's both use of technology for a competitive advantage and there's allegations that they are filming prior games, not just in-game," a Big Ten source said. "If it was just an in-game situation, that's different. Going and filming somewhere you're not supposed to be. It's illegal. It's too much of an advantage."
"Rattled." FOH. Thamel goes on to detail Stalion's LinkedIn page, because that's a thing you do when you have a thoroughly sourced article. Brendan Quinn also has a dubious quote:
One source who was briefed on the allegation said Michigan is being accused of using a “vast network” to steal opposing teams’ signs.
We are legion.
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LeCheezus
October 20th, 2023 at 10:47 AM ^
Preach, brother.
Joined: 06/11/2017
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Maison Bleue
October 20th, 2023 at 12:16 PM ^
Hmmmmmmmmm...
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jballen4eva
October 20th, 2023 at 1:13 PM ^
Mattison, right?
Joined: 11/20/2012
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East Quad
October 20th, 2023 at 1:46 PM ^
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cgnost
October 20th, 2023 at 10:48 AM ^
Joined: 04/19/2010
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M-Dog
October 20th, 2023 at 10:57 AM ^
LOL
If I had a friend / associate that worked for Michigan and he said: "Hey, you live in the DC area, would you mind going to Maryland, Penn State, and Rutgers games and do some scouting for me? I especially want you to take videos of those colorful signs they hold up and those strange hand signals they make before each play, then video the play." . . . I would do it in an instant. I wouldn't even know there is any rule against it.
It's not that hard to get a "vast network" of just regular people to video things with smartphones without them knowing there is anything supposedly wrong with that.
The point is that it's still just one gung-ho rouge guy doing it. It's not a system-wide Michigan problem.
Joined: 07/06/2008
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ak47
October 20th, 2023 at 11:23 AM ^
The ncaa has said that going forward head coaches are responsible for anything in their program. So by that definition even if harbaugh didn’t know it, it’s still a Michigan wide problem. The problem here is this guy did it in a way that was able to get caught. He should be fired for that alone
Joined: 05/05/2011
MGoPoints: 33645
crg
October 20th, 2023 at 11:33 AM ^
That is a logical rule that I'm sure every company/organization with 100+ employees will surely accept: anything wrong done by any employee is 100% the fault of the leader, who will be punished in full.
Good luck with that.
Joined: 04/30/2015
MGoPoints: 60863
ak47
October 20th, 2023 at 11:47 AM ^
I mean it’s the rule. It was put in place specifically because coaches have avoided any punishment by sitting up the most pathetic of firewalls. It’s not going to result in some show cause penalty but if you don’t punish the program for the actions of its coaches programs will always have an incentive to cheat. Companies pay out in lawsuits due to the actions of a single employee or group all the time
It’s a stupid rule that I’m sure everyone breaks but Michigan did it in such a way that they got caught. It’s not some big deal but it’s becoming pretty clear this guy got caught and what he did in fact broke the rules. It’s ridiculous to pretend otherwise.
Joined: 05/05/2011
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LeCheezus
October 20th, 2023 at 12:11 PM ^
They didn’t do it in a way that got them caught. Teams complained and the NCAA went to former staffers/coaches and got tipped off. There is zero chance the NCAA finds something like this on their own, and zero chance they pursue this if it isn’t Michigan. It’s ridiculous to pretend otherwise.
Joined: 06/11/2017
MGoPoints: 7765
ak47
October 20th, 2023 at 1:21 PM ^
Other schools figuring out what you are doing is getting caught. The reason schools don’t turn each other in for recruiting violations is because they are doing the exact same thing. If Ohio state thought Michigan could turn around and give the same evidence on them back to the ncaa they wouldn’t complain to the ncaa
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goblu330
October 20th, 2023 at 1:12 PM ^
There still isn't any evidence that he even broke any rules. Michigan still has not been presented with any evidence. I am not saying he did not break the rules, but what I AM saying is that I want to see what evidence there is that proves it. That is not ridiculous. What I have seen so far is the NCAA and the BIG operate outside of their authority to report things to other programs that they have not even investigated yet. Right now, the only evidence produced of wrongdoing is with regard to whomever shared information regarding unproven allegations that have not even resulted in a formal investigation yet.
Joined: 01/07/2022
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slimj091
October 20th, 2023 at 11:54 AM ^
So it's the North Korean three generations punishment then? Don't make me laugh. This is the same governing body that said it was Michigan's fault that MSU players gang assaulted two Michigan players in their own tunnel last year? When's the last time the NCAA actually severely punished program/coach for any reason?
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BlueFish
October 20th, 2023 at 1:47 PM ^
Not sure if it's the last time, but this happened in 2022:
https://www.si.com/college/lsu/basketball/lsu-cited-lack-institutional-control-athletics
Joined: 08/21/2009
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Oldadguy
October 20th, 2023 at 1:39 PM ^
Ask Pat Fitzgerald about that "NCAA rule"...
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lilpenny1316
October 20th, 2023 at 11:26 AM ^
Isn't it an issue if we're using the info of the rogue guy?
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goblu330
October 20th, 2023 at 1:14 PM ^
Yes, that would probably be an issue if he was physically present at other opponents games this season.
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BlueInGreenville
October 20th, 2023 at 12:42 PM