Signgate The Eighth: Oh It's Like That
Every accusation is a confession. I probably don't need to inform anyone reading this blog that Larry Lage has an AP article out on Michigan opponents colluding to decipher their signs:
ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — A former employee at a Big Ten football program said Monday it was his job to steal signs and he was given details from multiple conference schools before his team played Michigan to compile a spreadsheet of play-calling signals used by the Wolverines last year.
He spoke with The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, fearing the disclosures could impact his coaching career.
The employee said he shared with Michigan the documents, which showed the Wolverines’ signs and corresponding plays, after his school faced the Jim Harbaugh-led program in 2022.
The person also passed along screenshots of text-message exchanges with staffers from a handful of Big Ten football teams with Michigan, giving the program proof that other conference teams were colluding to steal signs from the Wolverines.
John Bacon tweeted that Rutgers and OSU gave Purdue Michigan's signs before the Big Ten title game, which is likely just the tip of the iceberg. Richard Johnson and Pat Forde had some additional details and confirmation in an article late last night:
A former Big Ten coach at a rival school in recent days forwarded to the Wolverines copies of two single-page documents listing Michigan’s deciphered signals, three sources with knowledge of the situation confirmed to SI. …
A source familiar with the contents of the documents verified their authenticity. The two Michigan signal breakdowns include sections devoted to deciphering the boards held up by staffers with images on them; lengthy lists describing hand signals for running plays; slightly shorter lists for passing plays; and separate lists describing signals for play-action passes. A Michigan source confirmed that the signals described corresponded to their 2022 play calls.
This article goes on to state that "schools sharing signal information is not uncommon in college football, multiple sources in the coaching profession told SI, nor is it against NCAA rules," but… I mean… isn't it?
Whichever programs end up getting named here are executing the exact same sin that Michigan is accused of: in-person scouting of future opponents. In Michigan's case it's randos with iPhones in the stands. In the other Big Ten schools' case, it's employees of Big Ten athletic departments handing over processed intelligence on Michigan's signals to future opponents of Michigan. Kind of sounds like the latter is worse, but drawing fine distinctions is beside the point. If a Stalions guy in the stands is illegal in-person scouting of an opponent, someone literally on the sideline of a Big Ten program forwarding information on to future Michigan opponents is the same thing. And if it's "not uncommon" it's hardly the greatest scandal in the history of the Big Ten.
Also arguing against the disproportionate response: all these teams had Michigan's signals. Even if Stalions had some advantage from his scheme, Michigan's opponents had the same. Michigan still beat these teams. Whatever competitive advantage Stalions provided was negligible. The appropriate thing to do is give Stalions a show cause, fine Michigan for the trouble, institute helmet radios as soon as possible, and move on with our lives.
[After THE JUMP: silly season]
I don't believe you. This is from a WSJ article and contradicts expectations virtually everywhere else:
A person close to the Big Ten has said the conference will defer to the NCAA, which is conducting its own investigation. Such probes often take months if not years.
FWIW.
I also don't believe you. Sometimes a journalist will look at the rules and write some stuff that is technically accurate but has no basis in reality, and, well:
The Big Ten Sportsmanship Policy spells out a wide range of potential penalties aside from a suspension of Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh, according to documents obtained by CBS Sports, as the sign-stealing scandal remains ongoing.
The penalties range from a reprimand to probation to a possible TV ban. Other potential penalties include withholding TV and bowl game revenue from the university. As part of those penalties laid out in Rule 19.5 of the sportsmanship policy, a "staff member" can be suspended.
The TV conference isn't going to suspend the TV team, and there's been no suggestion it would other than this article. Dodd is just listing out all the penalties in the document. It is a deeply funny thing to think about, though.
Why I don't believe the first I don't believe you. McMurphy:
Michigan has received notice from the Big Ten indicating specific sign stealing allegations but it does not indicate what penalties would be administered, UM sources told @ActionNetworkHQ. UM has until Wednesday to respond to Big Ten, source said. The Big Ten’s pursuit of…
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) November 6, 2023
So if Michigan has until Wednesday to respond it seems like Thursday is the earliest possible moment something could be handed down.
Containment shield intact. Per Dan Wetzel and Ross Dellenger, the NCAA has notified the Big Ten that there is nothing linking Harbaugh to Stalion's actions:
The NCAA’s findings do not connect the in-person scouting and recording of opponents’ sidelines to Harbaugh, sources say, an absence of evidence essential to a potential lawsuit from the school and coach against the league.
Over the weekend, the school was given a period of several days in which to mount a response to the conference before penalties, if any, are levied, sources with knowledge of the discussions say. A resolution around the issue is expected by the end of this week and as soon as Wednesday.
The rest of the article is mostly a rehash but we do get another confirmation that the lawsuits will flow if the Big Ten tries to suspend Harbaugh, and the authors note that the coach responsibility bylaw the NCAA recently passed is not a Big Ten policy:
Any suspension of Harbaugh is expected to be met with legal action from both the coach and school, multiple sources tell Yahoo Sports. School officials have held ongoing conversations around legal action tied to a significant fact in the case — that there is no documented evidence that Harbaugh was aware of Stalions’ NCAA rule-breaking.
While under NCAA bylaws head coaches are presumed responsible for a staff member’s actions, the Big Ten sportsmanship policy does not feature such a clause.
The policy holds “institutions,” not head coaches, as “responsible for, and therefore, may be held accountable for, the actions of its employees, coaches, student-athletes, band, spirit squads, mascot(s), general student body and any other individual or group of individuals over whom or which it maintains some level of authority.”
The Lage article should further clarify that there would be no reason to believe that Stalions was exceptionally adept at sign stealing because of his off-book activities. Multiple Big Ten teams were conspiring to get all of Michigan's signals over the course of the season. Even if Stalions did have a team totally downloaded, it wouldn't seem weird to a Michigan program that is facing teams that have totally downloaded them.
OSU: better at this than we are. Dellenger also has an article stating that the NCAA says there is no evidence of a connection between Ryan Day and the sign-stealing probe.
I don't think this changes much. OSU sources were the ones who had this a month before it broke and it is 95% likely that OSU, in some nebulous capacity, is the source of this. That could be someone getting wind of the Stalions Army and shoving it over to a booster, or it could go all the way up the chain but get executed with good opsec.
As the last post noted, if random guys on the internet know what the firm's name is it will come out sooner or later, and then the world will go over it with a fine-toothed comb.
Anybody want a vacuum? This WSJ article is about Connor Stalions being weird:
I did not think the Conor Stalions story could get funnier. @lainehiggins17 has proved me wrong. https://t.co/xXiacFUfeu pic.twitter.com/iaci6cKRee
— David Ubben (@davidubben) November 7, 2023
Apparently the vacuum thing didn't go so well. Stalions ended up with a seller rating of 2.8 on Amazon.
This article is useful in a few ways. One: seems like the bank of mom and dad theory is at least partially correct if Stalions is buying a half-million dollar house on a 55k salary. It also further confirms that Stalions was the kind of guy who would embark on a ridiculously time-consuming plot with little regard to rules or the eventual payoff of that plot. It seems like that was his whole life.
How are we almost ten years into Harbaugh's tenure at Michigan and there is apparently no vetting being done on these hires? There is no way a proper check of who this guy is would not have turned up buckets of red flags.
November 7th, 2023 at 4:08 PM ^
Question: Did Stallions swap with other schools' "sign stealers," or was he left out of the loop? I don't understand why he would pay people to attend games and record with mobile phones if he could just swap with an opposite number from a rival school.
November 7th, 2023 at 4:14 PM ^
I'm sure he shared with some people. It's probably just a matter of which staffs are friendly with others, which staff members you are friendly with, and other motivations like wanting a specific team to lose. If they really dug into this, which would likely require Stalions cooperating or a subepona, I'm sure they could figure it out if needed.
November 7th, 2023 at 5:47 PM ^
May have been how this whole thing unraveled. Stallions shares his intel on Ohio State with Penn State's guy....Penn State shares with Indiana and says 'yeah we got all of this great intel from Stallions at Michigan, he's got a whole network of people devoted to this'...and then that gets back to Ohio State or whoever decided they had an axe to grind with Michigan and they hired a PI to look into it.
Because Stallions seems like the kind of idiot that would say verbatim "I have a whole network of people devoted to this"
November 7th, 2023 at 6:28 PM ^
It's not that complicated.
Having people filming the entire game is just weird. If a guy sitting directly in front of you is taking an iphone video of the entire game and he's zoomed in on the sideline signs the entire time you'd probably have some questions. It's only a matter of time until someone who knows someone notices and starts an investigation. Guy was dumb enough to purchase tickets in his own name and use his own venmo.
All he had to do were 3 easy things to leave virtually no tracks:
- PO box in central Ohio that he never checks to use as an address
- Ticketmaster giftcards purchased using a Visa giftcard
- A burner email to facilitate payment to his vast network via Paypal or e-giftcard
A burner pay as you go phone that never connects to wireless would probably also help. He's not evading the government, he's evading the dipshit NCAA and Ohio State. This guy was incredibly dumb.
November 7th, 2023 at 6:38 PM ^
You’ve done this before?
November 7th, 2023 at 6:57 PM ^
I think he did it the way he did because he thought he was utilizing a loop hole in the NCAA's rules. Technically he was right. Hiding it would of made it more suspicious. His methods may of looked stupid but maybe he wanted it that way.
November 7th, 2023 at 9:25 PM ^
Let’s be honest: the only thing making it not legal is he reimbursed costs. If they’d all just uploaded their crap on YouTube independently it’d have been kosher per the rules
this blog could literally recruit 6-8 people each week to volunteer to travel and record and post the videos online for “the public” and it’s entire permissible
November 7th, 2023 at 11:16 PM ^
I doubt we'd even have to travel. We're everywhere. This week I learned I have two coworkers who read MGoBlog. I live in the SF Bay Area.
November 7th, 2023 at 11:21 PM ^
The reimbursed costs are not what make it against the rules. The rules prohibit in-person scouting of future opponents. That’s all it says. The question about payment and who is doing the scouting has come up because it’s clear that Stalions did not do in-person scouting (even at the CMU game, he was working for CMU, not scouting for U-M). People wanted Stalions and Michigan to be guilty though, so they started concocting interpretations such as “freelance videographers unofficially employed by Stalions are U-M personnel, and thus in-person scouts”. But that is simply NOT something you can determine, definitively, from the NCAA rulebook. If you think it is, then you have to start assuming a very liberal interpretation of “personnel”. Nowhere in the NCAA rulebook does it say that *payment* is a prerequisite for a person to quality as “personnel”. The NCAA is happy to have it that way, because obviously student athletes are personnel, and they aren’t paid by the schools. Moreover, there are lots of volunteer coaches and analysts. Stalions himself was a volunteer up until 2022. If volunteers are personnel, then staffers from e.g. Rutgers who forward info to OSU after Rutgers plays Michigan are undeniably volunteer, in-person scouts for OSU. In fact, I would say they fit the bill much better than would random amateur videographers with an iPhone.
November 8th, 2023 at 7:19 AM ^
I guess it would be also the direct provision of content to the employee, though the reimbursement ties the action to the program and thus an extension therein
November 8th, 2023 at 9:36 AM ^
The reimbursement came from Stalions not the program. Since Stalions was employed by the program does that inherently mean the reimbursement translates to the program as well?
November 7th, 2023 at 5:54 PM ^
He seems like a super weird dude. He mightve been outside of the club but the club still knew how he was getting his info. Hence why we’re here
November 7th, 2023 at 6:38 PM ^
Engggh, more like the club knew he was better at legally stealing signs better than maybe anybody should be, and didn't really want to know why he was so good.
November 8th, 2023 at 11:31 AM ^
i dunno.
If I ask my administrator to make me certain spreadsheets to track different sales metrics and she does an awesome job at it, am I suspicious at her amazing knowledge of Excel and do I want to have her show me how she makes the spreadsheets, or do I just appreciate the end product without being curious? Probably the latter, unless I know my Admin's Excel proficiency is crap and all of a sudden she begins producing advanced stuff that should be on exceljet.com. In this case, Stalions advertised his proficiency at stealing signs using the normal methods. I'm not sure anyone would even care about checking his work if he was already good at stealing signs and his finished product stood up really well during the games. Why on earth would you want to waste time looing deeper into his process?
November 7th, 2023 at 4:10 PM ^
Fucking haters! All these bitch ass coaches are haters. Leave this loser conference asap.
November 7th, 2023 at 4:47 PM ^
christ. also, lol. if you honestly, truly think that big ten coaches are somehow unique i'm not sure what i can tell you. except jump. please.
November 7th, 2023 at 4:57 PM ^
Can you share another example when the coaches and athletic directors of a conference gang up to prevent a member team from completing an undefeated season and potential national championship run, for allegations that they themselves have likely received the same or even greater benefit?
November 7th, 2023 at 5:08 PM ^
What kind of stupid fucking comment is this? Jump? Are you offended by swearing…christ. If you think collusion against one team, arguably THE most important conference member, is normal I’m not sure what to tell YOU. Its clear these coaches don’t like Harbaugh and it has entered vendetta territory.
November 7th, 2023 at 5:25 PM ^
i’m not offended by the fucking swearing.
im not “offended” by anything. i’m saying that you sound at least as whiny-assed bitchy as anyone on the other side of all this. you think harbaugh, or any of the players, is pissing and moaning about this? he’s not. because he’s a grown up.
November 7th, 2023 at 5:36 PM ^
I’m sure he is at home happy as a clam that the other schools in his conference are scheming up a character, and professional, assassination. Unlike all the other clown coaches in the league Harbaugh was an actual player of note. And a professional coach of note. All of that is called into question if he labeled a cheater. Its been stated numerous times that the entire team, coaching staff, and administration is pissed. The time has come to be pissed off and to fucking fight back.
November 7th, 2023 at 9:37 PM ^
he’s not sitting home being a whiny bitch, scouring the internet for the slightest evidence, however tenuously related, of the vast conspiracy of coaches or athletic directors or media. he’s got his head down, figuring out how to kick the hell out of all of them.
be like him. don’t be a whiny bitch.
November 7th, 2023 at 5:37 PM ^
November 7th, 2023 at 10:44 PM ^
... and gassy.
November 7th, 2023 at 4:10 PM ^
A VA loan on a $485K house at what was then probably 2.5% interest? Probably a pretty reasonable monthly payment, all things considered.
November 7th, 2023 at 4:18 PM ^
Or, if he had any ownership in CA real estate from his time in CA, he would have had lots of equity to work with.
November 7th, 2023 at 4:20 PM ^
There's so much that goes into how much a person may be paying on a home that it's tough to say. Did he sell that California home? Did he get down payment help? But I don't think VA loans were that low in 2022 anyway. Lower than non-VA loans most likely, but rates were still increasing then.
November 7th, 2023 at 4:31 PM ^
right? and if he was also using the the Ann Arbor house for rental income, that goes into loan approval. if he sold the CA property and used 1031 exchange to purchase the Ann Arbor property with the proceeds...
you'd need to have more info to make any kinda educated guess.
November 7th, 2023 at 5:21 PM ^
One minor quibble: if he was using the Ann Arbor property as a primary residence, it wouldn't qualify for a 1031 exchange.
November 8th, 2023 at 9:21 AM ^
I think the moral of the story generally so far is that this dude was not above not reading and/or playing fast and loose with rules though.
November 7th, 2023 at 4:32 PM ^
Rates were still very low until spring 2022. Anyone who purchased a home very likely locked in a rate in Jan-Feb 2022. The average 30-year fixed was 3.79% in that quarter; VA rate was almost assuredly lower.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/500056/quarterly-mortgage-intererst-rates-by-mortgage-type-usa/
November 7th, 2023 at 4:32 PM ^
With property taxes and home insurance rolled into the mortgage payment, that is over $2,000 per month.
What is the guy taking home per month on a $55K salary?
November 7th, 2023 at 4:45 PM ^
3500/month or so. Maybe close to 4000 if he's not putting much into retirement.
I'd guess that check is closer to 3500/month: Mort 2200, taxes 1000 and ins 300
November 7th, 2023 at 4:53 PM ^
Don't forget the HOA fee. Also can everyone please stop talking about how I personally bought my home in Ann Arbor six months too late? Will help my acid reflux, thanks in advance.
November 7th, 2023 at 7:19 PM ^
So his 55k salary isn’t a yearly salary is it? Wouldn’t it just be for the season? Or maybe May-January? Plenty of time to work a second job?
November 7th, 2023 at 5:45 PM ^
November 7th, 2023 at 6:12 PM ^
Plus the vacuum income.
November 7th, 2023 at 6:20 PM ^
Criminally underappreciated comment.
November 7th, 2023 at 6:26 PM ^
I hear the pay for that kind of sucks.
November 7th, 2023 at 10:56 PM ^
There's no such thing as suction.
/not-a-michigan-grad
November 8th, 2023 at 10:04 AM ^
That would explain why the vacuum cleaners didn't get very good Amazon ratings.
November 7th, 2023 at 7:00 PM ^
I HIGHLY doubt that is the case. I think it's just misreporting. He did the minimum number of years after the academy and his job was logistics in San Diego; he isn't a disabled vet.
November 8th, 2023 at 10:13 AM ^
This is factual. He could have been medically retired, but I doubt it. His parents are however very wealthy and own multiple properties throughout the US. His father is also a huge Michigan fan so in a sense his parents could of knowingly or unknowingly backed the whole operation.
November 7th, 2023 at 7:50 PM ^
Haha -- MGoBoard has gone into some arcane rabbit holes before, and this one is a sterling example.
November 7th, 2023 at 4:13 PM ^
Does anyone else think it's a strong possibility that Warde did in fact vet some of these hires and remain silent in hopes that they would come back to bite Harbaugh? Perhaps not hoping that it would be to this degree, but that they would cause issues for Harbaugh at some point.
November 7th, 2023 at 4:14 PM ^
No only because wouldn't it effect him directly also?
November 7th, 2023 at 4:20 PM ^
I see your point, I've just felt for a long time that Warde would prefer Harbaugh not be at Michigan. As much as I hated Dave Brandon, Warde's absolute disappearance in this mess has been equally as infuriating to me.
November 7th, 2023 at 6:55 PM ^
“I feel like it’s great,” Harbaugh, 59, said. “It’s a great relationship. It’s one of those narratives that seem to be out there, but I’ve got a great relationship with Warde Manuel.”
That’s from Harbaugh himself this year. This is after 2 Harbaugh dalliances with the NFL. Warde kept Harbaugh after the 2-4 year where people were calling for Harbaugh to be fired.
Warde has been working behind the scenes on all of this “empire strikes back” counter-offensive. He played for Michigan. If anyone is a “war-time consigliere” (he’s actually an underboss) it’s him. SQ mentioned that the wartime consigliere had to be Sicilian. The equivalent of that in this situation is a Michigan Letterman. Dude was AD of the year at UConn and came home to deal with all this bullshit from “fans” calling for him to be fired? Because he either didn’t keep coaches or kept them too long? Because he didn’t appease the childish members of the fan base who think that an AD running his mouth after 2016 was going to have anything but a negative impact on the university? Come on, man, give him a break. Who do you think is orchestrating the counteroffensive through Bacon tweets?
Let me put it another way, if Warde went off and pursued an openly scorched earth policy, do you think the outsider who shared the opponent sign sharing would have been so quick to reveal what they know? Yesterday’s AP story was Warde’s first victory in this battle and I don’t recall seeing one Warde appreciation thread. Or do you think Ono is compiling the binders of opposition research?
BTW, Brian’s unverified voracity mentioned hockey advanced analytics that exceed the NDTP’s. Who do you think approved that?
November 7th, 2023 at 7:37 PM ^
When you use the word "great" three times in close succession like that, it's a safe bet things are actually "not great."
November 7th, 2023 at 4:17 PM ^
No, I do not think that the man who could fire Coach Harbaugh if he so chose would attempt to embarrass the university just to give him a reason. He'd just, you know, do it.
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