October 25th, 2023 at 6:13 PM ^
How did a private firm get access to Michigans coaches computers? That’s another can of worms the NCAA should open. Sounds like they were hacked and the hacked info was turned over to the NCAA.
October 25th, 2023 at 6:16 PM ^
Was going to say the same thing - a third party firm illegally accessed computer drives belonging to the University of Michigan? That's not a great look Bob.
October 25th, 2023 at 6:18 PM ^
Also, if they could access these drives there's now zero way to tell they didn't plant that information.
October 25th, 2023 at 6:29 PM ^
Also had to tell what other info they may have stolen and forwarded (our practice videos sent to OSU?)
October 25th, 2023 at 6:51 PM ^
Did anyone else notice at the Ohio State – Penn State game TV broadcast, Ryan Day and James Franklin were talking to each other before the game?
They were friendly and joking with one another.
I have a suspicion that Ryan Day has shared information on how to beat Michigan with James Franklin. It may be related to the fact that Ryan Day has access to Michigan’s practice videos and he knows that he started the cascade of events leading to this past two weeks.
He may be laughing and enjoying this for now, until the spotlight shines on him as the master of starting this whole series of events.
Michigan and the media need to focus on the potential illegal aspect of obtaining this information, and who started this whole thing!
October 25th, 2023 at 7:04 PM ^
This line of thinking is embarrassing
October 25th, 2023 at 7:05 PM ^
I'm not entirely sure Ryan Day has any information to share on how to beat Michigan.
October 25th, 2023 at 9:53 PM ^
If he has any, he hasn't shared it with himself!
October 26th, 2023 at 6:54 AM ^
Perhaps it was a, 'Well, this didn't work' kinda chat
October 25th, 2023 at 7:07 PM ^
If Ryan Day knew 'how to beat Michigan," the last thing he'd do is tell James Franklin, who plays Michigan before OSU. Third Base may be a poseur, but he's not a complete idiot.
Also, all the practice film in the world doesn't seem to help when Hassan Haskins is running down your throat for 5 TDs or your moronic DC calls Cover 0 over and over again.
This is a bad take and you should feel bad.
October 25th, 2023 at 7:30 PM ^
Isn't it past your 7pm bedtime?
October 25th, 2023 at 8:10 PM ^
I have a suspicion that Ryan Day has shared information on how to beat Michigan
What would he know about that?
October 25th, 2023 at 9:09 PM ^
I'm skeptical but would still like to hear your hollow earth theory.
October 26th, 2023 at 5:29 AM ^
This is crazy talk. Coaches always talk and exchange pleasantries.
October 26th, 2023 at 9:35 AM ^
ryan 1-2 vs Michigan is giving Frames Janklin the secret to beating Michigan.
dude.... put your tinfoil hat back on, the internation space station is reading your mind right now.
October 25th, 2023 at 10:58 PM ^
Oh, good lord.
October 25th, 2023 at 9:13 PM ^
I think we are overlooking the possibility that someone with appropriate access to the drive provided it to the third party. I have never seen a D1 football coaching staff where there wasn't someone at some level with an axe to grind.
October 25th, 2023 at 6:19 PM ^
I would guess that this is some sort of Dropbox or Google Drive that other staffers had access to. It may or may not have been an official Michigan account. But yes, the question remains, how did the "outside investigators" (presumably Ryan Day's ex-FBI agent) get access to the drive?
October 25th, 2023 at 6:21 PM ^
Honestly, this feels like the bigger scandal to me. You had a university hire a firm to "investigate" a rival university in order to gain an advantage over them.
October 25th, 2023 at 6:28 PM ^
Agreed, they buried the lede in plain sight. Someone paid a firm to illegally hack university information systems, but somehow the non-illegal data that were "found" are the story.
October 25th, 2023 at 6:31 PM ^
Less optimistically, I'm guessing we have widespread buffoonery on the Michigan side in the area of information security (as in, numerous sensitive documents sitting out on the WWW unprotected).
October 25th, 2023 at 6:35 PM ^
Does it matter? Accessing that info if you're not supposed to do so, no matter how easy it is, is still illegal right?
October 25th, 2023 at 6:47 PM ^
Yes. Even if you have authorized access you don’t have authorization to disseminate information contained therein to unauthorized parties.
Someone done fucked up.
October 25th, 2023 at 8:20 PM ^
Assuming the facts are as they are being portrayed, if there were ever a time for Michigan NOT to fall on its sword, this is the time.
I would think an opposing coach/team that investigates another team and would do so by illegal means would have done something that is not only criminal but also would open the door to civil liability. I would also think the B1G would have to strongly sanction the perpetrator.
Ditto for the NCAA - if someone were to have provided them with files that came from a Michigan computer and they didn't immediately notify Michigan of the breach, again, actionable.
Seems like a lot of what is being reported is orders of magnitude worse than the non-infraction of stealing signals.
I
October 25th, 2023 at 6:51 PM ^
Continuing down this rabbit hole, if the information was obtained illegally wouldn't possession or use of this data even expose the NCAA to legal jeopardy?
October 25th, 2023 at 7:09 PM ^
Probably not. Michigan is an NCAA member institution and subject to its rules. If the NCAA ordered Michigan to turn over the information in question, they'd be compelled to do so. So the NCAA is, in effect, an authorized party.
October 25th, 2023 at 7:21 PM ^
But in this scenario that isn’t the case. They received stolen information. That is illegal regardless of authorization. Law enforcement can’t use illegally acquired information. Why would the NCAA be able to do so?
If the NCAA asked for it as in your scenario UM is consenting to handing over the hard drives. That is not what happened here.
October 25th, 2023 at 7:25 PM ^
The NCAA isn't law enforcement, and the 'fruit of the poisonous tree' doctrine does not apply. And, if the NCAA is authorized to access it, then it isn't stolen information regardless of the manner in which it was obtained. Furthermore, the NCAA could ask, now, to access that information and Michigan would provide it.
October 25th, 2023 at 7:41 PM ^
Your first and last sentences are correct but the middle one is not. They're authorized to request it and Michigan is bound by regulation to provide it upon request. But they don't have the right to get it any way they damn well please. They're bound by state and federal law just like the rest of us.
October 25th, 2023 at 8:43 PM ^
But in this scenario that isn’t the case. They received stolen information. That is illegal regardless of authorization.
Why do you say it’s stolen? Where is the evidence or source of information warranting that choice of words?
October 25th, 2023 at 7:43 PM ^
But if the NCAA is aware that crimes were committed in the procurement of the info that have acquired, are they not culpable if they don’t inform the relevant legal authorities?
October 25th, 2023 at 7:29 PM ^
I would imagine that as long as the NCAA wasn't the one doing the thieving it wouldn't be an issue.
October 25th, 2023 at 7:32 PM ^
As many unfortunate security researchers have found out over the years, just because a database is accessible over the web without authentication doesn’t mean you have the legal right to access it. Even telling the organization hosting the data that it’s exposed in good faith is a great way to get sued, and nailed to the wall
October 25th, 2023 at 7:41 PM ^
Right, but what if he put stuff out on Google Drive outside the university computing environment?
October 25th, 2023 at 8:02 PM ^
Depends on how the University classifies data in their internal policies. It’s pretty normal for classification to be broad and include, for example, data used pursuant to official business that is accessed or hosted on personally-owned equipment. But excluding such data from the scope of authorization is pretty normal, too.
October 25th, 2023 at 9:31 PM ^
I was today years old when I learned “buried the lead” was actually “the lede”
October 26th, 2023 at 12:21 AM ^
The Buckeyes buried the lead in 2020 -- and have not found it again.
Valenti buried the lede when he talked about batteries, and should've started with the asskicking State was about to receive.
If that helps ;)
October 25th, 2023 at 6:56 PM ^
Regardless, that is stolen information. Whoever accessed and disseminated that information did so without the permission of the University of Michigan.
October 25th, 2023 at 7:54 PM ^
Is the NCAA allowed to actively conduct an investigation without notifying the university? What if Stapleton hired the private firm? He’s NCAA…can he go rogue and investigate schools without notifying them?
October 25th, 2023 at 8:12 PM ^
It honestly sounds like Stalions was probably keeping all of this on a non-university drive (i.e. Google Drive or Dropbox) and probably gave access to a whistle-blower.
I’m not a lawyer, but I highly doubt these materials could be considered “copyrighted” or licensed products that are illegal to share if given access to it willingly.
What if Stalions gave access to the Google Drive to a bunch of coaches/staffers, and one of the people left the program and decided it was time to blab?
October 25th, 2023 at 8:29 PM ^
I am sure UM has a policy that anything stored in their computer or their resources is UM's property. Every company I worked for has one. It doesn't matter who created and how.
October 25th, 2023 at 9:28 PM ^
October 25th, 2023 at 8:12 PM^
It honestly sounds like Stalions was probably keeping all of this on a non-university drive (i.e. Google Drive or Dropbox) and probably gave access to a whistle-blower.
THIS. Precisely this. I don’t know why we’re all picturing ninja-style Navy Seals (no pun intended) dropping out of the skylights to steal a hard drive when this is far and away the more plausible scenario. I mean, the guy bought dozens of tickets in his own name. Why do we think this person kept the data sealed inside four vaults and therefore it must’ve been “stolen” to make its way into the hands of investigators?
And for those saying other athletic departments are pathetic: if Ohio State was filming all our games and suddenly beating us out of nowhere then you know you’d want Warde Manuel to investigate the hell out of this. C’mon, people — take off the M blinders.
October 25th, 2023 at 9:59 PM ^
Nope. I wouldn't. I would just simply want them to change the signs.. it is that simple.
October 26th, 2023 at 9:05 AM ^
I have tried to avoid reading too much about this, but in the articles I read this Stalion clown had many other "friends" from other universities that he had a connection with who were all planning a hostile takeover of UM football. He was to be the head coach and lead them into the promise land with his manifesto. The odds are far more likely that one of these "friends" let the information out, whether intentionally or not. Maybe in not reading a ton of these posts on the subject I've missed where it actually states that the information came from actual UM computer hard drives and if so, sorry for not reading all 5 million posts on the subject but I find this cloak and dagger idea a little ridiculous.
October 25th, 2023 at 6:21 PM ^
Methinks there's definitely some dirty pool going on here.
Did they have someone on the inside maybe?
And just because coaches had access to the computers doesn't mean they actually use them. I have access to about 30-40 computers in my building, but I've never used any of them.
October 25th, 2023 at 6:23 PM ^
Correct.
October 25th, 2023 at 6:21 PM ^
Idk but I'm more and more starting to feel like there's a mole
October 25th, 2023 at 6:24 PM ^
There is. He's the Athletic Director.