NCAA fines Michigan millions, adds game suspension for Moore over sign-stealing scandal

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — The NCAA fined Michigan tens of millions of dollars Friday and suspended coach Sherrone Moore for a third game as punishment for a sprawling sign-stealing scandal that has loomed over college football’s winningest program for nearly two years, including its national championship season in 2023.

The NCAA said it had “overwhelming” and concerning evidence of a cover-up by Wolverines staff and noted there were “sufficient grounds for a multiyear postseason ban” against a program now considered a repeat violator. But the governing body stopped short of program-crippling punishments, saying a two-year postseason ban “would unfairly penalize student-athletes for the actions of coaches and staff” who are no longer there.

“The panel concluded that an elaborate, impermissible scouting scheme was embedded in the Michigan football program over the course of three football seasons, 2021, 2022 and 2023, and this occurred under former head coach Jim Harbaugh’s oversight,” said Norman Bay, chief hearing officer for the Division I Committee on Infractions. “What makes this case even more serious, in addition to the clear intent to impermissibly gain a substantial competitive advantage, is the elaborate effort to obstruct the investigation.”

Moore, who is facing a school-imposed two-game suspension this season, will also sit out the first game of the 2026-27 season for a total of three games. Moore received a two-year show-cause order, but will be allowed to fulfill coaching commitments under the NCAA order.

The biggest blow came from the financial penalties, which are expected to exceed $20 million. They include a $50,000 fine, a 10% fine on the football program’s budget, a 10% fine on Michigan’s 2025-26 scholarships and a fine equivalent to the anticipated loss of postseason revenue for the 2025 and 2026 seasons. The program also faces a 25% reduction in official recruiting visits during the upcoming season and a 14-week prohibition on recruiting communications during its four-year probation period.

Harbaugh, a former Michigan quarterback and now the coach of the NFL’s Los Angeles Chargers, faces a 10-year show-cause order following the conclusion of his previous four-year order effective Aug. 7, 2028. Connor Stalions, a former low-level staffer who ran the scouting and sign-stealing operation, was issued an eight-year show-cause order, which effectively bans a person from college athletics for the period handed down.

Michigan said it would appeal the decision.

“(R)espectfully, in a number of instances the decision makes fundamental errors in interpreting NCAA bylaws; and it includes a number of conclusions that are directly contrary to the evidence – or lack of evidence – in the record,” the school said.

Athletic director Warde Manuel added that “a postseason ban should never have been a consideration in this case. I fully support the university’s decision to pursue an appeal.”

The scheme

Harbaugh has always maintained he knew nothing about the scheme. NCAA investigators were clearly skeptical.

“Aspects of the record suggest that there may have been broader acceptance of the scheme throughout the program,” the report says. “At a minimum, there was a willful intent not to learn more about Stalions’ methods. However, the true scope and scale of the scheme — including the competitive advantage it conferred — will never be known due to individuals’ intentional destruction and withholding of materials and information.”

The NCAA does not have rules against stealing signs, but does prohibit schools from sending scouts to the games of in-season opponents and using electronic equipment to record another team’s signals. The scheme run by Stalions, the NCAA said, was elaborate and detailed – in fact, the NCAA said, Stalions described it as “counterintelligence” and his network of helpers was referred to as the “KGB,” a nod to the Soviet-era spy service.

During the 2021, 2022 and 2023 seasons, “Stalions directed and arranged for individuals to conduct off-campus, in-person scouting of Michigan’s future regular season opponents,” the NCAA report said, noting that he bought their tickets and saying he spent some $35,000 in 2022 alone. “While in attendance, they filmed the signal callers on the future opponents’ sidelines and then provided that film to Stalions. Using the footage they collected, Stalions then deciphered their signals. Additionally, on one occasion, Stalions personally attended a future opponent’s contest. In total, 56 instances of off-campus, in-person scouting of 13 future regular season opponents occurred across 52 contests.”

When asked about Stalions’ devices, accounts and documents, the NCAA said, “multiple members of the KGB stated that Stalions gave them access to his hard drives and Google drive to review videos and assist in identifying signals.”

Stalions, a Naval Academy graduate, was a volunteer for Michigan’s football program for years, including when he was stationed in San Diego and slept in his car while renting his house, until Harbaugh hired him 2022. The retired captain in the Marine Corps was an analytics assistant for the Wolverines when he was suspended in October 2023, a day after the school disclosed it was under NCAA investigation. Stalions later resigned.

“If I’m a bad guy, then everyone in football is a bad guy,” Stalions said in a recent Netflix documentary. Stalions, who did not participate in the NCAA investigation, recently said he knew almost every signal opponents used in seven games over two seasons.

The NCAA said the efforts to cover up the scheme included Stalions and other Michigan employees.

“Stalions himself described smashing his phone into 1,000 pieces and throwing it into a pond, providing false and misleading information during interviews, telling a potential witness to lie when interviewed, and some staff members, most notably Harbaugh not participating in interviews at all,” Bay said. “Moore deleted his entire 52 message text thread with Stalions from his personal phone. Harbaugh failed to cooperate by refusing to provide necessary records or participating in interviews with NCAA enforcement staff.”

The coaches

In a notice sent to the school last year, the NCAA alleged that Moore violated rules as an assistant under Harbaugh. The text messages with Stalions were recovered and provided to the NCAA.

Harbaugh, who left the Wolverines after they won the 2023 national championship, served a three-game suspension in exchange for the Big Ten dropping its investigation into the allegations after the two ended up in court.

The NCAA also noted unrelated recruiting violations were part of the mix, violations that got Harbaugh that initial show-cause order. The NCAA said those involved lower-level staffers communicating with four recruits.

“The scouting scheme and recruiting violations in the football program demonstrate that Harbaugh violated the principles of head coach responsibility,” the NCAA said. “Harbaugh did not embrace or enforce a culture of compliance during his tenure, and his program had a contentious relationship with Michigan’s compliance office, leading coaches and staff to disregard NCAA rules.”

The Wolverines open the season on Aug. 30 at home against New Mexico State and then play at Oklahoma, where Moore was an offensive lineman, on Sept. 6.

“I am glad that this part of the process has been completed,” Moore said in a statement issued by Michigan. “I greatly respect the rules governing collegiate athletics and it is my intent to have our program comply with those rules at all times.”

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Carey reported from Tampa, Florida.

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