We turn to college football this week on Thursday Thorns, as we break down a news piece on ESPN regarding the NCAA’s announcement it will reveal sanctions against the University of Michigan football team on Friday, August 15. We commented on this a long time ago, of course, and this is just an analysis of what is being reported right now—and what those facts should dictate if the NCAA follows its own mission.

Remember, the NCAA Mission states, “Coordinate and deliver safe, fair and inclusive competition directly and by Association members: Set rules and guidelines and provide enforcement.” The Wolverines were without a B1G title for close to two decades before this scandal, and then they suddenly rebounded from a losing season in 2020 to run off 40 wins in 43 games from 2021 to 2023 thanks to this coordinated scheme.

Onto the ESPN report:

“Stalions is alleged to have arranged for people to attend games and film the sideline signals involving future Michigan opponents from 2021 to the middle of the 2023 season, when the scheme was uncovered and Stalions resigned. Stealing signs in games is not against NCAA rules, but schools are not allowed to scout opponents in advance in person. Evidence emerged of Stalions purchasing tickets at nearly every Big Ten school.”

Michigan did break the rules against its conference competition at least, and in this stretch of time, the Wolverines posted a 26-1 record against B1G opponents, after going just 21-12 in the four seasons preceding these violations, without a league title. Michigan won the league crown in all three of the years cited in the NCAA violations. That cannot be a coincidence, especially since the team hadn’t won the B1G since 2004.

“According to a draft of the NCAA notice of allegations obtained by ESPN, Stalions arranged the impermissible scouting of at least 13 future opponents on at least 58 occasions from 2021 to 2023. That included scouting opponents multiple times, including one team that was watched seven times in 2022, according to the draft.”

Again, the Wolverines did something expressly forbidden in the rules a whopping 58 times in three seasons, violating the “fair competition” clause of the NCAA’s Mission against at least 13 other schools—depriving those teams and their athletes of a chance to succeed themselves. This cannot be overlooked in an ethical or moral sense, as it’s the kind of theft that deprives others of their life, liberty, and pursuit rights.

We only can guess which team was watched seven times in 2022. We assume it is Ohio State, as the Buckeyes had won against the Wolverines 15 times in a 16-year span from 2004 to 2019. Then, in 2020, Michigan even went as far as to cancel the game against Ohio State due to an alleged Covid outbreak. Then somehow, the Wolverines won all three matchups against the Buckeyes from 2021 to 2023 while cheating.

“Michigan coach Sherrone Moore is expected to be suspended for at least two games in the upcoming season for deleting a thread of 52 text messages with Stalions … Michigan and all of its current and former coaches involved in the matter have said they were unaware of Stalions’ alleged advanced scouting.”

Destroying evidence is a clear sign of guilt; just ask Tom Brady, a Michigan alum and the biggest cheater in NFL history. The plausible deniability here is laughable, since this scheme went on for three seasons; is everyone supposed to believe that whatever intel Stalions provided to the coaching staff was just “good stuff” legally obtained in ways that had never occurred to an experienced staff before 2021? We’re not idiots.

Former Head Coach Jim Harbaugh has a lifetime of experience in the sport, especially since his dad was a college coach, he was a college player, and he was an NFL professional before getting into coaching himself. Are we supposed to believe Stalions came up with something legal that Harbaugh himself had never thought of doing? Turning a blind eye to obvious deviousness is a sign of no institutional control here.

“The Big Ten suspended Harbaugh for three games to conclude the 2023 regular season under the league’s sportsmanship rules. In August 2024, Harbaugh received a four-year show-cause penalty from the NCAA tied to a separate case where he was found to have improper contract with recruits.“

This is clearly pattern of behavior with Harbaugh, who lied to the NCAA when investigated for other infractions, hence the aforementioned show-cause penalty. This is basically three strikes for Harbaugh, who has disregarded the sport’s rules repeatedly. He is coaching in the NFL again now, of course, but the NCAA should ban him for life, really, to maintain integrity. His desperation to win at Michigan now reeks.

“Moore is considered a potential ‘repeat violator’ by the NCAA because in August 2023 he negotiated a resolution to claims that he contacted recruits during a COVID-19 recruiting dead period, and he later served a one-game suspension.”

Harbaugh received his show-cause penalty as a repeat offender, so it makes sense that Moore should be headed for the same banishment. That’s the only penalty the NCAA should level on the current team, which generally should not be punished for the actions of others in the past. The most effective thing to do is simply strip Michigan of all its wins from 2021-2023 when the illegal scheme took place. Fair and done.

If the NCAA fails to punish Moore in line with past precedent and/or does not strip the Wolverines of those 40 wins, it is a worthless organization, period, as it violates its own Mission to profiteer from the unethical and immoral behavior of college sports entities under its jurisdiction. All credibility will be lost at that point.