MICHIGAN has received its sign-stealing punishment after two long years of investigation.
Michigan is receiving a $50,000 fine, plus a fine equal to 10 percent of the budget for the football program.
They are also being fined the value equivalent to the anticipated loss of all postseason competition revenue sharing for the 2025 and 2026 seasons.
The NCAA has punished head coach Sherrone Moore[/caption]
Michigan has been punished for the sign-stealing scandal[/caption]
The last of the financial penalties is a fine equal to 10 percent of the scholarships awarded in Michigan’s football program for the 2025-26 academic year.
And is estimated that these fines add up to around $20 million.
But fans want to know what exactly the sign-stealing scandal is.
What is the Michigan Football sign-stealing scandal?
Reports from the NCAA allege that Michigan staffer Connor Stalions sent friends and family to opponents’ games to record future opponents’ signs.
Across three seasons, Stalions “directed and arranged for individuals to conduct off-campus, in-person scouting of Michigan’s future regular-season opponents,” a network referred to as the “KGB.”
According to the NCAA, Stalions purchased tickets and transferred them to those individuals who “filmed the signal callers on the future opponents’ sidelines and then provided that film to Stalions.”
Through that film, Stalions was able to decipher the signals of Michigan’s opponents.
And the NCAA said that Stalions spent “significant resources” on the scheme, including nearly $35,000 on tickets in 2022. The investigation found that 56 instances of off-campus, in-person scouting of 13 future opponents took place.
NCAA also added that “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 has never directly banned sign stealing in football, but it does ban teams from using electronic equipment to record opponents’ signals during its own game.
What are the punishments?
Here are the penalties for Michigan:
- A fine equivalent to the anticipated loss of all postseason competition revenue sharing associated with the 2025 and 2026 football seasons
- • 10-year show-cause penalty for former head coach Jim Harbaugh
- • 8-year show-cause penalty for former staffer Connor Stalions
- • Additional game suspension + 2-year show-cause penalty for head coach Sherrone Moore • Four years probation
- • 3-year show-cause penalty for former assistant Denard Robinson
- • $50,000 fine, plus 10% of the budget for the football program
- • A fine equivalent to the cost of 10% of the scholarships awarded in Michigan’s football program for the 2025-26 academic year
- • A 25% reduction in football official visits during the 2025-26 season
- • 14-week prohibition on recruiting communications in the football program during the probation period
What has been said about Sherrone Moore?
The NCAA explained that Sherrone Moore’s penalty was handed out because of a “failure to cooperate violation,”
They added that he “deleted his entire 52-message text thread with Stalions off his personal phone and deleted from his school-issued phone a single text that was part of a broader thread that referenced Stalions standing by Moore during a game and staff.”
The Wolverines begin their season on August 30 at home against New Mexico State.
