In the end, the NCAA found, Michigan did everything it was accused of and more.
Connor Stalions really did orchestrate a grand scheme to send friends and acquaintances to scout Michigan's opponents. That really was him on Central Michigan's sideline for that 2023 game at Michigan State. When the news came out, Stalions threw his phone in a pond. "The network of individuals engaging in what Stalions described as counterintelligence' was referred to as the 'KGB,'" the NCAA wrote. "Further, Stalions created an instructive document for the KGB titled 'How to Steal Signals,' which included tips like where to focus their cameras to get the best footage and how to respond if anyone asked why they were filming."
Sherrone Moore really did delete text messages with Stalions, within 30 minutes of the news first breaking back in October 2023. In investigating Stalions, the NCAA uncovered previously unknown recruiting violations, committed by former assistants Steve Clinkscale, and Denard Robinson.
Peeling further under the hood, the NCAA found a complete disregard for its rules under the Jim Harbaugh regime. The phrase "failure to cooperate" appears 25 times in the NCAA's 74-page summary of its near 2-year investigation. Here's the money passage:
As a general matter, head coaches are responsible for the culture and conduct in their program. A key component of that culture is compliance, which is a shared responsibility. Harbaugh did not embrace that responsibility.Harbaugh and his program had a contentious relationship with Michigan’s compliance office,leading coaches and staff members to act, at times, with disregard for the rules. Compliance efforts were a one-way street. For the scouting violations that occurred during the 2021 and 2022 seasons, Harbaugh failed to demonstrate that he adequately promoted compliance and monitored his program. Harbaugh is also automatically responsible for the scouting and recruiting violations that occurred after January 1, 2023. This violation is Level I.
Keep in mind, the 2023 season began with Harbaugh serving a 3-game suspension for a different NCAA violation -- breaking the covid-era in-person recruiting restrictions -- where Harbaugh also showed a blatant disregard for its rules and failed to be forthcoming and truthful when confronted.
Add it all up and you have a repeat offender running a clear lawless program. Failure to Monitor, Lack of Institutional Control, all the scary-sounding NCAA buzzwords you can think of -- they all apply here. If the NCAA was ever going to have a major college football program dead to rights, this was it.
The NCAA acknowledges as much in its summary: "Given those facts, a multi-year postseason ban would be appropriate."
Rather than drop the hammer, though, the NCAA slapped the wrist. A fine in the neighborhood of $20 million. Show-cause labels for Harbaugh, Stalions, Robinson and Moore. (Incidentally, Harbaugh's show-cause does not begin until Aug. 7, 2028; everyone else's begin today.) Stalions and Harbaugh would face 1-year suspensions in the event they ever return to college football. Moore will have to sit out additional football games, none of which will likely be important. Michigan will face probation and will be docked official visits, but no scholarship reductions, no vacated wins, and no postseason bans.
Why not?
"The panel determines that a postseason ban would unfairly penalize student-athletes for the actions of coaches and staff who are no longer associated with the Michigan football program. Thus, a more appropriate penalty is an offsetting financial penalty."
That's technically true, but also factually untrue. USC suffered a 2-year postseason ban when an agent put Reggie Bush's parents up in a house, a decision that came down a whole five years after Bush left the team. Moore is still Michigan's head coach right now. There are numerous current Michigan players who were on the 2023 national title team.
This isn't to argue any and all suffering should continue in perpetuity just for suffering's sake. Just because Grandma and Grandpa eight miles uphill both ways to get to school doesn't mean their grandchildren can't take the bus. We should always seek to evolve and improve.
But if it's wrong for the NCAA to ban 2025 Michigan for the postseason for the sins committed by 2023 Michigan, then every postseason ban the NCAA has ever awarded was wrong, too. If the NCAA was right in those cases, then the NCAA has never been more wrong in a case than it is today.
Now, the obvious counterpoint is that "the NCAA" is a combination of hundreds of individuals over time, and that the 3-person panel who heard Michigan's cases did not rule on USC, or Ohio State for its 2012 postseason ban, or any of the other dozens of schools who got postseason bans over the many decades of this organization's existence, all of whom are no doubt punching their phone screens today. But our legal system sits a different combination of people for every case -- the term for that is called a "jury" -- and concepts like law, precedent, and sentencing guidelines do not get reinvented with each trial.
Though the individuals change over time, the organization remains the same. If the NCAA is right today to take a ruler to Michigan's wrists rather than a hammer to the skull, the NCAA should then acknowledge in nearly every other postseason ban, ever.
I didn't expect Michigan to get the proverbial hammer, but it's stunning to see, in chapter and verse, how the NCAA caught Michigan in repeat violations of its rules, acknowledge that it had Michigan dead to rights, then choose leniency. It's stunning, really. All for a major brand with a well-cultivated reputation as a "do-gooder" program.
In short, Friday's ruling confirmed every stereotype that ever existed about the NCAA enforcement process and then some.