Disguises, subterfuge and conspiracy: college football’s sign-stealing scandal explained
What are Michigan accused of?
The Big Ten, the conference in which Michigan play, and college sports’ main governing body, the NCAA, claim that Michigan used a “vast network” of people to tape the sidelines of future opponents, both in and out of the conference, across the last three seasons.
Michigan and their head coach, Jim Harbaugh, deny any knowledge of the alleged cheating. On Friday the Big Ten banned Harbaugh from the sidelines on gamedays for the rest of the 2023 regular season, although he will be able to work with his players during the week. The suspension is huge news in the world of college football, as Michigan are contenders for the national championship this season and Harbaugh one of the biggest personalities in the sport. The Wolverines’ average attendance for home games tops 110,000 and they haul in tens of millions of dollars in revenue each year.
Is sign-stealing illegal?
Unlike in the NFL, there is no coachto-player communication system in college football. Instead of calling in plays via a headset in the quarterback’s helmet, staff communicate with their players through hand signals and graphics on the sideline. If an opponent can decode those signals, they will have advanced knowledge of the play.
Stealing signs is a time-honored tradition across US sports. In the frenzied, multi-billion-dollar world of college football, trying to decode an opposing team’s signs is a part of everyday life. Teams allocate staffers to review what’s known as the ‘coaches film’ or All-22 video of opponents in the run-up to games, as well as evaluating the ‘TV copy’ of the game to try to decipher the opponent’s signals. During games, teams will compare their pregame notes with what they’re seeing on the opposing sideline to confirm whether they have cracked the code or not.
Sign stealing in the week leading up to the game and during the game itself is part of the game within a game. What is banned under NCAA legislation is advanced scouting in person.
In the 1990s, the NCAA banned schools from sending staff members to the games of future opponents. Staff members of the school are no longer able to attend the games of future opponents on their schedule, where they can have a better vantage point of the sidelines.
Videotaping another team’s signals is banned under both NCAA and Big Ten legislation.
So how did Michigan skirt the rules?
The scheme, it is alleged, was orchestrated by Michigan staffer Connor Stalions, a retired captain in the US Marines who worked as a recruiting analyst for the school.
Stalions is a lifelong Michigan fan who presented a 600-page ‘Michigan Manifesto’ to the school before being hired as a volunteer. He joined the staff full-time prior to the 2022 season. In texts revealed by Sports Illustrated, Stalions boasted of sign-stealing and his close relationship with Michigan’s staff. “I’ve grown up my entire life with a vision to coach football at Michigan,” Stalions told Soldiers to Sidelines in 2022.
Reviews of TV footage have shown Stalions standing next to Michigan coordinators across multiple seasons, holding a laminated copy of signs.
Other Big Ten schools told ESPN that they had proof that tickets bought through a third-party app were bought under Stalions’s name. Tickets were purchased to games against future Michigan opponents on the 50-yard line, the ideal vantage to view teams’ signals. Yahoo Sports reported that Stalions also bought tickets to games involving schools outside the Big Ten who would be potential opponents if Michigan made the College Football Playoff.
Yahoo Sports also reported that TCU were aware of Michigan’s signstealing team before the sides faced off in the 2022 College Football Playoff.
TCU then used ‘dummy signals’ in their 51-45 semi-final win, alternating between the signs they knew Michigan had decoded and fresh signs to mislead Michigan’s coaching staff and players.
After the NCAA and Big Ten acknowledged they had launched an investigation into Michigan, Yahoo Sports initially reported that the school had fired Stalions before Michigan released a statement saying that Stalions had resigned.
In a statement provided by his attorney, Stalions said that no member of the Michigan coaching staff, including Harbaugh, had any knowledge of rule-breaking or improper conduct regarding advanced scouting.
But isn’t sign stealing commonplace?
Yes. The art of decoding an opposing team’s signs has been around as long as they have used signs. The coaching ranks are filled with black market auction houses, cliques and you-pat-my-back favors in which staffs at different schools will exchange their research – perhaps to help another team beat a rival school or to help coaches climb the ladder in an industry built on nepotism.
A former Division III college football coach told ESPN that Stalions paid him “a couple hundred dollars” and gave him a ticket to a Michigan home game to help record a future Michigan opponent.
The coach said he recorded the opponent on his phone and uploaded the footage to a shared iCloud photo album. “You can call me naive, but no one is reading the bylaws,” the coach told ESPN. “I just felt like if you’re not doing it, you’re not trying to get ahead.”
Were disguises involved?
Of course. This is college football.
Images surfaced online of a man who looked like Stalions standing on the Central Michigan sideline on 1 September during the team’s game against Michigan State. Central Michigan have multiple staff members who worked for Michigan last season, including head coach Jim McElwain.
“Before we go any farther we’re obviously aware of a picture floating around with the sign stealer guy,” McElwain said in a post-game press conference after the pictures were first reported. “Our people are doing everything they can to get to the bottom of it. We’re unaware, totally unaware of it.”
The person on Central Michigan’s sideline was dressed in team-issue gear, wearing Central Michigan pants, polo shirt and a team-issue hat. Throughout the game, the person was shown on the broadcast holding a clipboard and was regularly stood apart from the rest of the staff with a visitor’s pass.
The school said it is reviewing whether or not Stalions was present on the team’s sideline and is cooperating with both the NCAA and Big Ten investigations.
Michigan beat Michigan State 49-0 on 22 October, the week that the Big Ten confirmed it was investigating allegations of sign stealing.
How did other schools respond?
On a conference call with Big Ten athletic directors, the conference’s commissioner, Tony Petitti, was pressed to take action against Michigan. Harbaugh’s suspension could impact Michigan’s Big Ten title bid and their place in the College Football Playoff.
Have Michigan offered a defense?
Michigan’s defense falls into two buckets:
1) Stalions was a lone, rogue actor who has left the program. Stalions’ attorney has given a statement to The Athletic in which he says Harbaugh was unaware of any efforts to steal signs from opponents.
2) Everybody else is doing it. Michigan shared evidence with the Big Ten on 7 November that alleged that Ohio State, Rutgers and Purdue had conspired to steal signs in a coordinated effort. Michigan alleged they were sent a document by a former Purdue coach that showed that the three schools were working in concert to decode Michigan’s signs. That document was circulated to various media outlets as well as the Big Ten and NCAA investigators. Michigan do not allege that any of the three named schools used inperson scouting to try to steal signals.
Does this mean Michigan out of the College Football Playoff?
The College Football Playoff is an end-of-season knockout tournament in which the top four teams in the country compete to be named national champion. The CFP operates independently of the NCAA. Michigan, 9-0, are third in the CFP’s rankings, behind Ohio State and Georgia. Even if the Big Ten or NCAA moved to vacate Michigan’s wins, the College Football Playoff committee would have the power to evaluate the team on its on-field merits. If the Big Ten bars Michigan from the Big Ten Championship game, the lack of a win on their resume could impact Michigan’s chances of securing a playoff berth.
If Michigan were losing, would anybody care about sign-stealing?
Yes, but far less. Michigan are one of the most dominant team in the country. After a rocky start to life back at Michigan, Harbaugh has turned the school into a freight train. They have beaten arch-rivals Ohio State in each of the last two seasons and made the College Football Playoff in back-toback years. Part of the hysteria around the scandal is that Michigan’s success coincides with the alleged sign-stealing operation. Michigan finished 2-4 during the Covid-impacted 2020 season. Since then, they are 34-3, with two Big Ten championships.
What’s next?
This isn’t ending any time soon. The NCAA investigation into the allegations is still ongoing, and ESPN reports that Michigan have been preparing to fight any discipline handed down by the Big Ten. That could mean Michigan attempt to get a temporary restraining order so that Harbaugh can still coach the Wolverines in Saturday’s game against Penn State.