The Michigan sign-stealing scandal is getting weirder and stranger by the day. News of this first became public knowledge about a week ago. While everybody tries to steal signs in game, which is perfectly legal, you cannot send advance scouts to games your team is not playing in and videotape the sidelines. This is apparently what Michigan analyst Connor Stalions did on Jim Harbaugh's staff.
This was not just Big Ten games Michigan was allegedly advance scouting for. Apparently, Stalions coordinated for there to be essentially spies in attendance at SEC games involving Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee, all teams Michigan could have conceivably met in the College Football Playoff. You do have to wonder if they sent anybody to Fort Worth to see if they could steal signs from ole TCU...
As for the latest and craziest wrinkle in this scandal, apparently, a Tennessee message board poster first uncovered this on VolsQuest nearly a year ago. A poster by the name of ArniePalmerAlert alerted us about some shenanigans involving Tennessee during their big in-state rivalry game vs. Vanderbilt. Tennessee already had two losses, but Stalions is a Nashville native and is friend of this guy's brother.
Stalions supposedly went to the game anyway since he had tickets and it was already Thanksgiving.
Here is Andy Staples going into greater detail on the emerging scandal on On3's YouTube channel.
While Michigan should be able to play out the rest of the season unpunished, this is getting so slimy.
Tennessee message board poster uncovered Michigan scandal last year
You have to wonder how non-Big Ten head coaches feel about this. I mean, we have seen 12 of the 13 other Big Ten schools say that Michigan has been doing this crap for the better part of three years now. With news that Michigan apparently sent advanced scouts to Alabama, Clemson, Georgia and Tennessee, this is getting more and more scandalous by the nanosecond. Harbaugh is so cooked...
While Georgia head coach Kirby Smart did not think much of it at the time in the 2021 Orange Bowl, a game where the Dawgs clobbered the Wolverines 34-11 in the national semifinals down in Greater Miami, you have to wonder how Josh Heupel would have handled that in a similar situation. I mean, he has just gotten Tennessee back to being relevant. For this to undermine the Vols, it cannot land well.
Overall, Michigan, the Big Ten and the NCAA will do their own investigations into the matter. With this feeling stranger than fiction, you have to wonder how deep the rabbit hole goes. Given that we are weeks away from Championship Saturday, it is simply too quick of a turnaround for Michigan to be punished in time ahead of the Big Ten title bout, if the Wolverines are deemed of any wrongdoing.
News of this scandal going beyond just the Big Ten gives college football such a black eye right now.
