- Close
ESPN
Dan Wetzel is a senior writer focused on investigative reporting, news analysis and feature storytelling.
The NCAA Committee on Infractions' long-awaited ruling in the University of Michigan's advance-scouting case will be publicly announced Friday, sources told ESPN, as involved parties were made aware of the upcoming release Thursday.
The NCAA is expected to hold a news conference early Friday afternoon to detail the findings, sources told ESPN. It could mark the conclusion of one of the most explosive, strange and controversial cases in the long history of NCAA enforcement.
The NCAA charged Michigan and numerous coaches and staffers with 11 violations -- six of them Level I, the most serious -- in relation to a sign-stealing operation overseen by former staffer Connor Stalions.
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.
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.
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. One of the mysteries of the upcoming ruling is whether that self-imposed sanction of two games will be accepted or if there will be any additions to it.
Michigan has asked for that two-game ban to be served during the Wolverines' third and fourth games.
Michigan and all of its current and former coaches involved in the matter have said they were unaware of Stalions' alleged advanced scouting.
The school appeared before the NCAA infractions committee during a two-day hearing in early June.
Potential penalties for the other former Michigan coaches involved include suspensions, significant fines and other measures. Those are more likely than any significant program penalties for Michigan -- other than a hefty potential fine -- as recent NCAA precedent has steered the Committee on Infractions away from postseason bans in other cases.
Show-cause penalties -- which work like a type of employment ban -- could also be leveled on former coach Jim Harbaugh, now with the NFL's Los Angeles Chargers, Stallions and former assistant coaches named in the report. 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.
Moore was charged with failure to cooperate for deleting a text thread -- which was later recovered -- with Stalions on Oct. 19, 2023, the day the scandal broke. The messages, per the NCAA case, did not include any information to suggest Moore knew of Stalions' alleged actions. 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.
Michigan went on to capture the 2023 national championship after Stalions' resignation.
The Wolverines, who are ranked No. 14 in the preseason AP Top 25, open the season at home against New Mexico on Aug. 30 before visiting No. 18 Oklahoma on Sept. 6.