Big Ten coaches are calling for the conference to take action against the Michigan football program in the midst of the ongoing in-person scouting and sign-stealing controversy, according to a report from ESPN’s Pete Thamel.
A “vast majority” of the conference’s coaches reportedly expressed frustrations with the investigation during a call Wednesday with Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti.
The roughly 90-minute call lasted for about an hour without Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh, “who hung up after the regularly scheduled Big Ten business to allow the conference's coaches to speak freely about the NCAA's investigation into Michigan,” according to the report.
The investigation took a bizarre turn this week when photos surfaced of someone resembling Connor Stalions — the Michigan staff member at the center of the controversy – at Central Michigan’s season opener at Michigan State.
The latest developments come about two weeks after the Big Ten confirmed the NCAA is investigating Michigan for allegedly violating bylaws that prohibit in-person scouting of future opponents and using devices to record opponents’ sidelines.
According to the ESPN report, coaches on Wednesday’s call explained to Petitti “just how distinct of a schematic advantage Michigan has held the last three years by illegally obtaining the opposition's signals ahead of time, as has been alleged.”
Those coaches used words like "tainted," "fraudulent" and "unprecedented" to describe the alleged scheme during the call, according to Thamel’s report, which says there was “anger interspersed throughout the call.”
"People don't understand the seriousness of it,” one source in the ESPN report said. "How it truly impacted the game plan. To truly know if it's a run or a pass, people don't understand how much of an advantage that was for Michigan."
According to the report, Big Ten coaches acknowledged the NCAA likely won’t have time to enforce any punishment against Michigan this season if the allegations are found to be true, so they are calling for the conference to take action.
It is not clear exactly what that action may look like from the conference, though the Big Ten “technically has authority under its Sportsmanship Policy to punish Michigan or members of the coaching staff,” Thamel’s report says.
That also may be unlikely in the near future considering the rare circumstances that an NCAA investigation is being carried out in real time as the season reaches its final weeks. Thus far, only evidence in media reports is yet to emerge, which the Big Ten likely would be unable to use as fact, Thamel wrote.
Petitti listened “carefully” to the coaches’ concerns but did not tip his hand as to which direction he may go, according to ESPN.
To put the seriousness of the allegations into perspective, Thamel writes: “In the three years that Stalions [allegedly] left a paper trail of purchasing tickets to games of Michigan opponents, the Wolverines have gone 33-3 overall and 22-1 in Big Ten play. In the prior three years, they were 21-11 overall and 16-8 in league play.”
The Wolverines program is also under investigation by the NCAA for alleged recruiting violations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Michigan self-imposed a three-game suspension against Harbaugh at the beginning of the season.