The Michigan sign-stealing fiasco has advanced from a scandal to a reality show. Unlike most sports transgressions involving a competitive advantage, the misconduct of shamed Wolverines football staffer Connor Stalions is so outrageously live it feels novel. Rarely has this type of wrongdoing been caught so in the act that you need a play-by-play announcer to follow along.
Since college football will do anything for television revenue, perhaps the Big Ten ought to lean into the turmoil, keep a camera on Stalions, embed with the Michigan athletic department and record all these reportedly angry conversations rival coaches and athletic directors are having with new conference commissioner Tony Petitti, a former TV executive. Call the series “Real Cheaters of Football.” Surely, it could spark an entire franchise.
Never mind the game’s integrity. Think about the ratings. How can the SEC compete with that?
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I kid not to dismiss the evidence already available against Stalions, a prolific yet foolish spy who resigned from the school Friday night, or the increasing likelihood that he didn’t act as a rogue agent. It’s an egregious violation of fair play. But it would be too myopic to zoom in on this issue and ignore the chaotic environment that major college football has created.
It’s so full of contradictions, greed, disillusionment, blind ambition and disdain for regulation. It’s such a mess that Stalions thought he didn’t need to be covert to cheat. He was comfortably and openly mischievous in this world, appearing on the sidelines for all to see and leaving a paper trail of ticket purchases to scout and record opponents.
He saw the opportunity to climb chaos’s ladder and ignored the possibility of getting busted. It was a blatant lack of respect for NCAA rules that don’t prohibit stealing signs but do frown upon in-person scouting and recording of a team’s signals. In a sport of systemic lawlessness — one that, through conference realignment and other business-first acts, keeps showing it holds nothing sacred — it must be hard to teach values.
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Yes, on the surface, there are clear lines separating the sport’s on-field integrity and its business. In a culture of gamesmanship, almost no one operates honestly in any way. Now, in this every-school-for-itself atmosphere, we’re presented with an obvious crime that must still be investigated thoroughly to discern how much Michigan Coach Jim Harbaugh and his coaching staff knew about or participated in the espionage scandal. Then comes the complicated contemplation of the degree to which Michigan prospered from the advantage.
There’s reason to believe the Stalions operation goes back at least three seasons, and the Wolverines have gone 33-3 during this span after struggling to live up to their standard before then, including a 2-4 record during a pandemic-shortened 2020. But Harbaugh, who has succeeded at every college stop and in the NFL with the San Francisco 49ers, is one of football’s greatest coaches. And the current 8-0 Michigan squad has beaten its competition so badly — outscoring them 325-47 despite Harbaugh serving a three-game suspension to start the year — that it’s a stretch to think any of those outcomes would have been different. The point isn’t that Michigan should escape punishment. It’s that there are too many variables to consider to take swift action.
There are more factors to navigate: Based on incomplete information, would it be right to ban Michigan from the 2023 season and, in essence, punish innocent players for the staff’s sins? And in a decentralized sport, whose due process matters most? The NCAA probably needs months, if not more than a year, to sort through it all. The Big Ten could act sooner, maybe before the end of this season if it saw fit. In theory, the College Football Playoff selection committee could do its own thing and shield itself by pointing to Michigan’s weak nonconference schedule. But since the committee placed the Wolverines No. 3 in this week’s initial ranking despite their scheduling choices, it would be an about-face to penalize Michigan later in its deliberations.
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If Michigan’s Big Ten rivals had their way, they would pressure Petitti into convincing the school presidents to overstep. It’s not likely to happen, but if it did, it would be very fitting for college football during this era of realignment for a conference to operate outside of the NCAA. If different factions of college football weren’t constantly trying to do their own thing, it would be easier to appreciate procedures. But order is merely implied in this climate.
Most of the time, the sport manages to exist just fine without a classic structure. The athletes thrill. The big games are compelling. Despite the erosion of bedrock traditions and rivalries, excitement still manages to eclipse the money-grubbing. Everything is wonderful when individuals are at their best. But let someone do his worst, and that’s when college football feels the effects of the substitute teacher syndrome that it created.
Years from now, Stalions probably will participate in a documentary about it all. Harbaugh may or may not be implicated, but with all the NCAA heat already on him, he seems certain to reach for his NFL parachute now. Michigan, which prefers to proudly (some would say sanctimoniously) reside above the swindling fray, will take a reputation hit. But supernova programs always recover.
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In the end, we will remember most that perhaps the most dominant team of the 2023 season tried to win a national title amid the smoke of a cheating scandal. Only an opponent — not the leadership of the sport — can stop the Wolverines right now.
Although the sins of Stalions are being exposed in real time, any discipline will be retroactive. This sad, strange reality show is yet another one that won’t reveal all the secrets until the reunion episode.
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