Melanie Maxwell/Imagn
The Michigan Wolverines announced earlier this week that they intend to fight the NCAA investigation into the sign-stealing operation that marred their 2023 national championship winning season. At the same time, the Wolverines also acknowledged that they did violate NCAA rules in the process of stealing signs from other programs.
But that was not the biggest news to come out of the latest update surrounding the case. What was, however, is the fact that somebody inside the Michigan program appears to have tipped off the NCAA about the Wolverines’ illegal operation.
Somebody In Michigan’s Program Leaked Info To NCAA About Sign Stealing
Michigan previously alleged that a private investigator hacked into the computer account of staffer Connor Stalions in order to obtain information about the operation. Now it appears that someone within Schembechler Hall tipped off the NCAA and narced on both Stallions and former head coach Jim Harbaugh.
“According to the document, the tipster derived from Michigan’s own campus,” Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports reported. “The unnamed source, which the NCAA has not disclosed, appears to have worked at the school, at least at one point. Michigan believes the confidential leaker was used by the NCAA to produce at least some of the charges in the notice of allegations, something in which it expresses ‘concern.'”
Neither the NCAA nor Dellenger state exactly who it was at Michigan that tipped off the NCAA. But the report does throw water on the idea that the NCAA illegally obtained the information, which was the crux of Michigan’s defense for the last year or so.
It seems that the university’s defense has now shifted. Michigan no longer believes that the NCAA conducted its investigation improperly. But it does believe that the violations are less serious that the governing body claims.
If, how and when the NCAA punishes the program remains to be seen. But several of the top individuals involved with the alleged scheme are no longer with the program, making it more difficult to adjudicate than it may have been otherwise.