The University of Michigan football program and head coach Jim Harbaugh are at the center of an NCAA investigation into an alleged sign-stealing operation that involved since-fired staffer Connor Stalions. A punishment is expected any day now— if not any hour now.
… or is it??
Jeff Lesson is a local Detroit sportscaster with CBS. He also hosts radio shows on WWJ New Radio 950 and 97.1 FM The Ticket in Michigan.
Lesson joined Jeff Riger on ‘The Daily Ticket’ on Friday morning as rumors swirled about a potential penalty for the Wolverines. Per his sources, however, there may not be anything from the Big Ten!
Can Michigan avoid punishment from the Big Ten conference?
Michigan has been on the offensive ever since this scandal first broke. The university, its coaches, and everyone involved with the program have been adamant that they knew nothing of Stalions’ rogue actions. They also claim that other college football programs have similar sign-stealing enterprises.
According to Lesson, that second point may be what gets the Wolverines off scot-free!
His source says that Michigan is loaded with ammunition to turn back on the Big Ten. Lesson read the message from his source verbatim:
No penalty this week. Probably none next week.
— Jeff Lesson’s source
According to Lesson, the university has been negotiating with the Big Ten and NCAA in recent days. He said that the Wolverines “came up with some very important data that got the attention of the Big Ten commissioner.”
That data has to do with other schools in the Big Ten.
[The commissioner] was told by the Michigan people he was talking to that the University of Michigan has data on nine other Big Ten teams that sent people to games.
— Jeff Lesson
Apparently, the Michigan Wolverines are prepared to make things ugly by using that information to burn the conference down around them if necessary. It almost feels like a threat!
Lesson expects that the Big Ten is going to choose not to punish Michigan. Instead, he believes that the conference will defer to the NCAA because there is new information coming in. Something to that effect.
In that case, the Big Ten would be able to clear its hands of any potential blood.
Here is the full conversation: