The NCAA penalties from Michigan football’s sign-stealing operation will cost the school more than $30 million, according to athletic director Warde Manuel.
“We’re going to find a way to deal with it,” Manuel recently stated during a radio interview on WTKA in Ann Arbor, as reported by The Associated Press.
The NCAA announced in August a series of punishments for the scandal that has loomed over the Wolverines for two years, including during their run to the national championship during the 2023 season, the AP reported. The fines were expected to be tens of millions of dollars.
Michigan withdrew its appeal of the ruling in October.
Coach Sherrone Moore withdrew his own appeal in September after serving the school’s self-imposed, two-game suspension. He will also be suspended for the 2026 season-opening game.
According to the AP, the NCAA said it had “overwhelming” and concerning evidence of a cover-up by Wolverines staff and noted there were “sufficient grounds for a multiyear postseason ban” against a program now considered a repeat violator. The governing body stopped short of program-crippling punishments, though, saying a two-year postseason ban “would unfairly penalize student-athletes for the actions of coaches and staff” who were no longer there.
Connor Stalions, a former low-level staffer who ran the scouting and sign-stealing operation, was issued an eight-year show-cause order, which effectively bans a person from college athletics for the period handed down.
Jim Harbaugh, who left Michigan for the Los Angeles Chargers after coaching the Wolverines to the aforementioned 2023 national championship, faces a 10-year show-cause order following the conclusion of his previous four-year order effective Aug. 7, 2028. Harbaugh has always maintained he knew nothing about the scheme.
Per the AP report, the NCAA does not have rules against stealing signs, but prohibits schools from sending scouts to the games of in-season opponents and using electronic equipment to record another team’s signals. The scheme run by Stalions, the NCAA said, was elaborate and detailed.
