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Michigan has informed the Big Ten and the NCAA that officials from Ohio State, Rutgers and Purdue shared information about the Wolverines’ signals ahead of the 2022 Big Ten Championship Game, a university source confirmed. The Athletics.
The reveal comes next The Athletics and other media outlets obtained documents that matched Michigan’s signals to specific plays. The documents mention signals such as ‘elbow slap’ and ‘throat slash’ with plays such as outside zone and play-action passes.
Michigan first became aware of the documents after beating Purdue 43-22 in last year’s Big Ten Championship Game, the university source said, and has used them to allege that other schools conspired to steal the signals from the Wolverines to steal and share. Michigan is facing possible discipline from the Big Ten over its own sign-stealing and scouting scandal.
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The person who sent the documents to Michigan worked for Purdue last season and told the Wolverines that the information came from Rutgers and Ohio State, the university source said. The person who sent the documents, who was granted anonymity to avoid possible consequences for the appeal, said The Athletics Monday that sharing signals among friends was common on other programs.
Courtesy of a university source The Athletics.
He said it took him 10 to 12 hours a week to decode opponents’ signs from TV dubs and other films. He said he wanted to share the information to support Jim Harbaugh’s associates with whom he had previously worked and had an affinity. information to former Michigan staffer Connor Stalions, the center of the NCAA investigation, about Michigan’s opponents. The Wolverines have been singled out by their Big Ten peers in league-wide conversations in recent weeks as first-year commissioner Tony Petitti weighs whether Michigan should be punished before the NCAA investigation is complete. The person who sent the documents to Michigan does not currently work in college football.
An employee at another Big Ten school who spends time decoding opponents’ signals said the existence of such documents is not incriminating, noting the difference between legal sign stealing and the elaborate personal scouting ring which Michigan is accused of operating.
“We did nothing wrong,” the Big Ten official said. “Zero. They’ve taken it to another level. And they can’t hide it. They try to distract from it, but they can’t hide it.”
The ongoing scandal will force Petitti to decide how deep she wants to delve into the shadowy world of sign stealing. The league formally notified Michigan on Saturday of possible disciplinary action based on alleged violations of the league’s sportsmanship policy. A decision on penalties, including a possible suspension for head coach Jim Harbaugh, could come as soon as Wednesday.
Michigan claims Big Ten schools violated the sportsmanship policy by colluding to share information about the Wolverines’ signals. The league’s policy gives the commissioner discretion to determine whether an institution has violated core principles of sportsmanship, including “integrity of the competition, civility to all and respect, especially to opponents and officials.”
It’s not clear that such an exchange of information would violate the Big Ten’s sportsmanship policy, but it raises questions about the ethical gray areas involved in sign stealing.
Ohio state officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Spokespeople for Rutgers and Purdue declined to comment.
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Exchanging information about other teams’ signals is common, say three current and one former Big Ten staffers. Like Stalions, the staff members involved in signal decoding are often young and ambitious, eager to acquire information that can help them move up the ranks. For some, being a relative nobody who doesn’t get to coach during the game is the best way to add value. It’s typical for these staffers to communicate with friends of other staffers and help each other prepare for games, a former Big Ten staffer said.
Michigan informed the Big Ten and NCAA that staffers from Rutgers, Ohio State and Purdue shared the Wolverines’ 2022 signals. How information trading between sign stealers fits into the Michigan scandal: https://t.co/kJW6rpieLR
— Austin Meek (@byAustinMeek) November 7, 2023
If a team has an interest in the outcome of a particular game, an employee can contact a counterpart from another school to exchange information, the former Big Ten employee said. Because of that underground system of information sharing, the former employee said, it is possible that some schools calling for penalties against Michigan benefited from the information collected by Stalions.
Michigan has argued that the sharing of documents showing the Wolverines’ signals was a coordinated effort among other schools. The employee involved in decoding Michigan’s signals didn’t see the spreadsheets as evidence of anything nefarious.
“This isn’t like the Astros,” he said. “This was all obtained legitimately. We’ve been really good at it (stealing signals), taking things from TV copies. People didn’t go to sites (to get information). We did it legally, like we stole it from the coach at third base.”
The person who sent the documents to Michigan also believed that all of the information contained therein was obtained legally.
Big Ten schools have come forward with evidence that Stalions purchased tickets in his own name for games involving Michigan’s future opponents, and at least one says there is security footage of a person in those seats monitoring the team’s signals registers a smartphone. Central Michigan has said it is now working with the NCAA to investigate whether Stalions was on the CMU sideline in coaching gear for a game against Michigan State earlier this season.
The employee involved in decoding the Wolverines’ signals said he doesn’t believe the way Stals and Michigan allegedly gathered their information actually gave them a major advantage over the way other teams usually do it. Or that they actually needed this.
“Michigan didn’t have to do it to win,” he said. ‘That’s the funny thing. It’s still about blocking and tackling. That’s why they didn’t have to do it. They are really talented. They’re better than Penn State, and they’re better than Ohio State. They can all legitimately win it.”
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(Top photo: Bob Kupbens/Icon Sportswire via Getty)
