The Michigan Wolverines are still paying the consequences for the Connor Stalions’ cheating scandal from the 2023 season. Back then, coach Jim Harbaugh was handed a multi-game suspension in the latter half of the season for allowing such a scandal to take place under his watch. To this day, Harbaugh maintains he had nothing to do with the advanced scouting in which members of the Wolverines coaching staff partook.
One would’ve thought that would’ve been it, and that the matter would be closed. Not the case. Earlier this year, Michigan slapped a self-imposed multigame ban on current head coach Sherrone Morre, in what was thought of as an attempt by the institution to atone before the NCAA to avoid further sanctions from the college athletics ruling body.
B10 commissioner Tony Petitti sent the NCAA a letter arguing Michigan deserved no further punishment in its advanced scouting case
It’s notable considering Michigan’s past contentiousness toward Petitti when he first suspended Jim Harbaugh in 2023 https://t.co/ICK0SeSAga
— Dan Wetzel (@DanWetzel) July 21, 2025
Now, Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti has weighed in on the debate. Petitti sent a letter to the NCAA, arguing that the Wolverines have been penalized enough for the scandal and that it would be better to put the matter to rest.
The development was reported by ESPN’s Dan Wetzel, who also pointed out that the letter could carry important weight considering Petitti’s previously litigious relationship with Michigan. Petitti was the one to suspend Jim Harbaugh for multiple games in 2023.
Halfway through the 2023 season, it was revealed that the Michigan Wolverines had been involved in a sign-stealing scandal for at least a year. While NCAA rules allow sign-stealing during games, premeditated scouting of future rivals’ signs is prohibited. A group led by Connor Stalions had been scouting opponents ahead of their encounters with Michigan, trying to crack their signals.
Connor Stalions sustains that Michigan’s performance wasn’t affected by sign-stealing
Earlier in the month, Sonny Dykes revealed that some days ahead of TCU’s semifinal against Michigan in the 2022 College Football Playoff, he had gotten tipped about the Wolverines’ sign stealing, and that in response to that, the Horned Frogs changed their hand signals.
Tipped off about Michigan’s sign stealing system in 2022, Sonny Dykes told @On3sports TCU changed its play calls before their College Football Playoff semifinal. “Everybody does it to an extent, but we had some intel it was kind of next level there.”https://t.co/R1x45SBtpu
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) July 11, 2025
Michigan would go on to lose the game 45-51, with some now speculating that the change in signals by TCU might have had something to do with it. Not according to Connor Stalions, who reacted to the news on X:
“We lost because we turned the ball over & had a poor game tackling,” he said in a lengthy post on X early Saturday, July 12, replying to the report. “And TCU played well. Congratulations. The same way we won the Natty (when I was not with the program) because we blocked well, tackled well, and took care of the rock. Welcome to the game of football.”
In defense of Stalions’ point, Michigan tackled the hardest set of games of the 2023 season when the scandal had already become public. The Wolverines’ last four games of the season were against No. 2 Ohio State, No. 16 Iowa, No. 4 Alabama, and No. 2 Washington.
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