It’s been nearly two years since Connor Stalions’ advanced scouting tactics became public knowledge and it’s been chaos and noise ever since. On Friday morning, some clarity finally emerged with the NCAA ruling on the matter.
Here are six key takeaways from the NCAA’s report.
Michigan has to pay a lot of money
Front Office Sports reported that Michigan will have to pay at least a $20 million fine, which includes 10% of the football budget and an additional $50,000 fine. This punishment feels like a money grab from a dying organization
in the NCAA. They fined Michigan an absurd amount just because they can. Hopefully, the NCAA can put this money to good use and give back in some form to its student athletes instead of lawyers and executives.
The NCAA didn’t have much evidence
The NCAA said “the true scope and scale of the scheme — including the competitive advantage it conferred—will never be known due to individuals’ intentional destruction and withholding of materials and information.”
This is what makes the NCAA so different than any other court of law. While intentional destruction of evidence and withholding materials and information may be deemed as behaviors by a guilty party, the NCAA didn’t prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt that Stalions’ scheme was known about by any staff member.
The NCAA still has a bloodlust for Jim Harbaugh
Former Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh is entering his second season with the Los Angeles Chargers and has no intention of coming back to the NCAA, yet the NCAA gave Harbaugh a 10-year show-cause order for no good reason. The NCAA held Harbaugh responsible for Stalions’ actions despite having no direct knowledge that Harbaugh knew what Stalions was doing.
Connor Stalions had clever codenames
The NCAA claims that Stalions called his “network of individuals” associated with advanced scouting “the KGB” and called the footage recorded at games from the stands “dirty film”. The KGB was the main security agency of the Soviet Union.
Chris Partridge is somewhat vindicated
While former Michigan linebackers coach Chris Partridge was hit with an impermissible recruiting violation, he wasn’t guilty of allegedly instructing a player to lie to enforcement staff. The NCAA said there was “insufficient information to reasonably conclude that Partridge attempted to influence a student-athlete to lie about it to enforcement staff.”
Partridge was fired from Michigan when those allegations surfaced, and while he wasn’t entirely innocent in the investigation, the main thing he was accused of (telling a player to lie), he was innocent of.
Michigan isn’t going down without a fight
Hours after the report was released, the University of Michigan sent out a press release saying that Michigan will appeal the investigation.
“In a number of instances the decision makes fundamental errors in interpreting NCAA bylaws; and it includes a number of conclusions that are directly contrary to the evidence – or lack of evidence – in the record. We will appeal this decision to ensure a fair result, and we will consider all other options.”
Perhaps all of Michigan’s punishments will stick, but this statement sounds like Michigan is willing to put their best lawyers up against that of the NCAA and see who blinks. A $20 million fine is a large enough amount for the university to fight back about, especially when the investigation admittedly lacks evidence.
