It's All Bullshit. Let us start with this: all of this is bullshit. Bruce Feldman is quoting coaches who think Connor Stalions was worth 21 points a game, Allan Haller is piteously moaning about how MSU players were in danger because Michigan may or may not know what plays they're running, and various Big Ten coaches are up in arms about the Threat To Competitive Integrity.

Bullshit. All of it.

This all came out, Stalions got suspended, everyone is fully aware that they should use wristbands against Michigan, and Vegas reacted by shoving all their Michigan lines towards Michigan. And nobody is using wristbands except the one school in the conference that has mastered Writing and is now able to build a library:

Notice JJ had to go to the wrist band.
My anonymous source tells me that’s a reaction to *someone* sending Purdue video of our signs prior to the Big Ten Championship game last year.
Allegedly pic.twitter.com/mZZz0r2FDs

— Due# (@JDue51) November 5, 2023

Haller's crocodile tears are doubly ridiculous since the only danger anyone was in in the M-MSU game was Braiden McGregor when he got speared in the helmet. And after a couple of drives of performatively having the quarterback get the call from the sideline, they just went back to signals. If it was really that dangerous, Haller should be fired for Endangering His Players. But it's not. It's bullshit.

If any of this was true, teams would not dare to signal in plays at all:

"People don't understand the seriousness of it," said another source. "How it truly impacted the game plan. To truly know if it's a run or a pass, people don't understand how much of an advantage that was for Michigan."

There was anger interspersed throughout the call, as one source described the sentiment as: "Every game they played is tainted."

Nobody in football really believes this gave Michigan the kind of material advantage that taints the season, not when Michigan has blown out every opponent on the schedule. But give James Franklin an opportunity to spout off anonymously in an attempt to placate the Penn State fanbase staring down another beatdown at the hands of Michigan or Ohio State, and he's going to take it.

This conference has an entire division failing the Brian Ferentz test. The other division has two of the worst P5 teams in America, Rutgers, a Maryland team that just lost to Northwestern, a Penn State team that can't move the ball against anyone with a pulse, and M/OSU. Maybe this conference's problems are not solely due to one low-level Michigan staffer with grandiose ambitions.

[After THE JUMP: rumor du jour.]

On to the rumor du jour. That would be that the Big Ten is fixin' to suspend Jim Harbaugh indefinitely tomorrow. This is ludicrous but I believe it. This post on the message board…

According to my source, Harbaugh will be suspended indefinitely on Monday.  The university is preparing a lawsuit against the conference and asking for an immediate stay on the suspension.  Grounds for the suit are violation of conference rules on investigations and irreparable harm from the timing of the suspension.  My source works for the law firm representing UM in this case.  The firm is working this weekend to determine whether to file the suit in local, state, or federal court as reaction time is critical.

This is about to get real.

…corresponds with a post Sam Webb made yesterday morning, and similar rumblings from Josh Henschke. There have been similar reports in the wider press. One bright side is that it seems like anything other than a Harbaugh suspension is not being considered:

There was talk, for instance, of any penalty not impacting players directly. A suspension of head coach Jim Harbaugh may be the most likely and “cleanest” penalty if one were handed down, one source said.

For 2023 it appears the fight is over Harbaugh and just Harbaugh.

UPDATE: I've been told the earliest this could happen would be Wednesday. 

What then? As mentioned in a previous Signgate piece, Michigan has no intention of showing its belly to anyone on this. Santa Ono's letter to Petitti is polite but reads like an expensive lawyer went over it to lay out the various arguments Michigan will make to a judge in the event the Big Ten does something drastic:

"We, as would any other member of the Big 10, deserve nothing less.  Our students, our coaches, our program — all are entitled to a fair, deliberate, thoughtful process. We are aware that other representatives of the Big10 are demanding that you take action now, before any meaningful investigation and full consideration of all the evidence.  That is not something our conference rules permit.  And we both know it is not what any other member would want if allegations were raised against their people or programs. 

"The Big 10 has not informed us of any investigation of its own, as would be required under conference rules.  And, to be clear, oral updates from NCAA enforcement staff do not and cannot constitute evidence, nor do we think the NCAA would ever intend for an oral update to be given that meaning or weight.  

"The best course of action, the one far more likely to ascertain the facts, is to await the results of the NCAA investigation.  But if you refuse to let the NCAA investigative process play out, the Big 10 may not take any action against the University or its players or coaches without commencing its own investigation and offering us the opportunity to provide our position.  That is not just required by our conference rules; it is a matter of basic fairness."

Raj has some concerns that the commissioner doesn't actually have to have an investigation, but he's also the one who dug up the actual bylaws, and while the language is vague it seems like interpreting the part where they say the commissioner has the discretion to "pursue, or choose not to pursue" an investigation as "the commissioner can hit you with the ban stick without an investigation" is like the various Michigan lawyers who have gone over the NCAA rules with a fine-tooth comb in an effort to exonerate Connor Stalions as the world's greatest loophole exploiter. IMO, anyway. I am not a lawyer.

It seems like it would be enough to sue with, in any case. Webb has a piece up that interviews a Law-Talkin' Guy about said Ono letter and how it applies:

"You have to show that there's a likelihood the moving party will prevail on the merits. Now, this is the most important thing about what Ono did. In my view (it was) a very smart thing. He said, ‘look, you're not following your own procedures if you act.’ That's really a good hook to argue… that it's a good reason to preserve the status quo in terms of prevailing. Because it's unprecedented.”

Joe Simon, the law-talkin' guy, also brings up the fact that if there is a lawsuit both parties will have to go through discovery. This means everyone gets to ask everyone else for relevant documents and depositions, which will be extremely annoying, time consuming, and costly. And if Michigan's gone through their stuff and is confident the paper trail ends at Stalions, that's all upside for them.

A united front. Sounds like this isn't happening if Schlissel is still around, and that Michigan is unified in their opposition to being handed an in-season punishment for penny-ante crap:

I don't know if there is anything I am more proud of professionally than bringing @SantaJOno to Ann Arbor. #goblue

— Jordan Acker (@JordanAckerMI) November 5, 2023

Michigan on the offensive. The other piece of the story has been bubbling up in obscure references from insiders on Twitter and in pretty-much-as-obscure posts on the paysites. It seems clear that Michigan has some… stuff. They're going to start releasing that stuff. What exactly that stuff is not fully known, but if this guy who runs a reasonably successful independent college football site and just happens to be an OSU guy is aware of who the firm is…

I know exactly who the firm is. I know it isn't day's brother, and I don't know (and feel reasonably confident that none of the Michigan message board reporters know) who they signed an engagement letter with at all.

— Matt Brown (@MattBrownEP) October 29, 2023

…a dollar says Michigan does too. And maybe they have something that would tie that firm back to OSU. As Dan Wetzel points out, none of that would do anything with Michigan's case with the NCAA. It might help with the Big Ten since the sturm und drang from the conference is so extreme and looks set to suspend Harbaugh (or at least attempt to) based on no investigation at all. Live by the vibes, die by the vibes.

I've been as critical of Michigan as anyone.

But the idea 13 ADs get to sit on a call with the commish (and 13 coaches before them) and call for an unprecedented ruling, with no real investigation, without Michigan being allowed to defend themselves?

Absolutely ABSURD

— Aaron Torres (@Aaron_Torres) November 3, 2023

Two other things that have been hinted at: one is that Stalions got hacked and CommitCrimes.docx, amongst other things, were obtained illegally. Two is that Michigan may have evidence that someone taped their practices. Circumstantially, Michigan put up a privacy screen around their outdoor practice facility this summer. 

Josh Henschke has another two or three things that he "knows" Michigan has evidence of, and a little bit of it is outside the paywall. Isaiah Hole has also been asserting that Michigan was going to start releasing stuff.

Back to Haller. Repeat after me: Michigan State is the most shameless athletic department in America. There's chutzpah and then there's this:

The most powerful message, according to sources familiar with the call, came from Michigan State athletic director Alan Haller. He mentioned the alterations Michigan State needed to undergo in order to prepare for its Oct. 21 game against Michigan after receiving a call Wednesday of that game week about Michigan having Michigan State's signals.

Haller worried about players potentially getting hurt because Michigan players, in theory, knew where they'd be going on plays.

He also referenced last year, when he said the Big Ten forced Michigan State to suspend numerous players after the tunnel incident in Ann Arbor before the league finished investigating the incident. He pointed out that it was hypocritical that this year, with Michigan under investigation, the league is now waiting for an investigation to unfold.

This last paragraph is a flat-out lie. Michigan State suspended the tunnel players. The Big Ten did not act until a full month after the assault, when they fined MSU 100k and suspended Khary Crump for the first eight games of 2023. That month-long investigation was about eight Michigan State players being filmed ganging up on two Michigan players in full view of multiple cameras.

It is probably true that the Big Ten asked MSU to suspend the players, but they were not forced to. In MSU's case getting the suspensions out of the way for a season that was already a 3-5 debacle in the hopes that 2023 would be better was the logical thing to do in any case; the Big Ten was doing MSU a favor. Michigan can point to this as an example of the procedures the Big Ten followed just last year, and surely the suspension of eight players including starters was much more relevant for the teams on MSU's schedule than the fact that they should just frickin' use wristbands is for the teams on Michigan's.

Etc.: It's frosty out there.