The Athletic- NCAA only got this last Tuesday
Pretty amazing stuff, this outside law firm presented this to the NCAA and the next day they tell the Big Ten
No more information who is paying this law firm
The timing also seems to confirm the leaks initially were from the Big Ten not the NCAA, the leaks today do seem to be from the NCAA IMO
“The firm presented its information to the NCAA last Tuesday, according to the newspaper, and the NCAA informed both the Big Ten and Michigan that it had opened an investigation into the matter Wednesday. The investigation became public knowledge Thursday.”
https://theathletic.com/4999767/2023/10/25/michigan-sign-stealing-inves…
October 25th, 2023 at 10:35 PM ^
Maybe the law firm was hired as a part of the Weiss investigation, and the information was found on his computer?
October 25th, 2023 at 10:48 PM ^
Let’s just assume that Michigan did have all the signs for its opponents. So the opponent calls a play and Michigan’s DC signals what defense to run. How much of an advantage is that truly. It’s not like michigans defense changes their play calls every week to match the opponents playbook. It’s just all so dumb
October 25th, 2023 at 11:00 PM ^
Nicole Auerbach stating the firm PAID somebody for the data.
October 25th, 2023 at 11:07 PM ^
So much for them being a whistleblower lol
October 25th, 2023 at 11:10 PM ^
Explains why they didn't run to compliance.
October 25th, 2023 at 11:17 PM ^
So now we just need to know who paid the firm to buy this info, right?
October 25th, 2023 at 11:19 PM ^
... and who was willing to sell it.
October 25th, 2023 at 11:55 PM ^
Could’ve been included in the August breach and the firm paid for the data dump through a dark web forum and found these little “nuggets”
But who knows. Could be a typo (doesn’t really make sense in-sentence though), or more likely a deliberately misleading phrasing to bait clicks, or just plain old incorrect information.
October 25th, 2023 at 11:26 PM ^
Appears to be a typo. Article says the firm "brought" the information to the NCAA.
No way this firm isn't linked to Michigan in some way. Absolutely had to have permission or the authority to access this information. There's almost no chance this was hacked material as that gets into some serious legal troubles for whomever did so. I also can't imagine a law enforcement agency brought this to the NCAA after stumbling upon it while working the Weiss investigation. For one, there's already been reports that the Weiss stuff isn't related. Second, Law enforcement agencies deal with legal issues not violations of membership institution rules. The chances that a law enforcement agency would even have the depth of knowledge of the NCAA handbook too know this was a potential violation to report just seems so small to be realistically plausible.
My money is on this firm being contracted with the athletic department in some way. Did the AD up their due diligence after the Shemmy fiasco and was doing a search before signing Harbaugh to the extension and they found this? Were they "self reporting" it to the NCAA and it opened a can of worms with the NCAA already up UM's ass? Did someone in accounting identify charges/reimbursements that they questioned and decided to look into it further?
I don't know but this feels like something we're all going to facepalm about when its all said and done.
October 25th, 2023 at 11:42 PM ^
They would need to bring it to compliance first who in turn would inform Ono. That isn’t what happened. The third party brought directly to the NCAA.
I doubt that Stapleton would risk his role and reputation for something like this. He would be destroyed professionally if it is found that he had anything to do with this.With his known antipathy towards Harbaugh he would be opening himself up to legal action.
My suspicion is that someone knew one of these interns and offered them some money in exchange for information. Most likely a booster tied to a rival. They tend to have a lot of money to burn and the fanaticism to do such a thing.
But I guess we will see. Hopefully,people are digging as we speak.
October 25th, 2023 at 11:57 PM ^
Who's to say compliance wasn't informed? I obviously have no knowledge of how the work flow of something like this would occur but is it that farfetched that UM hired this firm to do background before the Harbaugh extension, found this stuff and brought it to compliance and Warde/Ono whom then agreed to forward it onto the NCAA for reporting?
Some of the other theories just seem like a plot out of a movie and I tend to be just as skeptical about them as I am about the descriptor of their being a "vast network" supporting this whole thing. Dollars to dimes that when the facts behind this all come out we're all going to lose our minds because this was self inflicted in more ways than the actual rule violation itself.
October 26th, 2023 at 12:26 AM ^
They wouldn’t be a third party investigation firm. Why would UM hire an firm to investigate a coach they have had under contract for eight years? That doesn’t make a lick of sense.
It seems like you are desperately trying not to believe that some person, either at UM or outside, paid an firm to investigate Michigan. More than likely they probably paid an intern for the information.
To an extent it is already self inflicted. They hired this fanatical naive kid without properly vetting or supervising his activities. They deserve to be slapped for that.
October 25th, 2023 at 11:20 PM ^
The B1G wants to put Michigan down. NCAA will hit us hard and Harbaugh will be jettison off to the NFL. Sucks how our conference is so pro OSU! Anyone upsetting the applecart gets hammered. Well enjoy this season, even though the NCAA may make us forfeit everything since 2021.
October 25th, 2023 at 11:33 PM ^
I'm not really convinced of any of that. This is all a lot of intrigue, but it hasn't changed much pertaining to the rules.
But it's interesting that someone with computer access apparently knew what Stalions was doing and that someone ratted him (Michigan) out for money.
October 25th, 2023 at 11:35 PM ^
Which is illegal.
Yikes. Michigan Daily can earn their stripes with this one. Go to work, They/Them.
October 26th, 2023 at 6:40 AM ^
I just wonder if you thought that maybe the info on the UM computer was obtained illegally. And if there would be ramifications. For the thief. Of the info. On the computer.
October 25th, 2023 at 11:21 PM ^
Something extremely weird is going on. I'm no longer sure what Occam's Razor is here. Could be Ryan Day, I guess, but that's a lot of money and an insane risk given that we'll likely eventually know who hired an outside firm to do this. What a wild story this is
October 26th, 2023 at 12:42 AM ^
The Athletic basically rewrote their first story after publishing because much of it was materially wrong.
I'm not putting a lot of stock in further reporting from them.
October 26th, 2023 at 4:15 AM ^
News gets stuff wrong all the time, so we'll see.
But if it is true that an outside group paid for information, and the information includes what was on Michigan computers (or in any other way was proprietary to Michigan), this might get very interesting. Because that sounds like a felony.
If Michigan pressed charges in that situation, there could be an investigation by law enforcement. The NCAA would need to divulge the identity of the firm and to provide the information it got from the firm, and the firm would need to divulge the identity of its sources and of who hired it, and to provide the information it got from the sources. It would be determined if the sources got the information illegally and, if so, if the firm (and potentially whoever hired the firm) induced the illegal behavior or was involved in a conspiracy to commit the illegal behavior.
This would all be different if a firm contacted the NCAA with legally obtained information, then the NCAA opened an investigation, requested info from Michigan, and Michigan provided it. But that's not what is being reported.
I'm not sure the legality of the leaks when there hasn't even been an investigation completed yet. But if any of it ends up being wrong, maybe it gets into the realm of a high-dollar defamation suit.
And this stuff is only one of the wild aspects of this whole situation.
So far, this is like an involved espionage novel. It's all speculation so far.
October 26th, 2023 at 7:04 AM ^
This is all possible. A key detail in The Athletic was calling the firm a “law firm” which seems an embellishment added to their copy/paste of the WaPo article.
This “investigative firm” could be a clandestine operation by as big of yahoos as Stalions and his vast network.
People discount the hacking explanation re: the source of leaked info because it wouldn’t be worth the risk. The leaker may not be aware of the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and how it’s enforced. If you were a high school student using a computer and browsing your school’s network, stumbled upon some unsecured folders or FTPs and started looking through them without authorization: congratulations! You’re a hacker and you’ve committed a crime. It is just that simple and most people don’t know it. And if the leaker was paid for releasing the information, as was claimed by The Athletic, they will not be protected as a whistleblower.
So while we know very little at this time, the possibility that this information was obtained illegally and could lead to prosecution and/or litigation is very much on the table.
October 26th, 2023 at 6:55 AM ^
Man, somebody has it out for us
October 26th, 2023 at 7:40 AM ^
Who hired the firm? How did they obtain this material?
October 26th, 2023 at 7:50 AM ^
I wonder what the signal was for this incredible playcall
October 26th, 2023 at 8:07 AM ^
I’m obviously a Michigan homer, but a realist as well. This is turning into a 3 ring circus at this point. From so called Reddit insiders to the wapo, to Ryan day being involved. Ultimately if what’s being said is true I can see Harbaugh being placed on leave pending investigation. I hate typing that and believe at his core he’s a good man. That being said, so called “evidence” is piling up so fast that the powers that be will have to do something to try and protect the block M. I feel bad for the players more than anything at this point. I can’t imagine the team itself did anything more than run the formations they were given. If we did what’s being accused there’s no one to blame but ourselves. No one else. What a mess and totally uncalled for given the players we have. I mean who didn’t know that OSU was gonna run crossing routes and yet we couldn’t stop it cause we didn’t have the horses. Now we do and it’s all fucked to high hell. What a sad development.
October 26th, 2023 at 9:27 AM ^
Over this. In a month or two everyone will have moved on to something new to be outraged about and this will be a cliff note to Michigans national championship season.
Raback it.
October 26th, 2023 at 4:15 PM ^
Since when are they at the school the next day? They’re gonna have to have clipboards to hide their erections on this one. So weird.