Balas: After NCAA meetings, Michigan "99% sure" it won't face punishment this season
Chris Balas ($) posted an update based on conversations with his sources at Michigan about yesterday's discussions with the NCAA. As always, since this is paywalled, subscribe to On3 for the full article. But based on his comments and those from Isaiah Hole, who has spoken to dozens of people inside and outside of Michigan about this story, it appears that:
- Overall, Michigan feels good about the conversations that have taken place, and feels "99 percent sure" that neither Michigan nor Harbaugh will face sanctions this year, because of the "rogue staffer" facts to date.
- Michigan isn't using the "grey areas" defense, believing that if Stalions hired others to something that is forbidden, that is a rules violation by Stalions.
- 1-2 more articles will drop with news unflattering to Michigan related to this story, but they won't alter the fundamental framework we are already familiar with.
All in all, it appears that we may nearing the bottom of the curve related to this story, and that once those last few stories drop, we will have a nearly complete picture of the facts (i.e., no Harbaugh involvement, no sanctions this year, probably slaps on the wrist in the end).
And then we can go back to focusing on winning the Game.
October 27th, 2023 at 8:09 PM ^
I think we can say that Michigan staffers had some tech shenanigans going on. I think we can reasonably settle on that conclusion. I think Harbaugh is VERY dialed in to the parts of coaching he enjoys, but completely aloof and disinterested in the parts that he does not. My guess is that Harbaugh simply does not regularly monitor UM’s IT stuff and it got away from him.
Some old school bosses of all kinds can be indifferent to the tech ecosystem I think that Harbaugh is one of them. I have personally seen the type of situation spiral professionally. I think a lot of people have. I don’t think there is a lack of institutional control, but it certainly needs to tighten up. This is only my opinion and my reasonable speculation, I know others may disagree.
October 28th, 2023 at 8:56 AM ^
How many years did Bo throw a fit about people spying on practice. Not a new thing. Cell phones with good cameras are though. No rules against the general public doing it according to the NCAA.
Other things not against NCAA rules that might receive an investigation and a massive negative PR campaign-#1 versus #2 matchup officiated by #1 rated teams tainted hometown officials with excellent video of same. What penalties would this level of corruption bring I wonder?
How about paying a "firm" with an ex-FBI agent to commit federal multi state crimes resulting in hacking rival computers and spreading this info through now disgraced media stooges?
How about a persona non grata with a revoked, by his alma mater, sideline pass on an infractions committee sitting in judgment while maintaining a personal, long known, grudge on the coach of said investigated University? How this same individual then leaking facts of the case to tarnish and defame said University and another infractions board member breaking the silence and issuing a statement on another pending investigation sit in judgment is beyond me. Thumb on a scale likely; ass on the scale, definitely.
Get your own house in order and something you say, NCAA , may then mean something. Until then I pity the fool that values anything you do!
Tom Mars, do your work son!
October 27th, 2023 at 1:50 PM ^
Sam is saying the NCAA didn’t meet with any coaches yesterday and the Angelique said last night not with any “football staff.” Maybe the met with AD administrators or something, but it seems like a wild disconnect among the insiders.
October 27th, 2023 at 2:11 PM ^
Might have been Zoom calls rather than in-person meetings. Yes, it's strange that there is such a disconnect.
October 27th, 2023 at 2:27 PM ^
If this is true that they spoke to inconsequential staff, and the general reaction from the program is "nothing to worry about here" then it seems to be a reasonable assumption that the NCAA is performing a sort of pretend formality of due diligence to placate Ryan Day's whiney tattle taling. I.e. "we looked into it and didn't see anything now please leave us alone."
October 27th, 2023 at 3:42 PM ^
That would be funny.
October 27th, 2023 at 4:06 PM ^
"I.e. "we looked into it and didn't see anything now please leave us alone."
I'm not optimistic we'll get off that easy, but that result would be glorious to experience—we'd be able to hear the screams of rage and disappointment all the way from Columbus.
October 28th, 2023 at 9:26 AM ^
His Manscara will run before this is over.
October 27th, 2023 at 2:55 PM ^
My interpretation is that the NCAA met with Michigan administrators, and Michigan's own internal compliance people met with some of the coaches to prep them for their eventual interviews with NCAA. The upshot from these various meetings is that the NCAA, at least as of now, has no evidence of involvement/knowledge by the coaches, and that Michigan is gaining confidence that the coaches were indeed not involved.
But I agree that a lot of the insiders reported facially conflicting information about yesterday's meetings, and I think some of them are relying on semantics/verbiage right now to cover up their blindspots.
October 27th, 2023 at 1:50 PM ^
Great.
Where are we at with Harbaughs contract? I saw he deserves 5 more years and $10 million more for this.
October 27th, 2023 at 1:57 PM ^
I’ll start the GoFundMe. Or maybe propose to Harbaugh and create a HoneyFund?
October 27th, 2023 at 1:51 PM ^
Oh, so the guy that slept in his car , followed players around to road games,and wrote a 600 page manifesto on the M football is a strange egg.
Wow, shocked.
Need better hiring protocol.
October 27th, 2023 at 1:58 PM ^
This is the real issue here for Michigan. Too many hires where obvious red flags got missed.
This is now a systemic issue - I don't know how HR policy works at the University so we don't know who to blame (probably a bit on everyone), but there are certainly some issues with the Athletic Dept hiring process.
October 27th, 2023 at 2:04 PM ^
My guess is he didn't share the manifesto with anyone on staff and that most of the other behavior would be considered normal by a football coach.
October 27th, 2023 at 2:18 PM ^
Its almost like a guy with experience in oversight of one of the worst football programs in college football, namely UConn, wasn't qualified to run a huge athletic department including the winningest program in college football history.
Strange that controls and procedures might be different in those two situations, like apples to elephants.
SMH
October 27th, 2023 at 2:23 PM ^
That is tough to say with certainty. Did he have any red flags that were displayed during his hiring, and while in the employment of his job? In my 20 years in the MC I have seen plenty of ranking officials hide some pretty crazy stuff for years, only to have it eventually come to light later. Even individuals with TS/SCI clearances that were continuously vetted.
October 27th, 2023 at 2:38 PM ^
" Did he have any red flags that were displayed during his hiring, and while in the employment of his job?"
Yeah... sleeping in his car while spending every vacation obsessively volunteering for Michigan football.
October 27th, 2023 at 3:29 PM ^
These are the sacrifices that successful people make. It sounds kooky when you hear about it in the middle of someone's rise towards success, but is an intriguing and inspiring part of their story when they make it.
October 27th, 2023 at 3:32 PM ^
Some people would praise this as motivation,
October 27th, 2023 at 2:24 PM ^
I hear people say this but I think they have a pretty tough background check at the Naval Academy/Marines and Stalions passed those too! Let’s not make the guy out to be the Son of Sam!
October 27th, 2023 at 2:43 PM ^
exactly
How many companies actually scan social media for low level employees? How in depth are background checks for a low level analyst?
October 27th, 2023 at 2:48 PM ^
How many companies actually scan social media for low level employees? How in depth are background checks for a low level analyst?
In today's day and age, they should absolutely do a perfunctory scan of social media for employees
October 27th, 2023 at 2:52 PM ^
I agree - but they dont
October 27th, 2023 at 3:15 PM ^
Yeah I don't think much would've been flagged on a hiring interview. I think the most you can ask is should Michigan have been more suspicious of how this guy was getting his savant-like signal decipherings. Hindsight is always 20/20 and I think people are really overstating how much his superiors should've known about him. Does your boss know everything you do at work and outside of it? Do you know every last detail of what your reports are doing? Do you check their personal venmo accounts?
There's room for improvement I'm sure, but I'm not surprised if the staff had no idea he was doing this
October 27th, 2023 at 5:30 PM ^
Sounds like a good guy to me. He made some mistakes if he indeed did what they are saying he did. I still wish him the best.
October 27th, 2023 at 2:26 PM ^
Sounds like it was harder for me to adopt my cats than it was for these guys to get a job, re: what was required for references and background checks.
October 27th, 2023 at 2:31 PM ^
The manifesto is weird but probably something Stalions could easily hide in the hiring process. The rest of that is stuff we hear about all the time from young guys trying to make it up in the coaching world. Easy to see why that stuff would appeal to a football nut like Harbaugh.
Didn't Weiss come from the Ravens? If he truly has a history of computer crimes then a NFL organization missed on those as well and obviously Jim trusts John with this kind of thing. I don't think anyone can be blamed for hiring Weiss.
The Shemy hire was bad and easily avoidable. So that's 1 out of 3.
October 27th, 2023 at 2:39 PM ^
"The rest of that is stuff we hear about all the time from young guys trying to make it up in the coaching world. "
True.
...and 99% of college football coaches have more red flags than a May Day parade in Red Square.
October 27th, 2023 at 2:55 PM ^
Shemy was also vetted by a 3rd party and they found nothing. If the same 3rd party was being used in May of 2022 not finding anything on Stalion should surprise no one.
October 27th, 2023 at 3:08 PM ^
When your #1 interview question is "is your passion as deep as Jim Harbaugh's", you may hire a few crazies.
October 27th, 2023 at 3:35 PM ^
I know how it works within the University. It's the HC or the football staff needing to vet the hire then it's passed onto the HR to vet the hire as well.
For those who think Warde should be involved, the AD does not do anything with vetting the staff hiring except for the head coach hires. Most likely, the AD has zero knowledge of any of the football staff hiring except for budget approval for a new staff.
October 27th, 2023 at 2:12 PM ^
I find it odd that they hired a dude with football stalker tendencies. Either way, between this and the Schemy fiasco, our athletic department needs to do a better job of background checking their prospective employees.
October 27th, 2023 at 2:40 PM ^
That "strange egg" is also a graduate of the United States Naval Academy and was an O-3 in the United States Marine Corps. So maybe tone down the pearl-clutching rhetoric on the type of character that makes it past HR.
October 27th, 2023 at 1:51 PM ^
"This season" is doing a lot of work here. Is it truly a "no punishment this season" or a "not happening now or ever"?
October 27th, 2023 at 1:52 PM ^
There’s going to be a punishment, wehether or not it rises to the level of something we care about tbd. I mean at minimum a show cause on The Stallion and a fine, right?
October 27th, 2023 at 1:58 PM ^
And probably some probation. I would say that's the floor if they're not going the "we were technically within the rules" route.
October 27th, 2023 at 1:59 PM ^
Yeah, I would think Stalions is done... certainly at Michigan and likely a show cause. Just hoping the punishment ends there beyond maybe a financial penalty.
October 27th, 2023 at 2:08 PM ^
Brian's prediction is a show cause for Stalions, a fairly hefty financial penalty, and probation. All of which is probably fair game.
Stalions has made some pretty dumb decisions and his name is so toxic right now I really can't imagine he has a career in collegiate athletics anymore. At least not anytime soon. Whether he meant to do these things or not, he put Michigan in an extremely bad position at one of the worst possible times.
October 27th, 2023 at 2:28 PM ^
We're talking about a sport where coaches discover new jobs faster than a squirrel on espresso! Picture a list of cover-ups longer than a giraffe's neck, longer than a grocery list for a family of 20 where each member is as picky as a toddler with allergies to every fruit, vegetable, dairy, and meat under the criminal sun! Yet they still find jobs.
October 27th, 2023 at 4:52 PM ^
Yeah, *coaches* get new jobs.
Stalions has just been an off field analyst, who greatest skill set is rendered useless by wristbands or soon-to-come helmet headsets.
October 27th, 2023 at 2:41 PM ^
How much probation can they really give for an issue that’s going to be completely irrelevant in 1-2 years (either via NCAA eliminating the in-person scouting rule or approving microphones in helmets)? It’d be like keeping people in jail for minor marijuana offenses after legalization.
October 27th, 2023 at 2:43 PM ^
You do realize that Stalions has already been offered a job at Bar Stools (I know a banned sports media outlet on this Blog so poke fun at it all you want). Dave Portnoy even posted a tweet praising Connor, calling him a winner (and basically stating this whole Signgate is a bunch of BS)
October 27th, 2023 at 3:49 PM ^
Guess I should've clarified that I think he's too toxic a name for any coaching jobs. Barstool is completely different.
October 27th, 2023 at 2:15 PM ^
I’m willing to forfeit the loss to TCU.
October 27th, 2023 at 2:19 PM ^
The appropriate sanction is issuing a statement of clarification and making everyone acknowledge that this is against the rules. In addition, they issue a show cause penalty for Conner, ding us a couple of scholarships and make us pay a fine.
October 27th, 2023 at 2:26 PM ^
And of course the NCAA will abolish this rule (as it nearly did two years ago) at the next session of the rules committee after this is all over.
October 27th, 2023 at 2:49 PM ^
Agreed. I anticipate a wise, reflective press release on the Friday of Super Bowl stating the NCAA feels that to best prepare its student athletes for the next level, that communications technology should be implemented for the coming season. We can then react with a collective gasp of shock and awe of this worldly group.
October 27th, 2023 at 2:53 PM ^
Haha. That's what I said when this news broke. It's a Mich thing. Stretchgate, McGary. Mich gets punished then they change the stupid rules.
October 27th, 2023 at 2:03 PM ^
Yeah I assume there will be some punishment. If I had to bet right now I’d say Harbaugh is suspended for the non con next year (and yes Harbaugh is coaching Michigan in 2024). Reasoning is that the 4 game suspension deal was nixed cause NCAA wanted 6. After all this I bet they go back to saying they need 3 more games. So he’s out for Texas and the NCAA gets to claim victory.
October 27th, 2023 at 2:15 PM ^
Is it truly a "no punishment this season" or a "not happening now or ever"?
I assume the former - but it does seem to suggest that this isn't as urgent a matter to the NCAA as people in Columbus want to believe.