Dan Wetzel's level headed take on SignGate

OSU, MSU, and PSU fans in there are still wanting to believe Michigan has been busted in the greatest scandal in decades. The goalposts are rapidly shifting to "well ok what we did was possibly legal sign stealing and what you did was possibly illegal sign stealing and that's why this is still a moral outrage"

This wasn't allowed to leave the front page, so to speak, because it was an orchestrated PR hit job. These were people that colluded to beat Michigan, lost worse than the year before, and decided any means necessary was the only way to go. They figured beating Harbaugh on the field was no longer going to be as easy as it used to be, so doing a coordinated blindside attack through the new and inexperienced Big Ten commish to force him out was the best way to do it.. The NCAA hasn't said much because there wasn't much to say. This allowed a different narrative to get media firestormed into the public consciousness. 

You make a good point, and this should be an ominous warning for those clamoring to dissolve the NCAA--admittedly, I've been in that camp on more than one occasion.

Be careful what you wish for - as we saw in the midst of this media frenzy, the CFP which has existed for years didn't even have a defined policy around scouting and only implemented one after the media hype forced them to pay attention; then the policy they implemented (and I'm not even sure how formally defined it is) was more or less a knee-jerk acquiescence to the sentiment (or is it ressentiment?) du jour. That's a terrible governance model; not that the NCAA is particularly good, but their aloofness helps to insulate their decisions from mob mentality (or maybe I'm just overly optimistic in thinking that the NCAA isn't going to bring the hammer and the B1G/rival coaches are the bigger threat at this point). Just saying.

The media who published these allegations are also partially to blame. You cannot allow a private investigative firm anonymity from the jump. That firm is requesting something that has been collected and curated at the behest of someone interested in dirt on Michigan to be published. It is biased, and if a third party is not going to do an independent investigation, it has to published with their name on it. Anonymity is granted when there is potential for harm to come to the source (usually from an employer or if they are embedded themselves in an illegal situation), which is not the case here.

Additionally, the BIG informing opponents of this supposed advantage based on the word of an anonymous investigative firm, without doing their own investigation first, is a sign they are in over their heads. You would think they would come to Michigan first to get details about this and question Stalions before making a public show.

I’m not necessarily a fan of the NCAA.  However, the NCAA has already stated that Harbaugh had no knowledge of what Stalions was up to.

Is Harbaugh responsible for the Michigan football program?  Yes.  Is he responsible for everything that happens within it?  Yes.  

If a student athlete skips class, is it Harbaugh’s responsibility?   
 

What annoys me is.. many of the talking heads (particularly on ESPN) - do not acknowledge that the NCAA has stated that Harbaugh wasn’t aware of Stalions, and there is not a connection between the two.

Oh, and as recently as this morning - on “Get Up”, I didn’t hear any commenter mention the collusion noted yesterday between Rutgers, OSU, and Purdue.

It was intended to be exactly like inflategate was for Brady and the patriots. Something that everyone does, likely within the defined parameters of the game, but reported as cheating, so all anyone remembers is cheating, even though the colts and nfls claims have been disproven. That episode even included calls for the nfl to award that win to the colts and let them continue on in the playoffs while NE was dq’d.

Nor Rutgers.

You know who we want.

Whoop dat ass.

Stallions minions had the same direct relationship to UM has OSU and Rutgers staff have to Purdue -- none.

Yesterday on twitter, David Schuster mentioned that his sources are telling him that Michigan has not conceded that it's a rule violation, which is actually really good to hear!

They can't have it both ways.

Is it just the letter of the law that matters?  Or is it only the spirit of "sportsmanship" that matters?

If it's the letter of the law, Connor Stalions did not provably attend games in person.  Michigan is not guilty of anything.

If it is the spirit of "sportsmanship", then Big Ten opponents colluding against Michigan by giving professionally curated scouting to Michigan's future opponents is far worse than Connor Stalions hiring rubes that leave at halftime because it's raining.

Which one is it?

The correct answer is to drop this nonsense and false outrage, have Michigan pay its parking ticket, and shut up and take your beating.

We had a vast network.

They had a vast competent network.

That is Pettiti's job.  It's time to man up and be an actual leader.

He needs to get all of the Big Ten ADs on a call and say the following: 

"Gentleman, this fucking shit stops NOW.  You are making us all look like fools.  You are all doing this gamesmanship stuff, so there will be no more tattling to me or the media while you are guilty of the same thing.  We are not doing gratuitous take downs of individual member programs on my watch.  If you thought you pulled the wool over my eyes earlier, that does not work anymore.  Sit down and shut up.

If you want to vote me out the next time my contract is up, do what you need to do.  But I am not going to be your puppet for petty grievances my entire term."

Okay, that made me LOL

If I could move a comment to the top of the thread I would move this one.

Brian had the best take on this on the podcast. You play Michigan once a year, some teams don’t play them at all, and there’s potential for one team to play them twice. So is that ONE game responsible for the entire big ten west being the most offensively inept entity in sports? Michigan and Ohio State are the only reason programs like Northwestern, Illinois, Indiana, etc. make a single penny from football but they think Michigan is costing them jobs?? Your programs are unwatchable and generate lost monetary value every time they line up against a team that isn’t Michigan or Ohio State. Know your role, shut your mouth, take your beating that you’ve endured every year since the big ten existed

I don't even think we really want that, we just want fair treatment. This should be treated as the minor infraction it is, not the crime against humanity it's made out to be.

No, no, the conspiracy theory goes way beyond that.

not odd at all.   Pettiti is a TV executive, not a leader.  He's weak and they took advantage of it.