Help me explain this situation to family/friends that think Michigan football is cheating
I'm looking for some help... I don't want to waste energy/ emotion in defending Michigan's perspective to my family and friends that are bombarding me with texts and calls about this "scandal." Can you help me find a well written article that I can just send to them? Thank you!
November 10th, 2023 at 7:54 PM ^
If they are able to appreciate i, the response letter from Michigan does a great job.
November 10th, 2023 at 7:56 PM ^
Silence them on your phone for a couple weeks and point at the results on the field after Michigan runs the table.
November 10th, 2023 at 7:58 PM ^
Two things: As other have said the Wetzel piece. OR. Seth's bullet points on the main page now. If you relay those points and they don't accept them... well... they're fucktards.
November 10th, 2023 at 8:00 PM ^
Cheating is about competitive advantage gained and who was complicit. So, no explanation needed. If your family/friends are from East Lansing I would suggest this as a primer from the Perles era regarding competitive advantage and complicity.
"Mandarich also says that much of his success at Michigan State was a result of steroid use, and he says he decided when he got to the NFL to stop using steroids because the NFL’s testing program was more stringent than the testing in college football."
November 10th, 2023 at 8:02 PM ^
1. There's no article that you can point them to that's going to win them over. You need to use the good will and trust you built up. Hopefully they will listen to you.
2. Keep up on the facts. Don't get bogged down in the details of the law but understand the basic principles.
3. Laugh. Use humor to make points and defuse tension.
4. Don't expect to change minds all at once. If you think you're making headway and they want to talk about something else for a while, let them. That's not necessarily a bad sign. They have to decide themselves to change their minds. You don't want to demand instant conversion or otherwise be bullying.
November 10th, 2023 at 8:04 PM ^
"You're my friend for a reason. You value fairness, common sense, people being held responsible when they make mistakes, treating others with dignity, not rushing to judgement before the facts are in, and the punishment fitting the crime. I respect your opinion. Here are some thoughts on the matter by people in different areas. I hope you'll recognize what I do. Thanks for being my friend."
If you can't say that about your friend why in the heck are they your friend?
November 10th, 2023 at 8:08 PM ^
I can't believe there is really gonna be a movie about Connor fucking stalions one day.
November 10th, 2023 at 8:15 PM ^
The offense isn’t sign-stealing, which is legal and commonplace. The “offense” is watching games. That are played in public. That ANYONE can freely watch or record. The crime is that one weirdo staffer had the audacity to study games everyone is free to watch and record.
November 10th, 2023 at 8:18 PM ^
It's more nuanced than this and I'm sure this is biased, but you could use these bullet points:
- Sign "Stealing" is not theft, is not against the rules, and is considered part of gamesmanship by most coaches. If you can crack their code before they crack yours, you get a slight edge. The Michigan "scandal" isn't about sign-stealing.
- Connor Stalions, a young junior analyst, was Michigan's guy in charge of cracking that code and was pretty good at it. The allegations are that he sent non-employees to Michigan's future opponents' games to record those teams' signals on cell phone and share that video with him to study. The important point here is that the people were not Michigan employees. NCAA rules prohibit coaching staff from attending those games to scout. Did he find a loophole or break the rules? That's the grey area debate.
- Michigan suspended Connor Stalions while the NCAA investigates. He then resigned without admitting any guilt/fault, but making it clear that the other coaching staff didn't know what he was doing or instruct him to do it.
- Big Ten coaches got fired up about this since NCAA investigations aren't quick (Michigan still has one in progress for recruiting violations during the COVID season) and demanded that the head of the Big Ten Conference step in and take action instead of waiting for the NCAA.
- The new head of the conference is Tony Petitti, an ex-exec with MLB and CBS. He was hired at a time when the conference's greatest need was someone to negotiate a big TV deal (and he did). His critics believe he's let himself get pushed around by the football coaches, rather than leading them.
- Petitti sent a punishment to Michigan, suspending Harbaugh from coaching their 3 final (and biggest) games of the regular season. Petitti sent this at the close of business on a Friday, which just so happened to be a federal holiday so courts were already closed--hoping that Michigan would be unable to take legal action to stop this punishment. Michigan was already en route to PA for the next day's Noon game.
Scandal-adjacent:
- Who turned Stalions in to the NCAA? It was a Private Investigation firm. Many speculate they were hired by someone affiliated with Ohio State, possibly a member of their coaching staff, but that is yet to be proven.
- The PI firm's discovery was leveraged as a PR campaign vilifying Michigan. By submitting to the NCAA first, Michigan was under a gag order and couldn't defend themselves. Then elements of the story continued to leak daily to dominate the media cycle.
- During this time evidence has surfaced of other Big Ten teams who have colluded in sign stealing against Michigan, which is another grey area strikingly similar to Stalions'--using in-game research from other schools' coaching staffs without sending your own coaching staff. But the Big Ten only seems interested in pursuing punishment for Michigan and ignoring other schools' infractions.
November 10th, 2023 at 9:06 PM ^
This is a great summary, you nailed it.
November 10th, 2023 at 8:18 PM ^
I know it will not do a thing but I called the B1G today and left a message about how unfair this was to our school, players, coach, alum and fans.
November 10th, 2023 at 8:21 PM ^
You can't! Its all part of the cancel culture. Once many of the big wig college sports writers started dumping on Michigan this entire cheating scandal took on a life, of no facts, of its own. I got sick of trying to explain everything to my KU and KSU office mates and they still believe Michigan cheated and turned their entire program around by stealing signs from opposing teams. I just give up and tell them they can just keep being dumb. I think there is this hate for Michigan across much of the nation, since they are one of the original blue blood successful football programs. The little schools like seeing a big football school get taken down..
November 10th, 2023 at 9:03 PM ^
Literally every NCAA violation is "cheating". Breaking the rules to gain a competitive advantage.
November 10th, 2023 at 9:18 PM ^
How about you say, "we cheated and broke the rules by sending advanced scouts to video opposing teams sidelines in order to gain a competitive advantage and we were successful for 2 years until we got caught. Now we will do the honorable thing and admit to it and take our punishment to try to handle this black mark on our program with integrity. That way we don't send a message to our student body and the rest of America that it's ok to cheat as long as you don't get caught." -The Michigan Man way
November 10th, 2023 at 9:43 PM ^
Sure, but tack on the following at the end: "Oh, and the whining karens that turned us in cheat and break rules too and we have plenty of proof that we are beginning to share, which their fans (like you) will immediately marginalize and complain about like Pavlovian, confirmation biased sheep."
November 11th, 2023 at 8:28 AM ^
As long as we start calling every program who is found guilty of violations, e.g., impermissible benefits, "cheaters", then this would be a good approach.
Or is it only cheating when Michigan breaks the rules?
November 10th, 2023 at 9:31 PM ^
Reducing complexities to simple concepts for simpletons is my specialty. Try this:
"Michigan got caught driving 56 MPH even though everyone in football drives over the speed limit too.
The reason Michigan got singled out is because they were going 56 in a conspicuous rickshaw peddled by an ambitious, dumb, young assistant, whereas the rest of the teams blow through the speed limit in the standard issue vehicles the NCAA permits speeding with.
Oh, also, the guy who issued the ticket had an axe to grind because he was fired at a previous job by a prominent Michigan alum."
November 10th, 2023 at 10:29 PM ^
Or maybe your friends and family are right….Michigan actually cheated and now they are paying the price.
November 11th, 2023 at 8:29 AM ^
All rule breaking is "cheating" though, right?
November 10th, 2023 at 11:29 PM ^
Thank your for your help MGOcommunity!