Isaiah Hole: Four national media outlets working on the "Who hired the PI firm?" story

Submitted by Heptarch on November 26th, 2023 at 10:56 PM

Fairly standard stuff from him in the beginning... talks about OSU going through the Stages of Grief and his own evolution of fandom, particularly pertaining to The Game.

The really interesting tidbit comes near the end (around 25:45 of the video) where he claims pretty staunchly that  there are four national media outlets chasing down the PI angle and that "everyone knows" it was Day. Presumably he's talking about everyone inside the program, but he might be talking about the aforementioned media outlets as well. That part isn't clear.

Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDcuHAgkhgA

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BoFan

November 27th, 2023 at 4:35 AM ^

Thanks Char, great summary. 

WaPo was the first report. They cited a Pi Firm as the confidential source.  That immediately raised suspicion. The other alarm was that it was a reporter unrelated to the topic.  

If multiple media outlets are now investigating the source, is WaPo one of them?  We know reporters protect their sources even from within the paper.  How does a paper operate if they want to investigate a source?

Joined: 03/09/2012

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UMForLife

November 26th, 2023 at 11:30 PM ^

Fraud? Did he say something that is untrue? Sure, he doesn't say much, but calling him a fraud is too strong. He said about LB coach that it was nothing to do with him being involved in CS's scheme. Well, it was said by others as well. I listened 5 or 6, videos in the last month and I have not heard anything he said to be untrue

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CompleteLunacy

November 27th, 2023 at 9:44 AM ^

Because the whole world is collectively losing its mind since Michigan had a low-level staffer, on his own, bend and break an obscure rule to maybe make sign stealing slightly easier for him, at a time where we know schools are sharing already decoded signs with each other. 

And the only reason we know this is because of the drip drip drip of a PI that Michigan did not hire. Which OSU insiders knew about before Michigan ones did, despite Michigan being the direct target. 

It absolutely matters. Do we really want boosters hiring PI firms against rival schools in a wild wild west? Does that seem like a "spirit of the rules" thing to do for competitive sports? Doesn't that seem like a violation of sportsmanship too? 

I know we're all a bit naive about the things going on behind the scenes that schools do to gain a competitive advantage, but this seems ridiculous even by naive standards. LIke, tampering level bad. The sport has a serious rot in it right now, and its because the NCAA is spineless and useless as a "governing body". Yet, this is the scandal that dominates headlines? A guy who, on his own (possibly with the help of some random booster), pays for peoples' tickets to record iphone footage from the stands (something fucking anybody can do at a game)?

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Harlans Haze

November 27th, 2023 at 11:24 AM ^

It also matters because it strikes at the heart of the "competitive advantage" argument. The fact, that upon discovery of a potential rules violation, it appears that nobody brought it to the attention of the ncaa or big10, and instead decided to investigate it independently, completely invalidates that anyone thought UM was gaining a competitive advantage. Why? because there was not one, everyone was doing something similar, and any perceived advantage could be countered by using the knowledge to your advantage (fake signs). After the PI investigation failed to find a smoking gun linking Stallion's actions back to the coaching staff, Plan B was to report the violations to the ncaa and begin the negative PR campaign. Don't forget that the report came out after Harbaugh's initial suspension (so that he's already taking negative PR hits) and the release of the first CFP results (to stir up the TV talking heads into the possibility of a "cheating" team making the playoffs). There was never an expectation that the ncaa (or big 10) would  actually find something worthy of disciplining the program (vacate wins, bowl ban, death penalty). The only hope was that enough shit would stick to Harbaugh that he would walk away after a suspension. If a suspension put the team in turmoil, all the better. 

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MichiganiaMan

November 26th, 2023 at 11:18 PM ^

If this whole affair has taught me anything, it’s that we should mostly ignore the pay sites and those who aspire to be the man behind them. Mgoblog filters out the fluff and comes closest to being gospel.

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Wolverine91

November 26th, 2023 at 11:30 PM ^

Hole is a fake insider and an idiot just like the rest of them. Every one of our insiders were wrong every step of the way with this whole bullshit, including Sam Webb. He’s a blowhard Michigan propagandist. Good fan but not an “insider” 

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Blue57

November 26th, 2023 at 11:36 PM ^

If true, I’ll get the popcorn ready. John Cooper 2.0 will have to have better defense than last Saturday.. and the last three years for that matter. 

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