Michigan gets major fine, add to Moore ban for sign stealing

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The NCAA's Committee on Infractions ruled on the University of Michigan's advanced scouting case on Friday, with the school facing a series of fines that could eclipse $30 million. The Wolverines avoided punitive penalties such as a postseason ban or the vacating of victories, including during the 2023 national championship season.

The NCAA also ruled an additional game suspension for head coach Sherrone Moore, which will be served for the first game of the 2026 season. Moore is expected to serve a two-game suspension in the upcoming season, which ESPN reported in May that the school proposed to self-impose. He also received a two-year show cause penalty.

The 2025 games will be the Wolverines third and fourth games of the season -- home against Central Michigan and at Nebraska. The 2026 opener is expected to be against Western Michigan in a game played in Frankfurt, Germany.

The NCAA COI also levied an 8-year show-cause penalty for Connor Stalions and a 10-year show-cause penalty for former coach Jim Harbaugh, who is now coaching in the NFL. Those essentially act as barriers to schools hiring them in the future. Harbaugh's new 10-year show cause will not begin until after he serves a current four year show cause for a previous NCAA case.

The size of the fine is expected to be considerable, although a finite amount will not be immediately available. It includes a $50,000 initial fine, 10 percent of the football budget, 10 percent of the cost of football scholarships for the 2025 season and the loss of all postseason competition revenue sharing for the 2025 and 2026 seasons. That could easily eclipse $30 million.

While there's variables on how much teams will get from football postseason revenue, sources expect that number alone based on past Big Ten revenues and projections to be more than $20 million. Some of that will depend on both Michigan's performance the Big Ten's performance. The football budget in 2024 was more than $70 million, which means at least $7 million for that fine depending on updated budgets.

Additionally, former assistant coach Dennard Robinson was hit with a three-year show cause for a combination of a role in recruiting violations that included, per the NCAA, providing "limited inducements to a prospect and his family" and then failing to "respond to the notice of allegations or attend the hearing."

Michigan and its coaches/staffers were charged with six Level 1 violations in the case, which are the most serious. The decision to fine the school heavily and not utilize a penalty like a postseason ban is indicative of a shift in NCAA enforcement rulings away from postseason bans.

It's a significant punishment for Stalions, who masterminded the advanced scouting scheme, as a show-cause essentially acts an employment ban. Any punishments for Harbaugh aren't likely to matter as he's coaching in the NFL with the Los Angeles Chargers. Harbaugh also received a four-year show-cause penalty back in 2024 in a different NCAA case, which is essentially an employment ban in major college football through August of 2028.

The NCAA Committee on Infractions concluded that Stalions "orchestrated" an advanced scouting operation designed to aid in the deciphering of opponent's signals during the 2021, 2022 and 2023 football seasons. It included 56 instances of off-campus, in-person scouting of 13 of Michigan's future regular-season opponents.

"Stalions directed and arranged for individuals to conduct off-campus, in-person scouting of Michigan's future regular-season opponents," the report reads. "In doing so, Stalions purchased game tickets and transferred them to those individuals, who included another staff member, interns and acquaintances of Stalions. The network of individuals was referred to as the "KGB."

"While in attendance, they filmed the signal callers on the future opponents' sidelines and then provided that film to Stalions," the report continued. "Using the footage they collected -- which Stalions referred to as "dirty film" -- Stalions then deciphered opponents' signals. Stalions and other individuals involved in the scheme acknowledged or corroborated this process. Additionally, on one occasion, Stalions personally attended a future opponent's contest.

Other than Moore, the rest of the Michigan staffers in the crosshairs are no longer in college football.

Michigan Penalties • Four years probation

• Fines reaching up to $25 million*

• Recruiting restrictions

• Jim Harbaugh: 10-year show-cause order, starting in 2028 following current four-year show-cause penalty

• Sherrone Moore: 2-year show-cause order; 3-game suspension (2 games in 2025, 1 in '26)

• Connor Stalions: 8-year show-cause order

• Denard Robinson: 3-year show-cause order * Fines are $50,000, plus 10% of football budget, postseason revenue from 2025-26 and cost of 10% of scholarships awarded in 2025-26

The NCAA COI ruling marks one of the final significant mile markers in a scandal that captivated the college football world, divided the Big Ten and put Michigan's reputation in the crosshairs. It turned Stalions, an anonymous staffer, into a household name and riddled Michigan's championship run with accusations and anger from around the Big Ten.

Harbaugh served a three-game sportsmanship suspension from the Big Ten to end the 2023 regular season from the case. (He'd served a three-game suspension to start the 2023 season as part of self-imposed penalties tied to a separate NCAA recruiting case.)

The case introduced the world to Stalions, the Naval Academy graduate with a comic book name who bragged on his LinkedIn could work "identifying and exploiting critical vulnerabilities and centers of gravity in the opponent scouting process." He later told his side of the story in a Netflix documentary that focused on his ability to steal signs.

Michigan responded to the NCAA via a 137-page document arguing the allegations contained "numerous factually unsupported infractions, exaggerates aggravating factors and ignores mitigating facts." The school also expressed concern over the genesis of the investigation.

For the NCAA's controversial infractions process and generally ineffective enforcement division, the case looms as perhaps the last blockbuster enforcement case that the NCAA will oversee. The confluence of enforcement power shifting to the College Sports Commission and the sudden stripping away of the NCAA's amateurism rules, NCAA enforcement is expected to see a dip in relevancy.

The decision to fine the school heavily and not utilize a penalty like a postseason ban is indicative of a recent shift in NCAA enforcement rulings away from postseason bans.

A recent ruling on Tennessee in July of 2023, for example, included 18 Level 1 infractions. That led to a fine of $8 million, which the NCAA said at the time was the equivalent of the financial impact of missing the postseason in 2023 and 2024.

On the field for Michigan this season, in the wake of an 8-5 season in 2024 after its undefeated championship run in 2023, the suspension of Moore looms as the most significant. Moore's suspension is tied to deleting a thread of 52 texts with Stalions, which were later recovered and did not include information to suggest Moore knew the extent of Stalions' alleged actions.

Moore was considered a potential "repeat violator" by the NCAA because in August 2023, he negotiated a resolution to claims that he contacted recruits during a COVID-19 recruiting dead period and served a one-game suspension.

The chance looms that he could appeal the additional one game for 2026 that the NCAA COI added on Friday. Michigan opens next season against Western Michigan, a game expected to be played overseas.

There's a distinction in this Moore suspension compared to the ones that Harbaugh served to open and close the 2023 regular season, one of which came from the NCAA and other from the Big Ten. In those suspensions, Harbaugh coached the team during the week in practice.

But because of an NCAA rule change in January of 2024, Moore will not be able to coach in practice for the game weeks of the suspension. That rule expanded the suspension for coaches to include "all athletics activities between contests, rather than just the contests themselves."

For the two games that Michigan has agreed to self-impose -- Moore will begin the suspension after the game at Oklahoma, which is Sept. 6.

Moore will be able to coach at Oklahoma, his alma mater. But included in the two-game suspension that's already been self-imposed will be a home game against Central Michigan and a road game Big Ten game at Nebraska.

In a prior and separate NCAA case that involved recruiting violations during the COVID-19 dead period, Michigan received three years probation back in August of 2024.

Michigan opens the 2025 season against New Mexico.

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