The shocking news is that Sherrone Moore, Michigan’s head coach since Jim Harbaugh departed for the NFL, is facing a two-game suspension for the season in 2025. But here’s the catch: this isn’t from the NCAA itself right now—it’s a voluntary penalty on Michigan’s part, attempting to beat the NCAA’s hammer to the punch and perhaps mitigate whatever is heading our way. Why? It all traces back to the scandalous Connor Stalions sign-stealing debacle that shook college football in 2023.
Moore was the team’s offensive coordinator at the time, and his name emerged because he reportedly erased a chain of 52 text messages between him and Stalions just when the news broke. The NCAA cited this as a Level 2 infraction. Moore will sit out Michigan’s Week 3 game against Central Michigan and their Week 4 contest at Nebraska. He gets to coach the first two games, including a massive non-conference battle with Oklahoma, which happens to be his alma mater. That timing is certainly raising some eyebrows, as it appears like Michigan wanted to ensure he’d be on the sidelines for the biggest early-season game. But there’s more to this story. The NCAA is still conducting its investigation, and there’s a June hearing coming up.
An Ohio Insider proposes the ferocity of the punishment faced by Michigan on Ohio State Football at Buckeye Scoop channel on 23rd May. “I mean, they’re doing it left and right right now, and those things on a scale of 1 to 10 are like a 0.1, and the Michigan thing is a 12, and they know that.” It’s all about keeping Michigan’s sign-stealing scandal in perspective when compared to other transgressions going on in college football today. Sure, occasional rule-breaking is relatively frequent throughout the sport, but such things as small recruiting faux pas or technical infractions don’t even register on the NCAA’s radar. On a scale of severity, those are a ‘0.1’—in other words, they’re not even a big deal. But what occurred at Michigan officials are handling as a ’12’ on that same scale, way off the charts in seriousness.
NCAA’s bold stance against Michigan’s sign-stealing scandal is unprecedented. “This is the case they are all in. They have pushed all their chips in. They’ve pushed everything about their enforcement action, and you know, it’s kind of like we talk about a lot in betting: you want to bet on your best spots like you push all your money in on your best spots. Well, this is their best spot; they’ve got Michigan dead to rights.” Well, it’s not hard to underscore just how much at stake the NCAA has in this specific enforcement matter. While minor violations regularly occur throughout college football, many perceive the Michigan case as the NCAA’s moment to deliver a message and remind everyone of its power.
The NCAA has had an enormous body of evidence to work with against Michigan, including a direct paper trail, video, and even admissions from the university itself about in-person scouting and signal-stealing activity coordinated by staffer Connor Stalions. “With video of a staffer on an opposing team’s sideline with a master spreadsheet and video of them videoing the games, and I mean, this is probably the best-documented case in the history of the NCAA, and they’ve got it all. They’ve got it all there. So that’s why they’ve been unwilling to settle the case. That’s why they’ve been unwilling to lessen the punishment.” The case against Michigan is overwhelming and without precedent in terms of detail.
Based on the video and supported by several reports, researchers have documented this case better than any case in NCAA history, complete with direct video evidence, a master spreadsheet, and even a video of people taping games from the stands. There’s a video of a Michigan employee, Connor Stalions, on the visiting sideline of an opponent (specifically at a Central Michigan game), undercover and actively involved in the sign-stealing activity. It’s pretty clear at this point that Michigan is going to have real-time trouble this season, and on top of that, former Buckeyes HC Urban Meyer is doing the job of adding fuel to the fire.
Urban Meyer’s no-nonsense take on the Wolverines’ fallout
Urban Meyer, the legendary former coach at Ohio State and longtime Michigan nemesis, hasn’t hesitated to share his opinions regarding the Wolverines’ recent NCAA issues. Indeed, Meyer’s opinion is blunt and fairly incendiary—he believes the NCAA should go even beyond merely suspending players or voiding wins. Meyer claims that among coaches, no one truly cares if you void wins from several years back.
Meyer contends that the cost-benefit analysis is completely misplaced: if the worst that can be said is that you have to forfeit some victories on paper, but you get to reap all the benefits (such as a title, large contracts, and stardom), then cheating nearly seems justified. “If you lie as a college football coach to the NCAA, in my personal opinion, you’re finished, you’re done,” he says. Not for a couple of years, not for a season, but forever. But Meyer is not just rolling his eyes at the NCAA; he’s demanding something more severe. According to Meyer, a coach who lies to the NCAA, especially in serious matters like Michigan’s case, should face a lifetime coaching ban.
It’s not about the little things like texting the wrong recruit by mistake or taking someone you shouldn’t to lunch. It’s about serious rule-breaking and then lying or refusing to answer questions about it when the NCAA shows up at the doorstep. Meyer believes that making the penalties so severe that no coach would ever even contemplate it is the only thing that will halt this kind of activity. He also notes that, currently, the situation encourages coaches to lie because the worst thing that typically happens is a slap on the wrist or a brief suspension. Meyer makes a strong argument, and coming from someone with his background—and Michigan rivalry history—it’s certainly creating waves in the world of college football.
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