ncaa: the scandals

Message board guy for the win. Designated NCAA leak recipient Pete Thamel has a new article out with some details that more or less confirm the post on our message board that I thought was credible when I posted on Friday. Thamel is an irritating writer who habitually writes his articles in such a way as to maximize the scandalousness of whatever's going on…

Stalions forwarded the tickets he bought to at least three different people in different areas of the country, sources say, which hints at the breadth of the operation.

…so I don't want to quote from it heavily. But the upshot is:

• Stalions bought tickets to ~30 games at 11 Big Ten schools in his own name.
• He sent those tickets to other people.
• Those people taped the sidelines.

As Seth pointed out on Twitter, Thamel—or the person feeding him—seems to have misinterpreted an area of the NCAA bylaws that's meant to restrict what you can do on your own sideline. Also note that these games go back three years; Stalions was hired in May of 2022.

A precedent, but probably not particularly applicable. A message board poster dug up a Baylor infractions case from 2016 where an assistant coach attended a game of a future opponent and was handed a half-game suspension. The NCAA has traditionally been disinclined to do much about minor one-off issues, which are labeled "secondary violations" and get tit-for-tat punishments. They don't contribute in any way to a larger case of lack of institutional control. Most schools self-report a handful of these on an annual basis.

It seems clear that Stalions was engaging in an extended scheme to try to benefit Michigan football and this will not be handled as a secondary violation. But about that…

[After THE JUMP: mmm parsing]

Various thoughts on scandal-type substance du jour.

Nothing important will happen. The #1 rule of 2023 college football is "the networks are in charge." The networks would have a conniption fit if Michigan was barred from the postseason at any point, this year or next. They would savagely eliminate any athletic department that had the cojones to not play Michigan because they may or may not have their signs. Michigan is the only football program in the country to support a completely independent college football blog that isn't mostly clickbait garbage. QED.

Sturm und drang; the only meaningful impact here is that the Michigan program will be inclined to bounce any rubble they come across. Michigan's play here should be the Kansas play: cooperate. Very, very slowly.

The most likely explanation. Pete Thamel has a name: Connor Stalions, an analyst with the team. A post on our message board is unconfirmed but comes from a guy who's been around here for 13 years and sounds like a plausible explanation:

The staffer recruited a bunch of non-Michigan affiliated 3rd parties to attend games and record sidelines of future Michigan opponents. That's the so-called "vast network." Wait until the story comes out of how he recruited the "scouts." It's Bud Fox level hustle that would make Gordon Gekko smile.

Obviously he'll lose his analyst gig at Michigan and probably have a show-cause if he ever wants to get near a college AD again but he's 100% going to land a plum job doing corporate espionage work eventually.

The Michigan Difference.

I bet a dollar this is substantially correct.

[After THE JUMP: meh!]

Then, as farce. Jim Harbaugh is getting the relative book thrown at him for the Hamburger Incident:

Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh and the NCAA are working toward a negotiated resolution that is expected to see him suspended four games this season in penalties stemming from alleged false statements he originally made to investigators, sources tell Yahoo Sports.

This is the same number of games that Michigan State players not named Khary Crump got for the post-game assault on Gemon Green and Jaden McBurrows. For a couple of hamburgers to already-committed recruits. Also Mike Macdonald is receiving a one-year show cause penalty, which is hilariously useless since Macdonald kinda has a job lined up already—he's DC of the Ravens.

None of this matters. Michigan's most difficult game during the period of the suspension is against Rutgers; the national media is more or less ignoring the most blatant pay-for-play scandal to hit college football in a minute, so the only place that's even going to mention this for one second after the suspension expires is the RCMB. It is nonetheless irritating that the NCAA continues wasting its time on the little things they can find at the same time as NIL is rapidly obsoleting the association itself.

[After THE JUMP: Jeremy Pruitt as Nancy Pelosi in that one picture of her kneeling with Africa Scarf™ around her neck]