NCAA to rule on Michigan sign-stealing scandal Friday

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The NCAA Committee on Infractions' long-awaited ruling in the University of Michigan's advanced scouting case will be publicly announced Friday, sources told ESPN, as involved parties were made aware of the upcoming release on Thursday.

The NCAA is expected to hold a news conference early Friday afternoon to detail the findings, sources told ESPN. It will potentially mark the conclusion of one of the most explosive, strange and controversial cases in the long history of NCAA enforcement.

The NCAA charged Michigan and numerous coaches and staffers with 11 violations -- six of them Level I, the most serious -- in relation to a sign-stealing operation overseen by former staffer Connor Stalions.

Stalions is alleged to have arranged people to attend games and film the sideline signals involving future Michigan opponents from 2021 to the middle of the 2023 season, when the scheme was uncovered and Stalions resigned.

Stealing signs in games is not against NCAA rules, but schools are not allowed to advance scout opponents in person. Evidence emerged of Stalions purchasing tickets at nearly every Big Ten school.

According to a draft of the NCAA notice of allegations obtained by ESPN, Stalions arranged the impermissible scouting of at least 13 Michigan future opponents on at least 58 occasions between 2021 and 2023. That included scouting opponents multiple times, including one team they scouted seven times in 2022, according to the draft.

Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore is expected to be suspended for at least two games in the upcoming season for deleting a thread of 52 text messages with Stalions. One of the mysteries of the upcoming ruling is whether that self-imposed sanction of two games will be accepted, or if they'll be any additions to it.

Michigan has asked for that two-game ban to be served for the Wolverines' third and fourth games.

Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore is expected to be suspended for at least two games this season for deleting a thread of 52 text messages with former staffer Connor Stalions. Gregory Shamus/Getty Images

Michigan and all of its current and former coaches have said they were unaware of Stalions alleged advanced scouting.

The school appeared before the NCAA infractions committee during a two-day hearing in early June.

Potential penalties for the other former Michigan coaches involved include suspensions, significant fines and other measures. Those are more likely than any significant program penalties for Michigan -- other than a hefty potential fine -- as recent NCAA precedent has steered the Committee on Infractions away from postseason bans in these cases.

The possibility of show cause penalties -- which works as sort of an employment ban -- can also be leveled on former head coach Jim Harbaugh, now with the NFL's Los Angeles Chargers, Stallions and other former assistant coaches named in the report. The Big Ten suspended Harbaugh for three games to conclude the 2023 regular season under the league's sportsmanship rules.

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