Michigan staffer Connor Stalions, the central figure of an NCAA investigation into the program’s alleged in-person scouting scheme, bought tickets to watch at least five Big Ten schools play prior to their games against the Wolverines, school sources confirmed to The Athletic. These tickets were purchased over the last three seasons, including the current 2023 season.
Last week, Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh denied knowing about any illegal sign-stealing within his program or by his staff. The NCAA investigation, while in its early stages, has focused on Stalions, a low-level recruiting analyst whom Michigan suspended with pay Friday. Multiple sources within the Big Ten expressed frustration with Stalions’ alleged behavior and the elaborate nature of his efforts, which coaches believe goes far beyond legal in-game sign-stealing and its subsequent gamesmanship.
One of the Wolverines’ Big Ten opponents told The Athletic that it has in-stadium surveillance footage that shows someone filming their team’s sideline from one of the seats purchased by Stalions. The filming was done on the individual’s smartphone.
Another school source told The Athletic that tickets under Stalions name were bought five times over the past three seasons, always near the 50-yard line and sometimes on both sides of the stadium.
ESPN reported Monday that Stalions has purchased tickets in his own name to over 30 games at 11 different Big Ten schools. That includes tickets bought on both sides of the field for Saturday’s game between Penn State and Ohio State, two schools Michigan will play later this year; ESPN reported that those seats were not used on Saturday.
One school source told The Athletic on Monday that Stalions spent “hundreds and hundreds of dollars” on tickets purchased on the secondary market over the past three years. Another school source said at least some tickets were bought under the name of one of Stalions’ family members.
A message left at a number listed for Stalions was not returned.
The NCAA is in the process of soliciting information from opposing schools that have information helpful to the investigation, sources said. There are two rules that have been potentially broken by Michigan with this alleged scheme. The first is that the NCAA has banned in-person, off-campus scouting of future opponents — a rule that was put in place in 1994 as a cost-cutting measure. The second is the NCAA rule that states “any attempt to record, either through audio or video means, any signals given by an opposing player, coach or other team personnel is prohibited.”
Industry sources were not certain what potential penalties are in play for Michigan because there is no precedent for an NCAA investigation like this into an alleged illegal scouting scheme. Though the NCAA has in recent years moved away from penalties that hurt athletes who were not involved in rule-breaking, the organization still can issue postseason bans for egregious violations or repeat offenders. Michigan was already under NCAA investigation for a case involving alleged recruiting violations during the COVID-19 era dead period, and regardless of what Harbaugh did or didn’t know about Stalions’ behavior, he can be held accountable for it under the NCAA’s head coach responsibility rules. Essentially, head coaches can now be penalized whether they had knowledge of a staffer’s violation or not.
It is not yet clear how the second NCAA case will impact the first, or if they will combine into one case. Either way, the process is expected to move slowly, as the NCAA’s infractions processes tend to do. Michigan’s first investigation centered on violations that allegedly occurred years ago — and it wasn’t expected to be fully resolved until 2024 at the earliest.
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