Big Ten suspends Michigan football's Jim Harbaugh for rest of regular season for sign-stealing

The Big Ten on Friday suspended Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh for the remainder of the regular season in the wake of illegal sign-stealing allegations against the Wolverines.

In a statement released Friday afternoon, the league said it has found U-M in violation of the Big Ten Sportsmanship Policy "for conducting an impermissible, in-person scouting operation over multiple years, resulting in an unfair competitive advantage that compromised the integrity of competition."

Harbaugh cannot be present at the game venues on game days, but the head coach is allowed to attend practice and other team activities.

The Wolverines (9-0, 6-0 Big Ten) have three games remaining in the regular season: at Penn State, at Maryland and vs. Ohio State. A potential Big Ten title game is Dec. 2 in Indianapolis. The College Football Playoff will announce its four-team field on Dec. 3.

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Harbaugh, 59, has not been proven to have any direct knowledge of the plot. Yahoo Sports reported this week “the NCAA’s findings do not connect the in-person scouting and recording of opponents’ sidelines to Harbaugh.”

The news of the suspension first broke while the Wolverines were flying to Penn State for Saturday's top-10 matchup.

U-M filed for a temporary restraining order with Washtenaw County Circuit Court Judge Timothy Connors on Friday evening. Connors is also a lecturer at the University of Michigan Law School. Michigan said in a statement Friday afternoon it intends to prevent "this disciplinary action from taking effect."

Conference commissioner Tony Petitti, who began his tenure in April, faced mounting pressure from coaches and athletic directors across the Big Ten in recent weeks as details of the Wolverines’ illegal scouting tactics surfaced.

Michigan was first warned of potential disciplinary action on Monday.

What the Big Ten said

In a 13-page letter, issued by Petitti to Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel, Petitti notes that U-M's response to the conference on Wednesday "does not deny that the impermissible scheme occurred. Instead, it offers only procedural and technical arguments designed to delay accountability."

Petitti also wrote that "the existence of the impermissible scheme is proven."

However, the letter also reads: "We impose this disciplinary action even though the Conference has not yet received any information indicating that Head Football Coach Harbaugh was aware of the impermissible nature of the sign-stealing scheme. This is not a sanction of Coach Harbaugh. It is a sanction against the University that, under the extraordinary circumstances presented by this offensive conduct, best fits the violation because: (1) it preserves the ability of the University's football student-athletes to continue competing; and (2) it recognizes that the Head Coach embodies the University for purposes of its football program."

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Michigan questions 'impartiality' of decision

The school released a statement shortly after the suspension was announced.

"Today's action by Commissioner Petitti disregards the Conference's own handbook, violates basic tenets of due process, and sets an untenable precedent of assessing penalties before an investigation has been completed," the statement read in part. "We are dismayed at the Commissioner's rush to judgment when there is an ongoing NCAA investigation — one in which we are fully cooperating."

The statement also said the suspension "suggests that this is more about reacting to pressure from other Conference members than a desire to apply the rules fairly and impartially."

U-M also asserts that because the suspension came in the midafternoon on Friday, "on Veterans Day — a court holiday — to try to thwart the University from seeking immediate judicial relief is hardly a profile in impartiality."

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Sign-stealing timeline

News of the sign-stealing investigation broke Oct. 19 and by the next day, U-M recruiting analyst Connor Stalions was identified by ESPN a person of interest. In the days that followed, various reports surfaced with evidence that Stalions would purchase tickets on the sideline of U-M’s future opponents, forward the tickets to informants who would attend the games and record videos of staffers sending in signals on the sideline throughout the game.

Then, they would reportedly send those videos back to Stalions, who would sync up the plays and the signals and see what he could pick up. According to reports, Stalions purchased tickets to more than 35 games at 17 different stadiums and had a $15,000 budget for tickets and travel for the 2023 season.

In-person scouting of upcoming scheduled opponents has been outlawed for 30 years, and using electronics to steal signs is also against NCAA rules.

Stalions is also under a joint investigation between Central Michigan and the NCAA for potentially disguising himself as a CMU staffer and working the sideline Sept. 1 during the Chippewas' season opener at Spartan Stadium against Michigan State.

Stalions, in his second season as a full-time staffer after volunteering for several seasons, resigned from his position Friday after refusing to cooperate with investigators.

Petitti outlined that the NCAA shared its evidence of this investigation with the Big Ten. According to Petitti, the NCAA "knew and could prove" the following: the staff member "participated and coordinated a vast off campus, in-person advance scouting scheme"; that staffer bought and forwarded tickets games for U-M future opponents; the staffer and others recorded signs of other teams while at those games.

[ MUST LISTEN: Our most recent "Hail Yes!" episode tackles all things Michigan football sign stealing and looks ahead to the Penn State showdown. Find it anywhere you listen to podcasts (Apple, Spotify), and listen below. ]

Michigan's defense

U-M's attempts to defend against the cries for action began publicly last week, when university president Santa Ono sent Petitti a letter ahead of their meeting Friday.

Ono, in his letter, asked the league to respect “due process” and allow the NCAA investigation to play itself out.

Then, Monday, Manuel announced he would not be in attendance to serve in his capacity on the College Football Playoff committee this week, saying instead he will be “attending to important matters regarding the ongoing investigation into our football program.”

Among U-M’s layers of defense include a report from The Associated Press that a former staffer from another Big Ten program said his team had been given details of signs from multiple other league schools and used them to help compile a spreadsheet of Michigan’s signals. Other media outlets later reported that it was Purdue that got help from Ohio State and Rutgers before last season's Big Ten championship game.

What's next?

The No. 2 Wolverines have won 21 consecutive conference games and 20 straight regular season games, two streaks that have their biggest threat of this season Saturday at No. 9 Penn State (8-1, 5-1).

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Michigan has been here before: Harbaugh was suspended by the university for three games to start this season in response to a different NCAA investigation. Manuel’s office was served the notice of allegations in January, in which the program was accused of a series of Level II recruiting violations; Harbaugh was hit with a Level I violation for "misleading" investigators, according to the NCAA.

Defensive coordinator Jesse Minter was the interim head coach in Week 1, offensive coordinator Sherrone Moore took over in Week 2, and special teams coordinator Jay Harbaugh and running backs coach Mike Hart each took a half in the third game of the season.

Contact Tony Garcia: apgarcia@freepress.com. Follow him at @realtonygarcia.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Big Ten suspends Michigan's Jim Harbaugh for rest of regular season