2015: Michigan hires Connor Stalions as a voluntary staffer, a position that he holds until May of 2022, when he is hired as a paid "off-field recruiting analysts", with a salary reported to be $55,000.00 a year. During this time, Stalions apparently wrote his "Michigan Manifesto", a 550 to 600 page document in which he details his love for Michigan football and his plan to take over control of the Michigan football team.
01/02/2020: Connor Stalions tweets his thanks to Michigan football coach Chris Partridge: "Thank you to the coach who took a chance & got my foot in the door at my dream school. To the family who has basically adopted me on fall weekends. To one of my best friends now, thanks for everything you've done...."
March 2022: Connor Stalions, prior to becoming a paid member of the Michigan staff, purchases a home in Ann Arbor for the sum of $485,000. Shortly after moving in, Stalions is sued by his homeowners association for operating a prohibited business (a vacuum cleaner repair operation) from his home. In court documents, Stalions essentially uses Jim Harbaugh as a character reference.
10/01/2022: After beating Iowa 27-14, Michigan head football coach Jim Harbaugh presents Connor Stalions with a game ball.
01/05/2023: The NCAA sends Michigan a draft Notice of Allegations for multiple recruiting rules violations, including a Level I violation by head coach Jim Harbaugh for misleading NCAA investigators.
01/20/2023: Michigan fires co-offensive coordination Matt Weiss for cause for "inappropriately access[ing]" computer accounts belonging to other people.
02/13/2023: In response to an FOIA request from the AP, Michigan releases Weiss's termination letter but refuses to release any evidence in support of his termination, citing state law exemptions to FOIA (possibly citing an ongoing investigation by campus police and the FBI).
05/21/2023: After just five days on the job, Michigan assistant director of recruiting Glenn "Shemy" Schembechler, the son of former head football coach Bo Schembechler, "resigns" for Tweeting racist content.
08/12/2023: Negotiations between the NCAA and Michigan regarding punishment for Jim Harbaugh over his Level I infraction are terminated after the NCAA rejects a proposed 4-game suspension for Harbaugh. According to ESPN:
In a rare case of an official comment during an ongoing case, the NCAA issued a statement later Saturday hinting that Harbaugh was not cooperative with the investigation.
"The Michigan infractions case is related to impermissible on and off-campus recruiting during the COVID-19 dead period and impermissible coaching activities -- not a cheeseburger," said Derrick Crawford, the NCAA vice president of hearing operations, in reference to a common over-simplification of the case in some media circles that distilled it to buying burgers. "It is not uncommon for the COI to seek clarification on key facts prior to accepting."
The statement continued, "the COI may also reject an NR [negotiated resolution] if it determines that the agreement is not in the best interests of the Association or the penalties are not reasonable. If the involved parties cannot resolve a case through the negotiated resolution process, it may proceed to a hearing, but the committee believes cooperation is the best avenue to quickly resolve issues."
08/21/2023: Michigan self-imposes a 3-game suspension of Jim Harbaugh; the NCAA does not sign off on this punishment and keeps its investigation open.
08/25/2023: The Big Ten Conference retains U.S. Integrity (USI) "to enhance monitoring efforts and provide additional educational resources to help prevent student-athletes, coaches, and staff from engaging in prohibited sports wagering.... USI will provide integrity monitoring, educational, and social media monitoring services to the Big Ten Conference via its proprietary dashboard. USI conducts analysis across dozens of data sets to proactively identify irregular contest-level, officiating and wagering patterns."
09/01/2023: Michigan "recruiting analyst" Connor Stalions is on the Central Michigan sidelines for their Friday night game against Michigan State. Stalions is wearing Central Michigan coaching gear, has a sideline pass, and despite the lack of sunlight is wearing sunglasses that apparently contain a video recording device in the temple. The head coach for Central Michigan is Jim McElwain, who was an assistant coach at Michigan in 2018; also on the Central Michigan staff are former Michigan coaches Michael Zordich (2015-2020) and Jake Kostner (2015-2018).
09/29/2023: "Low level" football staffer Alex Yood attempts to meet a (fictional) 13-year old girl for sex. Michigan fires Yood shortly after the incident becomes public in the form of an Instagram video released by Boopac Shakur, a man who outed child predators.
10/17/2023: An "outside investigative firm" (presumably U.S. Integrity) notifies the NCAA of a potential prohibited sign-stealing scheme conducted by members of the Michigan football staff. The scheme allegedly involves Connor Stalions (and persons hired by him) attending opponents' games and filming their signs from coaches to players.
10/18/2023: The NCAA notifies the Big Ten and Michigan that it will be investigating the alleged sign-stealing scheme.
10/20/2023: Michigan places Connor Stalions on paid administrative leave. On the same date, Stalions removed hard drives from computers in the Michigan football offices and gave a Michigan football player a sheet containing playcalling signals of a future opponent.
10/23/2023: ESPN reports that Connor Stalions purchased tickets "for more than 30 games at 11 Big Ten schools over the past three years."
10/24/2023: Yahoo Sports reports that Connor Stalions purchased tickets for a Tennessee football game during the 2022 season; at that time, both the Volunteers and the Wolverines were potential 2022 Playoff participants (Michigan made the 2022 Playoffs, but Tennessee did not).
10/31/2023: Central Michigan begins an investigation into Connor Stalions's attendance at the aforementioned Michigan State game.
11/02/2023: In a telephone call with Michigan and the Big Ten, NCAA investigators state that they "knew and could prove" the extensive sign-stealing operation conducted by Connor Stalions.
11/03/2023: Connor Stalions resigns from Michigan and refuses to cooperate in any internal or external investigation.
11/07/2023: Evidence emerges that Connor Stalions and Michigan star running back Blake Corum are business partners in a Wyoming limited liability company. Corum lawyers up and denies any business relationship with Stalions despite government filings to the contrary.
11/10/2023: The Big Ten suspends Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh for the final three games of the 2023 regular season for violating the conference's Sportsmanship Policy by allegedly stealing opponents' signs: "The goal of the scheme was to gain an unfair advantage by stealing the signs of teams that the University's football team was due to play later in the season. Such misconduct inherently compromises the integrity of competition." The Big Ten presents a 13-page letter to Michigan in which it claims that the NCAA has strong evidence of sign stealing. Michigan files for a temporary restraining order against the Big Ten, claiming lack of due process and irreparable harm; the TRO hearing is set for November 17th.
11/16/2023: Michigan assistant coach Steve Clinkscale deletes his Twitter account. In unrelated news, Michigan unexpectedly drops its TRO motion on the eve of the hearing.
11/17/2023: Michigan fires assistant football coach Chris Partridge, one of Connor Stalions's best friends and the person who apparently got Stalions a job at Michigan, either for attempting to destroy computer evidence of the alleged sign-stealing operation (per Yahoo Sports) or for improperly communicating with others during an ongoing investigation, i.e. witness tampering (per Michigan press release).
11/17/2023: Yahoo reports that a Michigan booster known as "Uncle T" was at least partly responsible for funding Connor Stalions's sign-stealing operation. In unrelated news, the Champions Circle NIL collective for Michigan disassociates itself from Tim "Totchman" Smith, a major Michigan donor and former member of the Champions Circle board.
03/16/2024: Michigan defensive line coach Greg Scruggs is arrested for drunk driving around 3:00 AM. After the incident, Scruggs was suspended indefinitely and he resigned five days later.
04/15/2024: Michigan assistant director of player personnel Denard Robinson is arrested for drunk driving after a single-vehicle crash at 3:05 AM.
04/16/2024: In a press release, The NCAA announces that Michigan has admitted to recruiting violations related to Burgergate, specifically:
Impermissible in-person recruiting contacts during a COVID-19 dead period, impermissible tryouts, and the program exceeding the number of allowed countable coaches when noncoaching staff members engaged in on- and off-field coaching activities (including providing technical and tactical skills instruction to student-athletes). The negotiated resolution also involved the school's agreement that the underlying violations demonstrated a head coach responsibility violation and the former football head coach failed to meet his responsibility to cooperate with the investigation.
As a result, Michigan received three years of probation, recruiting restrictions, and a fine consistent with a Level I infraction, and five former staff members received one-year show cause orders consistent with Level II infractions.
Former head coach Jim Harbaugh refused to cooperate with the investigation, and the NCAA referred his case to the Committee on Infractions.
07/22/2024: Netflix announces that it will release "Sign Stealer", a documentary about Connor Stalions and the Sign Stealing scandal that will air on August 27th. Connor Stalions participated in the documentary and will deny any wrongdoing, citing "loopholes" in the NCAA rules on advanced scouting and sign stealing which rendered his scheme permissible.
07/25/2024: Mere days after the Netflix announcement, the NCAA delivers a draft Notice of Allegations (NOA) to Michigan regarding the Sign Stealing scandal. The same draft NOA was also delivered to Central Michigan for its role in the scandal, namely allowing a Michigan football staffer (Connor Stalions) to be on the Chippewas' sideline for their September 1st game against Michigan State, where he was apparently filming Spartan play call signals using his special spy sunglasses (see above).
07/30/2024: Central Michigan fires quarterback coach Jake Kostner, who spent four years as a student assistant at Michigan and knows Connor Stalions personally. Kostner is believed to be the person (or one of the persons) who arranged for Stalions to be on the Central Michigan sidelines for the aforementioned Michigan State game. Central Michigan refuses to comment on the ongoing NCAA investigation but pledges to cooperate fully with investigators.
08/04/2024: The contents of the draft NOA begin to leak..... On October 17, 2023, the day that news of the Sign Stealing scandal broke, Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore (then offensive coordinator) apparently deleted 52 text messages between himself and "low-level staffer" Connor Stalions, a Level II violation. The texts were subsequently recovered by investigators using device imaging. In addition, former Michigan staff members Jim Harbaugh, Chris Partridge, Denard Robinson, and Connor Stalions were also accused of committing Level I violations for their roles in the scandal; Stalions was specifically charged with removing hard drives from the football offices, amongst other things. Michigan was also charged with a Level I violation for its "pattern of noncompliance within the football program" and institutional efforts to impede the NCAA's investigation.
08/05/2024: An Ohio State fan, Eleven Warriors message board poster, and internet sleuth using the screen name Brohio (he appears undercover in the Netflix documentary) alleges that Connor Stalions performed freelance work of some kind for the NFL's Baltimore Ravens, whose head coach (perhaps not coincidentally) is John Harbaugh, the older brother of former Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh. Brohio also claims that it is likely that former Michigan staffer Matt Weiss stole practice videos from Ohio State, or at least had stolen practice videos on his computer (see above).
08/05/2024: In a statement to the media, former Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh claims that he never lies, never cheats, never steals, then denies all knowledge of the Sign Stealing scandal.
08/07/2024: The never-lying, never-cheating, never-stealing Jim Harbaugh receives from the NCAA a one-year suspension from coaching college football and a four-year show cause order as punishment for his Level I failure to cooperate violation in the Burgergate scandal. According to the NCAA press release, Harbaugh displayed "
intentional disregard for NCAA legislation" and engaged in "
unethical conduct":
Throughout the investigation, Harbaugh denied his involvement in the violations, which were overwhelmingly supported by the record. Harbaugh also refused to participate in a hearing before the committee. Harbaugh's violations of the COVID-19 recruiting dead period are Level II violations, but his unethical conduct and failure to cooperate with the membership's infractions process — specifically, his provision of false or misleading information — is a Level I violation.
The NCAA also issued a 48-page report with detailed allegations, including the following from a former Michigan director of recruiting (presumed to be Matty Dudek): "The recruiting director reported that the football staff took no precautions during the visits to avoid in-person contact with the prospects ... and as a general matter, ‘the culture (in the football program) wasn’t to be safe, the culture was to go to the line and cross it if you had to.'"
08/07/2024: In response tho the NCAA's punishment, Jim Harbaugh's personal attorney, Tom Mars, accuses the NCAA of being a "kangaroo court" with an "obvious conflict of interest".
08/09/2024: In blatant defiance of the recently issued show cause order, Michigan announces that Jim Harbaugh will be the Wolverines' honorary captain for their season opener against Fresno State on August 31st.
08/13/2024: Michigan reverses course and states that Jim Harbaugh will no longer be honorary captain for the Fresno State game. Harbaugh states that he would rather "stay in the foxhole" with his current team, the NFL's Los Angeles Chargers, than take a "deep, long bow" for winning a national championship
* with Michigan.
08/20/2024: In a post on Eleven Warriors, internet sleuth Brohio confirms that at least one member of the Michigan coaching staff illegally accessed Ohio State's remote video server using a stolen login and password, presumably to obtain videos of Buckeye practices. Brohio states that the "digital breadcrumbs" seem to connect former co-offensive coordinator Matt Weiss and former defensive coordinator Jesse Minter to the hacking operation. Another Eleven Warriors poster using the screen name Premierdrum (real name Ross Musick, a former TV news assignments and digital editor with WSYX and WBNS in Columbus) confirms that Michigan hacked Ohio State's server and suggests that Michigan also attempted to hack into other teams' servers. Musick states that the Hacking scandal will be dealt with in yet another NCAA investigation (we're now up to three investigations in less than two years).
08/25/2024: With the Netflix "Sign Stealer" documentary set to be released in two days time, the NCAA delivers its formal NOA to Michigan. The NOA focuses on the Sign Stealing scandal, but also contains unrelated recruiting violations (in addition to those adjudicated in Burgergate). In line with the draft NOA that was delivered on or about July 25th, four former Michigan staffers – Jim Harbaugh, Chris Partridge, Denard Robinson, and Connor Stalions – along with current head coach Sherrone Moore, are charged with Level I violations; in addition, Michigan faces a Level I violation for its “pattern of noncompliance within the football program” and efforts to impede the NCAA's investigation.
08/28/2024: In an article entitled "
Michigan football's once spotless reputation in tatters after decisions to win at all cost", USA Today reporter Matt Hayes unloads on the "shameless defiance" of the renegade program up north, citing in particular school president Santo Ono and athletic director Warde Manuel for their support Jim Harbaugh, who had already been suspended and was facing a Level I violation for his role in the Burgergate scandal. Hayes then states that Harbaugh knew exactly what Connor Stalions was doing and that his sign stealing operation gave Michigan an "undeniable competitive advantage." Hayes concludes:
This is what happens when a program sells its soul for a championship, when desperation leads to deception, and worse, outright cheating and flouting of rules. When chasing (and eventually catching and passing) bitter rival Ohio State is more important than the foundational moral flex of a "Michigan Man. ... The short con paid off, everyone. Reputation be damned.
08/28/2024: The Athletic and New York Times also publish articles excoriating Michigan, and include this gem:
Roughly four hours before the 2021 Big Ten championship game, a Big Ten coach called an Iowa staffer and issued a warning. “Michigan has got all of your signals and calls,” the coach told the Iowa staffer. “I wished I’d gotten to you earlier.” That coach confirmed the context of that conversation to The Athletic. By then it was too late for Iowa to change its signals. Michigan dominated in every phase, blowing out the Hawkeyes 42-3 in Indianapolis.
10/05/2024: After a 27-17 loss at Washington, Chris Bryant, Michigan's Director of High School Relations, tells a Husky fan to "Shut the fuck up before you get fucked up." Of course, this genius-level outburst is caught on a cellphone video and posted on the website formerly known as Twitter. Michigan subsequently removes Bryant's bio from its official site.
11/13/2024: The NCAA amends the NOA based on additional information received from Central Michigan University.
12/12/2024: According to the NCAA Infractions Dashboard, an individual under investigation negotiated a resolution with the NCAA.
01/06/2025: According to the NCAA Infractions Dashboard, Michigan and an individual under investigation submitted responses to the NOA.
01/28/2025: Michigan leaks a portion of its NOA response to Yahoo sports reporter Ross Dellenger. In its response, Michigan admits essential elements of the scandal but accuses the NCAA of "overreach".
03/20/2025: After a lengthy investigation, the FBI charged former Michigan co-offensive coordinator Matt Weiss "in a 24-count indictment alleging 14 counts of unauthorized access to computers and 10 counts of aggravated identity theft." In a press release, the FBI gave the following details of Weiss's alleged conduct:
According to the indictment, between approximately 2015 and January 2023, Weiss gained unauthorized access to student athlete databases of more than 100 colleges and universities that were maintained by a third-party vendor. After gaining access to these databases, Weiss downloaded the personally identifiable information and medical data of more than 150,000 athletes. Using the information that he obtained from the student athlete databases and his own internet research, Weiss was able to obtain access to the social media, email, and/or cloud storage accounts of more than 2,000 target athletes. Weiss also illegally obtained access to the social media, email, and/or cloud storage accounts of more than 1,300 additional students and/or alumni from universities across the country. Once Weiss obtained access to these accounts, he downloaded personal, intimate digital photographs and videos that were never intended to be shared beyond intimate partners.
03/21/2025: On the day following the indictment of Matt Weiss, two female former student-athletes from the University of Michigan file a federal lawsuit against Weiss, the university, and Keffer Development Services, a firm that maintained a data base of information on more than 150,000 student-athletes. According to the lawsuit, Weiss's ability to hack into Keffer's database:
[W]as aided by the University and the Regents, both of whom permitted him to have access and use of electronic credentials that were means of viewing and downloading personal, private, and intimate images of Plaintiffs and others similar to them ... The recklessness and negligence and misconduct of the Regents, the University, and Keffer in these respects enabled Weiss to target female college athletes to obtain their private and sensitive information without authorization, including but not limited to Plaintiffs.
03/24/2025: Matt Weiss is arraigned in federal court on 24 counts of computer-related crimes; he pleads not guilty.
03/28/2025: A female student-athlete at the University of Michigan files a class action lawsuit against Matt Weiss; Michigan, the school's Board of Regents, and Keffer Development Services are named as co-defendants for enabling Weiss to commit "obscene privacy violations" against her and other female student-athletes. According to a press release issued by the plaintiff's attorney:
The university’s reckless negligence in supervising employees and securing its student data systems directly enabled Weiss to commit image-based sexual abuse against thousands of students. This isn’t just a major failure by the university — it’s an unforgivable dereliction of duty. And yet, instead of taking responsibility, the university has done nothing to protect victims, remedy the harm, or ensure this never happens again ... Due to poor cybersecurity and oversight practices from the university, Weiss was able to use his advanced access to students’ data to download personally identifiable information and medical data of more than 150,000 athletes. He then used that data to compromise passwords and hack into social media, email, or cloud storage accounts of more than 2,000 University of Michigan students and 1,300 additional students and alumni from universities and colleges across the country who also use Keffer’s databases.
04/28/2025: The NCAA announces that former Michigan football coaches Steve Clinkscale and Jesse Minter settled their respective recruiting violation cases (not related to the Sign Stealing Scandal). Clinkscale received a two-year show cause order and Minter a one-year show cause order.
05/04/2025: University of Michigan president/football fanboi Santo Ono announces that he is leaving the school to take the same position at the University of Florida (actually, he was named "sole finalist" for the job and has not been confirmed by the school). Ono's antics and defiance during the various Michigan football scandals allegedly annoyed certain important figures in the University community.
05/05/2025: Michigan suspends head football coach Sherrone Moore for two games for deleting all of his text messages with Connor Stalions, a Level 2 violation of NCAA rules. This self-imposed suspension was neither agreed to nor approved by the NCAA, and is unrelated to the underlying allegations of the Sign Stealing Scandal, which include six Level 1 violations of NCAA rules.
06/03/2025: The Florida Board of Governors rejects Santo Ono's appointment to be President of the University of Florida.
06/06/2025: The NCAA Committee on Infractions begins a two-day hearing on the Michigan Sign Stealing Scandal.
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25096134/usa_today_19702080.jpg "NCAA Basketball: Western Michigan at Wisconsin")
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25096129/usa_today_21905161.jpg "Syndication: The Columbus Dispatch")
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24512828/usa_today_20201854.jpg "NCAA Basketball: Big Ten Conference Tournament Semifinals Purdue vs. Ohio State")
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25091437/usa_today_21904984.jpg "Syndication: The Columbus Dispatch")
