I was originally going to begin this post with, “It just keeps getting worse for the Cheaters.”
But that wouldn’t be accurate. The Cheaters have already done all of this stuff. They know what they did.
The only thing that’s happening here is the details are being brought to light. More and more of what the Cheaters did over the past three years is being exposed.
So I will rephrase: as more and more of this scandal is uncovered, it just looks worse and worse with each passing day.
ESPN’s latest headline:
Sources: Michigan staffer bought tickets for non-Big Ten games
Before we get into the article, I raised this possibility yesterday, saying that the latest rumors going around on social media were that it was not just Big Ten teams that the Cheaters were spying on–it was playoff contenders in other conferences as well.
I said that if indeed that was the case, then this becomes way bigger than just the Big Ten. I now think it’s unavoidable that the Cheaters are ruled ineligible from the CFP.
If you really think about it, it’s unavoidable that this scandal affects programs in other conferences. It affects the Big Ten the most in the regular season. But when the Cheaters are one of the four teams that get a playoff spot, that affects teams in other conferences–Alabama, Georgia, Oklahoma, Texas, Florida State, Washington, Oregon, etc. One of them could get left out of the playoff while the Cheaters get in. And they are going to be absolutely furious if and when that happens.
We all remember how hard Nick Saban lobbied at the last minute to try to get Alabama into the playoff.
Now that Saban knows the Cheaters cheated en route to going undefeated last season, how pissed must he be? Yes, Alabama had 2 losses last year, but they were also ranked 5th in the final CFP rankings. They were the first team out of the playoff.
Now that they know the Cheaters were cheating last season, why wouldn’t Alabama be livid? Yes, the Cheaters were undefeated while Alabama had 2 losses, but Alabama can also just say that the Cheaters wouldn’t have been undefeated if they didn’t CHEAT. So Alabama now has a plausible claim that the Cheaters’ cheating deprived Alabama of a chance to compete for a National Championship, and Nick Saban will be damned if he lets them do it again this season.
It’s cooked for the Cheaters. It’s not just the Big Ten that will be united against them–it’s all the other conferences. The Cheaters are depriving teams in other conferences of playoff berths.
But let’s take a look at the latest ESPN article, written by Pete Thamel and Mark Schlabach:
The scope of the alleged illicit scouting ring being orchestrated by suspended Michigan analyst Connor Stalions continues to grow, as sources told ESPN on Tuesday that he bought tickets for games at four schools outside of the Big Ten that were either in College Football Playoff contention or playing contenders.
There also is record of Stalions buying tickets to the 2021 and 2022 SEC title games, sources told ESPN. The tickets to the SEC title games were purchased on the secondary market, according to sources.
Boom, there it is. The Cheaters spied on both Georgia and Alabama. Or at least they tried to–I’m not sure if it’s been confirmed that they actually had someone in attendance at these games they bought tickets for.
Other news outlets have reported that the Cheaters bought tickets to a Tennessee game and a Clemson game.
ESPN also learned that Stalions, who is at the center of an NCAA investigation into Michigan’s alleged sign-stealing operation, bought tickets to a 12th Big Ten school, as sources at 12 of the 13 possible Big Ten schools have a record of Stalions buying a ticket there. ESPN reported on Monday there were 11 schools.
So now it’s 12 out of a possible 13 Big Ten schools that the Cheaters have spied on.
Any guesses on the one team they didn’t try to spy on?
Since the start of the 2021 season, the Cheaters have played all 13 possible Big Ten opponents. But there’s one team they never attempted to spy on. I’m assuming it’s a bottom-dweller. My gut tells me it’s Northwestern for some reason, but we really don’t know.
According to four sources, all of the tickets for games outside the Big Ten involved CFP contenders and were purchased either toward the middle or end of the 2022 season, as Michigan was headed to the College Football Playoff for the second consecutive season.
There can be very little doubt that one of the teams the Cheaters scouted was Georgia, the defending National Champions who were undefeated. Without a doubt, Georgia was at the top of their list.
Soon after ESPN reported that Stalions had emerged as a centerpiece of the NCAA’s investigation into Michigan’s sign-stealing scheme on Friday, the school suspended him with pay. Since that time, schools around the country have been checking their ticket data — which includes the secondary market in most cases — to see if Stalions purchased tickets to their games.
So far, ESPN has confirmed that Stalions has purchased tickets to more than 35 games at 17 stadiums around the country. He has used a network of at least three people, who were forwarded the tickets to attend games.
A source told ESPN on Tuesday that the NCAA has been sent at least an hour of video evidence that shows a person sitting in a seat appearing to tape the home sideline with a smartphone. Stalions purchased the ticket for that seat. The video is expected to be used as part of the investigation to show that electronics were used in the signal-stealing ring, according to sources.
Right now, it seems like the only thing the Cheaters can do is try to filibuster and bog this down in a battle of legal jargon and semantics–like Bill Clinton famously asking what the definition of “is” is. They will try to get off the hook on technicalities and bullshit, but the fact of the matter is, this is not a court of law–there are different standards to meet here. This is not a jury trial, nor is this a situation where the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty. The prosecution does not have to meet a certain standard of proof, whether it be a preponderance of the evidence, beyond a reasonable doubt, or what have you. It is not a trial. It is not matriculating through the US legal system.
And right now, it looks as if the cheaters have been caught dead to rights.
We know they were buying tickets to opposing teams’ games, we know people were sitting in those seats recording the sidelines–it’s blindingly obvious now. The jig is up.
And I told you it was likely every program in the Big Ten wants Jim Harbaugh nailed to wall:
“Unless something happens right now, it’s irrelevant,” said a source on a Big Ten campus, underscoring the frustration around the league. “Everyone is mad. This is not right. But what is the NCAA going to do about it?”
That’s the main question now, isn’t it? At this point, the only people who are still in denial that the Cheaters are guilty of what they’ve been accused of are delusional Cheaters fans on social media and in the actual media.
It’s basically just Dave Portnoy (a Cheaters alum) and Colin Cowherd (the biggest Cheaters fanboy in the media–the guy has a 15 minute Harbaugh circlejerk every Wednesday on his show).
But here is where things start to get interesting:
Although the NCAA is leading the investigation into Michigan, the Big Ten could take action against the school before the probe is complete, sources told ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg on Tuesday. The Big Ten’s sportsmanship policy states that commissioner Tony Petitti has the “exclusive authority to determine whether offensive actions have occurred,” and to impose discipline for members.
The policy lists “integrity of the competition” as a fundamental element that all Big Ten schools are expected to uphold. Institutions are responsible for “the actions of its employees” and for cooperating with the league during an investigation.
The Big Ten has two categories for discipline. The first includes fines that don’t exceed $10,000 and suspensions of no more than two contests. The second, for major disciplinary action, requires approval from an executive committee made up of representatives of different schools, which can deny proposed penalties or reduce them but not add to them. The Big Ten’s penalties for Michigan State from the fight with Michigan in the Michigan Stadium tunnel in 2022 were an example of major disciplinary action.
So the commissioner of the Big Ten has sole authority to decide whether or not to take action against the Cheaters, and he does not have to wait until the NCAA completes its investigation. However:
A source told ESPN that the Big Ten would want to have “as full of a picture of what the facts actually are if we were to act” before the NCAA completes its investigation, which likely would not occur until sometime in 2024.
Right, sure. But there’s no doubt Petitti will be under immense pressure from pretty much every program in the conference to take swift and decisive action ASAP.
NCAA enforcement timelines are notoriously slow. Michigan is still under investigation for recruiting violations tied to allegations that emerged during the COVID-19 mandated recruiting dead period. (Harbaugh served a school-imposed three-game suspension for those violations earlier this year, but the case remains unfinished.)
The emergence of Stalions purchasing tickets at three College Football Playoff contenders outside the Big Ten reflects the potential breadth of the operation, which sources told ESPN last week was “elaborate.”
After ESPN reported on Monday that sources at 11 of the possible 13 Big Ten schools had confirmed Stalions bought a ticket in his name at their stadium, another source at a 12th Big Ten school found a record of Stalions purchasing a ticket at their stadium. The school that didn’t find Stalions in their records does not have access to search names in secondary markets.
Okay, so it’s likely that the Cheaters spied on all 13 other Big Ten programs, but one of them simply doesn’t have the ability to determine whether Stalions bought tickets to any of their games. We can probably safely assume they were spying on everybody. Let’s be #Inclusive.
I know the authors of this article have said that it’s unlikely any disciplinary action will be taken against Michigan this season, but I am not so sure about that.
They are speaking from previous experience with the NCAA.
The issue is that this situation is completely unprecedented. This is unlike any scandal or transgression the NCAA–or the Big Ten, or the media–has ever experienced before.
This is an active and ongoing cheating scandal that impacts the competitive integrity of the still-in-progress 2023 college football season. The integrity of the sport is compromised unless the Cheaters are disqualified from postseason competition.
If a teacher catches a kid cheating on a test, the teacher doesn’t wait to take action. The teacher doesn’t wait until the kid turns the test in and then goes on to graduate before taking action. It doesn’t work that way.
If you catch someone in the act of cheating, you have to take action immediately.
The Cheaters cheated in Big Ten play this season. They should be disqualified immediately on those grounds. 12 of the 13 other Big Ten programs have now accused them of cheating. There is no possible way you can just dismiss that as, “Well they might all just be jealous of the Cheaters. We have to wait until we conduct a full and thorough investigation.”
This has never happened before. This is not just because the Cheaters are having a really good season. News flash: other teams have had really good seasons before in the Big Ten, and in every other conference across the country–none of them were accused by virtually every other team in the conference of cheating.
Not. A. Single. One.
These charges have never once been leveled against Ohio State, Alabama, Georgia or any other dominant program in the midst of a great season.
Did anyone accuse LSU of cheating in 2019 as they were on that magical run? No.
Cheaters fans think the world is out to get them, but they need to be honest with themselves and think about why this has never happened to anyone else.
I’m sure they had no inclination to ever wonder why, all of the sudden, their team went from 2-4 to the most dominant team in the Big Ten. Or why their program had lost 9 straight to Ohio State and then all of the sudden started owning Ohio State despite the fact that their recruiting never surpassed Ohio State’s, nor did Ohio State fall off as a program.
It would be easier to understand the Cheaters’ sudden dominance in the rivalry if Ohio State fell off as a program, but they haven’t. They still recruit at a top-3 level; the Cheaters do not. Ohio State is still a playoff-level program, but you’re going to try to tell me the Cheaters just magically surpassed them without any sort of corresponding level-up in recruiting? No way. There was something else going on. And now we know what it was.
Look, I get it. Cheaters fans had no inclination to question any of it.
Why would they? It’s like if you’re living with your family in a cramped, run-down apartment on the bad side of town, and all the sudden your dad moves the family to a nice 5-bedroom house across town. You’re not going to wonder if maybe dad hit a lick or started slinging drugs or something like that–you’re going to be happy about it!
The one thing to understand about Cheaters fans is that they have an indefatigable and irrepressible superiority complex over everyone, but especially over Ohio State. No matter how many times Ohio State kicked their asses, they still thought they were the better program and the better human beings.
No matter how many times they got their asses kicked in a bowl game by an SEC team, they still have always thought they were the best football program in America. They believe it with all their hearts. They are the most delusional fanbase in sports and nobody else even comes anywhere close. They look at their recent success against Ohio State and the rest of the Big Ten not with skepticism, but as, basically, all is right in the world once again. Order has been restored to the kingdom.
The usurpers and insurrectionists have been driven out, and the rightful king returns from exile to reclaim his throne.
In their minds, this is the way things are supposed to be.
It’s why they puff their chests out now and talk like they’ve never lost to Ohio State before.
They were somehow able to convince themselves that 20 years of being dominated by Ohio State–and being continually embarrassed by just about every other big time program–was, somehow, a fluke, or in some other way illegitimate.
It’s like if I’m playing against my buddy in FIFA or 2K or Madden, and he beats me 20 times in a row, but then I finally beat him one time after losing 20 in a row, and I’m like, “See? I knew I was better than you!”
That is how Cheaters fans’ minds work. I promise you that’s how they think. They have somehow been able to rationalize 20 years of getting their asses kicked by Ohio State and every other great program out there as either “bullshit” or “they were cheating” (LOL–but they really have said that), or “we’d rather do things the Right Way™ and lose than do things the wrong way and win.”
That is how they think.
They truly believe with all their hearts that the past 2 years are legitimate, but the previous 20 years weren’t.
Even now, most of them are still convinced beyond all doubt they are winning the National Championship this year. They think that this is just some made-up witch hunt to discredit them because every other team in the country knows they can’t beat them. They view this as like the collective “last gasp” by Ohio State, Penn State and everyone else to try and somehow prevent the Cheaters from steamrolling their way to a Natty.
And yes, they believe Ohio State is behind all of this–they believe Ohio State is terrified of them, they believe they have Ohio State’s number and will never lose to them again, and so in their eyes, this is a desperate Ryan Day’s only hope of ever beating them.
They think the reason that everyone in the Big Ten has united against them is because everyone is terrified of how great they are, instead of the fact that everyone else just views them as monumentally arrogant and detestable pricks–who have now also been found to be cheaters of the highest order.
They have absolutely no clue that people in the SEC are laughing their asses off over all of this. They think Georgia and Alabama are also afraid of them. They have no idea that Georgia and Alabama both have absolutely zero fear of the Cheaters, and in fact would be happy to play them because of how easy it’s historically been to beat them.
They really do believe that Ohio State is terrified of them, and that Ohio State is so thoroughly demoralized after the last two years that they have completely abandoned all hope of ever beating the Cheaters again.
Which is hilarious, because of all the programs they spied on, the Cheaters evidently had a particularly keen interest in scouting Ohio State’s games:
According to the source, the ticket was purchased across from the visiting sideline for a game against Ohio State. It’s the fourth Ohio State-related game that ESPN has confirmed, three of which were in opposing stadiums where the tickets were purchased across from the visitor’s sideline. The fourth was OSU’s game against Penn State on Saturday, for which Stalions had purchased tickets across from both sidelines, according to sources. Michigan still must play both of those teams this season.
Yeah, it definitely seems like the Cheaters aren’t sweating Ohio State at all!
Doesn’t matter to the Cheaters fans, though. Everyone is just out to get them, and Ohio State is orchestrating the whole thing from behind the scenes.
They have this foundational belief that they are the gold standard program of college football no matter how often reality proves that to be laughably untrue. They’ve got it in their heads that Michigan is not only the preeminent program in the Big Ten, but in the whole country.
The way all the rest of us view Alabama, that’s how they see themselves.
Why do they believe this, though? Why do Cheaters fans believe that they are the flagship program in all of college football? How did they get this idea in their heads?
Well, for starters, they have the most arrogant fight song in the country. It’s literally called, “Hail to the Victors.” In other words, we’re the best–bow down, bitches. Most other schools’ fight songs are things like, “On, Wisconsin!” or “Fight for LSU,” or “The Orange and Blue,” or “Buckeye Battle Cry” Some variation of “Onward!” or “Fight!” or something like that.
Other schools have “Hail [school name]” as their fight song name.
But only Michigan refers to themselves as “The Victors” who others must hail.
Seems like a small thing, perhaps, but don’t underestimate how much those four words–Hail to the Victors–mean to the Cheater faithful. It is literally the whole program’s motto and it sets the tone for everything.
But beyond slogans and fight songs, what really gives Michigan fans this idea that everyone is jealous of them and looks up to them? There has to be some actual on-field success they can point to, right?
Technically, there is.
They have the most wins of any college football program–997 as of October 21, 2023. They are closing in on 1,000 and they will be the first NCAA football program at any level to hit that number. Even when they inevitably have to vacate a bunch of wins and they get knocked back down into the 960s, they still may win up being the first program to hit 1,000 wins. Ohio State is currently second at 959 wins, so even if Michigan has to vacate 13 wins from last year, 12 from 2021, and between 7-13 wins from this season, that is at most 38 wins, which, funny enough, puts them at exactly 959.
They also claim to have 9 National Championships, which isn’t the most (Alabama claims 16, Notre Dame claims 13), but it was pretty close to the top before Alabama went on their dynastic run over the past 15 years, and a lot of the Michigan superiority complex is actually ingrained dating back to the 1990s, which is the last time they were good (but still not even close to the preeminent program in the country even during that era).
So when taken at face value, the 9 National Championships and Most All Time Wins serve as the justification for that bedrock, foundational belief that Michigan is the gold standard of college football.
Of course, they haven’t actually won an outright National Championship since 1948–they split a National Championship with Nebraska in 1997, even though it’s likely that had they actually played Nebraska head to head, Nebraska would’ve won.
Seriously, their claimed National Championships are as follows: 1901, 1902, 1903, 1904, 1918, 1923, 1933, 1948, 1997. Only two of those actually happened in the Poll Era (since 1936), and four of them happened before the legalization of the forward pass (1905). Nevertheless, they are still very proud of those 9 National Championships.
(And if you ever wonder why, beyond the recruiting rankings, I’m so confident that they won’t win a National Championship, it should be obvious: because they’ve never been a National Championship program in the modern era! They haven’t been a National Championship program in 75 years. They snuck half of one in during the 1990s purely because the BCS or CFP didn’t exist, and they didn’t actually have to play Nebraska.)
And, along those same lines, while they do lead all programs in wins, it’s mainly because they got a head start on everyone else. They’ve been playing football continuously since 1892, and back then they were playing against teams like “Physicians and Surgeons,” and “Grand Rapids High”. Michigan has been playing for 134 years, while Texas has played 122 seasons, Alabama and Georgia 120, Notre Dame 117, Oklahoma 115, Ohio State 112, and USC 102 seasons.
I’m not sitting here trying to say those wins or National Championships don’t count because they happened a long time ago, but rather if you haven’t won shit since, like, World War II, you’re just delusional if you think you’re the flagship program in college football. A lot has happened since then–they have long since been surpassed by a number of programs. Those National Titles you won before the sinking of the Titanic are great–but what have you actually done lately to justify your arrogance and sense of entitlement?
They are a good-not-great program but for some reason they believe they’re Alabama.
This is why I keep saying they’re the most delusional fanbase in American sports.
They simply are.
Right now, they are going through the cycle of grief as they try to come to grips with the fact that everything their football program has done since 2021 has been fake, and they’re about to get nuked by the NCAA:
Now I want to pivot to something I thought was equal parts hilarious and interesting: the Tennessee Vols message boards actually broke this whole story back in December 2022!
The college football message boards are truly incredible. So much nonsense is posted there (flight tracking season is when the message boards are in peak form), and obviously you can’t trust like 90% of what you read on them, but it isn’t all nonsense.
Sometimes, people aren’t just lying to sound cool. Sometimes you can actually find little nuggets of gold amidst all the ranting, raving and wish-making.
And it does make sense–I’m sure there are some people on those message boards who actually do have connections, or are in actual positions within college football, and are simply posting anonymously because they just want to share some of the crazy things they’ve seen and heard over the years.
I’ve been laughing my ass off about all the people on the Michigan State message boards who are convinced Urban Meyer is about to be their next head coach, but at this point…. I’m starting to wonder if they might not be so crazy.
Last thing I want to share, courtesy of Adam King:
Don’t focus on the players, focus on the Michigan sideline.
This is from the first drive of the Ohio State-Michigan game from last year. Ohio State actually did end up scoring a touchdown on this drive, and actually I think it may have even been on this play in particular.
But what happens here is, CJ Stroud is about to call for a snap, but then the Ohio State sideline audibles out of whatever play they had. That’s why you see Stroud look over to the sideline for the new play.
Look in the background, though. Look at the Michigan sideline. You can see Stalions:
When Stroud and the Ohio State players look back at their sideline, Stalions and the Michigan sideline are looking at the Ohio State sideline as well, and once Stroud gets the signal from the sideline, you can immediately see Stalions and everyone else on the Michigan sideline doing a pointing up gesture frantically, indicating to their players on the field that it’s going to be a pass play.
Because they knew Ohio State’s signs already.
And again, this was Ohio State’s first drive of the game. You do not crack another team’s code that quickly unless you’ve already scouted them beforehand.
Also, this should make it abundantly clear that EVERYONE on that Michigan sideline knew the drill. They all knew what Stalions and his “network” were up to. They all knew he had the signs for the opposing teams, and they all knew what to do once Stalions identified the play call. They all knew what was up. There is no way anyone can claim Harbaugh wasn’t in on it. This was a way of life for Michigan. It was an integral part of Harbaugh’s program culture.
Everyone was in on it.
I’ve seen a lot of people pushing the narrative that Ohio State switched up their signs prior to this game so there’s no way Michigan had any sort of advantage, and they just beat the Buckeyes fair and square–because they’re just plain better than the Buckeyes, and they always have been and always will be, damnit!
For one thing, if Ohio State did switch up their signs, it clearly didn’t work. Michigan had them figured out immediately.
It’s not easy to switch up your offensive signs in the middle of the season. Defense, maybe. But offense? No way. Offensive signs are way more complex–there’s a sign for the formation, the protection and the routes. So you’d have to come up with new signs for every play in your playbook, and each play has at least three different signs. And you have to make it so you’re not repeating signs and confusing your players–it’s just not possible to switch up your offensive signs in the middle of the season, much less in the week before the game.
At any rate, this is the result of the Michigan spying program: this is it playing out in a game. They watch the opposing sideline, read the play call, and then respond accordingly. There’s just no way you can tell me that having this knowledge on every play in every game does not provide a team a significant advantage–especially if the other team doesn’t know your plays.
College football needs to move to helmets with comms in them ASAP. It’s time to scrap this archaic system of signaling from the sideline, and trying to figure out the other team’s signs.
It’s not football, man.
I understand that sign-stealing is part of the game. If you can figure it out during a game, more power to you.
But it shouldn’t even be a thing. We have the technology to completely bypass all of it.
Sign-stealing is only a part of the game because of archaic rules that require teams to use signs in the first place.
Put a radio in every quarterback’s helmet, have the offensive coordinator radio the play call down to him, and run the damn play.
No more hand signs; no more large poster boards with pictures of LeBron James, a horse, and a pair of dice; no more covert operations to opposing stadiums to film sidelines.
Just get with the program, college football.
Fade the Public 