Michigan sign-stealing scandal: NCAA fines university, suspends Sherrone Moore

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INDIANAPOLIS, IN - DECEMBER 2: Michigan Wolverines head coach Jim Harbaugh looks on before the Big Ten Championship Game against the Iowa Hawkeyes on December 2, 2023 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Icon Sportswir

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The University of Michigan will face a steep fine and must play a third game without head coach Sherrone Moore after the NCAA has handed down its decision from the investigation related to the school’s alleged sign-stealing scandal.

Michigan will receive a significant fine, expected to be up to $20 million, a four-year probation, recruiting restrictions, but will not receive any scholarship reductions or postseason bans.

Moore will also be suspended for a game in 2026. This is in addition to the self-imposed two-game suspension that Michigan set for weeks 3 and 4.

Despite all the suspensions and fines, the football team will not vacate its 2023 National Championship.

The 74-page ruling details all of the infractions and penalties.

NCAA punishes Michigan for sign-stealing

Michigan's four-year probation starts on April 10, 2027 and lasts through April 9, 2031. The suspension does not bar the football team from playing in bowl games or playoffs games.

The financial penalties amount to a 50% fine plus 10% of the budge for the team. An additional fine equal to the anticipated loss of all postseason competition revenue sharing associated with the 2025-26 and 2026-27 football seasons. A third fine is equal to the cost of 10% of the football scholarships awarded for the current academic year.

Michigan's official recruiting visits for the 2025-26 year will be reduced by 25% and the university mush prohibit recruiting communication in the football program for a period of 14 weeks across the term of probation. 

NCAA officials are scheduled to hold a news conference Friday afternoon where they will release details from what they uncovered related to a sign-stealing operation supervised by former Michigan Wolverines staff member Connor Stalions. 

Additionally, the NCAA issued several show-cause orders, which prevent coaches from participating with athletic activities at the university.

• Former head coach Jim Harbaugh: 10-year show-cause starting on Aug. 7, 2028, which his current four-year show-cause ends
• Stalions: eight-year show-cause
• Denard Robinson: Three-year show-cause
• Sherrone Moore: two-year show-causeThe panel decided Moore can continue working with the team and coaching, except for the three total games he'll be suspended from for the next two seasons.
• The panel decided Moore can continue working with the team and coaching, except for the three total games he'll be suspended from for the next two seasons.

During his ten-year show-cause, Harbaugh could take a job with an NCAA team but would have to sit out an entire year before taking over any activities related to the school.

ESPN and Yahoo! Sports reported that all parties involved in the case have been informed about the release of the information. 

What happened in the Michigan sign-stealing scandal?

The backstory:

The sign-stealing claims involved former staff member Connor Stalions, which surfaced during the Wolverines' run for a national championship. Stalions resigned during the 2023 season. 

Michigan was accused of sending people, led by Stalions, to opponents’ games to record video that would be used to decode their in-game signals.

RELATED: Reports: Michigan coach Sherrone Moore to be suspended 2 games related to sign-stealing case

Stalions allegedly arranged for individuals 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.

Michigan coaches disciplined

Dig deeper:

Michigan Wolverines head coach Sherron Moore is already suspended two games by the university this season as part of a self-imposed sanction by the university. 

Moore was charged with failure to cooperate for deleting a text thread, which was later recovered with Stalions on Oct. 19, 2023, the day the scandal broke.

RELATED: NCAA says Jim Harbaugh 'engaged in unethical conduct', hands former UM coach show cause order

In 2024, Jim Harbaugh, the former Wolverines head coach and current head coach for the NFL’s Los Angeles Chargers, received a four-year show-cause penalty from the NCAA tied to a separate case where he was found to have improper contact with recruits.

The Associated Press reported that the NCAA said Harbaugh, who left his alma mater to coach the Los Angeles Chargers after last season’s national championship, "engaged in unethical conduct, failed to promote an atmosphere of compliance and violated head coach responsibility obligations."

NCAA officials had already placed Michigan on three years of probation along with a fine and recruiting limits after reaching a negotiated resolution that was approved by the committee on infractions in the same matter.