Michigan football fined 10s of millions of dollars, Moore suspended 3 games in sign-stealing scandal

Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel, left, talks with head coach Sherrone Moore, right, before an NCAA college football spring game in Ann Arbor, Mich., April 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya,)

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — The NCAA fined Michigan tens of millions of dollars Friday and suspended coach Sherrone Moore for three games for a sign-stealing scandal that has loomed over college football’s winningest program for nearly two years.

Moore, who was already issued a self-imposed two-game suspension by Michigan, will also be banned from the first game of the 2026-27 season for a total of three games. Moore received a two-year show-cause order, but he will be allowed to fulfill coaching commitments and other athletically related activities.

Financial penalties are expected to exceed $20 million and include a US$50,000 fine, a 10 per cent fine on the football program’s budget, a 10 per cent fine on Michigan’s 2025-26 scholarships and a fine equivalent to the anticipated loss of postseason revenue for the 2025 and 2026 seasons. Michigan also faces a 25 per cent reduction in official visits during the upcoming season and a 14-week prohibition on football recruiting communications during the probation period.

Connor Stalions, a former a low-level staffer who conducted the scouting and sign-stealing operation, was issued an eight-year show-cause order. Former Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh faces a 10-year show-cause order following the conclusion of his previous four-year order effective Aug. 7, 2028.

A show-cause order effectively bans a person from college athletics for the period handed down. Harbaugh and Stalions will be prohibited from engaging in all athletically related activities for several years as a result of the decision.

The NCAA does not have rules against stealing signs, but does prohibit schools from sending scouts to the games of future opponents and using electronic equipment to record another team’s signals.

In a notice sent to the school last year, the NCAA alleged that Moore violated rules as an assistant under Harbaugh.

Harbaugh, who left the Wolverines after they won the 2023 national championship and now coaches the Los Angeles Chargers, served a three-game suspension in exchange for the Big Ten dropping its investigation into the allegations after the two ended up in court. Moore also was accused of deleting text messages with Stalions before they were recovered and provided to the NCAA.

The NCAA investigation surfaced early in the 2023 season amid allegations that Michigan used a robust in-person scouting and sign-stealing operation conducted by Stalions. He was suspended by the school and later resigned.

Stalions, who did not participate in the NCAA investigation, recently said he knew almost every signal opponents used in seven games over two seasons.

Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti sent a letter to the NCAA Committee on Infractions last month, suggesting that Michigan’s football program should not face more sanctions related to the sign-stealing saga.

The Wolverines open the season on Aug. 30 at home against New Mexico State and then play at Oklahoma, where Moore was an offensive lineman, on Sept. 6.

Larry Lage, The Associated Press