Central Michigan athletic director Amy Folan said in a statement Tuesday that the school is investigating the potential presence of suspended Michigan football staff member Connor Stalions on the Chippewas’ sideline during their season-opening game at Michigan State on Friday, Sept. 1. ESPN first reported that CMU is looking into the situation.
Photos began circulating Monday of someone resembling Stalions who was dressed in Central Michigan coaching apparel in the team bench area during the game against the Spartans. Stalions has been suspended by Michigan as the NCAA investigates whether his associates were given tickets to impermissibly steal play signals from teams on the Wolverines’ schedule. This is the first known instance of a game that could place Stalions in position to do the impermissible scouting himself—and from the sidelines.
Michigan played Michigan State Oct. 21.
“We’re obviously aware of a picture floating around with the sign-stealer guy,” Central Michigan coach Jim McElwain told reporters Tuesday night. “Our people are doing everything they can to get to the bottom of it. We were totally unaware of it. I certainly don’t condone it in any way, shape or form.
“I do know his name was on none of the passes that were let out. Now we keep tracing it back and tracing it back to try and figure it out. But it’s in good hands with our people. And again, there’s no place in football for that.
Paul Sancya/AP
Sources familiar with gameday operations at Michigan State said the school distributes bench passes in bulk to visiting teams to use at their discretion. The number is around 50 and generally are dispersed among coaches, trainers and other medical personnel, equipment managers and other support staff.
While pictures from the game do not definitively identify the person in question as Stalions, Central Michigan has not yet been able to rule it out. If it were clearly one of the Chippewas’ own staff members, this would already be a non-story.
It would have easily been feasible for Stalions to attend both the Central Michigan-Michigan State game in East Lansing on Sept. 1 and Michigan's season-opening home game the next day against East Carolina at noon.
It’s very rare for someone to end up in possession of a pass in the bench area without the visiting team knowing who they are and why they’re there. Likewise, it would be unlikely for Stalions to acquire clothing that allowed him to blend in with the CMU staff without assistance or knowledge from someone on the Chips’ staff. Central Michigan head coach Jim McElwain was on Harbaugh’s staff at Michigan as the receivers coach in 2018.
In a story published by Sports Illustrated last week that described Stalions’ level of allegiance to Michigan—including his authoring a 550-page “Michigan Manifesto”—the recruiting analyst texted an associate in 2021 that among his co-authors was “currently a GA at Central” who had graduated from Michigan. Stalions did not specify in the text exchange which “Central” he was referring to.
Stalions was suspended by Michigan on Oct. 20, after he was named in an ESPN story as the focal point of the NCAA investigation into impermissible in-person scouting. Since then, 12 of the 13 other Big Ten schools have told various media outlets that they sold single-game tickets to Stalions in 2022 and this season for games involving future conference opponents. Stalions then sold those tickets to others, allegedly for the purpose of acquiring play signals that Michigan could use to prepare for playing those opponents. Stalions also bought tickets for potential College Football Playoff opponents last year, including Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Clemson and Oregon.
Other than a Jim Harbaugh statement declaring no knowledge of any alleged impermissible scouting by his staff, Michigan has remained mum on the investigation, citing NCAA confidentiality rules regarding ongoing investigations. So has the Big Ten, beyond acknowledging that it was contacted by the NCAA and apprised that it had received information about Michigan’s alleged signal stealing. The NCAA likewise, as is its custom, declined comment.
The issue is especially pressing given Michigan’s current 8–0 record and No. 2 ranking in the AP poll, with the first College Football Playoff rankings due out Tuesday night. The Wolverines’ most promising season in a long time continues to play out under a darkening cloud.
