Starting the year, the university Michigan football team came in with a strong reputation and was known for being a pretty solid team. In recent news, Michigan, specifically head coach Jim Harbaugh, was caught up in a cheating scandal involving sign stealing.
Sign stealing technically isn’t against the rules, but in recent news, it came out the team had Connor Stalions, a low-level staff member, go to the games and get onto the team’s sidelines and record their signs. Stalions had a 600-page document involving it. But according to Harbaugh, he claims he had no idea it was happening.
How much did this help? Last year Michigan had a 13-1 record, but now, so far, they are 11-0 but still have to play major rival Ohio State.
“I think it was a huge advantage; it is a little suspicious that all of a sudden they just turned into a top-four team in the nation out of nowhere,” sophomore Jack Grunske said.
The consequences for this were major: the team’s reputation took a hit, they faced many penalties, and Harbaugh also is serving a rest-of-the-season sideline ban for 3 games.
“I think the punishment was fair, but it’s sad because I really wanted to see an Ohio State vs. Michigan matchup where both teams were at their best, ” sophomore Alex Sokolosky said.
Although Michigan may have not been at its best it still managed to get a 27-24 victory against Ohio State.
