Report suggests NCAA report on Michigan football could come soon

Fans of Michigan football rivals have been waiting for the NCAA to “drop the hammer” on the Wolverines for their alleged sign-stealing operation and according to Chris Balas of The Wolverine, the NCAA could be meeting next week to start working on a notice of allegations.

According to Balas, the NCAA has conducted its interviews but there isn’t a “smoking gun” that offers any link between Connor Stalions and the coaching staff. All of the evidence suggests that Stalions acted as a lone wolf, without direction from Jim Harbaugh or other Michigan football coaches.

The Big Ten even said when it issued its three-game suspension of Harbaugh, that if there was evidence that the coaching staff knew, the league could look at further penalties. That never happened because that evidence doesn’t exist.

It’s sort of like the Central Michigan scenario. If Connor Stalions was there scouting for Michigan, without knowledge of the CMU staff, he would have been outed already. But if Central Michigan wanted him there, well, the murkiness surrounding that situation makes much more sense.

Clarity would be a good thing for Michigan football and others

The PR campaign engineered by Ohio State made sure things looked as bad as possible. But I don’t know if the NCAA can prove a single rule was broken because I’m not sure a rule was even broken.

At any rate, I’d rather see the report come out sooner rather than later. I don’t trust the NCAA at all, but it will be nice to see what the allegations actually are so Michigan can defend itself or settle, and finally move on.

That’s in the best interest of all parties involved at this point, although if the NCAA tries to give Jim Harbaugh a show cause penalty, I don’t see him taking that without a fight.

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