U-M gets major fine, add to Moore suspension

The NCAA's Committee on Infractions ruled on the University of Michigan's advanced scouting case on Friday with the school getting a significant fine including the loss of two years of postseason football revenue but avoiding punitive penalties like a postseason ban.

The NCAA also ruled an additional game suspension for head coach Sherrone Moore, which will take place in the 2026 season. Moore was expected to serve a two-game suspension in the upcoming season, which ESPN reported in May that the school proposed to self-impose.

The NCAA COI also levied an 8-year show-cause penalty for Connor Stalions and a 10-year show-cause penalty for former coach Jim Harbaugh, who is now coaching in the NFL. Those essentially act as barriers to schools hiring them in the future.

The size of the fine is expected to be considerable, although a finite amount will not be available. While there's variables on how much teams will get from football postseason revenue, sources expect that number based on past Big Ten revenues and projections to be more than $20 million and perhaps more than $25. Some of that will depend on both Michigan's performance the Big Ten's performance.

Multiple sources familiar with Big Ten projected postseason revenues told ESPN to expect that number to be easily north of $20 million and perhaps above $25 million, as the CFP revenue significantly increases for Big Ten schools with the new contract in 2026.

Michigan and its coaches/staffers were charged with six Level 1 violations in the case, which are the most serious. The decision to fine the school heavily and not utilize a penalty like a postseason ban is indicative of a shift in NCAA enforcement rulings away from postseason bans.

It's a significant punishment Stalions, who masterminded the advanced scouting scheme, as a show-cause essentially acts an employment ban. Any punishments for Harbaugh aren't likely to matter as he's coaching in the NFL with the Los Angeles Chargers. Harbaugh also received a four-year show-cause penalty back in 2024 in a different NCAA case, which is essentially an employment ban in major college football through August of 2028.

In a draft of the notice of allegations, Stalions was found to have arranged the illegal scouting of at least 13 Michigan future opponents on at least 58 occasions between 2021 and 2023. Stalions resigned in October of 2023 when the scheme was uncovered and became the biggest story in the sport for weeks.

Other than Moore, the rest of the Michigan staffers in the crosshairs are no longer in college football.

The NCAA COI ruling marks one of the final significant mile markers in a scandal that captivated the college football world, divided the Big Ten and put Michigan's reputation in the crosshairs. It turned Stalions, an anonymous staffer, into a household name and riddled Michigan's championship run with accusations and anger from around the Big Ten.

Harbaugh served a three-game sportsmanship suspension from the Big Ten to end the 2023 regular season from the case. (He'd served a three-game suspension to start the 2023 season as part of self-imposed penalties tied to a separate NCAA recruiting case.)

The case introduced the world to Stalions, the Naval Academy graduate with a comic book name who bragged on his LinkedIn could work ""identifying and exploiting critical vulnerabilities and centers of gravity in the opponent scouting process." He later told his side of the story in a Netflix documentary that focused on his ability to steal signs.

Michigan responded to the NCAA via a 137-page document arguing the allegations contained "numerous factually unsupported infractions, exaggerates aggravating factors and ignores mitigating facts." The school also expressed concern over the genesis of the investigation.

For the NCAA's controversial infractions process and generally ineffective enforcement division, the case looms as perhaps the last blockbuster enforcement case that the NCAA will oversee. The confluence of enforcement power shifting to the College Sports Commission and the sudden stripping away of the NCAA's amateurism rules, NCAA enforcement is expected to see a dip in relevancy.

The decision to fine the school heavily and not utilize a penalty like a postseason ban is indicative of a recent shift in NCAA enforcement rulings away from postseason bans.

A recent ruling on Tennessee in July of 2023, for example, included 18 Level 1 infractions. That led to a fine of $8 million, which the NCAA said at the time was the equivalent of the financial impact of missing the postseason in 2023 and 2024.

On the field for Michigan this season, in the wake of an 8-5 season in 2024 after its undefeated championship run in 2023, the suspension of Moore looms as the most significant. Moore's suspension is tied to deleting a thread of 52 texts with Stalions, which were later recovered and did not include information to suggest Moore knew the extent of Stalions' alleged actions.

Moore was considered a potential "repeat violator" by the NCAA because in August 2023, he negotiated a resolution to claims that he contacted recruits during a COVID-19 recruiting dead period and served a one-game suspension.

The chance looms that he could appeal the additional one game for 2026 that the NCAA COI added on Friday. Michigan opens next season against Western Michigan, a game expected to be played overseas.

There's a distinction in this Moore suspension compared to the ones that Harbaugh served to open and close the 2023 regular season, one of which came from the NCAA and other from the Big Ten. In those suspension, Harbaugh coached the team during the week in practice.

But because of an NCAA rule change in January of 2024, Moore will not be able to coach in practice for the game weeks of the suspension. That rule expanded the suspension for coaches to include "all athletics activities between contests, rather than just the contests themselves."

For the two games that Michigan has agreed to self-impose - Moore will begin the suspension after the game at Oklahoma, which is Sept. 6.

Moore will be able to coach at Oklahoma, his alma mater. But included in the two-game suspension that's already been self-imposed will be a home game against Central Michigan and a road game Big Ten game at Nebraska.

In a prior and separate NCAA case that involved recruiting violations during the COVID-19 dead period, Michigan received three years probation back in August of 2024.

Michigan opens the 2025 season against New Mexico.