What we learned, and didn't learn, from the Michigan report - ESPN

Former Michigan staffer Connor Stalions referred to his advanced sign-stealing operation as both «counterintelligence» and «the KGB,» called the video it elicited «dirty film» and ultimately threw his phone in a pond rather than turn it over to NCAA investigators.

The NCAA decision in the University of Michigan advanced scouting case divulges many details from Stalions' scheme, which captivated the country as it unspooled during Michigan's 2023 national championship run.

The punishments for that operation, nearly two years after it was revealed, arrived on Friday.

They include a three-game suspension for current head coach Sherrone Moore — with two games already self-imposed to be served this year in Weeks 3 and 4 against Central Michigan and at Nebraska. He's also slated to miss the first week of the 2026 season, a game against Western Michigan expected to be played in Germany.

There is also an eight-year show-cause penalty for Stalions, an additional 10-year show-cause for former head coach Jim Harbaugh and a fine expected to eclipse $30 million for the school.

Not included: either the vacating of past victories or a postseason ban going forward, sanctions that many of the Wolverines' rivals felt were deserved.

In a 74-page report, the NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions details an unusually effective and nuanced investigation. Along the way, it offers a glimpse under the hood of Stalions' KGB operation and the NCAA's decreasing willingness to punish its schools with sanctions that directly impact the playing field. (Michigan should have been «required» to have a postseason ban in this case, per the report, but a new era of NCAA rules shifted that to unprecedented fines.)

The NCAA report, for example, reveals