How NCAA punished Michigan football for sign-stealing scheme
NCAA released punishment for Michigan football on Aug. 15, 2025, after its investigation into sign-stealing scandal orchestrated by Connor Stalions.
If Michigan football leaders were fazed by the NCAA’s punishments for the Connor Stalions sign-stealing saga, they’re sure not acting like it.
As the Wolverines introduced their six captains for the 2025 season on Thursday, Aug. 21 − Max Bredeson, Gio El-Hadi, Ernest Hausmann, Marlin Klein, Derrick Moore and Rod Moore − they were asked about fallout from sanctions handed out on Aug. 15.
The sentiment from each was the same.
“We take pride here,” Bredeson told reporters at Schembechler Hall on Thursday. “I feel like Michigan’s all about whatever happens, we’re always ready to play football. That’s kind of the focal point, pillars you could say, of (the program).”
Each of the captains were on U-M’s 2023 College Football Playoff championship team; five of them were on the 2022 squad, when Connor Stalions spent nearly $35,000 on the advanced scouting scheme, according to the 74-page document released by the NCAA last week.
Among the resulting sanctions: On top of fines expected to reach $30 million, ex-coach Jim Harbaugh was given a 10-year show-cause penalty (on top of the four-year show-cause he’s serving for dead-period recruiting violations and having analysts serve in on-field roles) while Stalions was given an eight-year show-cause ban. Michigan was also placed on probation for four years and hit with recruiting restrictions including a 25% reduction in visitors for 2025 and 14 weeks of required no-contact, to be served during the four years of probation.
But U-M’s captains said the penalties wouldn’t rattle the locker room.
“Whoever needs to be dealing with that stuff, they’ll deal with that,” Klein said. “I’m not going to be worried about it. I’m just focused on next Saturday and playing ball.”
Another punishment: Coach Sherrone Moore the first game of 2026, when U-M is scheduled to play Western Michigan in Frankfurt, Germany. (That’s in addition to his program-imposed two-game ban – to be served in Weeks 3 and 4 of this season, against Central Michigan and Nebraska.)
The Wolverines have not yet revealed which coach will take over during the games against the Chippewas and Cornhuskers; earlier this week, tight ends coach Steve Casula said Moore had built an “incredibly sturdy” infrastructure within the program, implying it will not affect how the team performs.
Derrick Moore agreed.
“I feel like it wasn’t nothing really to talk about,” the senior edge rusher said. “We talked to coach Moore about it as a team, and I felt like (he) pretty much just said, let the outside noise be the outside noise. We’re going to be together as a team and worry about New Mexico.”
Michigan has used adversity as fuel before. When the scandal broke in October 2023, the Big Ten acted quickly to suspend Harbaugh for the final three games of the regular season.
Those inside the maize-and-blue walls adapted a “Michigan vs. Everybody” mantra and it worked, with wins over Penn State (in which Sherrone Moore called for more than 30 runs in a row), Maryland (the program’s NCAA-record 1,000th) and Ohio State. The Wolverines then won the next three: the Big Ten championship game, the Rose Bowl for a CFP semifinal win over Alabama and, finally, the CFP title game in Houston.
Michigan’s first 15-0 season featured six games without its coach on the sideline. It’s that experience that gives players confidence to believe they can handle adversity in 2025.
“I love coach Moore,” Bredeson said. “Electric. Always good to have on the sideline, but I told him … I’ve never played a snap with him. … I’m ready to play.”
U-M opens the season against New Mexico at Michigan State on Saturday, Aug. 30 (7:30 p.m., NBC).
Tony Garcia is the Michigan Wolverines beat writer for the Detroit Free Press. Email him at apgarcia@freepress.com and follow him on X at @RealTonyGarcia.
