Michigan football has suspended analyst Connor Stalions with pay amid the program’s sign-stealing investigation, Wolverines athletic director Warde Manuel announced Friday.
Stalions is at the center of the NCAA’s investigation into Michigan’s potential sign-stealing, according to a report from ESPN’s Pete Thamel and Mark Schlabach.
The report from ESPN describes Stalions as a “low-level staffer with military background” who played a key part in the alleged “elaborate” in-persons counting system to record opponents play signals.
Thamel adds details to the investigation, reporting that Stallions “purchased tickets in his own name for more than 30 games over the past three years at 11 different Big Ten schools” with the NCAA expected to receive video evidence from opposing Big 10 schools that have a person sitting in the seat that Stallions purchasing holding up his smart phone and recording the home team’s sideline:
The NCAA is expected to receive video evidence this week of illegal technology used in scouting tied to tickets purchased by Stalions, according to sources. An opposing Big Ten school looked up in-stadium surveillance video from a game earlier this year, and sources said the person in the seat of the ticket purchased by Stalions held his smartphone up and appeared to film the home team’s sideline the entire game.
ESPN confirms that Stalions purchased tickets for Ohio State’s game with Penn State this past Saturday:
Sources confirmed to ESPN that Stalions purchased tickets on both sides of the stadium — across from each bench — for Ohio State’s game with Penn State on Saturday. Michigan plays both teams in upcoming weeks. According to sources, the tickets purchased by Stalions were not used Saturday. Stalions’ name emerged publicly in an ESPN story Friday. He was suspended with pay by Michigan.
None of the tickets that the 11 schools told ESPN about involved Michigan as an opponent, per sources. The games involved either one or both of the teams that the Wolverines were playing later that season, according to sources.
Stalions spent 2013 to ’16 as student assistant while enrolled at the Naval Academy, then as a graduate assistant at the Navy following his role as a second lieutenant at the Marine Corps. On his now-deleted LinkedIn page, Stallions claimed to work as a volunteer assistant for Michigan between 2015 to ’22.
As part of the investigation, the NCAA wanted access to Stalions’s computer.
The NCAA first prohibited programs from sending staffers to opponents’ games in as in-person scouts in 1994, as a way to create a more equal playing field.
Coach Jim Harbaugh denied in a statement any knowledge of sign-stealing within the program over the past few years, along with denying knowledge of off-campus counting by staffers.
