ESPN's Heather Dinich: Sherrone Moore suspension is devastating for Michigan program

ESPN’s Heather Dinich called Michigan and the sign-stealing saga that soap opera that wouldn’t end and it was devastating to the program in 2025. We’ll see how devastating as head coach Sherrone Moore and the Wolverines self-imposed a two-game suspension.

How will it affect Michigan this season? That remains to be seen, considering the team is projected to be much better than Moore’s first season at the helm, post-Jim Harbaugh.

There’s still time to determine what the NCAA will do, if anything further, to Michigan and Moore as far as the scandal is concerned. But Dinich is right, it doesn’t seem to have any end in sight, in terms of a resolution.

“This is the soap opera that won’t end,” Dinich said on The Pat McAfee Show. “And it was one of the most interesting stories of the season when it broke, what was it two seasons ago? And you know, to be honest with you, I would expect Michigan to do exactly what it did when this all happened, which is Michigan versus everybody. Remember how that turned out? They went and they beat everybody. 

“This is a different Michigan team than the one that won the national title though. That year they had so many guys come back and veteran guys. But I mean, even without this, you would expect more from Michigan this season. But, yes, it’s huge news. It’s devastating for the program that they’re continuing to have to deal with this. But at the end of the day, they’ve still beaten Ohio State a couple years in a row now. And if they can do it again, that’s it.”

The suspensions are reportedly going to be for Michigan’s third and fourth opponents of the year: Central Michigan and Nebraska. Moore will be barred from any team-related activities during those weeks.

“Moore will also receive additional recruiting-related penalties,” ESPN’s Dan Wetzel wrote. “The NCAA could still further punish Moore in addition to any self-imposed school penalty. A final resolution is expected before the start of the season … Moore’s suspension ties back to Moore allegedly deleting a thread of 52 text messages with Stalions, a former Michigan staffer at the heart of Michigan’s alleged sign stealing scheme.”

Back in January, Michigan reportedly planned to fight the allegations in the Stalions sign-stealing scandal, per Yahoo Sports. According to the 137-page document obtained by Yahoo Sports, Michigan pushed back on many of the allegations.

The school also accused the NCAA of “grossly overreaching” and “wildly overcharging” the program with a lack of credible evidence about the alleged sign-stealing scheme run by Stalions. The person who tipped off the NCAA to the situation came from UM’s campus and, at one point, worked for the school, the document said.

Michigan received an official Notice of Allegations from the NCAA in August of 2024, but the school said it made “numerous factually unsupported infractions, exaggerates aggravating factors and ignores mitigating facts,” according to the document. UM also asked the NCAA to treat the case as a “Level II standard case” instead of a Level I infraction – which is the most severe NCAA violation – and apply “common sense and [a] commitment to fairness.”