Pat Forde breaks down Michigan scandal 'noise,' attempts to 'muddy the waters'

Without a doubt, the biggest story in college football the past two weeks has surrounded the Michigan football team and their alleged sign-stealing staffer, Connor Stalions. The story has constantly evolved and there’s seemingly new information coming on a daily basis, sometimes even sooner than that.

The latest plot twist came on Friday afternoon, when Chris Balas of TheWolverine.com reported that Michigan was gathering evidence on the two private investigators behind the investigation into Michigan’s alleged sign-stealing. Allegedly, those investigators have ties to Ryan Day’s family.

On Friday’s edition of The Paul Finebaum Show, Pat Forde of Sports Illustrated chimed in with his thoughts on the noise surrounding the scandal. He said it shouldn’t change the fact that the Wolverines likely broke the rules.

Pat Forde shared his thoughts on The Paul Finebaum Show

“I don’t know if it matters at all, but it is noise and it’s noisy. And you know, it just keeps stirring up one kind of side angle after another after another that basically serves to obscure the point here. You know. The point is Connor Stallions quite likely was in a massive rule-breaking scheme to maintain a clear competitive advantage for Michigan,” Forde explained.

“That’s the bottom line here. And you know, people wanna muddy the waters with well the leak came from here. This network’s in it and another….fine. But that doesn’t change the facts of the matter. And Joel Klatt’s a great broadcaster. He knows a lot more about football than I do. But I know more about investigative journalism than he does. And this should be investigated,” Forde said.

Michigan has launched their own investigation

An investigation at Michigan has begun into how information about the alleged Michigan sign stealing operation first came to light and reached the NCAA, according to The Wolverine’s Chris Balas. The investigation reportedly centers on family members of Ohio State head coach Ryan Day.

The Washington Post reported recently that an “outside firm” had provided information to the NCAA. According to Balas and The Wolverine, both Day’s brother, Timothy Day, and someone associated with another of his brothers, Christopher Day, are apparently central to the information becoming public. One apparently runs a private investigation firm in Manchester, New Hampshire, where Day is from.

Sources at Michigan have alleged to Balas that evidence passed to The Washington Post was obtained illegally from the computer of Connor Stalions, the Michigan staffer central to the investigation.

According to Balas, Michigan “is currently in possession of documents that could link one of the alleged investigators” to Timothy Day.

On3’s Andrew Graham also contributed to this article.