Report: Jim Harbaugh, Connor Stalions receive show-causes as result of NCAA ruling on Michigan sign-stealing

The NCAA has reportedly come down on Michigan with its punishment for the sign-stealing scandal during the national title season in 2023. However, as for Jim Harbaugh and Connor Stalions, the two biggest names in the story who are each no longer with the Wolverines, what happens to them?

Per reporting by Ross Dellenger at Yahoo Sports, Harbaugh and Stalions will each be receiving significant show-causes from the NCAA. Harbaugh will receive a decade-long one, while Stalions will be receiving one of eight years. Denard Robinson, a former staff member, also received a three-year show cause as well, per Dellenger.

“In its sign-stealing decision, the NCAA infractions committee is sanctioning former Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh with a show-cause of 10 years and Connor Stalions with a show-case of 8 years, sources tell @YahooSports,” Dellenger tweeted this morning.

The NCAA has since made several announcements after reporting this morning by Dellenger, as well as by Pete Thamel and Dan Wetzel at ESPN. Michigan will now be on a four-year probation and will be receiving significant fines, one of $50,000. That is not all, though.

One will be based on the percentage of the program’s budget, one based on revenue earned from postseason football the next two years, and one based on the percentage of scholarships. The Wolverines also received recruiting sanctions that will reduce official visits and communications during their probation.

Sherrone Moore, the Wolverines’ current head coach, who was a key part of the staff at the time of the infraction, will serve a total of a three-game suspension. Two games will be served this season, a decision that was already self-imposed, and the opener of next season in 2026. Moore will receive his own two-year-long show-case, too. Even with all that, though, no wins or titles were vacated in the end.

Harbaugh is now unofficially on a 14-year-long show-cause from the NCAA. That’s by adding this 10-year show-cause onto the one he’s currently serving with a four-year show-cause as punishment for recruiting violations, starting just over a year ago in August of 2024.

That said, Harbaugh, now back in the NFL as head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers (11-6 in 2024), was not expected to be back in college football, at least anytime soon, and certainly not now, as he’s back at the professional level. That’s after leaving his alma mater last offseason with a record of 89-25 overall, including three wins in the Big Ten Championship and three appearances in the College Football Playoff, with the Wolverines over nine seasons from 2015 to 2023, with that final one ending in that national championship for the maize & blue.

This then brings about the end of the storyline and saga involving Stalions, the former staffer who apparently led the sign-stealing system that went on in Ann Arbor. That included buying tickets to key games and either he or sent associates would attend, with the intention to steal opposing teams’ signs on the sidelines from 2021-2023.

More is likely come throughout the day today, with more official announcements, updates, and comments on the way this afternoon from the NCAA. Still, this looks to be the final judgment on two of the main characters in this story for Harbaugh and Stalions.