Lawyer of Connor Stalions: NCAA investigation into Michigan 'a sham'

Michigan Wolverines football was issued punishments Friday (Aug. 15) by the NCAA Committee on Infractions for alleged scouting allegations, and U-M responded hours later by stating that it will appeal the decision. Saturday afternoon, former Michigan analyst Connor Stalions, who received an eight-year show cause banning him from working in NCAA athletics, released a statement through his lawyers, Brad Beckworth and Nathan Hall, at the firm Nix Patterson.

Stalions was one of the individuals who received the harshest punishment for the decision.

Former head coach Jim Harbaugh was also hit with a show cause — his for 10 years — in part due to the ‘head coach responsibility’ rule. Harbaugh has long sparred with the NCAA, dating back to his implementation of nationwide and even international satellite camps for high school prospects, and continuing on with his adamant stance that players should share in revenue. Harbaugh left Michigan after winning a national championship in 2023 and is entering his second season as the head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers.

“We are not surprised by the NCAA’s ruling because the NCAA did, as it has always done, the wrong thing,” Beckworth said in a statement. “Based on the penalties laid down today, it is obvious that this whole ordeal was just another, last-ditch effort by the NCAA in its perpetual, petty witch hunt of Coach Harbaugh. Connor was just the vehicle through which the NCAA could give itself the last word in this vendetta.

“Connor will be fine. He is a wonderful person. He’s smart. He’s loyal, dedicated, and determined—traits he carries with him onto the football field from his days serving his country to protect all of us. He loves helping young people learn about life and football. And, regardless of what the NCAA says today, he plans to continue learning about and contributing to the game of football at is highest levels.”

Stalions coached high school football last season, at both Detroit (Mich.) Mumford and Belleville (Mich.) High. Last fall, Netflix released a documentary on Michigan’s scouting allegations, with Stalions prominently featured.

“Connor already won,” Beckworth continued. “We knew he was going to be railroaded the moment the NCAA first leaked this story in violation of its own rules. The NCAA decided it would target and punish him in 2023. So, rather than let them ruin his career in silence, he decided to expose the NCAA for the fraud it is in documentary Sign Stealer. Rather than let the NCAA continue to hide in secret, we decided to let the public see the truth for itself.

“And what the public saw revealed what we already knew to be true: this was a rigged investigation; enveloped in impropriety (namely, a “confidential source” that the NCAA still won’t reveal); and all premised on an antiquated rule that the member institutions themselves have tried to eliminate as something that “no longer serve[s] the needs of the membership and the 21st century student-athlete.

“The enforcement staff and the NCAA made it very clear that their feelings were hurt when they were exposed on Sign Stealer. But, through that process, the entire country saw the NCAA’s investigation for what it was—a sham. The only way to deal with a bully and hypocrite is to expose them to the public and make sure everyone knows exactly what they are trying to do behind closed doors. We did that. We will continue to fight the NCAA anywhere and everywhere we can.

“This investigation would have been thrown out of any court by any judge in the country. There was no due process and the entire investigation stems from improper conduct by the NCAA itself. The NCAA is the investigator, judge and jury, which is why the outcome is always—always—the same when the enforcement staff decides to target a coach or player.”

“Indeed, as for the rule itself, we hope you get a chance to read the transcript of the hearing on this matter, because it shows just how out of step the NCAA is with any concept of justice known in this country. You will see that the committee itself could not and did not understand the rule they were trying to enforce. But the found Connor to have violated it dozens of times nonetheless. Such a result would not stand in any court in America.”

“The NCAA claims to be about protecting amateurism in college sports. It does not. The halls of the NCAA headquarters are lined with millions-of-dollars’ worth of art paid for on the backs of superstars like Johnny Manziel, Reggie Bush, and the thousands of student athletes who worked for free while the NCAA and its member institutions profited billions. Let’s not forget that while the NCAA went after Reggie Bush after he left USC, and took his Heisman away, it let USC continue to proudly display O.J. Simpson‘s Heisman in Heritage Hall.

“During the hearing in this case, while inside the blacked-out star chamber where the NCAA talked about defending amateur athletics, on the outside, universities throughout the Big 10 were discussing how to spend some $20 million annually to pay “amateurs” to be professional athletes (as they should be). That result—the House settlement—came about because the NCAA couldn’t come to grips with the fact that its very existence is an affront to American free-market principles. The NCAA was too slow and too arrogant to do the right thing until a group of lawyers made them. The NCAA still has not learned its lesson; House was only the beginning of the end for this truly un-American institution.”

Stalions hopes to return to working in college football, and has expressed in media interviews that he wants to one day end up back at Michigan.

“Connor is glad that this process is now behind him,” Beckworth conclued. “All he wants to do is be a part of the sport he loves, football and those who, like him, are passionate about pursuing the game to its highest level. He hopes that resolution of this process will provide him with that chance, even if the NCAA will not.”