A self-imposed 2-game ban for HC Sherrone Moore is never enough. Even the Michigan Wolverines know that because the NCAA may not settle for just a 2-game ban. After a year marred by controversies and defeats, the Wolves expect HC Moore to turn things around in Ann Arbor. But now it seems like deleting those 52 messages may cost Michigan dearly ahead of the 2025 season. The NCAA is yet to announce its verdict, with the next hearing scheduled for June 6-7. Even though the scouting stunt was majorly pulled by Connor Stallions and then-HC Jim Harbaugh, the recent word is that Moore is set to face more heat.

Considering this is perhaps the biggest scandal in college football in recent decades, no one wants to see the NCAA be merciful against the Wolves. As per The Athletic, a Power-4 head coach believes that sign-stealing is nothing new in college football. Many teams do that quietly. But what Michigan did was extreme.

“This was a major deal, and you can’t minimize it. It’s bad for college football. (Stealing signals) might be more common than you think, but the extremes they went to? I’ve never heard of anything like it, and they need to get the hammer,” the Power 4 head coach said, and he is not alone with the same sentiment. During the May 23 episode of Ohio State Football at Buckeye Scoop, the hosts also argued over the ferocity of the punishment faced by the Wolves.

“I mean, they’re doing it left and right right now, and those things on a scale of 1 to 10 are like a 0.1, and the Michigan thing is a 12, and they know that,” Bill Greene and team said. The host compared Michigan’s scandal to minor transgressions going on in college football today. Sure, occasional rule-breaking is relatively frequent throughout the sport, but such things as small recruiting faux pas or technical infractions don’t even register on the NCAA’s radar. And a ‘0.1’ is no big deal against a ’12.’

NCAA’s bold stance against Michigan’s sign-stealing scandal is unprecedented. “This is the case they are all in. They have pushed all their chips in. They’ve pushed everything about their enforcement action, and you know, it’s kind of like we talk about a lot in betting: you want to bet on your best spots like you push all your money in on your best spots. Well, this is their best spot; they’ve got Michigan dead to rights,” Bill Greene and team further added.

Well, it’s not hard to underscore just how much at stake the NCAA has in this specific enforcement matter. While minor violations regularly occur throughout college football, many perceive the Michigan case as the NCAA’s moment to deliver a message and remind everyone of its power.

The NCAA has had an enormous body of evidence to work with against Michigan, including a direct paper trail, video, and even admissions from the university itself about in-person scouting and signal-stealing activity coordinated by staffer Connor Stalions. “With video of a staffer on an opposing team’s sideline with a master spreadsheet and video of them videoing the games, and I mean, this is probably the best-documented case in the history of the NCAA, and they’ve got it all. They’ve got it all there. So that’s why they’ve been unwilling to settle the case. That’s why they’ve been unwilling to lessen the punishment.” The case against Michigan is overwhelming and without precedent in terms of detail.

Based on the video and supported by several reports, researchers have documented this case better than any case in NCAA history, complete with direct video evidence, a master spreadsheet, and even a video of people taping games from the stands. There’s a video of a Michigan employee, Connor Stalions, on the visiting sideline of an opponent (specifically at a Central Michigan game), undercover and actively involved in the sign-stealing activity. It’s pretty clear at this point that Michigan is going to have real-time trouble this season, and on top of that, former Buckeyes HC Urban Meyer is doing the job of adding fuel to the fire.

Urban Meyer’s no-nonsense take on the Wolverines’ fallout

Urban Meyer, the legendary former coach at Ohio State and longtime Michigan nemesis, hasn’t hesitated to share his opinions regarding the Wolverines’ recent NCAA issues. Indeed, Meyer’s opinion is blunt and fairly incendiary—he believes the NCAA should go even beyond merely suspending players or voiding wins. Meyer claims that among coaches, no one truly cares if you void wins from several years back.

Meyer contends that the cost-benefit analysis is completely misplaced: if the worst that can be said is that you have to forfeit some victories on paper, but you get to reap all the benefits (such as a title, large contracts, and stardom), then cheating nearly seems justified. “If you lie as a college football coach to the NCAA, in my personal opinion, you’re finished, you’re done,” he says. Not for a couple of years, not for a season, but forever. But Meyer is not just rolling his eyes at the NCAA; he’s demanding something more severe. According to Meyer, a coach who lies to the NCAA, especially in serious matters like Michigan’s case, should face a lifetime coaching ban.

It’s not about the little things like texting the wrong recruit by mistake or taking someone you shouldn’t to lunch. It’s about serious rule-breaking and then lying or refusing to answer questions about it when the NCAA shows up at the doorstep. Meyer believes that making the penalties so severe that no coach would ever even contemplate it is the only thing that will halt this kind of activity. He also notes that, currently, the situation encourages coaches to lie because the worst thing that typically happens is a slap on the wrist or a brief suspension. Meyer makes a strong argument, and coming from someone with his background—and Michigan rivalry history—it’s certainly creating waves in the world of college football.