NCAA is making sure it wins the narrative of Michigan football "Signgate"

I hate the term "witch hunt" but when it comes to the NCAA investigation into Michigan football sign stealing, it's hard to find another term that fits.

Yes, before anyone gets all crazy, Connor Stalions probably broke the NCAA rule against in-person scouting, although the NCAA itself said it "offered minimal competitive advantage."

That's because you can use TV recordings to steal signals and apparently, you can even steal signals from the opposing sideline one week, and trade them to an opponent the next. How that isn't in-person scouting, is beyond me, but still.

Michigan football didn't win any games because of this. The only game where it needed a last-second score to win, against Illinois in 2022, it turns out Illinois had stolen Michigan's signs (legally I'm sure).

But the latest leak from the NCAA to Pete Thamel and Dan Murphy of ESPN is a bunch of fluff, outside of the fact that Sherrone Moore deleted text messages between himself and Connor Stalions on the day that media reports broke about Stalions.

The NCAA is trying to shape the narrative

Sure, that sounds bad, but further down in the article, it says that the text messages between Moore and Stalions were recovered and turned over to investigators. The shocking headline is that Moore was in contact with Stalions (not shocking since he was an analyst) and deleted those messages.

And yes, if those messages weren't recovered, that would be suspicious. Still not proof of anything, but AFTER reviewing Moore's messages with Stalions, the draft of allegations received by ESPN still reports there is no evidence that the staff knew or directed what Stalions was doing.

Which means, like the "burger gate" it's a big nothing burger. The report suggests Sherrone Moore could be charged with a violation and even get a "show cause" which seems extreme.

I would expect Michigan football and Moore to fight that. Jim Harbaugh's worst offense was not turning over all his messages from a personal cellphone after he already turned over other texts and emails.

It was a witch hunt and yes, the NCAA unearthed some minor recruiting violations, such as a discounted meal, helping a player get verified on Instagram, or donating $100 to charity. Michigan football coaches also broke some other minor rules, but when other programs are openly paying players, it's hard to take the NCAA seriously.

It's also hard to take them seriously when other programs were able to get their notice of allegations, issue a response, and get a punishment, all without leaks to Thamel and ESPN -- something the NCAA has done multiple times in the case of Michigan football.

That is not the action of an impartial organization. There are also reports that the draft received by ESPN might be old. So who knows, but maybe, if the NCAA believed it had such a strong case, it could go through the normal process instead of trying to win a one-sided war in the press it created.