The Michigan Wolverines will be without head coach Sherrone Moore for the opening game of the next two college football seasons, and face hefty financial sanctions as retribution for the sign-stealing scandal that dogged their 2023 National Championship campaign.

While the NCAA does not have specific rules outlawing sign-stealing, schools cannot send scouts to watch the games of upcoming opponents or use electronic devices to record a team’s signs and signals communicated from the sideline. Michigan is alleged to have used such a scheme conducted by staff member Connor Stalions who, having since resigned from the university, claimed to know almost every signal opponents used over two seasons. Stalions did not participate in the lengthy NCAA investigation, but was issued an eight-year show-cause order after the governing body confirmed that the accusations ‘were corroborated by interview testimonies, ticket receipts and transfer data and other evidence’.

Moore, meanwhile, was alleged to have ‘violated rules as an assistant’ during his time working under then Wolverines — and current Los Angeles Chargers — HC Jim Harbaugh, including deleting damaging text exchanges with Stalions. These were recovered during the forensic investigation and provided to the NCAA as further evidence. Moore, who stood in for Harbaugh when the former San Francisco 49ers coach was suspended amid other college improprieties, had already been handed a two-game suspension by Michigan will now be required to step aside for the Wolverines’ opening game of the 2026-27 season, and has been slapped with a two-year show-cause order — although, crucially, this will not prevent him from carrying out his coaching role and other activities related to the team during that period.

For the uninitiated, a show-cause order is usually handed to coaches who break NCAA rules, and makes it difficult for any school to hire the guilty party during the specified period without first getting approval from the governing body and giving assurances that no further transgressions will occur. If the coach is successful in moving to another school, however, the penalty continues with him as a supposed means of preventing them breaking rules and starting afresh elsewhere without consequence.

Harbaugh does not get away scot-free either, and faces a 10-year show-cause order should he ever decide to return to the college scene. Moreover, the latest sanction will follow on from a previous four-year order for recruiting violations that was only issued last season and will not expire until August 2028, meaning that Harbaugh is effectively banned from college athletics for the next 14 years. The Chargers HC served a three-game touchline suspension in exchange for the Big Ten dropping its investigation into the allegations, but is unlikely to make another appearance as a college coach having set his sights firmly on landing a Lombardi Trophy, to match brother John, before he retires.

Harbaugh, in continuation of his stance throughout, refused to comment on the sanctions when asked as part of the post-game press call following the Chargers’ third preseason game of 2025, insisting that he was ‘not engaging’. He always claimed that he had no knowledge of Stalions’ activities, despite the NCAA believing that there was ‘overwhelming evidence’ of a cover-up instigated by Michigan staff.

The governing body has also heavily fined the Wolverines, with punishments anticipated to climb beyond $20m, including an unspecified amount equivalent to any losses that would have been expected had the team been banned from postseason playing in each of the next two seasons. Michigan only escaped such sanction because the NCAA deemed it unfair to punish the current team for the wrongs of previous years. The team also faces a 25 percent reduction in official recruiting visits this season and a 14-week ban on all recruiting communication.

Moore looks set to miss the Wolverines games against New Mexico State and his alma mater Oklahoma this season, as well as the proposed Week Zero game against the Western Michigan Broncos in Frankfurt, Germany, in 2026.