Talk about another twist in the ongoing college football scandal involving Michigan.
The school has now sent documents to the Big Ten showing what it believes to be evidence of three rival schools in the conference engaging in conversations about Michigan’s signals during the 2022 season, a new ESPN report stated.
Rutgers, Ohio State and Purdue are the three schools alleged to be involved and the new report indicated that Ohio State shared Michigan’s offensive signals and Rutgers had shared the defensive signals with Purdue, which faced the Wolverines in the Big Ten title game.
Rutgers and Ohio State had fallen to Michigan in November of last year, with the win over the Buckeyes clinching the East Division for Michigan.
Whether the allegations amount to any rule violations under the Big Ten’s sportsmanship policy or NCAA rules isn’t clear, according to the report.
Tuesday’s revelations come a day after the Associated Press published a report quoting an unnamed former Big Ten football employee who said it was his job to steal Michigan’s signs and was “given details from multiple conference schools.”
The former staffer said that he had given the information to Michigan last week in order to help the program and head coach Jim Harbaugh, who the person felt was being unfairly held accountable for the actions of former Michigan football staffer Connor Stalions.
The Big Ten has passed along the information it received to the NCAA, according to Tuesday’s ESPN report.
Rutgers did not immediately return The Post’s request for comment.
The news was the latest turn in the scandal involving Michigan and an alleged sign-stealing scheme that is believed to be one of the most intricate in college sports history.
While NCAA rules do not prohibit in-game sign stealing, advanced scouting and the use of electronic equipment to record an opponent’s signals are against the bylaws.
Michigan has been entangled in an ongoing NCAA probe centered around the alleged elaborate scheme run by Stalions, who resigned last week.
The new information sent to the Big Ten by Michigan isn’t expected to have any impact on potential disciplinary action handed down by the conference on the Wolverines related to the sign-stealing scheme.
The Big Ten has already sent Michigan a notice of disciplinary action, which is required under the conference’s sportsmanship policy if it becomes clear a school could face disciplinary action.
A suspension for Harbaugh seems like the most likely action to be taken by the Big Ten, but any disciplinary measures are expected to be met by legal challenges from both Michigan and Harbaugh.
The university has until Wednesday to respond to the Big Ten’s notice.
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