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ESPN’s Pete Thamel outlines ‘serious level’ of latest investigation involving Michigan
By Paul Harvey
Published:
ESPN’s Pete Thamel is tracking the latest investigation involving Jim Harbaugh’s Michigan program, and he broke down the story in a recent segment.
That latest investigation involves allegations of a sign-stealing network for the Wolverines. While Thamel pointed out that basic sign-stealing is not against the rules and happens every week, he said the allegations against Michigan involve “illicit” sign-stealing.
“I think the key thing about this investigation is the separation between legal sign stealing, which happens every week in high school, college and NFL stadiums around the country, and what’s being alleged here which is an illicit sign stealing,” said Thamel. “Whether that’s sign stealing from opposition’s stadiums, going into stadiums of future opponents and stealing their signs, whether that’s using videotape.”
To this point, the NCAA has not released specifics on the investigation, but Thamel believes it is already a “serious level” of concern for Harbaugh’s program. Thamel pointed to the fact the NCAA has confirmed an investigation and the B1G has released a statement on the matter.
“The NCAA did not release specifics, but there’s a clear line of delineation when you have the school confirming an investigation and the Big Ten conference confirming one of its lynchpin members is under investigation that this has been raised to a serious level,” Thamel explained. “Quite frankly, it’s bad news for Jim Harbaugh right now.”
Thamel even made a reference to the current NCAA investigation into Michigan, noting this latest investigation is “a lot more than a cheeseburger” as it relates to the idea of competition.
“This is a lot more than a cheeseburger, this cuts to the core of competition and the fact that it’s been raised to this level and the Big Ten itself has publicized it really brings this to a serious concern at a time when Jim Harbaugh has a national title contender on the field,” said Thamel.
Paul is a lifelong fan and student of all things college football. He has been covering college football since 2017 and the B1G since 2018.