TCU knew about Michigan football and its alleged sign stealing scheme before last seasonโs College Football Playoff matchup, Ross Dellenger of Yahoo! Sports reported Thursday evening.
NEWS: TCU knew about Michiganโs sign-stealing before the CFP semifinal and crafted dummy signals, @RossDellenger reports.
Details: https://t.co/ASikTI6mA3 pic.twitter.com/MF22qELxIY
— On3 (@On3sports) October 26, 2023
Dellenger reported that TCU coaches had gained information on Michiganโs scheme that is currently under NCAA investigation.
To account for it, TCUโs coaches changed a lot of their signals before game time.
Head coach Sonny Dykes decided to mix in TCUโs old signals with new ones to fool Michigan. A TCU staff member told Yahoo! that these were called โdummy signalsโโ old play calls that had been altered. TCU then told its players to not pay attention to the dummy signals but instead run the original play with the revised signals.
TCU (+7.5) ended up upsetting Michigan, 51-45.
This scandal is relevant to many teams both in and out of the Big Ten.
Penn Stateโs one of those teams.
Michigan staffer Connor Stalions is at the center of this investigation.
Sources told ESPN earlier this week that Stalionsย purchased ticketsย on both sides of Ohio Stadium for this past Saturdayโs Penn State-Ohio State game.
ESPN reported that the tickets went unused.
The day before PSU-OSU, Stalionsโs name emerged in another ESPN story relating to the NCAAโs impeding investigation of Michigan for alleged sign stealing.
According to Yahoo!, Michigan is alleged to have had people attending games of future scheduled opponents and potential College Football Playoff opponents. The purpose of their presence was to find out info on signs these teams use for play calling on both sides of the ball. If Michigan is found guilty, it will have violated NCAA Bylaw 11.6.1. This bylaw says that โOff-campus, in-person scouting of future opponents (in the same season) is prohibited.โ
One TCU coach told Dellenger that there were times when the team โfroze a play before the snap.โ
โWeโd call a play and then weโd signal in another play with an old signal but we told players to run the original play.โ
Michigan plays at Penn State Nov. 11.
