Report: Michigan Football Believes Ohio State, 2 Other Big Ten Programs Shared Its Signals

Penn State’s football game against Michigan Saturday is intriguing for a number of reasons

For one, there’s a lot at stake on the field.

Michigan came in at No. 3 in the College Football Playoff rankings  of 2023.

Penn State came in at No. 11. For Penn State to have any realistic chance of winning the Big Ten and making the College Football Playoff for the first time, it needs to beat Michigan. For Michigan, the squad is looking for its third straight conference championship and playoff berth. If it loses Saturday, it no longer controls its destiny.

Oh, and Michigan is also being investigated by the NCAA for illegal sign-stealing, for those who have been living under a rock.

Developments are coming in every day, and in the latest one, Michigan has reportedly sent documents to the Big Ten which show that Ohio State, Rutgers and Purdue discussed Michigan’s signals with each other. ESPN’s Adam Rittenherg and Tom VanHaaren were first on the story.

Here's the story from @TomVH and me on the documents sent to the Big Ten, now forwarded along to the NCAA, and the teams included in the docs: https://t.co/8deSHznCNH https://t.co/pQhXXSx1P3

— Adam Rittenberg (@ESPNRittenberg) November 7, 2023

Rittenberg tweeted that the documents showed that Purdue got Michigan’s offensive signals from Ohio State and its defensive signals from Rutgers ahead of playing Michigan in last season’s Big Ten championship game.

If Purdue did indeed have this information, it didn’t do much good. Michigan won that game, 43-22.

ESPN reported that, per a Big Ten source, the conference has passed any information along to the NCAA, which will decide whether or not to follow up.

“It’s unknown whether the signal sharing between league teams violates the Big Ten’s sportsmanship policy or any NCAA rules,” the article says. “The information passed along is not expected to impact the Big Ten’s potential discipline for Michigan under the sportsmanship policy, a source said. NCAA rules do not prohibit in-game signal stealing but bar schools from off-campus scouting in advance of games.”