Michigan Wolverines keeping 2023 wins, CFP title is grand theft
By David Wasson
Published:
Where does one report a robbery in the world college football, exactly? Because there was some grand theft in broad daylight just the other day.
The Michigan Wolverines were the perpetrators of this ridiculous crime, of course, but you better believe there should be just as many fingers pointed at the ivory palace in Indianapolis known as the NCAA. Because if there was ever a world where the Wolverines and the NCAA could be deemed co-conspirators, well, welcome to it.
To review, the august folks with the NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions handed down their ruling in the mother of all Friday news dumps – all revolving around Michigan’s sign-stealing scandal from 2023.
The NCAA handed down harsh financial penalties which could reach as high as $30 million dollars and also dinged current Wolverines coach Sherrone Moore with an additional 1-game suspension to add to the 2-game suspension already self-sacrificed by the school earlier in the process.
But did any of the 15 victories Michigan piled up in 2023 – which culminated in the College Football Playoff national championship – get vacated?
Nope.
Wins stay wins. Championships remain intact. No banners or pennants or trophies or rings shamefully returned or revoked.
In what world does a thief who robbed a jewelry store get to keep the jewels? Heck, even simple shoplifters have to give back the stuff they boosted.
Not for Michigan football.
Although the Wolverines managed to muster up the unmitigated gall to announce it would appeal Friday’s creampuff penalties, nowhere did Michigan actually deny that it most certainly did the crime. And how could they? Heck, former staffer Connor Stalions, the self-professed mastermind of this whole thing, starred as himself in a freaking Netflix documentary about the entire saga.
Pick a random third-grade student to test their sense of morality on this, and even the ones clothed in maize and blue would probably admit that the Wolverines should have to give up victories that were undeniably tainted by the scandal. After all, it is the kind of basic right and wrong you learn at an even earlier age: you take stuff you shouldn’t, you gotta give it back.
Not for Michigan football.
Why not? Ill-gotten gains don’t deserve to be celebrated – much less merely owned. What say you, NCAA?
“The true scope and scale of the [sign-stealing] scheme, including the competitive advantage it afforded, will never be fully known due to individuals’ intentional destruction and withholding of materials and information. But the intent was clear — to gain a substantial competitive advantage,” Norman Bay, the chief hearing officer for the NCAA committee on infractions panel, said at a news conference Friday. “You don’t put together a network of individuals called the ‘KGB’ that records what they call ‘dirty film’ where the cost of doing this is in the tens of thousands of dollars over three seasons unless you intend to gain a substantial competitive advantage.”
And yet, somehow, no one managed to ask the required follow-up question of Bay at this news conference… so why let Michigan keep 2023? Why not erase it like so many other vacated wins and titles have been given back over the years for far less egregious offenses?
In lieu of an actual response from the NCAA, here is the real answer: because Michigan is too big a program to punish, and a national championship is too valuable an asset to rip away – no matter how blatant the crime.
This is the 2025 manifestation of the old parable told jokingly across college basketball, where every time Kentucky commits a recruiting violation the NCAA manages to give Cleveland State the death penalty.
Ohio State, which endured “Tattoo-Gate” back in 2010 that ultimately saw Jim Tressel lose his job, had to vacate all of its 2010 games in the process of also being banned from the 2012 postseason. That was for exchanging autographs and team memorabilia for body ink.
In 2009, the NCAA ordered Alabama to vacate 21 victories from the 2005, 2006, and 2007 seasons from violations related to improper textbook distribution. These violations involved players obtaining textbooks for themselves and others through the misuse of their scholarships, an impermissible benefit.
Florida Gulf Coast University, a program with about thousand times fewer die-hard fans than Michigan, had to vacate 82 wins in 7 different sports – including 2 conference championships – earlier this year related to improper athlete certifications by their compliance office.
But not for Michigan football.
Other than Moore, there is no one left at Michigan to really shoulder the blame and take the punishment. Oh sure, Stalions was hit with an 8-year “show cause” penalty by the NCAA. Last we checked, he was coaching high school football somewhere.
And former head coach Jim Harbaugh, who along with his 2023 staff actively obfuscated the school’s own compliance department during the middle of all this before wisely bolting to the NFL’s Los Angeles Chargers? A meaningless 10-year “show cause” penalty to be tacked onto the 4-year one he is currently already under.
Listen, we aren’t discounting $30 million worth of fines. That is a lot of cash. But don’t go throwing the Wolverines a telethon – as their gross revenues from 2023 were reportedly over $229 million. That was a year-over-year increase of $18.9 million from 2022, and Michigan enjoyed a $10 million bump alone in football ticket sales.
In other words, Michigan will ultimately and probably happily scratch the check – and should do so with said check flattened out on the CFP national championship trophy for a smooth background on which to write.
That trophy itself, however? It will still sit bathed in pin-lights at Schembechler Hall in all its glory. The banners and signs around Michigan Stadium will remain, as will those 15 ill-gotten victories.
Shouldn’t those wins disappear? Shouldn’t that trophy go back to the CFP in shame, and the banners taken down and stored in the exact same basement that Michigan’s Final Four banners from the Fab Five era are stored?
Nope. No such punishment here.
Not for Michigan football.
Where do we report that robbery, exactly?
An APSE national award-winning writer and editor, David Wasson has almost four decades of experience in the print journalism business in Florida and Alabama. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and several national magazines and websites. He also hosts Gulfshore Sports with David Wasson, weekdays from 3-5 pm across Southwest Florida and on FoxSportsFM.com. His Twitter handle: @JustDWasson.
