Central Michigan hit with NCAA allegations for Connor Stalions sign-stealing scandal

Another school has been hit with a Notice of Allegations from the NCAA at the hand of Connor Stalions. This time it's Central Michigan University.

This comes 21 months after the whistle was blown on the sign-stealing saga in late October 2023 and 23 months after Stalions allegedly was able to wear a disguise in August 2023 and sneak onto the Central Michigan sideline for that season's opening game against Michigan State at Spartan Stadium.

When Stalions became the center of a Netflix documentary, "Untold: Sign Stealer," he denied ever having been on the CMU sideline that evening against the Spartans.

Per the NCAA's Division infractions dashboard, the Chippewas were served the NOA on June 27, which opened the 90-day window from that date for CMU to respond, which would be on or before Sept. 25.

An email requesting comment to CMU was not immediately returned on Tuesday, July 29. The Free Press has filed an open records request with Central Michigan for the Notice of Allegations it received.

According to the database, the investigation began on Oct. 31, 2023 − the day that pictures began circulating online showing a man, who appeared to be Stalions, wearing a disguise including facial hair, CMU coaches clothes and sunglasses that appeared to have a light in the corner of them to potentially record something.

Four days later, on Nov. 3, there was a notice of inquiry. The process lasted for 387 days and was delayed multiple times after the party provided "false or misleading information" or because of "withholding requested materials by enforcement staff" until a review board met more than a year later on Nov. 21, 2024.

Stalions is accused of having purchased tickets to dozens of games across multiple years, sending them to acquaintances who would sit directly across the stadium from the team of interest's bench, record their signals during the game and then send video back to Stalions to decode. The Central Michigan game against MSU is the only one that Stalions is accused of attending himself in person.

While former Central Michigan coach Jim McElwain, who has since resigned, claimed to have no knowledge of the person he called "the sign stealer guy" or how he got onto the field, it's worth noting there were connections between the two schools. McElwain was a former offensive coordinator at Michigan, while Jake Kostner, the former CMU quarterbacks coach who also resigned from the program in the fall of 2024, was on staff in Ann Arbor while Stalions was there as a student assistant coach from 2015-18.

The Michigan football aspect of the saga has taken just as long. Michigan did not enter into a negotiated resolution with the NCAA, but instead opted to take the case directly to the NCAA's Committee on Infractions last month.

It's been 52 days since members of the Wolverines brass – including coach Sherrone Moore, athletic director Warde Manuel and university counsel – met with the NCAA's COI in Indianapolis on June 6, 2025, to discuss the case. Reporters waiting outside the courthouse showed that Stalions was on hand, but he reportedly did not participate in the process.

Michigan Wolverines head coach Jim Harbaugh watches from the sideline beside off-field analyst Connor Stalions, right, during a game against the Ohio State Buckeyes at Ohio Stadium in 2022.

That came after the NCAA sent NOA's in both August and November and while there's been no resolution yet, the expectation is the governing body's enforcement arm will reach a decision sometime before the start of the 2025 season.

U-M has tried to mitigate any punishment by handing Moore a two-game university-imposed suspension for Weeks 3 and 4 of the upcoming season, the first of which is a home game against Central Michigan. The second would be for the Big Ten opener on the road at Nebraska.

Tony Garcia is the Wolverines beat writer for the Detroit Free Press. Email him at [email protected] and follow him on X at @RealTonyGarcia.