Sorry to do this, but I would tamp down any expectations on FOIA requests.

Michigan is lawyered up and the good stuff is protected by attorney/client confidentiality.  It's a deliberate strategy that schools have learned to use and Michigan is employing it big time.

None of what the poster said on The Fort is new.  Except to those clinging to the fantasy of Ryan Day hacking into Stalions' computer.

He is right to be worried for Michigan.

Last November Michigan fans were accusing Purdue's head coach and OC of wearing Apple Watches in violation of NCAA rules.

All while ignoring images of Moore and Minter also wearing smart watches during games.

I went ahead and set up a Proton Mail burner account:

22buck@proton.me

I'm interested in any information people are willing to pass along but I'm particularly focused on the investigations and less so on potential sanctions (because that is purely a guessing game right now).

What the NCAA said they "know and can prove" is different from what I'm talking about.

The NCAA, I'm convinced, found out about the Stalions / advance scouting scheme from a source other than the Weiss investigation.  The evidence they received was overwhelming, which led to the "know and can prove" statements.

I do not know if the NCAA is fully aware of exactly what was found on Weiss's devices and when, since Michigan controlled that investigation.  Any potential criminal material was turned over to law enforcement.  But it remains to be seen what Michigan did with the other material that was found.

I've been on the Weiss thing from the beginning... and I'm now convinced the investigation of Weiss did not expose the Stalions scandal.

But anyone in the Michigan athletic department and administration who was not already aware of what Harbaugh and company were doing sure found out when they opened Weiss's devices.  That to me is the real intrigue in all of this: can the NCAA prove that Michigan's administration knew and didn't self-report?  If so, just wow.

When and how the practice footage story comes out will be interesting.  And it's not just about what was found on Weiss's computer, its about footage on a server shared by Michigan's coaches (with activity logs showing who accessed it).  Michigan is aware of this, because all of these details came from people affiliated with the school.

What I don't know is whether or not the NCAA knows (yet).  Or if Michigan self-reported.  As I've posted here before, if Michigan failed to report it and the NCAA can confirm it, look out.

This one is less about Stalions and more about having OSU's practice footage.

Wetzel said he found evidence of coaches buying tickets through public records requests.  But he admits that doesn't prove a thing about what they did or didn't do with those tickets.  He also said that the purchases he found were few in number as opposed to the large, organized purchases made by Michigan.

What Wetzel claimed, and has since clarified in podcasts this week, is that he has evidence of coaches at other schools buying tickets (that itself is not a violation).  He does not know what they did with those tickets so he is not claiming any other school did advance scouting.  If he was aware of another school buying lots of tickets like Michigan as part of an advance scouting plan, or that tickets were used to take video of opponents' signals he said he would report it.

That doesn't mean he couldn't run an article listing the tickets he's aware of but it would accomplish little other than to muddy the waters.  As a professional journalist I think he has a higher reporting threshold than that.

However, he's now given the Michigan crazies a game plan for turning attention away from them.  I think you'll see lots of public record requests from Webb, Balas, et al, looking for ticket purchases.

Manuel knew.  Michigan's police department and IT department and consulting firms knew because they had access to Weiss's devices.  It's completely implausible that Warde didn't know.

What's unclear: does the NCAA know that Manuel knew?  The outside, unnamed investigation laid out a complete case for the NCAA on the advance scouting / sign-stealing.  But the outside investigation may not have been aware of what was found on Weiss's devices and therefore may not have alerted the NCAA.

It appears that Michigan did not self-report what was found in their own investigation of Weiss -- they were fighting the charges at that point.  If the NCAA became aware of what Michigan and their proxies found on Weiss's devices... and did not self-report... look out.

You can best understand the academic standards at Michigan by looking at some of their former players.

Rashan Gary, Academic All-B1G as both a sophomore and junior in Michigan's "rugged" curriculum, scored a 9 out of 50 on the NFL's Wonderlic test.  Any score less than 10 is considered illiterate.

That impossibly low score was actually beaten by fellow Michigan Man Mario Manningham who scored a 6.  One wonders what kind of academic institution would not only admit such scholars but keep them eligible for the length of their careers.

We should probably be a little careful tossing around names.  But I can assure you that OSU had nothing to do with the firms brought in to open and perform the initial investigation of Weiss's devices.  That was all Michigan.

Without getting into the names, there were at least 3 firms brought in to help assess the Weiss devices.  I know two of the names and one of them in particular was suspected by both Brohio and me (and Michigan, for that matter) of presenting evidence to the NCAA and leaking to Hobson.  After a lot of discussion our thinking has evolved on that.  Speaking for myself, I now don't believe that firm went to the NCAA (at least as part of the Weiss investigation).

So, it appears any possible violations by Weiss related to the practice footage are being handled separately from the Stalions/sign-stealing issues.  For the record, Brohio has never been on the practice footage bandwagon.  He needs to see evidence directly before getting on board (and I respect that).  However, I will say, yet again, I'm convinced that Michigan had OSU's footage in 2022.

As for the gambling issues, the only credible claim I've heard is that Weiss had evidence of a gaming account on his devices, likely linked to fantasy play.  That's still a violation but hardly in line with the other charges being made.

Jim Stapleton will be an interesting member of the Infractions Committee.  He's a Michigan grad and booster who has a relationship with Warde Manuel, with whom he shares a strong dislike of Harbaugh.

As a lawyer you would think he'd recuse himself from the Committee's discussion of Michigan's violations.  But the NCAA moves in mysterious ways...

There are a number of people in Michigan's administration and athletic department who know a lot of these details.  In fact, there was a lot of discussion about it (and disgust with it) during the initial investigations.  But then Michigan put the clamps on that in a big way -- people were absolutely told not to talk about it.  Many of the in-the-know employees use UM issued phones and other devices and UM's email system.  Fearing for their jobs if discovered discussing it, everyone shut up.

Comparoni's comment caught my eye more than the Scoop headline.  He's a very veteran MSU media guy.

Yes, it is EXTREMELY unusual to see a player personnel director wearing a headset.

There are strict NCAA rules limiting their use.  There is only one headset available for use on the sidelines by someone outside of the head coach and countable assistants, and it must be used for "non coaching activities" (such as charting plays).  Clearly Magee was involved in "coaching activities" as he was interacting with Harbaugh before play calls.

It's just another example of Michigan flouting the rules under Harbaugh.  And the fact that Magee is back with the program suggests they aren't likely to change their ways under Moore.

Just to be clear on this...  I've mentioned that OSU has "highly suspected" for some time that Michigan had their practice footage but could not prove it.  PremierDrum said the FBI approached OSU in the early summer and told them they could confirm Michigan had the footage and that a criminal investigation was underway.  I circled back with OSU's coaching staff yesterday and they said they had not heard any of that.

Not referring to the Oracle.  Although he did bring some good info here.

The practice footage story has been of particular interest to me since I heard about it last October 18th from 3 separate people.  This was before any of the Stalions stuff broke.

There's one person who really deserves credit on the story (assuming it all is true).  He's an infrequent poster on another site who laid out many of the details about "who" and "how" last October 27th.  If this all plays out as I think it will he deserves a great deal of credit for exposing some of the cheating inside Michigan's program.

It's been interesting to see the widespread and sudden reporting on the practice footage theft.  There's clearly a bit of an echo chamber effect where sites are taking info (not all of it accurate) from each other and bouncing it around.

As many here know, I have been posting about the practice footage for months.  Brohio and I have talked about it and he's not convinced as he doesn't have any evidence to back it up.  PremierDrum and I have also talked about it offline.  He told me a couple of days ago (and then posted it here yesterday) that the FBI had notified OSU in the early summer that they could confirm that Michigan had OSU's footage.  I told him privately that didn't line up with what I had heard from OSU -- they "strongly suspected" Michigan took it but had no proof.  I checked with the football staff again yesterday and they have not heard anything from the FBI.

So, there's some confused reporting out there.  I will say, however, that I still believe Michigan was in possession of OSU's practice footage during the 2022 season.  And I believe there is digital evidence for the NCAA and law enforcement to act on.  Let's see how this plays out.

Brohio, check your burner as soon as you can.

I don't know how Michigan got them but the login credentials for an OSU staff member were found on Weiss's computer.  As were dozens of hours of OSU practice footage.

Brohio, PD and I have had a chance to talk offline and much of what we've heard lines up.  He has some recent information that I hadn't heard, which has me even more confident (if that's possible) that the practice footage theft occurred.

I've been concerned that this part of the Michigan scandal has never been revealed... not by Hobson, not by the NCAA, B1G, etc.  But it's becoming clear that, as a data breach, this is being investigated first as a criminal matter instead of an NCAA issue (although Michigan could eventually be charged with yet another violation).