Cheating *ss Michigan

[squintsdd]

The hammer should be brought down upon the Michigan program. Harbaugh should receive a show-cause. This is flagrant breaking of competitive advantage rules. A well thought out, well funded network of rule breakers. Then there is the blatant lying by Harbaugh in response to it all, just like with his recruiting violations.

This should be viewed no differently than if this funded network of rule breakers were flying drones high above the practice fields of opponents and recording it. No different than a team hiding microphones in the opponents locker room so they can eavesdrop during halftime. It does not matter which of these things you feel provides the biggest advantage. It is all the same concept. Flagrant cheating in an attempt to gain a competitive advantage.

It is absolutely laughable if anyone involved with the Michigan program tries to claim the coaches were unaware of this. There are pictures of this "low-level staffer" standing directly by the coaches during games, holding a pile of pages. This is the guy that bragged about "identifying the opponent's most likely course of action" on his LinkedIn page, before deleting his social media accounts after this story broke. When Michigan was playing Ohio State and the Buckeyes had the ball, the photos show him standing directly next to the Michigan Defensive Coordinator. When Michigan had the ball, the photos show him standing directly next to the Michigan Offensive Coordinator. You think maybe they were discussing some of the information his network of rule breakers obtained? You think this guy just wandered on to the sideline and Harbaugh doesn't know who he is and why he is there?

Kick this weird, four-eyed f*ck out of the college game....permanently.

Not to worry. He'll get himself fired. They'll fold like a house of cards at the first sign of real competition. Can't wait until we play them at Autzen.

His Stanford teams gave Oregon fits. Not so sure I'd be wishing for that

[spacefrog13x]

Regardless of the cheating. they should just allow helmet mic's like in the NFL and HS. Completely ridiculous rule preventing the QB or the MLB from having a headset.

[droop10]

Regardless of the cheating. they should just allow helmet mic's like in the NFL and HS. Completely ridiculous rule preventing the QB or the MLB from having a headset.

Found an interesting article from over a year ago about it (seems to be free despite being from The Athletic), as I didn't realize teams weren't permitted to use it. Seems like it may be helmet manufacturers that are currently the biggest road block, due to the number of different helmets teams use. They are concerned about lawsuits if a change in design to accommodate the ear piece leads to more head injuries. Some other concerns center around cost. I suspect this scandal could lead to a push for some conferences to adopt a rule allowing helmet communication.

https://theathletic.com/3194428/2022/03 ... ange-that/

[Duck07]

Regardless of the cheating. they should just allow helmet mic's like in the NFL and HS. Completely ridiculous rule preventing the QB or the MLB from having a headset.

Found an interesting article from over a year ago about it (seems to be free despite being from The Athletic), as I didn't realize teams weren't permitted to use it. Seems like it may be helmet manufacturers that are currently the biggest road block, due to the number of different helmets teams use. They are concerned about lawsuits if a change in design to accommodate the ear piece leads to more head injuries. Some other concerns center around cost. I suspect this scandal could lead to a push for some conferences to adopt a rule allowing helmet communication.

https://theathletic.com/3194428/2022/03 ... ange-that/

The best helmet for safety by ratings is the Vicis and it costs between 800-1000$. The Bosas, Kittle and a few others wear it as its noticeably larger in the forehead area.

If anyone has a child who plays football, please spend the money for their own helmet and consider a q-collar to wear around the neck.

[Phalanx]

So I am late to this story: IS the grave offense that some low-level Michigan operative bought tickets to games and scoped out opposing teams along with the rest of the fans? Or did he have some kind of special vantage point that made sign-stealing easier? This all seems pretty tame to me.

[pezsez1]

Noteworthy:

https://www.oregonlive.com/ducks/2023/1 ... ngton.html

[buckmarkduck]

A poster on scoopduck has video they took from last years UO-UW game of the staffer only videoing our sidelines all game. Said they thought it was weird he didn’t cheat or anything all game long, so they took some photos and video of him, then asked what he was doing.

[greenyellow]

A poster on scoopduck has video they took from last years UO-UW game of the staffer only videoing our sidelines all game. Said they thought it was weird he didn’t cheat or anything all game long, so they took some photos and video of him, then asked what he was doing.

Here's the photos/posts off the Oregon board. Looks plausible it could be the guy using Stalion's ticket.

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[greenyellow]

Others are combing through message boards and finding similar posts about people being paid to show up at other teams' games.

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[dd10snoop28]

So I am late to this story: IS the grave offense that some low-level Michigan operative bought tickets to games and scoped out opposing teams along with the rest of the fans? Or did he have some kind of special vantage point that made sign-stealing easier? This all seems pretty tame to me.

Same.... Maybe people don't like the extent that they went to obtain footage of other teams' signals? But it's not like they had secret video/audio cameras in the players/coaches of the opposing team to try to figure out the play they are calling and/or strategy they are deploying....Having team scouts going to a public game to video a public sideline from many rows away is not a bid deal to me. Additionally, as I mentioned before, most of this footage is probably publicly available anyway (i.e. there must be camera angels that show the sidlines) so any team could use this to gain a competitive advantage, and I'm sure that they do.

If I was a head baseball coach at a tournament, I would tell my assistants and/or players to go game of our next opponent and - amongst other things - see if they can pick up any give-aways when watching their signals. Would I have them film the other team? Probably not, but wouldn't be a big deal.

[bellsduck]

Surprised so many people are for cheating here.

[StevensTechU]

Surprised so many people are for cheating here.

To be honest, it's sort of a weird proxy of what everyone's more compass/general perspective on cheating is. Like, I could probably tell you who is more likely to go back to the store and let them know they forgot to pay for something better than I could have before this thread started. Probably.

[squintsdd]

Surprised so many people are for cheating here.

To be honest, it's sort of a weird proxy of what everyone's more compass/general perspective on cheating is. Like, I could probably tell you who is more likely to go back to the store and let them know they forgot to pay for something better than I could have before this thread started. Probably.

Well, I'd definitely consider what Michigan is doing cheating, but I'm not going back to the store. I consider it an item that came free with the purchase of another item.

[StevensTechU]

Well, I'd definitely consider what Michigan is doing cheating, but I'm not going back to the store. I consider it an item that came free with the purchase of another item.

Hahaha

[Phalanx]

Surprised so many people are for cheating here.

To be honest, it's sort of a weird proxy of what everyone's more compass/general perspective on cheating is. Like, I could probably tell you who is more likely to go back to the store and let them know they forgot to pay for something better than I could have before this thread started. Probably.

Instead of this inane attempt to make some kind of moral equivalency, I'm really just asking for someone to explain the issue better from their perspective, given that multiple people here want to crucify Harbaugh. Teams get footage of other teams' plays all the time - in fact you are considered a bad coach if you don't know the other team's plays backwards and forwards before the game starts. So how is this different? I don't have an issue with stealing signs in general, as long as someone 'cracks the code' honestly. Not sure how many here actually played sports, but it's pretty ingrained in the game. I remember in baseball having to change signs all the time to ensure that they wouldn't get stolen. If somebody was using a strategically-placed camera DURING the game, that would be one thing, but signs from past games taken from the stands seems like fair game. Unless there is an express rule about it, in which case everyone's agreement to follow that rule would constitute grounds for accusations of cheating.