On Friday, the Michigan Wolverines finally got resolution from the NCAA Committee on Infractions. As was rumored the past few days, the penalties are multiple, but ultimately well short of anything too damaging to the program long-term. Sure, losing Sherrone Moore for a few games is annoying, but the NCAA specifically chose to avoid any sort of postseason ban (while vacating wins/titles was only ever a possibility on certain message boards).
How exactly did the NCAA come to these penalties? There were actually a number of violations cited in the press release. To save everyone some time, below are the many accusations levied against the program.
The bulk of the case centered around everything Connor Stalions, as expected. The relevant information relating to the resulting penalties (not the logistics of his "scheme"):
However, here is where it gets interesting:
This means that, while the NCAA had sufficient evidence to punish Stalions, there is no way to actually quantify what competitive advantage -- if any -- his efforts provided.
Stalions, Jim Harbaugh, Sherrone Moore, and Denard Robinson "each failed to meet the membership's expectations of cooperation."
This was all known/assumed for months and was probably what caused most of the penalties. since failing to cooperate is much more black-and-white than the advanced scouting itself.
The investigation apparently also uncovered recruiting some violations that were "conducted by multiple football staff members and centered around four prospects."
Ok, sure.
Pretty standard stuff here, claiming Harbaugh "violated the principles of head coach responsibility." Notably, the release claims "his program had a contentious relationship with Michigan's compliance office, leading coaches and staff to disregard NCAA rules."
Likewise, the entire Michigan program was charged with a failure "to monitor its football program." The chief compliance officer claimed they were and her staff were "not welcomed by the football program" and were instead "rebuked, dismissed and disregarded by Harbaugh and his staff."
In sum, there are a lot of things that Michigan did in fact do wrong, but it is hard to ignore how blatantly even this press release has distain for Harbaugh. The penalties are mostly due to the fact that Michigan, Harbaugh, and Moore are "repeat violators," not because they significantly altered the competition of the sport, or anything similar that rival fanbases may claim. Stalions' efforts were expansive and strange, but at the end of the day, their competitive advantage was unquantifiable.