Michigan cheated and got away with it. Don't let any of the "penalties" levied by the NCAA tell you any different. The Wolverines cheated the sport to conquer it. In the most brazen example of cheating in recent memory, Michigan built a complex sign-stealing operation headed by staffer Connor Stalions, who for multiple years traveled the country to videotape signals from future Michigan opponents in order to garner a competitive advantage.
The operation was rampant, the NCAA concluded that Jim Harbaugh and the University were at fault and cognizant of it, and then sought to cover it up. They had enough evidence to bury the program, or at least drop the hammer with the most severe sanctions a program has received since SMU got the Death Penalty in 1987.
Instead, Michigan got no more than a slap on the wrist. No games will be forfeited. No postseason bans. Just a $20-million fine and a 10-year show-cause penalty for Harbaugh, who abandoned ship in Ann Arbor and is entering his second season as the head coach of the NFL's Los Angeles Chargers. Harbaugh isn't around for the punishment to impact him, and the University of Michigan has an endowment of upwards of $19 billion, meaning that the fine would be the equivalent of you dropping a quarter on the sidewalk.
Current Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore will serve a token three-game suspension - two of which during this season (conveniently in weeks three and four, somehow) and then one game next season. That'll teach them.
As a Level-I violation, a postseason ban would have been warranted in this case. However, the NCAA believed that wouldn't be fair to the current players and staff at Michigan:
The NCAA says there were sufficient grounds for a multiyear postseason ban. "However, the panel determined that a postseason ban would unfairly penalize student-athletes for the actions of coaches and staff who are no longer associated with the Michigan football program."
— Nicole Auerbach (@NicoleAuerbach) August 15, 2025
A reminder: Alabama had to vacate wins from the 2007 season because players sold their own textbooks. In the early 2000s, Alabama received a multi-year postseason ban because they were found to have given impermissible benefits to recruits.
Michigan cheated the sport and got asked politely by the NCAA not to do it again.
The NCAA owes Nick Saban, Alabama, Kalen DeBoer, and Washington an apology
You'd be correct in thinking the program with the biggest right to indignation is Ohio State. The Buckeyes were the biggest target for Stalions and his cronies, and it was Michigan's inability to best Ohio State that led to them seeking a competitive advantage.
But the trophy case in either Tuscaloosa or Seattle is one National Championship short as a result, too.
In the College Football Playoff for the 2023 season, Michigan defeated Nick Saban's Alabama and Kalen DeBoer's Washington to win the National Championship. In reality, the NCAA should have prevented the Wolverines from even playing in the playoff with the information they had at the time. That would have likely led to an Alabama vs. Washington National Championship Game, with Saban ending his career with another title, or DeBoer capturing his first at the FBS level.
Instead, Michigan won a National Championship it never should have had the opportunity to play for.
What incentive does any program have now to follow the rules? Cheat to win, and you may be fined $20 million? If that's the cost of a National Championship, a lot of programs would respond with "so be it." Hell, Ohio State was rumored to have spent more than that just to compile their roster last season. It's chump change in today's college football world.
The NCAA long ago lost the plot, and long ago effectively surrendered any real authority it had. It had an opportunity in this case to make a statement and make an example out of a program that clearly felt it was above the law. Instead, it cowered into a corner, puckered its lips, and kissed some Wolverine behind.
In the eyes of everyone outside of Ann Arbor and the NCAA's headquarters in Indianapolis, the 2023 Michigan title will always have an asterisk beside it.