Give them due process. Start the hearings tomorrow with decision on Wednesday.
It seems obvious that they were filming signs and attending opponent games, thus violating the rules. It also seems that the program used the information which was obviously obtained illegally for their advantage.
B1G will likely use threat of legal action by M to put this off while investigation is completed during the season, so Harbaugh likely keeps coaching. They want this to go away as quietly as possible. My guess is the conference will do what they can to cause an OSU win in the game.
Next season the advantage gained by sign stealing in the past is gone and they can slap them with minor violations then. Michigan will likely avoid any due process hearings by admitting to wrongdoing and falling on the sword.
And firing a minion- and blaming him for trying to be upwardly mobile a la Sean Miller and Bruce Pearl in hoops. There is NO WAY IN HELL that they didn't know. To suggest otherwise is folly.
However- that is the way much of this stuff goes. 30 years ago I had a salesman who called on me whose wife had been in the U of Kansas Athletic Dept and then took a job at the NCAA investigating infractions. She was in charge of the now infamous Eric Manuel UK case where $25,000 came out of a box addressed to his father dropped at a Fed Ex facility.
What he told me then- and I'm sure is even more true now- is that plausible deniability is the whole plan. The top of the power pyramid has to be able to honestly say things like "I never instructed any staffer to film other games." That is sorta like one former President who infamously said "I never had sex with that woman," or another that claims he didn't have a relationship with a porn star but just happened to give her $300,000.
Proving the actual physical intimacy is almost impossible in those above cases. Common sense leads to truth. UM is likely sorry for this situation- mostly because they got caught. I'm a high school teacher- every day I hear the "well I'm not the only one" excuse for breaking some sort of rule. Within any credible system- those defenses fail.
The question is: Is the B1G and NCAA credible?
I bet that UM skates for the rest of the year and likely gets a punishment that is not close to just. Hairball bails to the NFL to cover his own butt and the current staff is not retained by whomever takes over. This could lead to a Rich Rod era for UM- with the ceiling being what they have pretty much always been: a super talented team with an underachieving record.
How did they get over that hump the past few years? Connor Scallions arrival, the record of him buying tickets and taping B1G opponents games, seem to align perfectly.
Hail to the Victors Valiant: The Leaders and the Best! ??????????????????