After the lights of the Rose Bowl dimmed, the confetti was swept up and the fans shuffled out of the gates, the No. 1 Michigan football team’s equipment crew went to work. It packed up the helmets and benches, shoulder pads and medical tents, then set out on the 1500-mile trek to Houston for the National Championship Game.
When the Wolverines’ players and coaches arrive in Houston via plane on Friday, they’ll bring their own baggage with them — not the physical kind, but perhaps a more strenuous haul. They’ll arrive carrying the weight of a season-long sign-stealing scandal with them, allegations that become even more present as they compete for their first National Championship since 1997 against Washington on Monday.
According to those players and coaches, though, that baggage is unfair. Just like they’ve maintained all season, they say they did nothing wrong compared to the greater field of college football programs. In fact, they say they’re only following suit.
“I also feel like it’s so unfortunate because there’s probably — I don’t want to say a crazy number, but I’d say a good number — 80 percent of the teams in college football steal signs,” junior quarterback J.J. McCarthy said Wednesday. “It’s just a thing about football. It’s been around for years.
“We actually had to adapt because in 2020 or 2019 when Ohio State was stealing our signs, which is legal and they were doing it, we had to get up to the level that they were at, and we had to make it an even playing field.”
There’s a lot to unpack in McCarthy’s assertion, perhaps the most direct reference by someone inside Schembechler Hall to the prevalence of sign-stealing. Not only does McCarthy deny any wrongdoing by his school, but his statement points the finger at other programs.
But there are thousands of fingers pointing right back at him, ones that grow more fervent as the Wolverines survive deeper into the season. Just hours after their Rose Bowl victory, the word “Cheaters” topped the trending charts on X (formerly known as Twitter) in reference to Michigan’s program. Even at the precipice of glory, one game from winning it all, the Wolverines can’t escape the reputation the scandal caused.
Many of those voices feel that Michigan got to this point by cheating. Every time the Wolverines blow up a play — from reading tendencies they maintain are gleaned legally — some of those voices think it’s because of cheating. To that, McCarthy and his teammates take offense.
“You could say it’s all sign stealing,” McCarthy said. “But there’s a lot more that goes into play, and a lot of stuff that gets masked, a lot of work that gets masked just because of the outside perception of what sign stealing is all about.”
Of course, they likely won’t escape it after Monday’s result either. The NCAA is still in the process of investigating the sign-stealing scandal, and its process is notoriously slow even if expedited. Michigan only received a notice of allegations in December for another scandal — this one for recruiting violations — that spanned all the way back to 2020.
Anywhere between weeks to years from now, the Wolverines could see the scandal come to a head. The NCAA could finish its investigation and deem an appropriate punishment. Maybe that means suspensions and fines. Maybe it means vacated wins that scrub the national title Michigan is fighting for. Maybe, it’s nothing.
In other words, buckle up.
Regardless of the future, it’s one the Wolverines can’t control. In the meantime, McCarthy is aware that all he and his teammates can do is try and win a national championship on Monday, the same one-track mindset that his team has referenced amid a season riddled with scandal.
“At the end of the day, it’s not going to change the amount of accomplishment and the amount of pride for being on this football team and just everything that we accomplished because we know what we put in, we know the work that we’ve put in, and we know that we did things the right way as players,” McCarthy said.
Asked about the impact any vacated wins might have, Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh shared the same message.
“Yeah, as I said, (we’re) getting ready for this game, one-track mind,” Harbaugh said. “I don’t know if you want to live in rumorville or speculation, but we just don’t really have any room to be doing that at this point. That’s done elsewhere.”
Elsewhere is the future, one where the Wolverines will either be seemingly tainted national champions or a team that failed one game shy of its goal. While they can’t control public perception, they can control how they play in Houston.
“Whatever happens with just all the outside controversy is just out of our control, and whatever the NCAA wants to do is out of our control,” McCarthy said. “We’re going to appreciate the things we did control and the things we did accomplish.”
Meanwhile, they’ll just have to carry that baggage with them as outsiders continually label them cheaters. It’s a burden no semi can help them with, but one squarely on their shoulders as they prep for Houston.
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