A message board online may have revealed the scandal as early as last year
Michigan's football program continues to face scrutiny from around the college football world over the alleged signal stealing. Turns out, it was a Tennessee message board poster that goes by the name "ArniePalmerAlert" who provided a number of key pieces of evidence about Connor Stalions, almost a year ago.
First off, this person’s message board name is a fantastic shout out to the movie "The Other Guys."
Head coach Jim Harbaugh of the Michigan Wolverines talks to J.J. McCarthy #9 during a time out while playing the Indiana Hoosiers at Michigan Stadium on October 14, 2023 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. (Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
If you haven’t gone down the rabbit-hole of college athletic message boards, I highly recommended subscribing during a coaching search. A lot of these folks are actually pretty credible and have some sort of connection to folks who know something about a current situation.
It was reported on Tuesday that Tennessee was one of the schools where Connor Stalions was purchasing tickets to scout for video purposes. The school confirmed he had bought a ticket to the Tennessee-Kentucky game last season.
Tennessee message board poster had the goods on Michigan
A random poster on a Tennessee message board, on the prominent site "Volquest," had the goods on Michigan’s Connor Stalions last December. I know that it might sound a bit crazy, but I would imagine the NCAA would love to have a word with ‘ArniePalmerAlert’ and find out what he knows.
Here’s what the message board poster had to say on Dec. 1, 2022.
"Oh do I have a story on that. One of my little brother’s ‘friends’ is a ‘scout’ for them (Michigan). They paid for him to travel to the UT Vandy game (had planned it before the loss obviously) to try to steal our signs. He’s from Nashville originally so he just went anyway even after our loss since it was thanksgiving. Says he and the others are never allowed to talk to Harbaugh directly about it."
Head coach Jim Harbaugh of the Michigan Wolverines looks on in the first half while playing the Rutgers Scarlet Knights at Michigan Stadium on September 23, 2023 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. (Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
Folks, this was from last year, and it just so happens that a guy on a message board was the one who broke the news. But this story only gets better, thanks to Mr. "ArniePalmerAlert," who dropped a few more clues a month later.
"No clue if related but I posted on here a couple months ago about a mutual friend of mine that was working for Michigan, going to other school’s games and stealing plays," the poster noted. "They’d pay his flights, lodging, food, and seats right behind that team’s bench for him to get video, nots, etc. Michigan is pulling out all the stops it seems."
"Can check my history to confirm if you want. Guy had tickets to our game at Vandy as they’d already paid for his stuff thinking they’d see us in the playoffs before we lost to South Carolina."
How bad was Connor Stalions for a Tennessee site to find out?
Now that folks are on the digital trail of Connor Stallions, it’s gotten to the point that this guy was dumb enough to leave cookie crumbs all over the internet. Using your own name to buy the tickets, then transferring them to someone else? Why not just Venmo the person who you’re sending, and let them buy the tickets?
Head coach Jim Harbaugh of the Michigan Wolverines looks on in the first half while playing the Rutgers Scarlet Knights at Michigan Stadium on September 23, 2023 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. (Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
Unless they didn’t have the money to pay for these pretty expensive tickets. We’re already at the point of over thirty different games Connor Stalions purchased tickets for. Did he not think someone would finally get sick of having their signals stolen during a game?
Hey, it worked for a while, but it wasn’t good enough to beat Georgia or TCU in the playoffs. Now, the NCAA and the Big Ten continue to look into this matter, gathering as much information as possible.
Connor Stalions did not make it clear for these ‘scouts’ to keep their mouth shut. All it took was "ArniePalmerAlert" posting on a Tennessee message board.
This is starting to look like a plot from the movie "Masterminds." Do yourself a favor and look up the reference.
