THE END IS LOOMING FOR JIM HARBAUGH AND A MICHIGAN CHAMPIONSHIP

Each day brings more evidence that an overbearing coach was well aware of a fervent sign-stealing scheme, which is outlawed by the NCAA and requires historic punishment from the Big Ten Conference

     If Sam Bankman-Fried appears before a jury and claims he didn’t defraud FTX customers, why would we expect a guilty plea from Jim Harbaugh? America is a hoaxer that doesn’t care about falsehoods in certain arbitrary cases. A potential national championship in college football must apply, given the lame justifications from 108,000 fans at the maize-and-blue-coated Big House.

     Yet it’s beyond obvious that Michigan was cleverly aware of Connor Stalions, among various accomplices, and an in-person scam to steal signs involving future opponents. A long-deceitful scouting scheme is outlawed by the NCAA rulebook and requires heavy punishment from the Big Ten Conference, which must protect integrity in a high-tech age when teams are permitted to intercept signs off game tape. A rule is a rule, even when athletes are allowed to transfer in the dead of night and are paid handsomely via their names, images and likenesses.

     And if the Wolverines proceed to win a title in January? The banner should be removed and tossed in storage, as it was when basketball’s Fab Five were corrupt.

     A day doesn’t pass without another dirty tale exposed about the former officer in the U.S. Marine Corps. Stalions has raved on his deactivated LinkedIn bio that he’s an expert at “identifying the opponent’s most likely course of action and most dangerous course of action” and “exploiting critical vulnerabilities” — the specific tactics of an impermissible sign-stealer. On Friday, ESPN reported the suspended staffer paid at least one person “a couple hundred dollars” and a ticket to a home game — a former Division III football player and coach — when he filmed every series from 15-20 rows above the field at three Big Ten games. On Wednesday, the Washington Post looked into the operation via computer drives accessed by Michigan’s coaches and said the cheating trips were budgeted at more than $15,000. On Monday, ESPN reported Stalions purchased tickets to at least 35 games, including 12 Big Ten sites and possible College Football Playoff foes.

     Why? The strategies of sign-stealing are more perceptible at the scene of the crime, which is why Michigan knew Stalions was breaking rules and paying people from his personal Venmo account. Said the ex-Division III coach: “A lot of people may say you can just rip that from the All-22 (wide-shot game film). Well, it's not that easy. This makes it easier to mirror things up and get those tendencies.”

     And didn’t the man know he was entering a scandal with potential all-time magnitude? “I didn't like it, but it's a gray line,” he told ESPN. “You can call me naive, but no one is reading the bylaws. I'm not a contractual lawyer. ... I just felt like if you're not doing it, you're not trying to get ahead.”

     Oh, if anyone is trying to get ahead in the chaotic world of college coaches, it’s Mr. James Joseph Harbaugh. On the record, he has said this: “I have no awareness of anyone on our staff having done that or having directed” any sign-stealing. Yet Harbaugh doesn’t know about the travel excursions? He doesn’t know Stalions is seen on the team’s sidelines speaking to defensive coordinator Jesse Minter and other coaches? The head coach doesn’t know he’s paying $55,000 a season to Stalions? He doesn’t know he’s being investigated by the NCAA over alleged recruiting violations, which he self-doctored to three games from four?

     Nothing is worse than winning a national championship … and have it hauled away in scandal. In the beginning, Harbaugh was despised in the profession. Now he’s mocked for fraud. Everyone in football knew about Michigan’s chicanery but not to this degree. Remember when TCU pulled a 51-45 upset in the national semifinals last season? Coach Sonny Dykes mixed in new calls known as “dummy signals.” A Horned Frogs coach told Yahoo Sports on Friday: “Sometimes we froze a play before the snap. We’d call a play and then we’d signal in another play with an old signal, but we told players to run the original play.”

     Connor Stalions is still being paid by Michigan, somehow. He will take the hissy hit, but Jim Harbaugh is the master thief who has been nailed by an elaborate system. We assume he’s off to the NFL next year, but as each week brings more news, we’re wondering if the big league still wants him. Some are comparing this swindle to Deflategate or Spygate. How about Watergate?

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     Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.