Big Ten coaches push for punishment of Michigan in recent video call

In a report put out by ESPN's Pete Thamel late Wednesday night, Big Ten coaches are joining together to push for immediate punishment of Michigan for its sign-stealing scandal. Thamel's report comes on the heels of Michigan's suspension of Connor Stalions, who is under investigation for spearheading the alleged sign-stealing system.

According to the report, "a vast majority of the Big Ten coaches expressed their frustrations with the ongoing signal-stealing investigation at Michigan in a video call with commissioner Tony Petitti on Wednesday."

The video call amongst the Big Ten coaches lasted approximately 90 minutes, with roughly 60 minuets spent without Jim Harbaugh in attendance. Harbaugh "hung up after the regularly scheduled Big Ten business to allow the conference's coaches to speak freely about the NCAA's investigation into Michigan."

According to sources familiar with the call, Big Ten coaches used words such as "tainted," "fraudulent" and "unprecedented" to describe Michigan's alleged sign-stealing scandal.

According to the article, one source said, "collectively, the coaches want the Big Ten to act -- right now. What are we waiting on? We know what happened."

Another source chimed in:

"People don't understand the seriousness of it. How it truly impacted the game plan. To truly know if it's a run or a pass, people don't understand how much of an advantage that was for Michigan."

One source even went as far as to say that "every game" Michigan plays "is tainted."

Big Ten coaches explained to Petitti in the call the schematic advantage behind the alleged sign-stealing.

Michigan was recently ranked No. 3 in the first edition of the College Football Playoff rankings. In the rankings release, CFP committee chair Boo Corrigan said the committee viewed the allegations "as an NCAA issue, not a CFP issue."

Additionally, Bill Hancock, the Executive Director of the CFP, said, "the fact of the matter is that no one knows what happened... the committee makes its judgments based on what happened on the field, and clearly Michigan has been a dominant team."

"You have to remember that these are allegations at this point and not facts... all this committee does is judge what happens on the field during games."

Michigan is set to host Purdue at the Big House on Saturday night at 7:30 p.m.

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