"Kept logging in weekly to view our practices" - Ex-Big Ten coach opens up about Ohio State’s alleged practice tape heist under scrutiny by NCAA
Since the last few months, whenever the college football world hears the phrase 'sign stealing', their first port of call is the Michigan Wolverines. But, as it has been reported today, the Wolverines are allegedly not the only team to engage in this practice.
As per the 'Blue Blood Bias' X account, a unnamed former coach of the Maryland Terrapins claims that the Ohio State Buckeyes are also involved in sign stealing.
According to this former coach, a staffer at Ohio State University accessed an online program and would allegedly view all of the play signals that the Terrapins had practiced in the offseason.
Per the report, the program in question is Catapult, a video analysis system that is used by more than 100 NCAA Division I programs.
The head coach claims that the Ohio State staffer logs in on a weekly basis to view the Terrapins' practice sessions.
It is further reported that the staffer was caught when he allegedly offered to send the Maryland files to SMU, a college that the Terrapins would be facing that season. SMU would inform Maryland that they were offered this information from Ohio State.
This led to a confrontation between the head coaches of Ohio State and Maryland when these two teams met.
Buckeyes coach Ryan Day would then promise to sort out the issues. But, as of writing, we do not know if this issue was sorted out, nor how deep this runs in the Ohio State program.
So, if all of these allegations are true, what could happen to Ohio State?
What could happen?
The NCAA is currently investigating the reported claims and the use of the catapult software. At the moment, we do not know how the Ohio State staffer was able to access and view the Terrapins' practices. This also raises questions about the safety of the software.
In terms of punishment, if prior decisions are anything to go by, the Buckeyes may not receive a large one. When Michigan was being investigated, the only punishment that the Wolverines recieved was a suspension for head coach Jim Harbaugh.
The NCAA is yet to deliver a formal sanction on the issue, but don't expect something earth-shattering. The same should be expected with any punishment for Ohio State.
This is purely from a financial perspective. Ohio State and Michigan are two programs that bring in a lot of money for the NCAA and the Big Ten. Any form of large punishment would damage their reputations, thus potentially losing money. That is something that the NCAA cannot afford.
This is a developing story and things will change.