Sources: 2-game ban expected for U-M's Moore

Michigan football coach Sherrone Moore is expected to be suspended for two games for the upcoming 2025 season as part of self-imposed sanctions by the university for the Connor Stalions advanced scouting scandal, industry sources told ESPN.

The suspensions will be for Michigan's third and fourth-week opponents -- Central Michigan and Nebraska -- and will include being barred from any team-related duties during those weeks. Moore will also receive additional recruiting-related penalties. The NCAA could still further punish Moore in addition to any self-imposed school penalty. A final resolution is expected before the start of the season.

Michigan opens the season by hosting New Mexico before traveling to a high-profile non-conference game at Oklahoma, Moore's alma mater.

The second-year head coach was offensive coordinator in 2023 when Stalions was first accused of operating an advanced scouting operation by having friends and family attend games around the county and videotape the sideline play signals of future Wolverine opponents. Stallions was then alleged to have used that tape to decipher their play calling signals.

In an August 2024 Notice of Allegations, the NCAA cited Michigan for 11 violations, six of which were deemed Level I, or the most serious. The school and the Association are working toward a resolution.

Moore's suspension ties back to Moore allegedly deleting a thread of 52 text messages with Stalions, a former Michigan staffer at the heart of Michigan's alleged sign stealing scheme.

The alleged deletions came in October of 2023, the same day that media reports detailed that Stalions spearheaded the advanced scouting scheme.

According to a draft of the notice of allegations obtained by ESPN last year, the texts were recovered via "device imaging" and Moore "subsequently produced them to enforcement staff." Moore is accused of committing a Level 2 violation, according to the draft.

Moore was suspended for Michigan's 2023 season-opening game against East Carolina as part of self-imposed penalties by the university in a different NCAA case.

The structure of this penalty coming in the third and fourth game of the season gives Moore a chance to coach at Oklahoma, where he played offensive guard during the 2006 and 2007 seasons. Michigan plays in Norman in Week 2. Moore is a 2008 Oklahoma graduate.

A key difference in this penalty and the three-game suspension served by Jim Harbaugh at the start of the 2023 season is that Moore will not be able to coach practice in the game weeks of the Central Michigan and Nebraska game. Harbaugh missed those three games to start the 2023 season but was essentially with the team at all times outside game days.