You are a decent guy but you are way off base here. No way he went to 30 games, was a whiz at sign stealing and none of the coordinators or Harbaugh would think to ask him why he was so good or why he was so good and that they should trust him a crucial play. There is also the video of C J Stroud changing a play at the line of scrimmage and 3 Michigan players who knew a pass was coming raising their hand in the air. If the players knew the signs and relied on them, the coaches had to know what was up. Impossible to have an "elite" staffer and not ask him how he did it because everyone would like to absorb the knowledge of the "elite" (in this instance, really cheater staffer) staffer.
This is where I have to disagree. Let us assume 150 dollars average per ticket. That is 4500 dollars. That is not even the cost of a single payoff for a 5 star recruit to Columbus per your AD. If this were a conspiracy, why is this not being done bagman style? Why would a bagman demand such trivial compensation? The bigger cost would be the time, not the money.
As I said before, Stalions was the sign stealer. He would be next to the staff, just like every other sign stealer. Sign stealers exist because they can steal signs even if everything is "above board". I gave the example in 2018 where at least two teams NW and OSU knew Michigan's signs. Or are we going to assume that every successful "steal" implies cheating? If someone appears to do their job better, one would conclude they are just good.
You mention the account of Bobby Carpenter. I would ask why would the staff spend coach hours on signs? Is that not homework? Nothing prevents players practicing their trade on their own time. If that means learning new signs, you do it as homework. It also means just flipping a few things for those who are challenged and not supposed to be in a Div1 school.
If you watched the Michigan/Purdue game, the camera panned on to the Purdue sideline. There were three individuals giving signals. Let's say Michigan knew every signal. There are three people giving signs with four outcomes. It could be person 1, person 2, person 3, or the call was already given in the huddle. As a sign stealer, I have a one in four chance of getting the call right.
My last comment is we have a lot of yap from fans on boards. I have not heard anything from coaches and athletic directors. If Big10 coaches and AD's believe this is a notorious situation beyond the pale, they need to publicly say so. I want Ryan Day to say that Jim Harbaugh needs to go.
