re: I don't understand why there is so much support for Harbaugh/Michigan regarding cheating.

Its a dumb rule. Why prohibit the scouting of opponents and then have exemptions like this. From the NCAA bylaws:

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11.6.1.1 Exception -- Same Event at the Same Site. An institutional staff member may scout future opponents also participating in the same event at the same site. (Revised: 1/11/94 effective 8/1/94, 10/28/97 effective 8/1/98, 1/19/13 effective 8/1/13, 9/19/13, 2/7/20, 6/30/21 effective 8/1/21)

11.6.1.2 Exception -- Conference or NCAA Championships. An institutional staff member may attend a contest in the institution's conference championship or an NCAA championship contest in which a future opponent participates (e.g., an opponent on the institution's spring nonchampionship-segment schedule participates in a fall conference or NCAA championship). (Adopted: 1/15/14, Revised: 2/7/20, 6/30/21 effective 8/1/21)

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It works, why do you think that there is a rule against it ?

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Before this whole thing I never knew it was against the rules to have scouts go to opponents games and I've always been under the impression that every team was sending someone to their future opponents games so that when game week for that opponent came around they had a compendium of information ready to go to use in preparation for said opponent. Obviously the head coach and assistants can't do it because they're busy with each week's game prep so I always thought it was GAs and other "shadow staff" that had these duties to compile as much data on future opponents as they could.

I guess I gave these coaching staffs too much credit. Obviously it's against the rules so I'm not against punishment for Michigan, but I have to admit that more than anything this kind of disappointed me that coaching staffs don't actually do this like I had always thought my whole life, like I just found out Santa isn't real again

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People are confusing "stealing signs", which everyone attempts to do, with sending employees to the games of future opponents & video recording their signs to reverse engineer their signs.

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This is what a lot of people don’t get.