It’s early morning, November 17, 2023, and the Michigan football facility is humming. The Wolverines are 10–0, ranked No. 2 in the country, and the bus is loading for a road game at Maryland. Coaches are moving bags. Players are lacing up. The season is alive and rolling toward something historic. Linebackers coach Chris Partridge, 45, gets called in… he walks out with a termination letter. By the time the team plane lifts off, media outlets are reporting he “destroyed evidence” in an NCAA investigation. His phone, his reputation, his career, all of it changed before Michigan played a single snap that afternoon.
He Never Touched the Scheme. Didn’t Matter
Partridge had nothing to do with what Michigan was being investigated for. Nothing. He never attended a single opponent’s game as a scout. Never received stolen signals. Never watched a second of “dirty film, ” the nickname staffers used for footage gathered illegally from opposing sidelines. His only documented involvement in the entire investigation: a Michigan player told him he was nervous about an upcoming NCAA interview. Partridge told him to talk to his parents about getting a lawyer and to be honest with investigators. That was the whole thing. A coach. A scared kid. Ordinary advice. And it cost him everything.
What Was Actually Running Underneath Michigan Football
While Partridge was coaching linebackers, something else entirely was happening inside the program. Recruiting analyst Connor Stalions had spent three seasons building what he called the “KGB” — a real, operational scouting network. Stalions bought tickets at 11 different Big Ten schools, mailed them to associates fanned out across the country, and those associates showed up to opponent games and filmed the opposing sidelines on their smartphones, full games, every signal. Back in Ann Arbor, Stalions decoded thousands of signals: who held which board, which hand gesture meant which play, which color meant run or pass. The NCAA documented 56 instances of illegal scouting across 52 games against 13 future opponents over three seasons. An entire conference, reverse-engineered from the bleachers.
Stalions Was on The Enemy Sidelines. In Disguise
Stalions doesn’t just send scouts, he goes himself. At a Central Michigan–Michigan State game, he shows up wearing CMU-issued coaching gear with a bench pass around his neck, standing on the Michigan State sideline like he works there. He’s watching every signal, logging every call. Meanwhile, Stalions spent nearly $35,000 on game tickets in 2022 alone to keep the network fed. Big Ten head coaches were already warning each other in private. “We were cautious because they had someone who could decipher plays,” one head coach told Yahoo Sports. Michigan went 15–0 that season and won the national championship. The KGB was running the whole time, like a factory shift that never clocked out.
A Commissioner Makes a Phone Call. A Career Gets Traded
Here is what Partridge’s lawsuit alleges happened behind closed doors. Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti contacted Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel and told him Partridge had instructed that nervous player “not to be forthright” with the NCAA. The complaint, filed March 11, 2026, describes that characterization as “uncorroborated, second-hand, inflammatory information”. Then, according to the complaint, Petitti made his position clear: reveal this publicly at a pending court hearing tied to Harbaugh’s suspension, unless Michigan made it go away. Manuel’s offer, per the lawsuit: fire Partridge, drop the legal fight, and the commissioner would stand down. Partridge was in his office down the hall. He had no idea his name was being traded like a draft pick nobody wanted.
The Cheaters Got Show-Cause Orders. He Got Fired
To be clear: the NCAA did hammer them. Stalions got an eight-year show-cause order… no college program can hire him without NCAA permission after admitting he threw his phone in a pond to destroy evidence. Moore received a two-year show-cause and a three-game suspension for deleting a 52-message text thread with Stalions the moment the scandal broke. Harbaugh got a 10-year show-cause for refusing to provide records or sit for an interview. Michigan paid over $20 million in fines. Those are real penalties. But the Stalions’ ban doesn’t touch the NFL. Harbaugh’s clock doesn’t start until 2028, after his Chargers contract runs out. Moore is still Michigan’s head coach today. They all landed on their feet. Partridge was cut loose the same morning the bus loaded for Maryland, no charges, no hearing, no appeal.
Under Oath, the AD Admitted He Panicked
Nearly two years later, in June 2025, Warde Manuel sat before the NCAA’s disciplinary panel and said it out loud. He testified that “he was under immense pressure at the time he fired Partridge” and that “because of this pressure, he made hasty decisions.” The room where Partridge’s career ended wasn’t a courtroom or a disciplinary board. It was one man, squeezed by a conference commissioner, making a snap call to protect the program. At the end of that same NCAA hearing, Manuel walked across the room, shook Partridge’s hand, and told him he was sorry. That’s the kind of sorry that comes after the crops are already gone. By then, Partridge had already missed 16 months of the college coaching market.
The NCAA Looked at the Evidence and Said: Nothing Happened
April 9, 2016; Waldwick, NJ, USA; Former Paramus Catholic football player Jabrill Peppers, left, and his former coach, Chris Partridge, attend the Youth Pro Level Football Camp for fourth- through eighth–graders in Waldwick, N.J., to instruct young players on their football techniques, Saturday, April 9, 2016. Peppers is a defensive back at the University of Michigan while Partridge is linebackers and special teams coach at Michigan. Mandatory Credit: Chris Pedota-USA TODAY NETWORK
In August 2025, the NCAA’s disciplinary panel issued its ruling on the three violations alleged against Partridge, including a charge that he failed to cooperate with investigators. The verdict was clean: “The panel concludes that the case record does not demonstrate that these violations occurred.” Every charge. Gone. The same report documented Michigan’s coaching staff calling their own compliance department, the people whose entire job was to prevent exactly this kind of cheating, “roadblocks” and “true scum of the earth.” A program that despised its own rulebook, ran a spy network for three seasons, won a national title, and paid its fines.
He Won a Super Bowl Ring. The College Doors Are Still Closed
By February 2026, Partridge is on the other side of a Super Bowl run with the Seattle Seahawks, a champion, confetti still falling, ring on the way. He earned it: game-planning, grinding, coaching an NFL defense at the highest level the sport offers. And yet, as he told ESPN, what he really wants — what he has always wanted — is to be a college head coach. That dream was alive before November 17, 2023. It’s still alive. It’s just still blocked. “My passion is to be a head college coach,” he said. “That has always been a dream of mine. I’m not going to give up on that just because other people made bad decisions.” A Super Bowl ring in one hand, and a scandal that wasn’t his hanging over his name. The man who deserved nothing paid for everything.
Now He’s Taking It to Federal Court
On March 11, 2026, Partridge filed a 46-page complaint in federal court in Detroit. He’s seeking lost wages, damages for reputational harm, and compensation for the toll on his personal health, a full accounting of what it costs when an institution trades your name to win a political fight. “I always believe that the truth will eventually come out,” he told ESPN. “I went all the way through the process with the NCAA, and the truth prevailed. And I feel I have to go all the way through the process with Michigan for the truth with Michigan to prevail.” Michigan faces a separate independent investigation into its athletic department culture this spring. The KGB ran for three seasons. The championship banner still hangs in Ann Arbor. In college football’s power structure, the guys with the contracts and the titles always seem to walk, and the rank-and-file guy gets buried. Michigan used an innocent man as a get-out-of-jail card. Now he’s coming to collect.
Sources
ESPN: “Partridge sues Michigan over firing during Stalions scandal” (March 10, 2026)
CBS Sports: “Ex-Michigan assistant Chris Partridge sues for wrongful termination” (March 11, 2026)
The Athletic/NYT: “Ex-Michigan assistant Chris Partridge files lawsuit over 2023 firing” (March 11, 2026)
NCAA: “University of Michigan – Public Infractions Decision” (August 15, 2025)
Yahoo Sports: “Big Ten opponents were aware of ‘elaborate scheme’ and Michigan assistant at center of it” (October 20, 2023)
Seattle Seahawks Official: “The Seahawks Are Super Bowl LX Champions” (February 7, 2026)
