By Bennett McNamara & Joshua D. Winneker
Most sports fans are aware of the allegations made against the University of Michigan football team for stealing their opponents’ signs during this past college football season. This story captivated the sports world for months mainly because sign stealing is typically associated with baseball and not football, especially not college football. Jim Harbaugh, Michigan’s former coach, was suspended for three games by the Big Ten Conference, and the overall NCAA investigation is still on-going.
Attempts to gain a competitive advantage by de-coding an opposing team’s signals are not, however, exclusive to baseball or football. In fact, allegations of sign stealing recently surfaced during the Iowa State versus Kansas State men’s basketball game on January 26, 2024. There, members of the Kansas State staff alleged that representatives of the Iowa State team had sat behind the Kansas State bench and were engaging in sign stealing by texting the information from the Kansas State timeouts to the Iowa State coaching staff. After Jerome Tang, the Kansas State coach, became aware of the alleged sign stealing, he relayed it to the officials who did not seem able to properly discipline the situation.
The officials’ confusion was understandable because unlike in college football, the NCAA has not yet addressed sign stealing in college basketball. The NCAA has banned in-person scouting across all sports since 1994,[1] but without a clear rule or directive from the NCAA specifically on in-game sign stealing in college basketball, regulating sign stealing would then be left to the individual conferences. Some college basketball conferences do allow the use of scouting through technology like Synergy, which gives teams the ability to break down game and practice film for the purpose of opponent preparations.[2] This form of scouting occurs prior to their matchups not during the games.
Kansas State and Iowa State are in the Big 12 Conference. In the Big 12 for basketball, football, and baseball, sign stealing is not specifically regulated. The conference does allow the Faculty Athletics Representatives (FAR)—who are under the authority of the Board of Directors—to have full power to act on special cases not listed in the rulebook.[3] The two groups work in tandem to interpret cases, and then those cases are presented to the conference Commissioner, who has the responsibility to enforce violations. The Big 12’s handbook emphasizes sportsmanship, and it lists six principles: trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and good citizenship. The rulebook states: “[t[he Member Institutions place great importance on the principles of sportsmanship and the ideal of pursuing victory with honor in intercollegiate athletics. Participation in athletics, including as a fan, is a privilege and not a right.”[4] The six listed qualities are associated with standards of conduct, and thus are connected to potential violations and penalties that will be distributed at the discretion of the Commissioner. Therefore, sign stealing could possibly violate the terms of sportsmanship for the conference.
Additionally, the Big 12 schools are responsible for the seating arrangements of each game to minimize the harassment of visiting teams. The Commissioner also has the power to impose sanctions for violations of seating arrangements, which is another a possibility given the nature of the sign stealing allegation here. Indeed, the Iowa State team representatives were sitting directly behind the Kansas State bench and were listening in and relaying their signs.
A review of the other major college basketball conferences revealed much of the same. Most of the major conferences do not have specific rules addressing sign stealing in basketball, and each appears to have similar rules on sportsmanship and seating arrangements as the Big 12.
With the lack of specific sign stealing regulations by the conferences, how then will the NCAA prevent the potential for more sign stealing in college basketball? The first place to look would be in the NCAA’s efforts to prevent sign stealing in college football. There, the NCAA prohibits the use of electronic equipment during games to record and relay the opposing team’s signs.[5] If a team can decipher their opponent’s signals without the use of in-game technology, then that is considered an acceptable part of the game.
Following this same route, the NCAA could apply these rules to college basketball to solve the issue. Sign stealing is a natural occurrence in the sports world, but placing restrictions on use of in-game equipment to steal signs in basketball will level the playing field – or court – and prevent teams from getting any unfair advantage.
[1] Division I 2023-24 Manual, NCAA (2024), https://web3.ncaa.org/lsdbi/reports/getReport/90008. Subsection 11.6.1 under Section 11.6 – Scouting of Opponents states: “Off-campus, in-person scouting of future opponents (in the same season) is prohibited, except as provided in Bylaws 11.6.1.1 and 11.6.1.2. (Adopted: 1/11/94 effective 8/1/94, Revised: 1/14/97 effective 8/1/97, 1/19/13 effective 8/1/13, 1/15/14).” The only exceptions to this rule are when an opposing team is participating in the same event at the same site and when an opponent is participating in a Conference or NCAA Championship. See id at Subsection 11.6.1.1 and 11.6.1.2.
[2] 2023-24 Commissioner’s Regulations, SEC (2023), https://a.espncdn.com/sec/media/2023/2023-24%20Commissioner’s%20Regulations.pdf.
[3] https://big12sports.com/documents/2022/7/7/Handbook_v_7_06_2022_.pdf. Section 7.1 under Section 7 of the Official Big 12 2022-23 Conference Handbook.
[4] 2022-23 Conference Handbook. Subsection 11.1 – Principles of Sportsmanship and Standards for Conduct under Section II.
[5] Football 2020 Rules Book, NCAA 26 (2020), https://www.ncaapublications.com/productdownloads /FR20.pdf. Rule 1, section 4 under Prohibited Field Equipment Subsection F of the official 2020 NCAA football rules book states: “[a]ny attempt to record, either through audio or video means, any signals given by an opposing player, coach or other team personnel is prohibited.”
