Who bankrolled Michigan investigation and how did they obtain computer files?

Dec 30, 2016; Miami Gardens, FL, USA; A Michigan Wolverines football helmet sits on the field prior to the game between the Florida State Seminoles and the Michigan Wolverines at Hard Rock Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports

A new report about the Michigan sign-stealing scandal has left more questions than answers regarding the situation.

On Wednesday night, The Washington Post’s Will Hobson published a report regarding the circumstances of how the NCAA opened its investigation into Michigan’s football team for allegedly stealing opponents’ signs using illegal means.

The report states that an “outside investigative firm” began investigating Michigan this season. The investigative firm somehow gained access to “computer drives maintained and accessed by multiple Michigan coaches.”

The firm used that access to build evidence against the Wolverines. The outside investigative firm then met with the NCAA on October 17 and effectively handed over the case against Michigan on a silver platter. A day after the firm presented to the NCAA, the NCAA opened its investigation. The Big Ten and NCAA both publicly announced on October 19 that Michigan was being investigated for an allegedly illegal sign-stealing operation. On October 20, Michigan announced that it had suspended employee Connor Stalions with pay. Stalions was named as the person allegedly behind the sign-stealing operation.

There are a few pressing questions that have arisen as a result of Hobson’s story.

Who hired and paid for an “outside investigative firm” to look into Michigan’s alleged sign-stealing operation? And how did that investigative firm gain access to the “computer drives maintained and accessed by multiple Michigan coaches”?

Were these computer drives just cloud-based drives, like Dropbox or Google Drive, where anyone with the link could easily access it? Or were these more proprietary/internal drives that only people with the proper credentials should have access to? If it’s the latter, some wondered whether the access was somehow obtained in the August hack of University of Michigan computer systems. Some also wondered whether the drives were somehow accessed through Matt Weiss, who was fired in January over computer access crimes.

Someone wanted to get Michigan in trouble, built an entire case, and handed it over to the NCAA. Who was behind that outside investigation, and how they accessed the computer drives, are important questions.