A report published on Wednesday suggested that the NCAA has evidence of a budget and travel schedule Michigan had for its sign-stealing operation. The Venmo activity for suspended team employee Connor Stalions does not seem to help Michigan’s case as it may contain evidence of payments to people who helped the team.
Last week, Stalions deactivated his social media profiles after he was named as the alleged leader of Michigan’s sign-stealing operation. One thing he had forgotten to delete though was his Venmo profile.
Venmo is a financial application that allows users to send and receive money from other users. Financial transactions are made public on one’s user profile unless that person changes the setting to private.
Stalions had left his profile on the public setting, which allowed others to see his transactions history.
One particular transaction drew attention online. On Dec. 30, 2022, Stalions had paid a Chase Evans via Venmo and listed his note about the transaction as “GA.” As many people pointed out, Georgia (whose state abbreviation is “GA”) played Ohio State in the Peach Bowl the following day.
Michigan staffer Connor Stalions made a public Venmo transaction to Michigan Recruiting Intern Chase Evans with the description “GA”, the day before last year’s Peach Bowl. 🕵️ https://t.co/pHpzvLjbQy
— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) October 24, 2023
Additionally, there was a person named Chase Evans who on their LinkedIn, listed themselves as a student at Michigan and recruiting intern for Michigan athletics.
The Venmo of Connor Stalions shows a transaction for “GA” on 12/30/22. UGA/Ohio St played in the CFP in Atlanta the next day.
Google shows a LinkedIn profile for a “Recruiting Intern” of the same name employed by Michigan Athletics but UM Athletics has now been removed
(THREAD) https://t.co/522TSn20aO pic.twitter.com/ODXdLAgPo2
— Graham Coffey (@GrahamCoffeyDC) October 24, 2023
Some of Stalions’ other Venmo activity was also captured by screenshots. That activity indicates Stalions receiving payments for T-shirt orders.
https://twitter.com/Juicewag/status/1716550090892902489
Then on October 28, 2021, former Navy football player Nnamdi Uzoma charged Stalions for what was listed as a “game.”
Former navy football layer pic.twitter.com/HF8EZixOR4
— Sixth Amendment Fan (@Mock_Dr_taylor) October 23, 2023
All of those transactions could be completely legitimate, but sending a payment to a Michigan intern for “GA” the day before a Georgia-Ohio State game has raised lots of suspicion.
