A Michigan donor linked to a potential role in the school’s sign-stealing scandal has vehemently denied having anything to do with it.
A new report emerged Friday suggesting that staffer Connor Stalions’ operation was funded in part by an unidentified booster referred to as “Uncle T.” Suspicion grew when Tim Smith, a Michigan donor and member of the school’s NIL collective “Champions Circle,” was dismissed from the group.
Smith, however, denied being the mysterious “Uncle T” and said he was being used as a “fall guy” along with Stalions.
“I can give you good news,” Smith told Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports. “I don’t recognize being known as ‘Uncle T’ and I will refute that myself. I never funded Connor. To say I knew him is perhaps overstating it. I said hi to him. I’ve spoken to him more since he left Michigan to make sure the young man is OK.”
Smith said he had been removed from the NIL collective “because they said that this could bring bad light to other members of the Champions Circle.” He went on to claim that Stalions told him the operation was self-funded through the sale of a $100,000 house. Smith was not convinced that Stalions had even broken any rules.
How Stalions funded his scheme is one of the biggest questions still lingering in the scandal, as it is difficult to believe he could afford to purchase tickets, fund travel, and pay his network of sign-stealers on the $55,000 annual salary he was listed as receiving. Smith would certainly be the sort of figure with the wealth to help, though he was quite firm in his colorful denial.
