It turns out that scandals like Wakeyleaks, one of the most bizarre stories in college football history, isn't that bizarre. Or uncommon.
Last November, Wake Forest staff found a sheet of their plays at Louisville's Papa John's Cardinal Stadium, one day before the teams were scheduled to play. An investigation revealed that Tommy Elrod, a former Demon Deacons' assistant coach and current radio announcer, sabotaged his own program by giving gameplans to the Cardinals.
According to current college football coaches, it's happened before — many times before. CBS Sports interviewed 26 FBS head coaches anonymously and seven answered "Yes" to the following question:
"Do you believe an opponent has ever had proprietary information about your team entering a game?"
That's a shade below 27 percent. So if we conservatively take 25 percent of all 130 FBS head coaches, 32 coaches believe opponents have received stolen information about them.
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"I get this call. You can tell the guy's voice is all hurried, and he's on this pay phone," one coach said. The [opponent] had this field goal fake. The guy says, 'When No. 3 is in, [the opponent] is going to do this.' I made him repeat it. Sure enough, first drive the ball is on the 28 or 33 — and guess who comes trotting out there? No. 3. … Basically everybody starts yelling and pointing, and we basically talked them out of it. They call timeout and take No. 3 off the field and kick a field goal. For one, I got the call. Two, they [were going to run the play]."
Another coach likened college football to Wall Street, and the distribution of stolen information as insider trading.
"I know there are schools that go through every trash can before and after a game [to make sure nothing sensitive is left behind]," said a third coach.
You can read the full article here.
