By LARRY LAGE (AP Sports Writer)

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — NCAA investigators interviewed members of Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh’s staff Thursday about a sign-stealing scheme, a person familiar with the governing body’s visit told The Associated Press.

The investigation has rocked the undefeated and second-ranked Wolverines on their march toward a potential spot in the College Football Playoff. The interviews were confirmed by the person who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because no one was authorized to speak publicly about the details.

The NCAA inquiry was triggered by an outside firm’s investigation, which turned up videos of and documented plans and budgets for impermissible scouting of opponents. The Washington Post reported the firm obtained computer drives maintained and accessed by multiple Michigan coaches.

The firm presented evidence to the NCAA and suggested Connor Stalions, a low-level staffer who has been suspended by Michigan, was not the only person on staff aware of the scheme, according to the report. A second person with knowledge of the situation confirmed to the AP that a firm provided the NCAA with evidence, including photographs, videos and documents, that initiated the association’s investigation.

It was unclear who hired the firm to investigate Michigan. Both Michigan and the Big Ten have acknowledged the investigation.

Harbaugh, who is facing unresolved NCAA violations in a separate case tied to recruiting, has denied any knowledge or involvement in impermissible scouting of opponents.

The Wolverines (8-0, 5-0 Big Ten) have won consecutive conference championships and reached the playoff semifinals each of the last two seasons. Michigan’s next game is Nov. 4 at home against Purdue.

The NCAA does not directly ban the stealing of signs, but there are rules against using electronic equipment to record an opponent’s signals and in-person, advanced scouting of future opponents in season. There are also rules against unsportsmanlike or unethical activities by coaches, and head coaches are generally considered to be responsible for violations that occur under their watch.

Stalions appeared to be purchasing tickets to the games of Michigan opponents and sending people to obtain video of the sideline signals used for calling in plays. There are images and video from Michigan games over the past two seasons with Stalions on the sideline, standing near Wolverines coaches. Stalions was hired in 2022 as part of the recruiting staff.

Multiple Big Ten schools have found records of tickets being purchased to their games in Stalions’ name over the past three seasons, and records show tickets purchased in Stalions’ name to the last two SEC championship games.

According to the Post, the investigative firm told the NCAA that cellphone videos from the games were uploaded to a computer drive accessed by Stalions and other Michigan assistants and coaches, though there was no evidence presented to the NCAA directly linking Harbaugh to the scheme.

The scandal has revived a desire by many coaches for the NCAA to clear the way for technology to be used for coaching staffs to communicate with players on the field, as is done in the NFL.

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AP College Football Writer Ralph D. Russo contributed. Follow Larry Lage at https://twitter.com/larrylage

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AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/college-football

NEW YORK — Here’s one approach to discourage migrants from settling in New York City: Give them a free, one-way plane ticket out of town.

Mayor Eric Adams is ramping up efforts to fly migrants to the destination of their choice, figuring it’s cheaper than sheltering them for months on end. And he’s simultaneously warning that those opting to stay in New York may be in for a winter of sleeping outside with shelters full.

“When you are out of room, that means you’re out of room,” Adams told reporters Tuesday. “Every year, my relatives show up for Thanksgiving, and they want to all sleep at my house. There’s no more room. That’s where we are right now.”

In recent days, the mayor of the nation’s largest city has been steering people who were vacated from city shelters to a Manhattan office devoted solely to booking plane tickets, creating more uncertainty for the new arrivals.

Dispersing them across the nation and world harkens back to when the Democratic mayor ripped Republican governors in Texas and Florida for sending migrants from the southern border to liberal enclaves. But City Hall officials defend their effort as different because the migrants aren’t being coerced to leave.

Still, critics say Adams’ actions sends a message lacking in compassion.

“What we’ve witnessed from this administration — even if they’re not directly saying ‘you’ve got to get out of here’ — is that they’ve consistently created hysteria and chaos and confusion and have not used a tone of inclusivity and welcome,” City Council member Shahana Hanif said in an interview.

More practically, Hanif said, tracking a migrant’s applications for work authorization or asylum can be impossible once he or she leaves the city’s care.

The new, more aggressive “reticketing” plan comes as the city deals with the 130,000 migrants arriving since last year and as it tightens how long they can stay in shelters, forcing the newest arrivals out after 30 days.

Migrants have opted to fly to destinations as far as away as Colombia and Morocco.

The city has been at odds with the White House over the lack of a national remedy to the migrant surge, pitting Adams against President Joe Biden. One-way plane tickets, even international ones, are cheaper than the cumulative daily, per-migrant cost that has risen to $394 this month from $363 in the city.

“With no sign of a decompression strategy in the near future, we have established a reticketing center for migrants,” City Hall spokesperson Kayla Mamelak said in a statement. “Here, the city will redouble efforts to purchase tickets for migrants to help them take the next steps in their journeys.”

Adams is threatening that migrants who end up on the streets — “when,” not “if,” it comes to that — would be clustered only with bathroom facilities. He has also weighed distributing tents to them.

“Nothing is off the table,” Mamelak reiterated.

The message from Adams comes as a record 4,000 newcomers arrive to the city each week.

Limits on shelter stays, combined with casework services that include “reticketing” to other places, are necessary to drive down the population in the city’s care and make room for new arrivals, City Hall officials say.

City Hall officials say the squeeze has been working. Less than 20 percent of migrants who received 30- and 60-day vacate notices have reapplied to return to the city’s care, a rate that officials tout as a success.

But it’s still unclear where a majority of the people kicked out of shelters go.

This week, migrants out on the streets followed directions the city gave them to the new reticketing center: a repurposed church office in the East Village. The group included dozens of migrant adults who were forced to leave a midtown Manhattan shelter site Monday because of fire safety concerns.

On Wednesday, a trickle of men, carrying their belongings in small suitcases, pillowcases and even trash bags, emerged from the reticketing site confused.

Several were asylum-seekers from Mauritania, a West African nation with heightened racial tensions, and they said in interviews in French that they rejected the flight offer because they wished to stay in the city to seek work.

At least one man was rushing to the airport to make a flight to Michigan.

“We tried our luck here, but there is no room,” Savi Qhlil, 30, said.

There is no immediate guarantee of an open bed for those who opt to return to the city’s care.

Some migrants hop from shelter to shelter seeking vacancies, and some bide their time by sleeping on the subway.

The city has used reticketing since the crisis began about 18 months ago, but it now has a dedicated site separate from the Roosevelt Hotel intake center in midtown Manhattan. Officials did not have immediate information on how much they’ve spent more recently on tickets or where the bulk of the travelers requested to go.

Murad Awawdeh, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition, said it “doesn’t make any sense for reticketing to be the main prime focus.”

He added that while some migrants in the early stages of the crisis were forced to come to New York City, including via buses chartered by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, more recent arrivals want to be in the city.

“It’s unconscionable that this is the tone and tact this administration is taking when immigrants have been the lifeline and lifeblood of this city for centuries,” Awawdeh said.

Adams told reporters this week that he’s talking with other countries about how they’ve managed migrants sleeping outdoors, a prospect that the Legal Aid Society and the Coalition for the Homeless stress runs contrary to the city’s right-to-shelter obligation to provide a bed for any one who needs it.

“We have to make sure that people have some type of restroom facilities, some type of shower network,” Adams told reporters Tuesday.

A possibility floated Wednesday of distributing tents for outdoor living was confirmed by his spokesperson.

Adams repeatedly notes that he has kept children off the streets thus far. What Day 61 will look like for migrant children — a newer policy announced last month that evicts even families — remains to be seen.

“We’re still formulating that, and we’ll get back to you on it,” said Molly Schaeffer, interim director of the Office of Asylum Seeker Operations, at a City Council hearing Monday.

The city has a network of hotels, churches and state facilities used to house migrants across the five boroughs, and Adams has pegged the city’s cost to ultimately hit $12 billion over three years.

City Council member Diana Ayala said the most cost-effective approach is longer-term solutions including publicly subsidized housing vouchers that get conventional shelter residents into permanent housing.

“I do really understand the complexity of what they’re being asked to do under the circumstances,” Ayala said in an interview about the city’s response. “But I don’t think that their policies are helpful. I think they have the potential to leave thousands of individuals out on the street.”

Jason Beeferman and Janaki Chadha contributed to this report.

PHILADELPHIA — Freddy Gaudreau, who played all 82 regular-season games for the Wild last season, will miss at least the three starting Thursday night against the Flyers at Wells Fargo Arena.

Sidelined by an upper body injury, Gaudreau did not travel here with the team and won’t join his teammates for games Friday at Washington and Sunday in New Jersey.

“He’s been dealing with it,” head coach Dean Evason said Thursday.

Gaudreau took a wicked blind check from former teammate Ryan Reaves at Toronto on Oct. 14 and had to compose himself on the ice for several moments — while Reaves and Marcus Foligno traded blows — before he was able to skate off.

Gaudreau was examined after the hit but returned and played 9 minutes, 51 seconds in the Wild’s 7-4 loss. Afterward, he said he had the wind knocked out of him.

He joins a growing list of regulars sidelined by injuries. Defensemen Alex Goligoski (lower body) and Jared Spurgeon (upper body) are on long term injured reserve, and Matt Boldy is skating in Minnesota after suffering an upper body injury late against the Maple Leafs.

Boldy was set to travel with the team Wednesday but held back because the team won’t practice on this trip after taking an optional morning skate on Thursday.

New playmate

With Gaudreau sidelined, the Wild called forward Jujhar Khaira up from Iowa and inserted him on the fourth line with Connor Dewar and Brandon Duhaime for Thursday’s 6:30 puck drop.

Khaira will be the fourth different linemate for the two young forwards the Wild call “the Deweys.” Vinni Lettieri, who played with Dewar and Duhaime in Tuesday’s 7-4 victory over Edmonton, was moved into Gaudreau’s spot on the third line with Marco Rossi and Marcus Foligno.

Pat Maroon started the season with Dewar and Duhaime, and Sammy Walker played one game with them.

A veteran of 336 NHL games, Khaira has played his first minor league games this season since playing 27 games for AHL Bakersfield (Edmonton) in 2016-17. He played two games at center and two at wing at Iowa, leading all skaters with a plus-3 rating. “Obviously, you want to get back as fast as you can, and I can only control what I control, and I thought I did that down there,” Khaira said.

“He’s very versatile. He’s very comfortable. Clearly he’s a pro,” Evason said. “He’s played in the NHL a long time. We’re looking for him to slot right in with his experience, with his size (6-foot-4, 212 pounds), with his speed. Should be a nice fit for us.”

Briefly

Evason said the team is hoping Boldy and Spurgeon can begin practicing with the team when it returns from a 4 p.m. game at New Jersey on Sunday. Spurgeon can’t be activated until a Nov. 4 home game against the New York Rangers, and of the two, Evason said, “Boldy is closer.” … After earning the victory against the Oilers on Tuesday, Filip Gustavsson was given the start against the Flyers. Marc-Andre Fleury is scheduled to start Friday against the Capitals.