Michigan, Matt Weiss face class action over alleged cyber crimes

Former Ravens and Michigan assistant Matt Weiss faces 24 criminal counts arising from allegedly unauthorized access to computers and aggravated identity theft. Michigan and Weiss face a class-action lawsuit arising from Weiss's alleged misbehavior.

Via NBC News, two women (a former Michigan gymnast and a former Michigan soccer player) have sued the school for failure to supervise and monitor Weiss.

Their lawsuit alleges that Weiss and the other parties (including Keffer Development Services, which managed confidential information) violated the plaintiffs' Title IX protections, their civil rights, and civil laws arising from legal standards including the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

“The recklessness and negligence and misconduct of the Regents, the University, and Keffer in these respects enabled Weiss to target female college athletes to obtain their private and sensitive information without authorization, including but not limited to Plaintiffs,” the civil complaint alleges.

Weiss allegedly began to access personal and intimate photographs and videos from female athletes in 2015. Prosecutors allege that Weiss accessed information regarding more than 150,000 athletes.

Weiss was a graduate assistant at Stanford when Jim Harbaugh arrived as the head coach in 2007. After two years with Jim Harbaugh, Weiss took a job as the assistant to Ravens head coach John Harbaugh. Weiss then moved through a variety of positions through 2020.

He rejoined Jim Harbaugh, at Michigan, in 2021 as the team's quarterbacks coach. In 2022, Weiss served as co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. He was abruptly fired in January 2023 following a university investigation of computer access crimes.

Neither the Ravens nor the Chargers (where Jim Harbaugh now works) responded to requests for comment from PFT. Although the alleged behavior was unrelated to Weiss's Ravens employment, he absolutely would have been subject to league scrutiny and discipline under the Personal Conduct Policy — if he had been working for an NFL team when these allegations came to light.