Joel Klatt believes Michigan allegations impacted first CFP rankings

The first College Football Playoff Rankings of the season were released on Tuesday, and after occupying the No. 2 spot in the AP Top 25 poll for the entire season, the Michigan Wolverines dropped to No. 3 in the CFP Rankings.

Some believe their lack of schedule strength thus far this season resulted in their place in the rankings, which could very well be true. But what also could have played a factor is their current ongoing sign-stealing investigation, which college football analyst Joel Klatt believes is true.

“Michigan doesn’t get the benefit of the doubt,” Klatt said. “There’s just no way that the allegations against Michigan didn’t influence that room, and I know that Warde Manuel is in the room, the AD for Michigan. But when they’re discussing Michigan he’s not in the room. Remember, he’s got to recuse himself, that’s how they do this. This whole operation where people are recusing and blah blah blah, it’s a really bad system, they need to stop putting AD’s on this, but I digress.”

The College Football Playoff committee that determines the rankings is largely comprised of athletic directors from schools across the country, including Michigan’s.

Athletic directors are required to exit the room when their respective program is discussed and voted on by the committee, but Klatt believes given Michigan’s resume that the sign-stealing allegations have definitely been looming over the heads of committee members in their decision.

“Michigan is the most dominant team in the country, they are the most consistent team in the country, and yet they didn’t get the benefit of the doubt in the top three,” Klatt said. “You cannot convince me that the allegations of sign-stealing didn’t at least influence, whether it was an outward conversation or an inward feeling from some of these committee members. It absolutely influenced these rankings.”

The Wolverines currently are defeating their opponents by 34.8 points per game, which leads the nation this season. And concerns regarding their strength of schedule will definitely be addressed during the home stretch of the season as they’ll face ranked opponents like No. 11 Penn State and top-ranked rival Ohio State.

But their looming investigation will likely continue to loom, and although CFP executive director Bill Hancock said the committee only makes its judgments based on what happened on the field, it will be intriguing to see if they keep their word as the season moves along.

“If there’s no allegations Michigan might be number one, but would most certainly be number two, and now they fall to three. Which in the grand scheme of things really doesn’t matter, so there’s no reason to get all bent out of shape about it. But you’re starting to see, again, a little bit of the hypocrisy and it starts to creep in the more that you look at this. The more you look at this the more that you see that it’s not always on the up and up,” Klatt concluded.