CFP executive director Bill Hancock addresses Michigan sign-stealing scandal, impact on College Football Playoff rankings

Going into Tuesday night’s first College Football Playoff rankings reveal, one of the biggest questions was how the selection committee would view the ongoing Michigan sign-stealing investigation.

For now, the committee essentially isn’t worrying about it, as evidenced in part by Michigan checking in at No. 3 in the initial rankings.

“Michigan’s played well all season,” said Bill Hancock, the executive director of the College Football Playoff. “The fact of the matter is no one knows what happened. The NCAA’s dealing right now with allegations only. The committee makes its judgments based on what happened on the field, and clearly Michigan has been a dominant team.”

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Michigan is under investigation after credible evidence surfaced that staffer Connor Stalions had attended or organized arrangements for others to attend various future Michigan opponents’ games. While at those games, Stalions and his cohort reportedly filmed the opponent, engaging in sign-stealing.

That would offer a potentially significant advantage on the field, on top of being against NCAA rules.

NCAA rules do not permit in-person scouting of opponents in the same season, while they expressly prohibit filming another team’s signs.

Still, without hard evidence yet or any resolution to the sign-stealing investigation, there’s not a whole lot the committee can do when it comes to the rankings. And Michigan is, in fact, 8-0 on the season.

“You have to remember that these are allegations at this point and not facts,” Hancock said. “And so, there is no substantive evidence that anything happened that might have affected the game. All this committee does is evaluate what happens on the field during games. That’s why we are where we are.”

With that in mind, Michigan’s fortunes are likely to hang on the speed at which any investigative progress is made on the case with Stalions. It’s unclear how far along the NCAA is in the process at this point, but there’s likely a lot to sort through.

One of the things the NCAA will be looking into is whether Stalions was essentially running the sign-stealing shop by himself or if there was aid (or direction) coming from further up. Any of that type of activity could further implicate coach Jim Harbaugh, who is already in hot water over NCAA violations stemming from the COVID-19 dead period.

Harbaugh already served a self-imposed three-game suspension to begin the season as a way to get ahead of any potential NCAA punishment on that front.

In any case, Michigan stands at No. 3 in the initial College Football Playoff rankings, fully controlling its own destiny, at least on the field.