Bruce Feldman doesn't believe Michigan will be No. 1 in first College Football Playoff ranking

With the first College Football Playoff ranking set to be released on Halloween, there’s debate on where Michigan will end up. The Wolverines have been dominant on their way to an 8-0 record, but also find themselves in the midst of an NCAA investigation alleging they stole opponents’ play signs.

Both that and a lack of quality opponents — the Wolverines have a strength of schedule that ranks 110th according to ESPN — could play a role in where they end up. Bruce Feldman of The Athletic joined the Paul Finebaum Show on Monday, where he was asked whether he sees Michigan starting off as No. 1 in the rankings.

“I don’t,” he explained. “They haven’t really played anybody yet. Let’s be honest, they’ve mauled a bunch of really mediocre teams. Now, they’ve been dominant. This has not been a case of somebody like last week we saw Washington have their hands full with a really bad Arizona State team. Needed a pick-six to flip the game over and that was at home. Michigan has hammered everybody.

“Now, it doesn’t take much to be cynical and go, ‘OK, they’re hammering everybody because they everybody’s answers to the test before they take it. Fair or unfair, that’s what you’re going to be getting if you’re on the Michigan side of all of this now that some of this is starting to come to light.”

The Wolverines have won their games this season so far by an average margin of 34.8 points. As much as has been made about the lack of quality opponents, that’s impressive no matter who you’re playing.

Still, though there might have been plenty of members of the CFP committee who were willing to look past that before, the recent sign steeling scandal changed things. The university recently suspended football staffer Connor Stalions, who reportedly purchased tickets for more than 30 Big Ten games over the past three years.

Feldman believes that will be impossible for the Playoff committee to ignore, and will certainly factor in to Michigan’s initial ranking. For that reason, he sees Georgia starting out as No. 1 barring a loss to Florida this weekend.

“To that end, I know that the CFP are gonna talk about that,” he said. “I don’t know how they get into that process without having that idea in the backs of their minds or maybe even the front of their minds. You probably are going to have people look at Michigan much differently because of this.

“My guess is that unless Georgia stumbles, Georgia is going to be No. 1. If Georgia does stumble, I think Michigan would be there. You just don’t know how people are going to react to this story because from the Yahoo! story on Wednesday, it has moved pretty fast.”

The Wolverines have a bye this week, so will enter the initial College Football Playoff rankings with their resume as it stands. It will be interesting to see how this story continues to develop throughout the week and whether any additional punishment comes from it.