College football ADs, coaches express strong opinions on Michigan being in title game amid sign-stealing allegations

Michigan continues to face criticism over allegations of sign-stealing as it prepares to play for a national championship Monday night. The Wolverines are the favorites to defeat Washington and claim the trophy, but many across college football believe they shouldn’t even be there to begin with.

Despite a suspension of coach Jim Harbaugh from the Big Ten to end the season and calls for the NCAA to take action and impose a postseason ban, nothing was done. Ross Dellenger of Yahoo! Sports recently conducted interviews with several college football coaches and administrators, some of whom called for a change in the current system that allowed the Wolverines to make the CFP.

“That’s a good football team. They are a very good football team,” one Power Five athletic director said, “but this shows my concern with the NCAA process. This is our system and it’s unfortunate. The system allows it, which is why we’ve got to change so much.”

“It’s ridiculous that they are there parading around,” one Power Five coach said. “It’s not good for the game.”

According to Dellenger, those with intimate knowledge of the ongoing NCAA investigation into the Wolverines there is enough evidence to have ruled them ineligible. They pointed to the fact that Michigan dropped a lawsuit against the Big Ten after the conference revealed a portion of the findings to university leadership.

It has already been reported that former Wolverines staffer Connor Stalions purchased tickets to games of nearly every Big Ten program as well as College Football Playoff contenders over the past two seasons. There they That and additional information that has been uncovered is enough to result in hefty punishment against the Wolverines.

“There will be a robust conversation about it being Level I violations,” said a former NCAA investigator who spoke to Yahoo Sports based only on public evidence in the case. “Without a lot of precedent, it’s tough to say, but you’ve got a competition advantage and it would be significant here.”

The investigator added that vacated wins, a head coach suspension, scholarship reductions and a future postseason ban are all possibilities. However, none of that prevents Michigan from winning the title, even if that too is eventually wiped away as a result of the sign-stealing scandal.

“There ought to be a damn asterisk next to it,” one longtime college football assistant coach said. “It’s not fair. It ain’t right.”

Not all of the people that Dellenger spoke with are of that opinion, however. Two SEC administrators didn’t seem to think too much of the allegations, with one saying it “doesn’t diminish anything” if Michigan were to win the title.

“I don’t have a problem with them being there,” said the other. “There are much more egregious things going on right now in college football.”

Michigan is clearly a talented football team, and likely didn’t need to steal signs to have a chance at winning a national championship. The Wolverines have the No. 1 defense in the country as well as stars on offense such as Blake Corum and JJ McCarthy.

All the while, players and coaches have continued to assert they were unaware of the sign-stealing operation ran by Stalions. That’s why Wolverines offensive lineman Trevor Keegan offered a strong rebuttal to those who believe Michigan shouldn’t be here.

We’ve proved these allegations wrong,” Keegan said. “Ever since the thing blew up, we beat our in-state rival 49-0. We beat Penn State basically just running the football without our head coach after finding out the day before. We beat our biggest rival in Ohio State. We beat Iowa. And we beat Alabama.

“What else do we have to do?”

The investigation into the Wolverines began four months ago. The entire process can range anywhere from six to 18 months to complete. Interviews with coaches are necessary for the investigation and the NCAA has not been able to set those up with the season still ongoing.

Schools are granted 90 days to respond to the NCAA’s notice of allegations, further dragging things out. All that in mind, many are calling for the process to change.

“Michigan still playing speaks to how the NCAA chooses when to take action and when not to take action,” another Power Five athletic director said. “As an industry, we need to be better at it and quicker. President Baker says he wants to speed things up. Well, when is that starting?”

The NCAA announced changes to its infractions process in October that are designed to bring more timely results. However, that doesn’t matter for Michigan at this moment. For now, the Wolverines will continue to march ahead and hope to add another championship to its stories history.

If it does, however, there’s going to be many different opinions on whether it is deserved.

“If they win it,” another Power Five athletic director said, “it’s going to be tainted in a lot of people’s eyes.”