Stephen A. Smith, Paul Finebaum discuss 'criminal' ramifications if Big Ten doesn't act swiftly amid Michigan scandal

There are dozens of questions surrounding the Michigan sign-stealing investigation that is ongoing, but one of the biggest centers around fairness and whether the Wolverines deserve a spot in the College Football Playoffs if the allegations are true.

After all, sign-stealing can carry a significant and meaningful advantage.

And if Michigan is granted a trip to the College Football Playoff despite the investigation, a team that gets left out may have missed a chance despite playing by all the rules. ESPN personality Stephen A. Smith called that possibility ‘criminal.’

“If you’re the Big Ten, here’s what you need to contemplate as your nightmare,” Smith laid out on ESPN’s First Take on Wednesday. “Suppose Michigan runs the table. Suppose Michigan gets into the College Football Playoff. What do you think people are going to be talking about? You think the national media is going to let this go? You think that you’re going to show up, you’ve got coaches stealing signs, infiltrating other teams on the sideline and stuff like that and you think that you’re going to get to the College Football Playoffs probably at the expense of an Alabama or Washington or somebody like that? We understand that.

“And you think you’re going to get on center stage for a national College Football Playoff, a national championship on the line, and the national media is going to ignore how you possibly got there?”

Fellow ESPN personality Paul Finebaum has also come down hard on Michigan during the entire ordeal, and he was with Smith in thinking Michigan making it in the College Football Playoff would be unfair.

He put the onus on Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti to take action.

“Let’s quit hiding behind everyone else,” Finebaum said. “Tony Petitti is a well-respected man. He’s the new commissioner there. He has to call these guys in and say, ‘We have to have answers because the credibility of the College Football Playoff is going to be in tatters otherwise.’

“Stephen A. you made the best point I’ve heard in this three-week controversy: Someone’s going to get left out at the expense of Michigan, and that is completely outrageous and unfair to folks who do it honestly.”

Smith agreed that it’s ultimately the Big Ten that has to take action.

“I think it’s a huge miss and a huge mistake on the part of the Big Ten to let this slide,” he said. “You need to bring the momentum, the heavy hand of the conference down upon that program to answer questions and to address this. And dare I say if they don’t give you answers to your liking, you make moves to make sure they don’t represent the conference in the College Football Playoff.”