Multiple AP Poll voters drop Michigan amid sign-stealing investigation

College football is a beautifully wild sport where any number of factors can impact the perception of a team or where it is ranked. Including a sign-stealing investigation, apparently.

Michigan football didn’t play this weekend, taking its annual bye. Yet some AP Poll voters moved the Wolverines in their ballots anyway.

In fact, several voters removed Michigan from the top spot on their ballot in the wake of the sign-stealing investigation. Ten AP Poll voters that had Michigan ranked No. 1 last week dropped the Wolverines from the top spot.

In total, 13 of 63 AP Poll voters moved Michigan down on their ballots this week.

But not every voter penalized the Wolverines with the sign-stealing investigation now looming in the background.

In fact, one AP Poll voter, Jordan Crammer, moved Michigan up from No. 4 on last week’s ballot to No. 2 on this week’s ballot, leap-frogging both Florida State and Ohio State. That was perhaps the biggest eye-opener among this week’s Michigan voters. Two others moved the Wolverines up one spot.

On the whole, Michigan’s lowest vote was at No. 6. Only one voter had the Wolverines that low. Meanwhile, two voters had Michigan at No. 5 and three voters had Michigan at No. 4.

Michigan had 37 voters pencil in the program at No. 2, while 11 had the Wolverines at No. 3. The Wolverines still received nine first-place votes.

And while the AP Poll doesn’t have any direct influence on who reaches the College Football Playoff, perceptions in the sport are important. They can have a small but meaningful influence on the actual College Football Playoff selection committee, which determines the all-important berths.

Michigan has to be considered one of the favorites to earn a third straight CFP appearance, sign-stealing investigation or not, standing at 8-0 on the season currently.

Of course, the trickiest games still remain ahead of Michigan. Michigan will take on No. 9 Penn State on Nov. 11, on the road. Then it’ll host No. 3 Ohio State at home in the regular season finale on Nov. 25.

While it remains to be seen how quickly the sign-stealing investigation will progress, Michigan will want to avoid losing too much steam in the public polls ahead of Selection Sunday. Of course, that’s really up to the voters.

And for now, there’s been a decided shift downward on Michigan in the last week.