Boo Corrigan explains the CFP committee's perception of Michigan, Ohio State

The first College Football Playoff rankings for the 2022 season are out. With that came a number of surprises and plenty of different things to debate. That includes the decision to put Ohio State in the top four, while Michigan is currently sitting at fifth. It’s a decision that Boo Corrigan, NC State’s president and the College Football Playoff chairman, explained.

“I would say the disparity is not that great,” Boo Corrigan said. “In what we’re doing with the rankings themselves, that may be a little bit of a misnomer.”

The difference, according to Boo Corrigan, is that Ohio State is dominating opponents, while Michigan played one of the weakest out-of-conference schedules in the country.

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“But when we looked at Ohio State, the explosiveness of their offense, averaging 49 points a game, winning games by an average of 32 points, I think that really stood out to the committee. We like Michigan a lot as a committee, more workmanlike controlling their opponent. But again, I think there’s a weaker non-conference schedule that was talked about before, and that was part of the determination.”

Boo Corrigan was then asked about how he described Ohio State and Michigan. One is ‘explosive’ and the other is ‘workmanlike.’ Is that a negative, or is Michigan tending to not blowout opponents stylistically being held against it?

“No, I don’t think it’s a negative at all, to use that phrase, because they’ve done a great job controlling their games and mixing the run with the pass, really solid defense, good special teams,” Boo Corrigan said.

“Again, as we’re looking at this with the margins in between, these are really good football teams, and it’s our job to come up with the ranking on where it is, and this week coming out of week 9, we saw them as the No. 5 team.”

Later, Boo Corrigan was asked what kept Michigan out of the top four, specifically. Again, Corrigan emphasized the incredibly weak schedule that Michigan has played when compared to its peers.

“Well, I think they’re right there. In a larger picture, the signature win against Penn State, a well-balanced team. But at the end of it, when you look at that strength of schedule, it is something that we do talk about as one of the principles that guides us. At this point in time, again, after week 9, we felt they were right in the No. 5 position.”

Heather Dinich believes that strength of schedule will hurt Michigan

ESPN analyst Heather Dinich says that the CFP selection committee appears to be punishing Michigan, especially when compared to Ohio State, for its strength of schedule. Because of that, if they want to make the Playoff, then they’ll likely need to beat Ohio State.

“The other thing that really stood out to me was an indictment on Michigan’s non-conference schedule. When you look at Colorado State, Hawaii and UConn, those teams are a combined 8-18. So they’ve got one win – a ranked win – against Penn State which is 6-2. Yeah, Ohio State has the same thing, but clearly, they like what they see more from the Buckeyes on film than they do Michigan,” Dinich explained.

“To me, this says, ‘You’ve got to beat the Buckeyes or you’re not getting into the College Football Playoff.”