What they're saying about Michigan football after the bye week

The Michigan Wolverines were off this week on a bye that did not feel like much of a rest. However, the squad still factors heavily into the College Football Playoff picture despite the allegations of illegal sign stealing and the start of another NCAA investigation.

Regardless of what’s going on in the news, there are football games to play. And the Wolverines still are viewed as one of the teams to beat in the College Football Playoff picture.

Here are some of the national reactions on the playoff picture and more coming out of the bye week.

ESPN.com staff picks the playoff

College Football Playoff picks after Week 9
Andrea Adelson: 1. Georgia 2. Michigan 3. Florida State 4. Ohio State
Blake Baumgartner: 1. Georgia 2. Michigan 3. Florida State 4. Washington
Kyle Bonagura: 1. Georgia 2. Michigan 3. Florida State 4. Washington
Bill Connelly: 1. Michigan 2. Georgia 3. Ohio State 4. Florida State
Heather Dinich: 1. Ohio State 2. Florida State 3. Georgia 4. Washington
David Hale: 1. Georgia 2. Michigan 3. Florida State 4. Ohio State
Chris Low: 1. Georgia 2. Michigan 3. Ohio State 4. Florida State
Harry Lyles Jr.: 1. Georgia 2. Michigan 3. Ohio State 4. Florida State
Ryan McGee: 1. Georgia 2. Ohio State 3. Washington 4. Florida State
Adam Rittenberg: 1. Georgia 2. Michigan 3. Florida State 4. Washington
Alex Scarborough: 1. Georgia 2. Michigan 3. Washington 4. Florida State
Mark Schlabach: 1. Georgia 2. Michigan 3. Florida State 4. Washington
Paolo Uggetti: 1. Georgia 2. Michigan 3. Florida State 4. Washington
Tom VanHaaren: 1. Georgia 2. Michigan 3. Florida State 4. Washington
Dave Wilson: 1. Michigan 2. Georgia 3. Ohio State 4. Florida State

Heather Dinich, ESPN.com

Predicting the College Football Playoff rankings – Michigan, No. 5

Why they could be higher: Nobody in the country has been as consistently dominant as Michigan, which ranks No. 1 in ESPN’s game control metric. The Wolverines have a Heisman contender in veteran quarterback J.J. McCarthy and are No. 2 in the country in total efficiency. Michigan also is one of the nation’s most fundamentally sound and disciplined teams, with only five turnovers and fewer than three penalties per game.

Why they could be lower: Like Georgia, the Wolverines also opened the season with four straight home games against unranked opponents. Unlike Georgia, two of them were against FBS teams with winning records (UNLV and Rutgers). Michigan’s best win is against Rutgers.

What to know: The Wolverines entered their bye week ranked No. 110 in ESPN’s strength of schedule metric and No. 9 in strength of record.

Chip Patterson, CBS Sports

Tomorrow’s Top 25 Today: Georgia, Ohio State strengthen positions in new college football rankings
2. Michigan (2): The Wolverines were off in Week 9 and will be back in action next week against Purdue. 

Jayna Bardahl, The Athletic

Kansas football’s upset provides drama, plus projecting College Football Playoff rankings
With Oklahoma’s loss, the Big 12’s chances to send a team to the College Football Playoff look unlikely (at least for now). OU and Texas (which won without Quinn Ewers on Saturday) are the top contenders, but both have one loss. The CFP committee will release its first set of rankings on Tuesday. Here are my picks for the top four:

1. Georgia
2. Ohio State
3. Florida State
4. Michigan

Strength of schedule is a big point of discussion for the committee. Before Georgia’s win against Florida, I probably would have put it at No. 2. But the 23-point win without their best player has left little doubt that the Dawgs have the strongest team.

Ohio State has the best resume with ranked wins against Notre Dame and Penn State, but Georgia gets the edge with the stronger offense. Florida State has the playmakers in Travis and Keon Coleman and has ranked wins against LSU and Duke, so the Seminoles are No. 3.

Michigan has some marquee matchups in November, but for now, the Wolverines are relying on their consistency.

Nicole Auerbach, The Athletic

Auerbach’s Top 10: Oregon on the rise, Ole Miss sneaks in, Michigan No. 1
The Wolverines were technically off this weekend, but they were top of mind, as the NCAA investigation into their alleged illegal scouting and sign-stealing continued to dominate the national conversation around college football. Through reports from various media outlets, including The Athletic, we’ve learned quite a bit about the alleged scheme: Michigan staffer Connor Stalions would buy tickets to games of future opponents and have people film the sidelines with their phones to steal teams’ signals ahead of their games against Michigan. An outside investigative firm brought the apparently damning information — including video and files — to the NCAA last week, and the NCAA enforcement staff has also begun to further dive into the program in the days since.

It’s either a great or a terrible time for Michigan to have an idle week. The investigation didn’t seem to affect the Wolverines at all last weekend in their 49-0 win against rival Michigan State, but as details emerged of how the alleged scheme worked and which teams had been scouted, everything just felt much more heightened — the pressure, the urgency, the calls for punishment. But Michigan didn’t play, so the spotlight fell elsewhere for about 14 hours on Saturday.

The Wolverines return to action next weekend at home against Purdue, and they’ve got their toughest tests ahead of them next month. The NCAA investigation will continue to follow them like a shadow, and it’s hard to imagine it reaching a resolution by the time the postseason begins. As for the Big Ten? Well, just because the league has the ability to act under its sportsmanship policy doesn’t mean that it would want to act quickly and/or decisively before the NCAA completes its entire process and allows Michigan a chance to respond to its findings. It’s an unprecedented situation, and new commissioner Tony Petitti knows whatever he decides to do (or not do) will indeed set a precedent. So, I would expect patience and deference to the NCAA in the meantime.

Jesse Simonton, On3.com

College Football Rankings: Predicting the AP Poll Top 25 after Georgia rolls, Oklahoma gets upset at Kansas: Michigan No. 2

Michigan is mercifully (???) on an idle date during a week where its sign-stealing scandal has gone from chuckles to seriousness with each new story that seemingly drops every hour.

Time will tell how that whole ordeal will play out, but in the present, the Wolverines have the Heisman Trophy favorite in quarterback J.J. McCarthy and look like the best team in the country. They still have two more weeks until their first true test in 2023 in a road game at Penn State on Nov. 11.