Michigan Football: Wolverines could be example for expanded playoff

Michigan football is on a roll right now and is surging in the polls. The Wolverines are also a good example of why an expanded playoff is a good idea.

In the closing stretch of the season, Michigan football is hitting its stride. The Wolverines beat Notre Dame 45-14 and kept the Paul Bunyan Trophy with a dominating 44-10 win over Michigan State.

Michigan football is now 8-2 and up to No. 12 in the coaches poll. Keep winning and soon enough they will be in the top 10, especially with Ohio State at the end of the schedule.

But if Michigan does beat Indiana and Ohio State, what will it get for that impressive run? Not much. Maybe a trip to the Cotton Bowl if the Wolverines are lucky. Otherwise, it’s the Outback or the Holiday Bowl.

And that’s fine. It really doesn’t matter what bowl game the team goes to. The season would be a resounding success if Michigan was able to actually beat Ohio State, something that seems remotely possible after the way the Wolverines thrashed the Irish and Spartans.

This team has an attitude and the way Jim Harbaugh kept in the starters late was brilliant. I don’t care so much about sending a message to Sparty, I just love the mindset this team has of stepping on people’s throats. Ever since Illinois, it hasn’t been a problem.

But imagine how Michigan football would be viewed if it could win out and if it did, it would be a great example for expanding the playoff.

By then, the Wolverines would be in the top 10. They would finish 10-2 and own wins over Ohio State, Iowa, Indiana and Notre Dame, all teams with at least seven wins. Yes, three would be at home, but the way Michigan controlled those games plays a part too, as well as the second half against Penn State.

It was a loss, but it showed how good this team can be.

I get that Ohio State people and others will say you only want an expanded playoff because you can’t win the Big Ten or make the top four. But that’s not really true.

And when you think about it, an expanded playoff would help Ohio State and the rest of college football. For one, if you expanded to eight, 11 or 16, Ohio State would have been in the past few years.

Harbaugh’s idea of 11 seems like a perfect compromise. All the power-5 champs, Notre or the highest-ranked group of five and the five best at-large teams. The top five get byes and the other six meet on conference championship weekend. Three winners move on, loser play in bowls.

It’s not that hard to do and it would be great, not just because Michigan might have a chance to make it this year.

Just like Ohio State in 2015, 2017 and 2018, if Michigan football wins out, it will be playing some of the best ball in the country. The Buckeyes may not have had a top-4 resume last year, but did anyone really want to play them after what they did to the Wolverines?

Just like teams probably aren’t excited to play the Wolverines right now with the way they are dominating on both sides of the ball.

I’m not saying Michigan could win the national championship. But teams like a hypothetical 10-2 Wolverines team should get more than a berth in a crappy bowl game.

By limiting the playoff to four teams, we miss out on a lot of excitement. Some games would be lopsided sure, but the regular season would be much more exciting.

The idea that expanding the playoff would take the excitement away doesn’t make sense. If there was an 11-team playoff, Michigan, Penn State, Minnesota and Wisconsin would all be alive, right alongside the Buckeyes.

Wouldn’t that make the closing stretch exciting?

It’s not like entry would be easy. Michigan football would have to beat Ohio State to get in and even then, it wouldn’t necessarily be guaranteed a berth, depending on how it all shook out.

Other teams like Florida, Notre Dame, UCF in the past, Utah, Oregon, Alabama, the list goes on and on. The four-team playoff is great, but we could make it better.

Just imagine the excitement if going into The Game, Michigan still had an outside shot at making an 11-team playoff? Instead, beating Ohio State is the reward, because what comes after will be entirely anticlimactic.