Michigan Football: Could Wolverines still make College Football Playoff?

Michigan football is seventh in the College Football Playoff rankings, but what exactly does that mean for the Wolverines?

For the past few weeks, Michigan football fans have been watching the release of the College Football Playoff rankings quite closely. Tuesday night though, with the latest release, it didn’t seem to matter quite as much. Not after the loss to Ohio State anyway.

However, after Michigan football ended up seventh in the rankings, making them the highest-ranked two-loss team, some started to wonder if the Wolverines had an outside shot at the playoff?

Of course, it would take a doomsday scenario for Michigan to even have a chance. Yet, what happens if Georgia goes down convincingly to Alabama, Texas beats Oklahoma again and Northwestern somehow upsets Ohio State?

It’s an interesting question and certainly, it can’t happen, can it?

Well, crazy things have happened before in College Football and if you don’t believe me, go back and look at the 2001 season when Nebraska made the national championship game after a 62-36 loss in the final game of the regular season.

That was back in the days of the BCS. Colorado, a two-loss team beat Nebraska, which was No. 2 starting the final week of the season. After Nebraska lost, chaos reigned. Oklahoma lost, Florida lost, Tennessee lost and then Colorado beat Texas in the Big 12 title game. Nebraska eventually got in, edging out both Colorado and Oregon.

Not saying something like that will happen again, but crazy stuff has happened before. However, even if all three of those teams did lose, would the Wolverines actually make the top four?

I have a hard time seeing it. Certainly, UCF would be a strong candidate. The Knights are going to try and go 13-0 again with another American conference championship. The biggest thing holding them back might be the loss of star quarterback McKenzie Milton. If he was playing, UCF would probably jump Michigan and even without him, the Knights still might.

But who else? If Georgia lost a really close game to Bama, you could see them ranked ahead of Michigan. But certainly not Ohio State or Oklahoma? At least one would think not. Beating Utah wouldn’t move the needle much for Washington and the only other conference champ in this scenario, Texas, would have three losses.

Michigan Wolverines

Could the Horns make it at 10-3? Two wins over Oklahoma would be hard to ignore. But so would losses to Maryland, West Virginia and Oklahoma State. On the other hand, if Northwestern beat Ohio State, Michigan football would own a win over Penn State, Northwestern (The BIG champ) and have two road losses on the road to top-10 teams, even though the second was a blowout.

It would be a really weird scenario, however, I just don’t see Michigan getting in after a 23-point beatdown. But, Alabama got beat pretty soundly by Auburn last season and the Tide still made it, so I guess anything is possible.

While some Michigan fans are holding out hope for the scenario outlined above, I am hoping that Ohio State will reach the playoff, which would open the door to the Rose Bowl for the Wolverines.

A matchup against Washington or Utah would be a fun way to end the season. A spot in the Peach Bowl would be fine too, although another game against Florida doesn’t sound too enticing (hope for LSU). Although, a Fiesta Bowl game against Washington State could have some intrigue.

The bottom line is that a lot can still happen. Unfortunately, Michigan isn’t playing this week as we all hoped, however, you still have plenty of reasons to pay attention, as we try to figure out where the Wolverines will play this bowl season.