How Michigan Football can make the College Football Playoff

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INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA – DECEMBER 04: Head coach Jim Harbaugh of the Michigan Wolverines celebrates with the trophy after the Michigan Wolverines defeated the Iowa Hawkeyes 42-3 to win the Big Ten Championship game at Lucas Oil Stadium on December 04, 2021 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images) /

Beat Ohio State and win the Big Ten

This is the path all of us Michigan football fans want, and it’s the path that would lead to an easier National Championship birth. In this scenario, I’m going to assume that Georgia goes undefeated and wins the SEC since that’s what looks most likely. The Committee would give Georgia the one seed, and we would be at two after beating a lesser Big Ten West opponent… again.

Now, the third and fourth spots get interesting here. If the TCU Horned Frogs win out, they’re number three. If they lose one game, which is very possible considering they’ve had four games decided by one possession, we’d have two spots up for grabs.

The competitors for these two spots would be a 12-1 TCU, an 11-1 Ohio State, an 11-1 Tennessee, and possibly a 12-1 USC, although I do think they’ll drop at least one of their next 2-3 games. They haven’t beaten a ranked team, and they match up against ranked UCLA, ranked Notre Dame, and likely a ranked Oregon in the PAC-12 Championship if they make it there.

There are going to be 3-4 teams fighting for those final two spots. If TCU is 12-1, I believe they don’t make it. The Big 12 has shown itself to be relatively weak this year, and the committee showed that they didn’t respect TCU by ranking them #7 in the first rankings, despite being undefeated.

If USC is 12-1 with a PAC-12 Championship, I think they get the benefit of the doubt and get the number three seed. If not, Tennessee likely does. If USC were #3, Tennessee would be #4, leaving Ohio State out of the playoffs. If Tennessee is #3, Ohio State will be #4.

By winning the Big Ten, Michigan would put itself in a position where it would play TCU, USC, or Tennessee in the first round of the playoffs.

I think the Wolverines are better than all three of these teams, so I would have them advancing to the National Championship. There the Wolverines would most likely see Georgia or Ohio State- either of these matchups would be a heated rematch.

Now that we’ve explored the easy way, let’s look at the hard way.

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