The NCAA’s investigation No. 3 Michigan football’s under for sign-stealing isn’t impacting the team’s College Football Playoff prospects at the moment, the Playoff’s executive director, Bill Hancock, reaffirmed Tuesday night at the media conference after the second batch of playoff rankings for 2023 came out.
Hancock was asked if the Big Ten’s latest interest in the scandal impacted the committee’s conversations.
In short, the answer was “no,” but Hancock expanded.
I appreciate your asking. Totally understand the question. The fact is it did not come up because — well, it’s the same as last week. The task of the committee is to rank the teams, and that’s what we do every week.”
Hancock was later asked if the Michigan situation could become a “CFP issue” at some point.
We are not a governance body, and so we’re certainly all aware of the Michigan situation, but it’s just not a CFP matter. We will take what we get from the NCAA or from anybody else, and whatever facts are available to those other groups, then we’ll consider it. But all we do is rank the teams that are eligible for our games.
The chair of the selection committee, Boo Coorigan, said Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel wasn’t able to join the conference this week. Coorigan made no mention of whether this had anything to do with the scandal.
No. 10 Penn State plays Michigan at Beaver Stadium Saturday. Kickoff is scheduled for noon on Fox.
Penn State cracked the top 10 in the CFP rankings for the first time in 2023. If it doesn’t beat Michigan football, it won’t stay there, and it’s Big Ten and national title dreams will go away.
