The Michigan football team is currently 8-0 and ranked #2 in the country. They have been ranked #2 all season long, and they are coming off of two straight Big Ten championships, and two straight trips to the College Football Playoff. The Wolverines are currently the betting favorite to win this year's national title game, and quarterback JJ McCarthy is the betting favorite to win the Heisman Trophy. Things were looking great in Ann Arbor until news of an NCAA investigation broke last week regarding sign stealing from the Michigan football team. That came just days before the Wolverines took on Michigan State football, and some thought that it could serve as a potential distraction.

Michigan football dominated in their rivalry game against the Spartans, winning 49-0 on the road. So much for a distraction. Still, the investigation continues, and JJ McCarthy recently shared how he's handling it.

“We never really think of it (the outside noise),” McCarthy said, according to an article from Blue By Ninety. “As anything other than, you know, Coach Harbaugh has to deal with something new once again. So he does a great job of just keeping us focused on the main thing, which is winning football games.”

Jim Harbaugh isn't able to comment on the investigation because of NCAA rules, but he did recently mention that the team's success does change things.

“Yeah, I think success does that,” Harbaugh said about a target being on the Wolverines' back. “There’s people that don’t like to see people be successful. And there’s a target (on Michigan’s back). Everybody’s pointed that out from the beginning of the season. But our guys are just very focused and just go about their business. Wake up, take care of our business today. And then we still got to get our guys back to Ann Arbor and then wake up tomorrow and take care of business again.”

McCarthy was asked a similar question this week, but he seems more focused on taking care of business on the field.

“I don’t really know (if Michigan football has a target on its back),” McCarthy said. “I’m just so focused on what we’re doing in the building, and so is he (Jim Harbaugh), that it never really becomes a distraction.”

At the end of the day, even with all of the outside noise, there is only one thing on this team's mind: winning.

“(Winning) is our goal going into every season, every single week is just going 1-0,” McCarthy continued. “And you know, just stacking those 1-0 wins. We’re held down focusing on every single day and getting better because that’s what’s gonna get us there. And yeah, just winning is the most important thing.”

Michigan is doing a good job of stacking those 1-0 wins so far. However, while the Wolverines have been dominating everyone in their path, they haven't played a ranked team yet. That will change soon as Michigan plays at Penn State football and home against Ohio State football in the final month of the season. Those games could tell us a lot about how the sign-stealing affects the games.