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The Michigan football team won the national championship last season, but there are some fan bases that think it should be vacated because of the sign-stealing scandal that the Wolverines went though during the season. Despite losing to Michigan after the news of the sign-stealing dropped, Ohio State football fans make up most of the people who think there should be an asterisk. It's not surprising, the two schools are bitter rivals, and even Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith believes that there should be an asterisk.
Michigan football and Ohio State football met last season with essentially a spot in the College Football Playoff on the line. The Wolverines did not have head coach Jim Harbaugh for the contest as he was suspended because of the scandal. The Buckeyes knew to change their signs just in case, but they still lost, and Michigan went on to win it all.
Ohio State AD Gene Smith was asked if he thinks there should be an asterisk on that national championship, and his answer was straightforward.
“Of course I do,” Smith said during an appearance on the All Sides with Anna Staver show. “The rules are in place to protect the integrity of the game and try your best to create a level playing field. When those rules are violated, then it affects those principles. We have to keep that in perspective.”
That take has received a lot of backlash from Michigan fans, and it also wasn't received well by Yahoo Sports college football analyst Dan Wetzel.
“Calling for an asterisk on this is weak sauce,” Dan Wetzel said, according to College Football Enquirer. “Just come back and beat them. It is weak sauce. It is the same thing as declaring your team is as tough as can be because you beat Notre Dame and 10 guys in September.”
The NCAA said that Michigan football won it all fair and square
When the sign-stealing scandal started, a lot of people were curious to see how it would affect the Michigan football team and if it really would impact how they played. Before the news dropped, the Wolverines were 7-0, but the best team they had played was probably Minnesota or Nebraska. Michigan still had their toughest games ahead of them, and everyone was aware of the sign-stealing.
Michigan responded by winning eight straight games, and five of those games were against ranked teams. Four of them were against top-10 teams. After that, it was clear to the NCAA that the sign-stealing was not the reason why the Wolverines were winning football games. The president of the NCAA said that Michigan won it all fair and square.
“I don't regret doing it because sitting on that information, given the comprehensiveness of it, I think we would have put everyone including Michigan in an awful place,” NCAA president Charlie Baker said shortly after the national title game, according to an article from ESPN. “At the end of the day, no one believes at this point that Michigan didn't win the national title fair and square. So I think we did the right thing.”
There are some Ohio State fans that still think the hammer is going to come down on Michigan football, but if the president of the NCAA has that stance, it seems unlikely.
