As the dust has finally settled on both semifinal matchups, and we now know who will be playing for the College Football Playoff national championship, other questions are beginning to surface, such as, “If Michigan wins, should their title be vacated, or is it tainted?”
Due to the nature of this season for the Michigan football program, plus that of college football, which we all know is so errantly governed (I use that term loosely), that's a fair question to ask at this juncture.
Given the variety and severity of sanctions the NCAA has imposed upon teams for infractions in the past—most notably that of vacated wins/championships—ones that involve cheating surely will be given the harshest of penalties in due time, no? And if not that, most will perceive a Michigan national championship as having a huge asterisk next to it.
Michigan football's national title wouldn't be taken away by the NCAA
First of all, let's just agree that vacating wins and championships or other awards, no matter the infraction, is the most absurd penalty in college football. The fact that the NCAA believes they can just go into their logbooks and hit backspace, therefore negating a team's season(s), years after the fact, makes no sense. Those who were a part not only of that team but also of that season, whether it be fan, analyst, concession stand worker, etc., know exactly who won those games. To attempt to try to erase it from existence honestly seems nonsensical in the highest regard.
But at least the NCAA has enough intelligence to conduct a thorough and lengthy investigation when teams like Michigan have broken the rules, unlike the Wolverines' own conference in the Big Ten. In midseason, as facts were still (and probably still are) pouring in, Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti was all but forced by fellow conference rival teams of Michigan to hand out a penalty of sorts, resulting in head coach Jim Harbaugh being suspended for the Wolverines' final three regular-season games.
But by the end of Monday's CFP national championship game, if the Wolverines are hoisting that shiny gold and black trophy after beating the Huskies, the Big Ten nor the NCAA can do anything about it. The NCAA has no governing authority over the CFP. Sure, the Committee on Infractions can still come in years later and decide that Michigan will have to vacate victories, but they won't be able to take their national championship away from them. Only the CFP can do that, according to Steward Mandel at The Athletic.
The committee could have made a decision to leave out Michigan football long before they made their way into the Rose Bowl against Alabama in last Monday's semifinal game. We've seen the kind of power they can wield already this season by leaving out a Power-5, undefeated conference champion like Florida State from the top-4, so if they genuinely believed that Michigan was a threat to competitive fairness, they likely would have been left out.
Remember, this isn't the BCS era that stripped USC of its 2004 national title due to sanctions against running back Reggie Bush. Also, remember that was after the fact, and the CFP committee knew well beforehand the facts and details—as much as had been delivered—of Michigan's sign-stealing scandal. So that means, most likely, if Michigan beats Washington, the Wolverines will be hanging a lifetime banner up at the Big House that reads “2023 National Champions,” asterisk excluded.
Beating elite teams proved Michigan football didn't need extra advantage
No asterisk will be needed due to how Michigan football was essentially able to silence any critics due to how they performed on the field over the last month and a half of the season, which was well after analyst Conor Stalions was removed from the program.
Whether it was the entire Big Ten, coupled with the abhorrence of the rest of the country, Michigan overcame everything that was thrown at them. Many thought that when Petitti handed Harbaugh his suspension as he was getting off the plane at State College, keeping him from the sideline for the Wolverines' three biggest games facing No. 10 Penn State, Maryland, and No. 2 Ohio State, that their season would be derailed. As we know, that ended up not being the case. With offensive coordinator Sherrone Moore filling in as interim head coach, Michigan was business as usual, stayed undefeated, and became Big Ten champions—Harbaugh's return to the sideline—much to the chagrin of the rest of the conference.
It's what happened in the Rose Bowl that should silence, erase, and outright put to rest any ounce of the narrative that a national title, should they beat Washington in Houston on Monday, be tainted in any sort of way. While beating the likes of two top-10 teams, including their bitter rival in the Buckeyes, definitely shouldn't go unnoticed, the fact that the Wolverines beat the best team in the SEC is what gives this team its legitimacy.
No, this wasn't the best Alabama team that Nick Saban has fielded in his 17 seasons in Tuscaloosa, but it was far and away his best coaching job. The Crimson Tide beat the No. 1 team in the country in Georgia and took not only the SEC title from them but also their opportunity in the College Football Playoff. With that being the last thing people saw from Alabama, it seemed a foregone conclusion that the Wolverines would once again have their national title dreams crushed, losing a third straight semifinal game in as many years. But Michigan changed the narrative.
Not only did Michigan defeat Alabama in one of sports' most historic settings to advance, but they also limited the Crimson Tide to just 288 yards of total offense—the lowest amount Alabama has posted not only this season but in seven seasons. Throughout Alabama's 13 drives, they punted on seven of them, experiencing five three-and-outs. Needless to say, Michigan dominated and appeared to require no additional advantage to prove otherwise. All they needed was to ensure the scoreboard favored them when the clock hit zero.
As the clock reaches zero on Monday night (or early Tuesday morning), Michigan football will either be crowned national champions or they won't, definitively and untarnished.