Michigan sign-stealing scandal: Stephen A Smith raises concerns about potential impact on College Football Playoff

What will come of the Michigan sign-stealing scandal remains to be seen. The NCAA continues to investigate the Wolverines as calls have mounted for the Big Ten conference to intercede.

And ESPN talking head Stephen A. Smith thinks something needs to get done prior to the end of the regular season to have some measure of closure on the case. He explained his thinking on First Take on Friday morning while discussing the case with Desmond Howard, a former Michigan wideout and Heisman winner.

“In light of this scandal involving Michigan football we know, we know what that’s been about. I believe, you cannot — I’m not saying they’re guilty of anything, we don’t know. It doesn’t look good. But I will say this: You’ve got to have an investigation and close this investigation before you put Michigan in the situation where they can ultimately win the Big Ten title and end up in the College Football Playoff. You can’t have this thing open ended, with no resolution at all, and send Michigan to a College Football Playoff with this stuff still unresolved. That’s all I was trying to say. I’m not trying to place guilt on anybody. But you’ve gotta at least have the investigation and come to some level of closure,” Smith said.

Howard, who has unsurprisingly offered some defenses for his alma mater, doubled back and reused an argument he’s already put forth: Other coaches in the league, who have asked commissioner Tony Petitti to levy some punishment, would be protesting swift justice if the roles were reversed.

Ultimately, Howard said due process should play out. And knowing how the NCAA moves and the slim chances that the Big Ten steps in, the chances of that process wrapping up in the coming weeks is minimal.

“You have to let this process play itself out. I understand exactly what you’re saying,” Howard said.

Smith also highlighted how the issue of letting Michigan play out the remainder of the 2023 season without recourse for the alleged violations could manifest. Smith posited that the teams at No. 5 and No. 6 in the final College Football Playoff rankings would be rightfully upset if Michigan was sitting ahead of them in the rankings and in the CFP field.

“This is a situation where you’ve got a College Football Playoff, so if you’re Alabama, you’re Washington, if you’re on the outside looking in as a fifth or sixth ranked team in the nation and Michigan falls in that Top 4 and this controversy is still laid out there. How do you, as the FBS, as football, how do you have a team in the postseason and these questions exist without any closure? Wouldn’t that be bad for the game, to have to deal with that question mark hovering over the College Football Playoff? Assuming Michigan, one of the top-ranked teams in the nation, is going to be in that position,” Smith said. “Would that not be bad for football, college football?”