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Paul Finebaum considers path for Michigan to make College Football Playoff

IMG_6598by: Nick Kosko11/19/25nickkosko59
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Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

There is a path for Michigan to make the College Football Playoff and Paul Finebaum sees it as a possibility. The path? The Wolverines have to win out and finish 10-2 in the regular season and that would include a win over Ohio State.

Currently, Michigan ranks No. 18 in the latest CFP rankings while Ohio State is No. 1. So yes, a win over the top team in the country might be enough to vault them up the ladder!

Now, the Big Ten Championship is a more complicated matter, considering the Wolverines lost to USC already. But beating Ohio State will send the Big Ten for a whirl and might just be enough for Sherrone Moore and crew to make the College Football Playoff.

“I think they ought to be seriously considered,” Finebaum said on First Take. “I mean, that would be the best win of the season right now in college football. I think you have to be rewarded. Now, this committee is so nuts. Sometimes they’re starting to argue, well, ‘Notre Dame has better losses.’ I care about wins. You can have great losses, and it doesn’t matter if you play a tough schedule, unlike some of the schools in the Big ten and elsewhere, but if you beat the number one team in the country, a team that looks impenetrable, I think you ought to get serious consideration for the playoff.”

But first things first: Maryland. Yes, Michigan has won four in a row against Ohio State and could make it five with a win in Ann Arbor next week. But the Terrapins are the priority for Michigan.

“Don’t even talk about the final game,” Moore said this week. “Not doing it. Don’t even do it. Don’t even do it. No, it’s not a trap game. This is a good team, man. This is not a trap game. There’s nothing about this game that is a trap game. There’s zero trap game on this.

“This is about a really good team that, if you don’t play well, you will get beat. So there’s that trap. The trap is like the Nick Saban poison comment trying to get us. No, not a trap game. And everybody knows what’s ahead, but we’ve got to go execute. We’ve got to go prepare for this one like our lives depend on it. It’s a playoff game for us in this building, and there’s no trap game with this one.”