Kirk Herbstreit, Joey Galloway debate Michigan vs. USC for a potential College Football Playoff spot

With the release of the playoff rankings, we’re able to start mapping out how teams could end up finishing this season in the CFP rankings. That includes a debate had this week by ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit and Joey Galloway about No. 19 USC and No. 21 Michigan.

Herbstreit and Galloway broke that down during their reaction to the initial release of the Top 25 for the College Football Playoff on Tuesday. Galloway began that point, noting that the 31-13 win for the Trojans over the Wolverines should keep them ahead for the duration of these ratings, pending, of course, how they each finish their respective seasons this month, because of an emphasis on that head-to-head result back in October.

“Something gets real interesting here now,” Galloway said. “When you have that conversation, and this is where the head-to-head stuff comes into play. Michigan? Let’s say Michigan does knock off Ohio State. But, they also have another situation with USC. Because, if USC runs the table, they will have knocked off Oregon at the end. And so, you look at their situation? USC also plays Iowa, I believe. Let’s just say that happens. USC beat Michigan earlier in the year. There comes your head-to-head into play, and how do you handle it?”

Herbstreit, though, wasn’t so sure, especially if the maize & blue were to run the table to finish at 10-2. That would mean a win over Ohio State, currently ranked at No. 1 by the selection committee in the CFP Rankings, that could push Michigan over the top and into the College Football Playoff, even with that loss to Southern Cal.

“I don’t know, dude. But, if Michigan…if Michigan beats Northwestern and Maryland, and they go into the Ohio State game at 9-2, they’re going to move up probably another, depending on what happens in front of them, probably four or five spots. You’re probably looking at the 15, 16, 17 range. If you beat the number one team in the country in the last week of the season? Hard to imagine, even though you lost head-to-head to USC,” Herbstreit said. “What has USC done besides, you know, to your point about – again, they will have beaten, and there are all hypotheticals. But, they lost to Notre Dame, they lost to Illinois. Who have they beaten? They will have, according to this hypothetical, beaten Iowa and won at Oregon.”

Again, this was all hypothetical for the two experts, with both having losable games left as USC still plays No. 20 Iowa and at No. 9 Oregon while Michigan still has to host No. 1 Ohio State in The Game. But, if they both got out of the regular season at 10-2, Herbstreit and Galloway had some interesting disagreement on what that would mean for either the Trojans or Wolverines.

“Your problem is, you couldn’t, at the end – it’d be tough to put Michigan above USC…I’m going to say no way,” Galloway said. “Yeah, I could see that. I could see that. That was a pretty decisive win. And, if these two teams keep winning? They’re already so close. I think it would be tough to imagine Michigan going by,” Herbstreit responded. “Although beating the No. 1-ranked team, if they did that? That would give them a pretty big, significant boost.”