For the first time in 26 years, Michigan football is the national champion and for the first time ever, it is undisputed through winning the national championship game.
While the maize and blue faithful have been elated since Monday evening, oddly, so have some rival fans of the Wolverines.
Why would they be? Because they’ve held out hope that the NCAA would swoop in after the fact, as a result of the investigation into Connor Stalions and his sign-stealing scheme, and force Michigan to vacate wins and also the national championship.
It was wishcasting in its finest, and now, though the NCAA has yet to offer a notice of allegations at this juncture, given the comments by president Charlie Baker on Wednesday, the Wolverines won the national championship ‘fair and square.’
Via The Athletic’s Nicole Auerbach:
“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,” Baker said. “As it was, it was out in the public domain and people either made adjustments or didn’t.
“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.”
Baker said he wasn’t conflicted about the outcome of the championship game, either, since he believes he took the right action in a complicated situation. Because the NCAA investigation centered on an illegal on-campus scouting and sign-stealing operation, the rules being violated could have impacted games still to be played in the 2023 season. Baker believed that Michigan and its conference deserved the right to act in the moment to preserve the fairness of the competition, rather than wait until the end of a drawn-out investigation process.
“It might affect the outcome of games, and I don’t believe, at the end of the season, that it did,” Baker said. “And I think that’s important.”
Obvious things are obvious.
It’s much like Fox Sports’ premier analyst Joel Klatt has said multiple times now, those who know little about actual football think this is a bigger deal than it actually is. Did what happened warrant an investigation? That’s up for debate, but Michigan football fans can rest easy knowing that the championship just won will remain on the books.
While rival fans can come up with other fantastical, imaginary scenarios that blot what happened in front of their eyes from their own memory.