Michigan Reportedly May Have Assisted Another School With Signs It Had Stolen To Prevent A Specific Opponent From Making The CFP

FootballScoop — Sources told FootballScoop this week that the Wolverines had scouted SEC foes, including Georgia and Tennessee, as potential College Football Playoff adversaries.

Moreover, a source with direct knowledge indicated to FootballScoop that Michigan may have attempted to assist the opposition of a potential CFP opponent in an effort to disrupt that team's potential path to the Playoff.

In the saga where nothing is unbelievable, it now seems that Michigan may have not only been stealing opponents' signs for itself, but also loaning out information to at least one other team to prevent a specific opponent from making the College Football Playoff.

If this is true, I don't know that there's another on-field scandal in college football since I've been following it that rises to this level. There's trying to decipher opponents' signals. Then there's sending spies around the country to film the sideline to have every single one of a team's signals. And then there's doing that and doling that information out to other teams to hopefully alter the path of a potential future Playoff opponent. This went deeper than anyone could have ever imagined.

As to what team this could be, Vol Twitter was abuzz yesterday that Michigan had potentially given South Carolina the information it had on Tennessee after being confirmed to have scouted the Vols' game against Kentucky. I mentioned it here halfway kidding, but it didn't not make sense. And while UT certainly played poorly in that game, 6-4 teams usually don't go from scoring six points one week to 63 — against one of the best teams in the country — the next. It also wouldn't be the first time Shane Beamer had accepted game plan information on an opponent.

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And in terms of teams Michigan didn't want to see in the CFP semifinals, Tennessee would have probably been at the top of that list. The Wolverines gave up 51 points to TCU, so the Vols' offense could have done some serious damage. Helping Tennessee get a second loss would have also benefitted Michigan in the event it lost to Ohio State and was left to wait out the CFP selection as a one-loss team without having played in the Big Ten Championship Game.

If this is ever proven to any significant degree, I demand a retroactive 2022 National Championship Game between Tennessee and Georgia. We know UT would have disposed of Michigan just like TCU did, so get the Vols' and Dawgs' rosters back together in March or April and play the game we would have gotten if the Wolverines weren't running a cheating ring and calling up other schools to loop them in on it.