Michigan may not be able to sniff the College Football Playoff rankings, but that didn’t stop one commentator from mentioning Jim Harbaugh’s team.
Analyst Kirk Herbstreit suggested Tuesday night that the Wolverines could “wave the white flag” on the season and help keep Ohio State out of the Big Ten championship game.
Herbstreit’s comments came during the CFP rankings show on ESPN, after the Buckeyes held on to the No. 4 spot despite not playing over the weekend due to COVID-19 issues.
“A lot of people wanted to see where Ohio State would be after the (COVID) concerns,” Herbstreit said. “Are they going to miss the Big Ten championship? The fact that they’ve played four games and they’re still sitting there in the top four.”
That’s when Herbstreit brought up the recent COVID-19 issues at Michigan, which paused all in-person team activities on Monday and Tuesday after an increased number of presumptive positive cases came back.
The Wolverines have two games left on their schedule: a home game this Saturday against Maryland (3:30 p.m., Big Ten Network) and the annual showdown with Ohio State on Dec. 12 in Columbus.
While OSU remains in the hunt for a playoff spot, Big Ten rules stipulate that a team must play six regular-season games to qualify for the conference championship game on Dec. 19 in Indianapolis. The Buckeyes have already had two games canceled due to COVID-19 outbreaks, and a third would keep them from playing for a league title.
“I still think Michigan will wave the white flag and not play this week,” Herbstreit, a former quarterback at Ohio State from 1989 to 1993, said. “Is that fair? Michigan could opt out and keep Ohio State out of the Big Ten championship. That doesn’t make sense to me.”
In a self-produced video posted to Twitter Tuesday night, Herbstreit apologized for his comments, saying he had “no business at all saying that” and “no evidence of that.”
“That was completely unfair to the University of Michigan, to Jim Harbaugh, to his players and coaches,” Herbstreit said. “I think if anything, we all go through some ups and downs — many downs, for a lot of people — during this COVID crisis that we’re all in.
“And for me and college football, I really struggle with where we are: Players opting out, teams canceling games. It just seems like a downward spiral.”
Michigan has said it went virtual “out of an abundance of caution,” but has not disclosed the number of active, positive cases inside the program. The Wolverines are off to a 2-4 start to the season, their worst under Harbaugh, following a 27-17 loss to Penn State over the weekend.
Asked to clarify his comments by host Rece Davis, Herbstreit backtracked by saying he “doesn’t know all the (COVID) numbers” at Michigan
“We live in a strange world, and I’ve talked to a lot of coaches around the country that have said that they really feel teams are opting out to avoid playing games,” Herbstreit said. “Because they don’t want to get humiliated. They don’t want to lose with the team that they have.”
Herbstreit continued: “I have no idea what Michigan’s situation is — but I’m saying they have the power to potentially say, ‘Hey, we can’t play next week,’ and there’s nothing Ohio State can do about it.”
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Kirk Herbstreit: Michigan could ‘wave the white flag,’ keep Ohio State from Big Ten title - MLive.com
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