The Asterisk
Michigan's football season, win or lose, will always have an asterisk
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The asterisk. Sport’s Scarlet Letter. Maybe appropriately so this year in college football. Especially if Michigan is somehow able to defeat Big Ten foes Penn State this weekend, and Ohio State, of the scarlet and gray, on the Saturday following Thanksgiving.
Assuming Michigan can dispose of its other remaining, lesser foe — Maryland is sandwiched between Penn State and Ohio State — the Wolverines will have a chance to play in the Big Ten Championship game and a chance to join three other teams in this year’s College Football Playoff.
If, somehow, Michigan were to run the table, including the two playoff games, giving the school its twelfth national championship in football, there will no doubt be an asterisk by the team’s achievement.
Connor Stalions and Jim Harbaugh, to what extent we do not know yet, are responsible for this situation. Once again, as it always seems in sports, the adults are ruining it for the kids.
The NCAA, the Big Ten, the FBI, are all investigating Michigan, and it seems daily, if not hourly, the story is developing. With seemingly each new opponent, new accusations arise. By November 25th, when Ohio State walks into Michigan Stadium, I assume things will be at a fever pitch
We’ve seen victories and national championships vacated before. Old Miss (2010-2016 — 33 vacated), LSU (2012-2015 — 37 vacated) and Notre Dame (2012-2013 — 21 vacated) most recently. And the 2004 USC Trojans, most famously, lost its National Championship.
None of this, however, really changes the record. It’s only a bunch of paperwork for someone working in the NCAA’s Indianapolis office.
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Roger Maris’ single season homerun record had an asterisk because his season was 162 games, while Babe Ruth’s season was only 154. Maris never got the attention or adoration or respect he deserved, until well after he had died, and it was two inflated clowns, Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire, that finally put Maris’ feat in perspective.
A few years later, another clown show, this time Barry Bonds in San Francisco, smashed even McGwire’s single season record, and eventually Hank Aaron’s all-time record. Then-MLB Commissioner, Bud Selig, however, insisted that no asterisk would be attached to either of Bonds’ records.
That, however, doesn’t change the record in the fans’ eyes. We know what we saw, even though it may have took us all too long to see it and then acknowlege it.
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Likewise, we’ve seen the video clips of Connor Stalions barking orders into the Michigan coaches ears, as he stands next to them during games on the sideline. Correctly calling the play that’s about to be run.
We even have video footage of a man with a striking resemblance to Connor Stalions on Central Michigan’s sideline during opening weekend of this football season. The Chippewas’ opponent? Michigan State. A team the Wolverines would embarrass 49-0 just a few weeks later.
This weekend, all of America seems to be rooting for Penn State to deliver the comeuppance most feel Michigan, and specifically Harbaugh, deserves, if what they’ve been accused of is proven true. Forget we have the video tape, as the NCAA, Big Ten, FBI, and Central Michigan head coach Jim McElwain do their best Keystone Kops impression trying to figure out exactly who that was on their own team’s home sideline.
While Michigan might still win a national championship, their season is lost.
There will always be an asterisk.
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