SportsMonday: If Michigan is the best, who it plays next shouldn’t matter

For the first time since 1998, Michigan is ranked No. 1 in the country. So for the first time since 1998, it shouldn’t matter who the Wolverines are asked to matchup against — they should have the upper hand anyway.

It doesn’t matter if the committee asked them to play the Alabama Crimson Tide or the Liberty Flames. It doesn’t matter if Michigan was lined up with the Florida State Seminoles or the Toledo Rockets. When you’re ranked at the top of college football, you should be fine with playing anyone, and the only matchup complaints should come from opponents asked to battle you. ‘One’ is more than just a pretty number, it’s a statement that any draw is a favorable one.

So go ahead, complain about the College Football Playoff committee if you want. I’ll join you. The committee failed college football by denying undefeated Florida State a chance at the playoff. The SEC bias is real, and it cost a team that did literally everything right — including beating a top-15 team in a conference championship without its starting quarterback — only to find out that those wins don’t matter if mighty Bama gets hot at the right time.

But none of those complaints should affect Michigan’s outlook on the playoff. Sure, the number one team has earned the right to the ‘easiest’ draw, and maybe the Seminoles would have been an easier one. Maybe Florida State would have given the Wolverines the easiest playoff path. Maybe the committee’s mistakes give Michigan a larger challenge than expected after earning the highest seed.

But it doesn’t matter. The Wolverines are the top seed in this playoff — ‘experts’ have named them the best team in the country — so they shouldn’t bat an eye at who plays them versus who doesn’t. If they’re really the cream of the crop, like both the AP poll and CFP rankings suggest, it doesn’t matter whether or not Michigan faces a tougher matchup in the semifinal as opposed to a theoretical national championship. For the first time since 1998, the Wolverines are the standard. So treat them like it.

No matter who they play, they’re expected to beat them. If they don’t, the committee wouldn’t have just made a mistake placing Alabama ahead of Florida State, they would have made a mistake putting Michigan ahead of everyone else.

No matter who the Wolverines draw, they should have a leg-up on everyone on the path to a championship — if their ranking is accurate. Take it from Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh. He seems excited about the draw, at least publicly exuding the mindset expected of a top-ranked team.

“No, we’re excited to face them. It’s iconic. It’s Alabama. It’s Roll Tide,” Harbaugh said at a head coach selection Sunday teleconference.  “It doesn’t get any better, to be playing in the Rose Bowl — just going to appreciate the tradition of the Rose Bowl, playing a great team like Alabama. I mean, it always has meaning.”

The No. 1 team in the nation should be excited to play anyone. Michigan may not be an SEC power, but right now it’s labeled as the national power. You can mourn Florida State’s brutal rejection while also accepting the fact that it shouldn’t affect the Wolverines. If anything, it just serves as an even more intriguing matchup — both sides have their starting quarterbacks healthy, after all.

And that’s not a slight at the Seminoles. I’ll say it again, they should be in. Put them in. Go back to ESPN’s drawn-out, overdramatic reveal show and add them to that graphic if you can. Just don’t give the Wolverines the benefit of being treated like an underdog anymore. They didn’t get robbed of anything. They didn’t miss out on an easier path to the championship. Because they are the path to the championship — that’s what being number one means.

Complaints against the committee are welcome. They made mistakes in their selections, and the ACC can tell you all about that. But in Indianapolis on Sunday, the Wolverines were named the nation’s best.

And if you’re the best, any draw is a good draw.