Michigan fans sending panic meter off the charts over Illinois upset bid
Michigan entered the week with a clear path to the College Football Playoff but Illinois looking to play spoiler sent Wolverines fans into full-blown panic.
Coming into Week 12, the stage was set for Michigan to control its own destiny for the College Football Playoff. But Illinois had other plans for what was going down in Ann Arbor.
Despite entering the matchup with the Wolverines off of two straight losses, the Fighting Illini showed a ton of fight on Saturday as they weathered some long Michigan drives and were only down four points entering halftime. But they used a strong two-way effort to take the lead in the third quarter and were comfortably up 17-13 as they took the ball early in the fourth quarter.
And with that, Wolverines fans started to panic like we’ve rarely seen before as it seemed that their College Football Playoff chances were going up in flames right before their eyes.
Michigan fans panicking over Illinois upset bid, potential disaster
If panic caused earthquakes, then the Michigan message boards might’ve broken the Richter Scale.
The funniest part of all of the panic was that the game was not yet over. There was still a full quarter (or thereabouts) for the Wolverines to mount a comeback and stay perfect on the season. Yet there were still fans already proclaiming that the season was over.
Even crazier, a loss would hurt Michigan’s chances, but also not end their season either. With a win over Ohio State next week, Jim Harbaugh’s team would make it to the Big Ten Championship Game and potentially still have a clear path to the Playoff.
But that’s college football fans for you — they are often on the very brink of losing it at any given moment, especially if the CFP race is involved.
For more College Football news, analysis, opinion and unique coverage by FanSided, including Heisman Trophy and College Football Playoff rankings, be sure to bookmark these pages.