Folks, I’d like you to meet a real life hero, something we are short on these days. He is Tom Murphy, a college football writer for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. When he submitted his Associated Press ballot in the wake of Ohio State’s 30-27 overtime win against Michigan on Saturday, he didn’t do the “cool” thing all the “hip” voters were doing.
Murphy decided to place Michigan above Ohio State on his ballot and he explained why on a site called Whole Hog Sports, which is obviously a play on the Razorbacks nickname but sounds dirty for some reason.
Yes, I voted Michigan higher than Ohio State. The Wolverines essentially outplayed their arch rival on the road and I don’t think the football reached the necessary 15-yard line on J.T. Barrett’s fourth-down run in double overtime. As that was the game-decided play, I appointed myself as the replay official and deemed Michigan the winner. Now, if only the College Football Playoff selection committee would do the same. As a side note, while I admire Jim Harbaugh for speaking his mind after the game, he appeared to pin everything on the officiating, which isn’t a good look.
Murphy opens himself for criticism, because the basis for his voting Michigan above Ohio State was the atrocious officiating in the game and that’s also the basis for Harbaugh ripping the officiating after the game. It’s OK to vote a certain way because of the bad spot on the deciding play but it’s not OK to talk about it? But that take some of the wind out of our hero’s cape.
At the end of the day, it’s not 1988 anymore and the AP isn’t deciding national champions, so this guy can do whatever he wants with his vote and it doesn’t matter. He could vote Rutgers as the nation’s top team if he felt like it. But really, if you believe Barrett never reached the line to gain on fourth down in OT (he didn’t) and therefore Michigan deserved to win, it’s sort of nice that there’s failsafe for putting the team that got screwed ahead of the team that got every freaking call Saturday.
