The losses by USC and TCU made things complicated. I expected both of them to get axed, with Alabama and THE Ohio State University waiting in the wings. The committee obviously did not want the final four to contain only two conferences, and TCU had only one loss (compared to two for Alabama), so they left TCU in the dance, much to the relief of the other three coaches, who would much rather face TCU than Alabama. This worked out especially well for Michigan, since the committee decided to give TCU the third seed over THE, presumably so that conference rivals (Michigan and Ohio State) would not meet in the semi-finals.
That was a gift to Michigan. In a world with more justice than this one, they could be the #2 seed and Ohio State would be #3, meaning that the Wolverines could have a very rough road to the finals against a traditional rival seeking revenge. In this world, they are expected to have clear sailing through TCU, and have been installed as ten-point favorites, which is a big spread for a national semi-final.
You may think that fate smiled on the Wolverines, and you would be right. In fact, Michigan’s fate could have been much worse than a rematch with THE. Imagine if the computers decided the match-ups. For what it’s worth, Sagarin’s computer rankings list the top four as
1. Georgia
2. Ohio State
3. Alabama
4. Michigan
If the committee went by those rankings, Michigan would be approximately six-point underdogs in the semis instead of ten-point favorites.
So, yes, fate smiled on the Wolverines.
But let’s not forget that they were undefeated, and earned that smile.