The Michigan Wolverines, like other teams around the country throughout the months of December and January, are playing in a bowl game.
By contrast, teams like Notre Dame (who were left out of the College Football Playoff) or Iowa State (who saw its coach leave for Penn State) are opting not to play in the postseason.
Coach Sherrone Moore kept his thoughts brief, revealing how Michigan would have handled the situation.
“Yeah, that’s their decision,” Moore said Monday. “That’s something that we’re just not going to do. That’s their decision.”
Other coaches, such as Miami Hurricanes head man Mario Cristobal, took a more conservative approach.
“Notre Dame’s a great football team," Cristobal told reporters. "All processes need to get, I don’t know, assessed again and remedied wherever they can. But I think everybody’s working at it. Last year, we were excluded, and we weren’t very happy. And, you know, it’s a tough business, man. It’s a really, really tough business. I respect everybody and everyone involved in it. And my focus right now is really on just getting us prepared for Texas A&M.”
It's clear both coaches are only focused on the teams they are worried about, but it could become a bigger issue if it keeps becoming a yearly occurrence
For now, though, it remain to be seen whether the backlash continues or not.
"Actually, Coach [Nick] Saban always had a great line. It was like, ‘If you want to make everybody happy, don’t coach and get involved in football. Go sell ice cream because the ice cream man makes everybody happy.’ In football, not everybody’s going to be happy," Cristobal said.