Latest report lends some credence to the theory that Tennessee was cheated out of a College Football Playoff spot in 2022
Earlier on Wednesday, I wrote about a conspiracy theory involving South Carolina and Tennessee that I honestly didn't think could be true. The idea is that Michigan, a program that we now know was stealing signs and also scouted Tennessee games last year in an effort to steal signs, gave South Carolina information to help […]
Earlier on Wednesday, I wrote about a conspiracy theory involving South Carolina and Tennessee that I honestly didn't think could be true.
The idea is that Michigan, a program that we now know was stealing signs and also scouted Tennessee games last year in an effort to steal signs, gave South Carolina information to help them beat the Vols last November and keep them out of the playoff.
I thought the idea was a bit far fetched because of the way the Vols played in Columbia that night. Sure, South Carolina's game plan seemed strangely perfect after playing terribly the previous week against Florida. But Tennessee, specifically the defense, didn't play well at all against the Gamecocks. It seemed like a bad time to have a bad night for the Vols.
But a new report from Football Scoop suggests that Michigan may have tried to disrupt a program's path to the playoff by sharing information with another program.
From FotoballScoop.com: Sources told FootballScoop this week that the Wolverines had scouted SEC foes, including Georgia and Tennessee, as potential College Football Playoff adversaries.
Moreover, a source with direct knowledge indicated to FootballScoop that Michigan may have attempted to assist the opposition of a potential CFP opponent in an effort to disrupt that team's potential path to the Playoff
South Carolina isn't mentioned and we don't know if Tennessee was the program that Michigan wanted out of the playoff.
But the number of programs it could've been are limited. And Tennessee would make sense because the Vols would've been one of the easier programs to knock out of the playoff (since they already had a loss to Georgia).
Plus, we know that South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer is willing to accept information about other programs based on the fine he received in 2016 for accepting information in 2014 about Wake Forest's game plan (this was when Beamer was an assistant at Virginia Tech in 2014).
Beamer denied using the information in the game against Wake Forest in 2014, but he still took the information. It's not far fetched to think that he (or someone on South Carolina's staff) could've accepted and used the information in 2022 — especially when he was under pressure after losing to Florida and Missouri late in the season.
For now, we don't know if South Carolina did or didn't take information about Tennessee from Michigan. But this wild conspiracy doesn't feel so wild anymore.
And if it turns out to be true, Vols fans will have every right to be furious.
Comment from Kentucky coach suggests that not being able to beat Tennessee is living rent free in Wildcats’ minds
If you're a Tennessee Vols fan, you know how it feels to come up short, more often than not, against the Florida Gators — even when UF doesn't have a very strong team. It's happened countless times to the Vols when playing the Gators, including earlier this season. Regardless of the state of either team, […]
