J.J. McCarthy said Michigan players 'did things the right way' - ESPN

As No. 1 Michigan prepares to face No. 2 Washington on Monday in the College Football Playoff National Championship Presented by AT&T, Wolverines players pushed back on allegations of their involvement in the highly publicized sign-stealing scandal, saying any possible NCAA penalties, including vacating wins, wouldn't detract from their accomplishments this season.

«We did things the right way as players,» Wolverines quarterback J.J. McCarthy said during a teleconference Wednesday. «It would be very unfortunate [to] not get recognized for all the hard work that we put in and everything we accomplished over this last year.

»But at the end of the day, you know it's not going to change the amount of accomplishment and the amount of pride for being on this football team and just everything that we accomplished because we know what we put in. We know the work that we put in, and we know that we did things the right way as players. Whatever happened, with all the outside controversies, it's out of our control, and whatever the NCAA wants to do is out of our control, but we're going to appreciate the things we did control and accomplish."

Michigan will take the sport's greatest stage Monday with two separate NCAA investigations still looming — one into the sign-stealing scandal that allegedly spanned multiple seasons, and another into alleged recruiting violations during the COVID-19 season. It's possible the program will face NCAA sanctions that could include vacating wins.

While a majority of college football teams, if not all, try to steal signs during games from opposing sidelines and from game film they study, the NCAA prohibits off-campus sign stealing. The Big Ten this season suspended coach Jim Harbaugh for the final