Why would the Howard punch play into it at all?
I would think that if you have a team on the bubble, and you have a choice between picking a team with a coach that isn't an asshat, and picking a team with a coach that is a repeat offender, proven asshat, you might steer away from said asshat.
But it appears that the committee valued their SOS, regardless of getting murdered by all the good teams they played to get the SOS.
Anyway, whatever. Michigan making the dance makes it far less likely that they fire him. Which is actually good for us.