it's past my bedtime, my kid and wife are asleep, and so is most of the eastern time zone. But i'm a west coaster now. And so what better way to celebrate than with an MGoPost? As a transplanted wolverine, much of my fandom is shared with you. I hope you appreciate this rambling post from a non-historian who just loves the history of his favorite game and his alma mater.

I’ve previously given my (inexpert) opinions on how this 3 year run compares, and I think that basically still holds – this is the best 3 year run since Truman’s second term, but without back-to-back titles won’t surpass ’47-48 or ‘30-33. It likely equals the point-a-minute era.

This post will instead focus first on why Team 144 has the best resume in M history, and will then take a deeper dive at some M glory days of the past to focus on how big of a deal this team’s wins were. I think I’m too high off the moment to judge just how good this team is in comparison – and while I remember the ’98 Rose Bowl, I alas was not yet a Michigan fan. The rest of these seasons are WELL before my time.

But I am confident to say Team 144 had the opportunity to build a great resume that the other teams didn’t – and they took advantage of that opportunity.

To start, a qualifier – M has had 11 other national championship winning teams, but only two – 1933 and 1948 – were considered outright national champions (Princeton does claim 1933 as well, but it’s a minority view). I will not  use that criteria to discredit the good work of the 10 undefeated teams that have been recognized as worthy of a national title. I will instead be looking at the wins they’ve had (edit: after doing this, I think those 2 also have the strongest resumes). For the poll era (1936 onwards), I’ll look at the AP rankings of the teams they’d beaten (usually final ranking, unless otherwise mentioned) and in some cases, teams we’ve lost to in non-championship years. I will use the Dickinson ratings for the immediate pre-poll era (1924-1935), and for 1901 (yost’s first season, first national title) to 1923 (our sixth national title) I’ll use, basically, vibes.

Team 144 beat two top5 teams, both out of conference, and two other top15 teams, both within the conference. 1997 was the final season before the BCS, and as the Big Ten didn’t participate in the Bowl Coalition/Alliance, Team 144 had the opportunity to play a higher grade of competition outside of the conference than any team before them. As such, the win over Alabama was Michigan’s second win in the poll era over an out of conference opponent whom finished in the top 5. The only prior Top 5 win was over Cal in the 1951 Rose Bowl (and the final poll was taken before that Rose Bowl game).

By comparison
-the 1997 team only defeated one team that finished in the top10 – Wazzu – and had two other wins over #12 OSU (#4 at gametime) and #16 PSU (#2 on “Judgment Day”)
-The 1948 team did not go to a bowl game per the conference rules of that time, but opened the season by defeating #14 MSU (not Big Ten at the time) and eventual PCC co-champ and final AP #9 Oregon, before beating #7 Northwestern and #16 Minnesota, for as many ranked wins as Team 144
-The 1947 team only played one team that finished in the AP poll – blowing out #8 USC in the Rose Bowl. Critically, this performance convinced the AP writers in an unprecedented, unofficial poll that Michigan was in fact better than Notre Dame, hence the National Championship claim.

Of the poll era champions, Team 144 is tied for beating the most ranked opponents and is the only team to beat any top 5 opponents (let alone 2).

That kinda led me down a side quest – was the 2024 Rose Bowl our biggest bowl win ever? 1998 was more impactful, as was 1948 Rose Bowl – probably the most impactful bowl win we’ve ever had. Though not bowl wins, the 1948 wins over MSU and Oregon did make our argument for the national title. But undoubtedly, the 2023 playoff wins over Alabama and Washington were our highest ranked wins out-of-conference ever. I feel the 2024 Rose Bowl was our biggest bowl victory ever.*

What about the pre-poll teams? I’m going to focus on the ones that claim national championships – so apologies to the 19th century and the numerous campaigns that ended so close but bitterly.

-The 1933 team tied #3 Minnesota, and defeated #5 OSU. Playing two top 5 teams was something of an anomaly - this was considered an “extremely difficult” schedule. And as we can see, beating two top5 teams is no joke, methodology be damned.
-The 1932 team defeated #6 OSU as their most noteworthy opponent, while also giving a solid “mid-major” MSU their only loss of the season. Michigan was awarded #1 in the Dickinson system, but USC is also recognized as a national champion.

-1923 takes us to the final season before the Dickinson system. We shared both the Big Ten and National Titles with an Illinois team we didn’t get to play. Our best win was either giving Minnesota their only loss or beating SoCon champ Vanderbilt.
-1918 was a super weird year, affected by the influenza pandemic. We beat 2 Big Ten teams who didn’t win a single league game all year, beat a Michigan Agricultural team who was 0-3 against Big Ten teams, beat a Case U team who was even worse, and our crown jewel of the season was giving a good Syracuse team their only loss. As a footnote, this is the first season after the closure of Jim Thorpe’s alma mater, the Carlisle school with its legendary football team.

Which takes us back to the Point a Minute era. At the time, Michigan rarely left the Midwest. They did not play the Eastern Teams – Harvard, Yale and Princeton were considered the cream of the east and the sport. Michigan did start a series with Penn in 1906, and usually lost – Penn does claim national championships in ’07 and ’08, and Michigan’s first win over them was 1909 when they were a considerably weaker squad. So I think there’s some validity that claiming a championship in this era without beating an eastern team is akin to UCF claiming the 2017 national title. That said, Michigan was 4 time running Champions of “The West” and the new Western Conference. A quick guess at thebiggest games each undefeated season where we claim a championship:
1904 – giving Chicago their only loss, 22-12
1903 – tying undefeated Minnesota, shutting out Chicago whose only other L was a close one to Army (who was shutout by Harvard & Yale)
1902 – again shutting out Chicago for their only loss of the season. The only team to score on us was Minnesota, who lost 23-6
1901 – we were undefeated, untied and unscored on – and were dominant – but didn’t face any tough competition. Our best opponent was probably 8-2-1 Northwestern

NOT included: 1902 Rose against Stanford. Stanford was not the Far West’s best team that year. That was probably their rival, Cal, or arguably Wazzu or Utah – but 122 years ago, the Wright Brothers had yet to take flight and those teams didn’t play each other or common opponents at all. It’s fair to say though that Far West football was behind both Michigan and The East.

So from that survey, our biggest OOC wins are probably

2024 Rose

1948 Rose

1998 Rose

1948 openers against MSU and Oregon

1923 against Vanderbilt

1918 against ‘Cuse

 

As for Big Ten wins, I’d say the biggest ones are probably

1933 #3 Minnesota

2023 #X OSU (CFP #2 at gametime, likely finish in the top 10 as you read this)

1933 #5 OSU

1948 #7 Northwestern (#3 at gametime, they won the Rose)

1902-1904 Chicago and Minnesota, (minus the one historically important tie)

1932 #6 OSU

We beat other top 10 Big10 teams, but the ones that led to championships hit bigger.

I’m not sure exactly how to rank those point-a-minute teams or the later Yost wins over ‘Cuse and Vandy. But I think it’s somewhat fair to say that 1933, 1948 and 2023 – Teams 144, 69 and 54 – did have stronger resumes. And the 1948 Rose Bowl that gave Team 68 (1947) their share of the ‘ship is probably the most impactful bowl win in school history.

Think it’s also fair to say this season gave us the biggest moments that Michigan football has had in living memory. 1948 was 75 years ago. You’d have to be 80 to have any memory of it. The vast majority of M fans do not remember it. 1997 is the only season in living memory that had our boys step up on comparable stages, under comparable lights. And yes, I think this team had bigger stages.

There’ve been a lot of great teams in our fair school’s history – 12 national champions. All of them earned it. All of them had big wins. Some had their excellence questioned, sometimes fairly. This team had the opportunity to answer all those questions and they did so with aplomb. They very legitimately belong in the conversation of “best Michigan team ever.” Hail to the Victors!

*Calling the 2024 Rose Bowl our biggest bowl win ever led me down a sidequest of what were our “biggest games” (win or lose) ever? A non-comprehensive list of M games between teams that featured teams that finished in the top 5 or were both top5 at the time from the Dickinson era thru the poll era with our result in parentheses follows (not including the 2023 season) (Dickinson ratings are final, AP rankings are at the time of the matchup):
 

1926 #2 Navy (L, we ended #3)
1933 #3 Minnesota(W, the Jug!, we ended #1)
1940 #2 Minnesota (L, the Jug Again! That Minny team finished #1, we entered that game and ended the season #3)
1941 #1 Minnesota(L, the Jug AGAIN! That Minnesota team went #1 wire to wire, we played as #3 ended as #5)
1942 The Game before it was The Game (we played Iowa on Thanksgiving weekend) -L to #5 OSU, they finish #1. We were #4 and finish #9
1943 #1 ND (L, also a wire-to-wire #1, we played as #2 and finished as #3)
1948 #3 Northwestern(!!! – W, they went and won the Rose Bowl too, we entered as #4 and were #1 from that game on)
1951 Rose Bowl #5 Cal (W, we were #9, no post bowl poll)
1968 The Game #2 OSU (L, we drop from 4 to 12, they finish as #1)
1970 The Game #5 OSU (L, they finish #5, we entered #4 and finish #9)
1973 The Game #1 OSU (T, they finish #2 winning the Rose, we somehow drop to #6, everyone is pissed)
1974 The Game #3 OSU (L, they finish #4, we finish #3)
1975 The Game #1 OSU (L, they finish #4, we lose the orange and drop from 4 to 8)
1977 Rose Bowl #3 USC(L, we drop from 2 to 3, they move from 3 to 2)
1985 #1 Iowa (L, we finished #2, they finished #10)
1988 #13 ND (L to eventual #1) and #1 Miami (L to eventual #2) – we finished #4
1992 Rose Bowl #2 Washington (L, they won the Coaches’ poll, we drop from 4 to 6)
1992 #3 ND (T – our first of 3, we they finish #4, we entered #6, end the season beating Washington in the Rose Bowl and finish #5)
1997 The Game #4 OSU (W, they finish #12, we win the ‘ship)
2000 Orange Bowl #5 Alabama (W, we were ranked #8 before but #5 after, they finished #8)
2006 The Game #1 OSU(L, they finish #2, we finish #8, SEC dominance started)

I only included top5 matchups of The Game that saw the winner play for a national title. That neglects 2016, 2021 and 2022 among some others. I generally tried to focus on games where the winner ended up top 5, but focused more (but not exclusively) on seasons where Michigan ended in the top 5. From looking at those, I think I now further feel justified in saying that the 2024 Rose Bowl and CFP Title Games are our biggest wins since 1933.

Not included:
1993 #11 ND(L, they finished #2, we entered #3 and finish barely ranked)
1994 #3 PSU(L, they finished undefeated #2, we entered as #5 and finish #12)
1997 “Judgment Day” #2 PSU(W, we won the ‘ship, they finish #16)

Final PS – my source for all this was Wikipedia, so don’t treat it as anything other than an idiot on the internet opining

Hail to the VICTORS! And boy weren't they valiant this year :)