Abbreviated Version: As expected, after a bye week, most of the data did not change. However, the computer analysis (Fremeau and Sagarin) did have significant changes – primarily due to strength of schedule adjustments. Michigan's SoS went from #52 to #77 in the FEI and from #49 to #64 for Sagarin. At the same time, PSU beat lowly Minnesota and their SoS improved slightly from #40 to #36 for the FEI but declined from #45 to #47 for Sagarin. The SoS adjustments have more to do with how all of your opponents did that week rather than whether you win or lose. This significantly changed the rankings and game predictions (see below). Thus, my prediction that the computer analysis would not change very much after the bye week was absolutely wrong!

Synopsis: After 7 games and a bye week, Michigan is currently ranked #17 in scoring offense and #80 in scoring defense (wooo hooo, the defense improved by not playing). According to the FEI rankings at Football Outsiders, Michigan is ranked #93 in total defense (a significant drop from #83 prior to the bye week).

Due to the large swing in computer rankings during the bye week, FEI has Michigan favored by 7 points over Penn State (an initial rough estimate showed M favored by 16 prior to the bye week). Using the Sagarin Predictor, PSU is now favored by 1.5 points (before the bye week M was favored by 2.8 points). Sagarin Elo-Chess has M favored by 3.1 and the Sagarin Overall ranking has M by 0.7 points. (Vegas Odds now have M favored by 3).

I am confused this week why Sagarin has PSU favored and FEI as the game relatively close. Unless M implodes with TOs, IMO this should be a big win.

DETAILS: Here are the FEI numbers ( FEI Forecasts and Football Outsiders FEI ). FEI is a weighted and opponent adjusted season efficiency and is expressed as a percentage as compared with an average FBS team. The average team will have an index of approximately 0.00. Teams below average have negative index values.

Note that FEI completely excludes all non-FBS data (the W-L record is only for FBS games, etc.). Therefore, you need to add 1 to FBS-MW to get the final predicted wins for M this year. Or, if you use FBS-RMW, you need to add 1 to the current W-L record to get the final predicted wins for M this year. BTW, the difference between FBS-MW and FBS-RMW is the number of FBS games each team would have been expected to win to date.

The FEI is a drive based analysis considering each of the nearly 20,000 drives each year in college football. The data is filtered to eliminate garbage time (at the half or end of game) and is adjusted for opponent. A team is rewarded for playing well against good teams (win or lose) and is punished more severely for playing poorly against bad teams than it is rewarded for playing well against bad teams. I've included the GE basic data so you can see the impact of adjusting for opponent.  (See: Football Outsiders Our Basic College Stats )

Here are the Sagarin Ratings.

Sagarin uses two basic ratings: PREDICTOR (in which the score MARGIN is the only thing that matters) and ELO-CHESS (in which winning and losing only matters, the score margin is of no consequence). The overall rating is a synthesis of the two diametrical opposites, ELO-CHESS and PREDICTOR.

Per Sagarin: ELO-CHESS is “very politically correct. However, it is less accurate in its predictions for upcoming games than is PREDICTOR”.