2019 Oregon as 2016 Michigan Redux
Didn't watch much of the PAC-12 championship but reflecting on it, and Oregon's 11-2 season, it is eerily similar to Michigan's 2016 season - but with a twist.
Both teams lost to a middling team by 3 later in year (ASU, Iowa) but the twist is that Oregon loses their first game vs Auburn on neutral field while we get scammed in Ohio in late November. Our game was the de facto big ten championship.
Oregon then gets its PAC-12 championship and Rose bowl, but is left out of the playoff, despite having a very good offensive line (3-4 starters will be drafted) a very good QB and more. Oh, and they have the #1 recruit, a SDE, starting and making plays.
I guess two questions for the board: how would you feel if Michigan had this type of season? 11-2 with a big ten championship but left out of playoff? Would we still be upset with Harbaugh's results?
And secondly: doesn't this make MORE of a case for expanding the playoff? Or should Oregon, Michigan, etc never ever schedule competitive out of conference again?
December 7th, 2019 at 7:58 AM ^
I think moving the OSU game earlier in the season would help.
Decembers always suck with that taste of humiliation in your mouth.
Then the inevitable bowl loss makes everyone forget any good moments that may have been had. The off-season is just one giant letdown.
December 7th, 2019 at 8:00 AM ^
Moving it just one week back before thanksgiving would be a huge help too. I hate how much red I can see at every home OSU game
December 7th, 2019 at 8:32 AM ^
How would moving it back one week before thanksgiving help keep osu fans out of the stadium? Their fans have no problem attending the game thanksgiving weekend, why do ours?
December 7th, 2019 at 8:41 AM ^
Ohio state fans are psychotic, literal fanatics. They care about nothing other than Ohio state and beating Michigan. Roles reversed in the series and i bet there's not that much red in Michigan stadium.
December 7th, 2019 at 8:02 AM ^
This is the smart way to deal with it.
December 7th, 2019 at 8:07 AM ^
Moving “The Game” to April gives us the best shot right now.
December 7th, 2019 at 9:17 AM ^
Moving it to the moon would probably help too.
December 7th, 2019 at 8:20 AM ^
But I thought I was told by Michigan fans that they don't want OSU game to be moved to the middle of the season! /s
December 7th, 2019 at 2:36 PM ^
Or maybe our team could man up and win the game
December 7th, 2019 at 7:58 AM ^
It would be a step in the right direction. I’m assuming in this scenario that we have beaten OSU because there’s no other way we would make the big ten championship game with 2 losses
December 7th, 2019 at 8:09 AM ^
Are you asking if we care about the playoffs if we beat Ohio State? Personally, I don’t. I just want to get back to the Cooper era, or at least the ten year war era.
December 7th, 2019 at 8:15 AM ^
We lost by one to Iowa, not three.
December 7th, 2019 at 8:30 AM ^
At this point I just want Michigan to beat osu. Nothing else matters.
December 7th, 2019 at 8:33 AM ^
If Oregon would have played a cupcake instead of Auburn, they might have inside track at the playoff. It is hard to compare Oregon to Michigan or Clemson to Michigan when the schedule Michigan plays is tougher with OSU. OSU is always going to be there waiting no matter when you play them. The ACC and Pac 12 and Big 12 simply don't have the depth that the Big 10 and SEC have. At least in the SEC you only play 8 conference games. At some point we simply are going to have to beat OSU. We beat the teams we are supposed to beat. Everyone that beats us ends up winning 10 games with a few exceptions. I know I'm providing no answers but I don't think we can just compare Michigan to other schools and compute some sort of solution. Without OSU we would probably have multiple Big 10 championships and a couple playoff appearances. They aren't going anywhere so at some point we will have to beat them to get to the next level.
December 7th, 2019 at 8:38 AM ^
A 2 loss team will never make a 4 team playoff. Regardless of the when the losses happen and who they happen to. Expand to 8, yes. As a 4 team playoff, very rarely would a case even have a legitimate argument.
December 7th, 2019 at 9:40 AM ^
I don't know. I think a two-loss team can make the playoff and will at some point. But it will require some chaos to happen a la 2007. Some year there will be a situation in which no more than two or three P5 teams have zero or one loss. At that point they're either bring in a G5 team or what they consider to be the best two-loss team.
These seasons will be few and far between, but I think we'll see them every so often.
December 7th, 2019 at 8:45 AM ^
Feelingsball threads are not my favorite.
December 7th, 2019 at 9:34 AM ^
They’re right up there with perspective threads.
December 7th, 2019 at 9:33 AM ^
I think UM should just lobby to move to the B1G west.......or PAC-12
December 7th, 2019 at 9:42 AM ^
How would we feel if Harbaugh had his best ever season at Michigan including a B1G championship?
Probably pretty good.
December 7th, 2019 at 9:45 AM ^
I don’t think there’s much similarity between the two seasons beyond the overall record. If you equate our 2016 OSU game to the PAC championship, our performance against OSU was nothing like Oregon’s against Utah. They won going away in regulation. We did not.
December 7th, 2019 at 10:32 AM ^
I say we move the game up in the schedule about 3-4 weeks. That seems to be the time frame when OSU player suspensions get enforced.
December 7th, 2019 at 10:40 AM ^
Just leave the playoff at 4. Six brings it's own issues. 8+ makes the regular season rather meaningless. Oregon's season isn't a failure because they missed the playoff. They are going to the damn Rose Bowl!
6 teams - two teams unfairly get a bye. How they hell do you decide 2v3 on who gets an extra bye week. Extremely unfair.
8 Teams (w/ guaranteed P5 Champs) is essentially a 13 team playoff, since conference championships are a "wildcard round". This give the three at large bids a bye week in the first round. Why would teams that can't even make their conference championship games deserve a bye week, when the top 2 teams could be facing off in the de facto week one of the playoff?
16 team playoff would put Michigan in the playoff this year. Making the regular season a complete joke. And making playoff appearances a big joke.
December 7th, 2019 at 11:20 AM ^
The OOC scheduling thing cuts both ways. They lost so it is bad. Had they beaten Auburn then people would be saying they should get in over Oklahoma as the #4 because they had a tougher schedule and better wins.
December 7th, 2019 at 12:05 PM ^
Their situation actually reminds me a bit of Colorado back in 2001. Lost some games early on, essentially killed any BCS chance they had then finished strong and beat Nebraska (walloped them in fact) and Texas (same Texas that had blown them out earlier in the year) back to back to win the Big 12.
Now there were some saying that Colorado should have been in the BCS because of “playing their best football” in November...but it was weak sauce and I feel the same way about anyone saying Oregon deserves a playoff shot. The real story here is that the PAC sucks. Utah was a midmajor less than 10 years ago...still seem like a overpowered Mt West team riding the coattails of Mormon missionaries in the South Pacific. If USC is down that conference isnt much.
December 7th, 2019 at 4:11 PM ^
An 11-win season would be great. Michigan hasn't had many 11-win seasons in its entire history.