Cool Michigan 2011 Schedule Fact
Saw this posted in a Y! Sports article, and thought it was worth sharing.
Michigan is one of three teams to have beaten 8 other bowl teams, tied for most among all FBS schools.
there were three teams – LSU, Michigan and Oklahoma State – that had eight victories apiece over other bowl teams.
Sparty can say what they want about our strength of schedule, but that stat speaks for itself.
December 21st, 2011 at 4:40 PM ^
Funny, I see Oklahoma State up there but not Alabama... apparently the SEC strength of schedule concept doesn't really pan out, does it?
December 21st, 2011 at 4:44 PM ^
I saw on @michiganfootball a while back that Michigan is the only team to play 10 bowl teams, so having won 8 is great.
December 21st, 2011 at 5:24 PM ^
EMU would have gone to a Bowl game too.
December 21st, 2011 at 5:28 PM ^
I don't think two of their wins were over FCS competition so they weren't eligible for a bowl this year.
December 21st, 2011 at 5:37 PM ^
They would have had to win 7 games to be eligible, because they played 2 FCS teams
December 22nd, 2011 at 10:01 AM ^
EMU needed one more win to be bowl eligible and probably one more after that to be considered. They seriously blew it in the Ball State game.
December 21st, 2011 at 5:15 PM ^
"Finally, who says there is no Santa? Because he is considering a run for the U.S. Senate, ESPN analystCraig James is taking a leave of absence from the network. The deadline for James, 50, to file to run is Monday. James would run as a Republican. If he doesn’t decide to run, he presumably would return to the airwaves next week." - from Yahoo!
I know that everyone is aware of this, but I didn't know what his filing deadline was. Regardless, on Tuesday morning, whether he has entered the race or not, someone will need to take stock of the hookers. We may be down five more.
Regarding the actual fact mentioned by kaykay, that we are 8-2 against teams that are going to bowls this season speaks volumes about how well this team played overall.
December 21st, 2011 at 4:55 PM ^
I don't think sparty can complain about Michigans schedule when they miss Penn State, Wisconsin and Ohio State in 2013-14
December 21st, 2011 at 5:22 PM ^
these guys
December 21st, 2011 at 5:55 PM ^
Nothing new there. Sparty has missed playing Ohio State 11 times since 1985. They sure rotate off the schedule often.
December 21st, 2011 at 6:09 PM ^
Yeah, but now Sparty has to play Indiana every year!
December 21st, 2011 at 6:15 PM ^
I can't wait for the time when this is the headline game on ESPN on the Saturday after Thanksgiving....I'll be dead then, so it won't matter.
December 22nd, 2011 at 8:44 AM ^
It may happen, however, it was reported that the good Lord may be back to reclaim the Earth by then. So we may luck out...
December 21st, 2011 at 5:02 PM ^
I keep hearing we're in a down year for the BIG but I'm curious to see how the BIG teams perform in their bowls.
December 21st, 2011 at 5:31 PM ^
I am of the same mindset. We keep hearing how bad the conference was this year. I do not necessarily dispute that it seemed the level of play was down. However, it seems whenever the Big Ten is considered inferior during the course of a season, they show up post-season and represent themselves well. I remember a few basketball seasons this happened over the last decade, only to see 2 Big Ten teams are in the Elite 8/Final 4. Much different than football I know, but I am curious to see if the conference can shine during bowl season --not necessarily put up a .750 winning %, but just "play well" in their games-- after being portrayed as a poor-playing conference as a whole all year.
December 21st, 2011 at 7:35 PM ^
probably poorly, at least in big games
Iowa v Oklahoma
NW v Texas A&M
Wisconsin v Oregon
Nebraska v South Carolina
December 21st, 2011 at 5:09 PM ^
than # of bowl teams.
December 21st, 2011 at 5:20 PM ^
mean this in the a-hole way, but
Like what?
I'm curious to know what (and more importantly why) things are judged to be good strength of schedule indicators. I always feel like there are big factors that are missed--like rivalry games.
When Michigan was ruining tsio's bowl dreams in the 90's I don't think our team was always a strength of schedule boost, but the wolverines sure played their hearts out.
Edit: you could probably say the same thing about the MSU squads in recent games against Michigan.
December 21st, 2011 at 5:26 PM ^
Like most conventional measurements that also take into account the total record of all opponents, opponent's schedule strength, etc.
Playing 6 9-3 teams is a lot better then playing 8 6-6 teams, obviously, and this statistic (while cool and all) doesn't take that into account at all.
December 21st, 2011 at 5:33 PM ^
playing Marshall and FIU is equivalent to playing LSU and Alabama...you have to take total record, some form of ranking, etc into account to achieve any type of meaniful differentiation.
December 21st, 2011 at 5:43 PM ^
We could always measure strength of schedule in meters.
The BCS formula for strength of schedule, I believe, uses some combination of opponent's record and the record of other teams who have played that opponent. I could be mistaken, but some versions of this also assign weights to opponents, and there are other factors like power rankings that get thrown into it as well.
December 21st, 2011 at 6:36 PM ^
Strength of Schedule (SOS) ratings are based on the final FEI ratings for each season, though they do not represent the average strength of a team's schedule of opponents. Instead, they are uniquely designed to measure the difficulty of a schedule from the top down, with more significance given to the toughest opponents faced. The SOS ratings below represent the percent likelihood that an elite team (two standard deviations better than average) would go undefeated against the given team's entire schedule. Win likelihoods are influenced by home/away/neutral game location and postseason games are included.
According to that measure in 2011, MSU was 2nd and UM 55th. Probably because FEI thinks higher of Wisconsin and UofM than conventional opinion.
December 21st, 2011 at 10:45 PM ^
Didn't FEI have like Miami (YTM) as like the Number 2 offense in the country at one point though?
December 21st, 2011 at 5:26 PM ^
on the road, and lost to both of them (ND and Nebraska). Other than that, they beat no one. As a matter of fact, they have beaten no one in the last four years. Not one marquee victory in four years.
Additionally, I'm not sure any BIG teams will win a bowl game. I think the BIG is definitely down. When Michigan is down, college football is down, let alone the BIG. Hopefully Michigan can win theirs against a perennially over-ranked VT team.
December 21st, 2011 at 5:34 PM ^
So I wouldn't say they beat nobody. How many teams have 2 BCS victories. MSU Clemson and LSU I know of. Anyone else?
December 21st, 2011 at 5:39 PM ^
Uh...didn't Sparty beat Michigan?
December 22nd, 2011 at 6:54 AM ^
even a blinld squrril finds a hair-less nut every once in a while. sparty had a weak-@ss schedule. There is no doubt about it. But who cares about sparty anyway?
We are a better school, we are a better program and Team 132 is a better team. No one cares about sparty. I wish they would just go away. Didnt lil bros usually go away for 5 bucks?
December 21st, 2011 at 5:46 PM ^
One of the more creative ways to troll a Michigan board.
December 21st, 2011 at 6:28 PM ^
there's no bigger M fan than I. Grew up in Ann Arbor, played Jr. High football with Bo's son, went to M in '74. We were not a juggernaut this year, just saying'. Just sick of Sparty thinking' their 10 win seasons are something special when they beat a lowly Ohio team, a Wisky team that calls timeouts at the end of the game when Sparty has the ball, that ultimately helps Sparty win the game (two years in a row), and a Michigan team, obviously on the rebuild and rebound from depths previously unseen. I'm the furthest thing from a troll on this site.
December 21st, 2011 at 6:41 PM ^
OSU is down and they got lucky against Wisc, but they spanked us in a year when we're a top 10 team by many measures.
When say that MIchigan is not a good team, directly or implied, you are trolling a Michigan board.
December 21st, 2011 at 5:46 PM ^
Uh, they beat a team called Michigan. That ain't nothing!
December 21st, 2011 at 5:47 PM ^
Sparty beat Wisconsin too.
December 22nd, 2011 at 6:55 AM ^
you didnt watch the game.
December 21st, 2011 at 6:56 PM ^
The sparty stuff aside, that is pretty impressive for team 132.