ESPN releases B1G bowl predictions based on Week 1

B1G Championship and Rose Bowl or bust.

I'll take it but damn do I really want to go to a Rose Bowl though

I thought we looked better than OSU, but I'll take a BCS projection.  

CMU was supposedly ranked higher than Buffalo but Buffalo looked decent, especially that Mack guy.  No idea why OSU was cramping up and Buffalo was fine but the cramps combined with off field issues led to OSU being down 3 defensive starters at positions without great experienced depth.  Michigan and Wisconsin were the only two B1G teams who handled their cupcake opponents the way you should in early season games.

my prediction until next week. If we take care of ND...then Rose Bowl bound. If it is a close loss, then we will probably end up in a BCS game.  If we get blown out at home by ND, well it could be one of those long seasons.

Last year, Rees came in and bailed ND out with a game-sealing pass play to Eifert down the sideline. Michigan had so many opportunities to take that game and just blow on by, only to turn the ball over. It was the most disappointing loss of the year. 

There is a reason Rees didn't start against Michigan or in the championship game last year. And the reason is, lack of mobility and escapability. I expect Michigan to turn up the pressure next  week, and make their defensive speed turn huge dividends. I am expecting a dominating performance by the Maize and Blue. 

IMO Michigan is better than Ohio right now, especially on defense.  We looked faster and more phyiscal and deeper than they did vs. their MAC opponent.

Well we certainly looked the part of a team that could get an at-large berth. Defense proved to be suffocating and didn't let CMU into the endzone. If we can get some more consistency out of Gardner, which I think will happen (it's just the first week of the season, after all), then this is a team that could be heading to Pasadena for the Rose Bowl.

is from the first game to the second.  The question is which of these two teams (UM or ND) makes the biggest improvement.  Bteween UM and OSU, you can't really compare because they are both lower half MAC teams at this point.  OSU always plays down to their competition in the first few games (and at Purdue).   Let's wait until after 5 games for each and then start making predictions. 

You don't want to look like Herbie did yesterday - predicting Toledo over Florida and being totally wrong.

Such an easy pick to make. Based on yesterday's results, OSU doesn't look leaps and bounds above Michigan or any other Big Ten team, in my opinion. I think they better watch out for Northwestern in a month. They beat a Cal team on the road at night. Granted, Cal has a freshman Qb and a new coach...but OSU struggled to beat them at home last year. I'm not sure I'll pick the upset yet...but I might.

Useless to make predictions on week 1 or Buffalo putting up 20 on OSU.  OSU will be OSU when they get to Ann Arbor.  They have a young defense just like we do and will improve as the year goes by , esp that defensive line which is very young but has some studs on it.  They are not a super power or Alabama - no one in the Midwest is.  Michigan can win every game on its schedule as well as lose a handful.  I am a bit worried about Blake as he didnt look sharp out there but he was rusty - he just cannot be playing like that against ND which has 1 very good WR and another well above average one.  Rees is a good QB with a ton of experience and wont be rattled by the Big House.  We are going to need to score points on that defense as I am expecting ND to put up low to upper 20s on our very young defense.  I think this game ends something like 27-24 or 31-27 sort of score.  Whoever gets the key breaks, penalty call, turnovers etc will win in this very evenly matched game.