Sagarin Rankings
It is early and there isn't enough data for Sagarin to even put a lot of stock in his own rankings, but....Michigan is currently ranked 15th (and 18th in the Predictor, which is suppose to be more accurate).
We are ranked 3rd in the conference. MSU seems extremely underrated at 41 (but they are 28th in the predictor).
September 25th, 2011 at 10:36 AM ^
Sagarin is useless until all the human bias is removed... thats if you like computer rankings that is.
September 25th, 2011 at 10:46 AM ^
I think a combination of both is good, simply because there's stuff a computer can't see and understand. That said, I'm not sure the right humans are being used to get impartial rankings.
September 25th, 2011 at 12:14 PM ^
What are these intangibles of which you speak? How dare you question the infallibility of the computers. HAVEN'T YOU SEEN MONEYBALL????
/s
September 25th, 2011 at 11:31 AM ^
You are right, Sagarin is useless in the end. Winning and losing on the field is all that matters. However, Sagarin having us ranked high calms some of my fears. It reminds me that many teams left on our schedule have weaknesses too. Illinois - barely beat Western Michigan, MSU - weak Oline, MInnesota struggled in every game but USC and lost to a D1AA, OSU - QB issues, Northwestern - lost to Army and SDSU beat Army, Iowa - lost to Iowa State....Michigan has issues to address, but so does everyone on our schedule.
September 25th, 2011 at 1:01 PM ^
I don't know if you caught any of the ohio game yesterday but Braxton Miller looked pretty dang good. It's definitely not gonna help us that he'll have 7 more games to get comfortable before us. That said, if our defense keeps trending the way it is we should be pretty good by then so I feel good about it.
September 25th, 2011 at 2:00 PM ^
Braxton Miller is talented and he has time to improve, but was his performance really that good versus Colorado? Colorado doesn't have a horrible defense, but it isn't a great defense.
Braxton Miller 5 of 13 for 83 yards, 2 TDs, 0 INTs (17 carries for 83 yards)
Good performance, but let's see him against a defense that gets better pressure.
September 25th, 2011 at 10:43 AM ^
I don't know anything about the various computer rankings, but I believe MSU opponents have a total of 5 wins between them. They played one terrible DII school (or FCS) and one new and terrible DI (or FBS). On the other hand, I think our opponents have ~11 wins between them and no FCS. So, MSU is probably getting hit for having a very weak out-of-conf sched.
September 25th, 2011 at 10:52 AM ^
Not to mention that we beat a team that they lost to by 18 points. I'm not sure whether that factors into the rankings, but it should.
September 25th, 2011 at 11:21 AM ^
I don't know what bias he has in his rankings so far (i.e. if he accounted for OOC SOS for his initial numbers) but Sagarin doesn't count FCS teams towards his rankings, so MSU has two games instead of three on their resume.
September 25th, 2011 at 10:46 AM ^
I think Sagarin is interesting and hopefully this, as a predictor is accurate.
One thing I have noticed is that Sagarin constantly tries, every single year, to improve his methodology. I appreciate that and it gives you a concrete measurement on his accuracy.
September 25th, 2011 at 11:03 AM ^
That could weigh heavily on MSU's rankings.
September 25th, 2011 at 11:14 AM ^
15th would be good, but I think 18th is more likely.
September 25th, 2011 at 11:38 AM ^
Ranked teams 8,11,14,16 and 23 lost. Should be ranked above 2 loss Florida State.
