Week 2 Coaches Poll: Michigan Unranked (59 Votes, 30th overall)

Submitted by a2_electricboogaloo on

Title pretty much says it all for us.

Some other rankings of interest:

  • FSU retains #1 and Bama retains #2 (despite close games for both), the rest of hte top 5 remains unchanged as well.
  • MSU at #6, up 2 from last week (they'll be playing Oregon this week, who is ranked 4th) 
  • Ohio is at #7, down one from last week.
  • ND was ranked 15th, up two.
  • Nebraska went up 4 spots to 18th
  • Wisconsin dropped 5 places to #19 after losing to LSU

Edit: Link (h/t BloomingtonBlue)

Double edit:  Full rankings

  1. Florida State
  2. Alabama
  3. Oklahoma
  4. Oregon
  5. Auburn
  6. Michigan State
  7. Ohio State
  8. Georgia
  9. Baylor
  10. Stanford
  11. UCLA
  12. LSU
  13. Texas A&M
  14. USC
  15. Notre Dame
  16. Arizona State
  17. Ole Miss
  18. Nebraska
  19. Wisconsin
  20. Kansas State
  21. South Carolina
  22. Missouri
  23. UNC
  24. Clemson
  25. Texas

reshp1

September 2nd, 2014 at 1:16 PM ^

I thought we might get a token bump into 24 or 25 just to hype the ND game, but this sounds about right. Win in South Bend and we could swap places with ND.

Everyone Murders

September 2nd, 2014 at 1:24 PM ^

MSU moving up a couple of spots doesn't surprise me - the networks / media / people love to see matchups of teams closely ranked, and the pollsters sure weren't going to move Oregon down.  It seems that teams in a prime-time matchup game tend to see their rankings squeezed the week before the game.

Not to take anything away from the matchup.  MSU v. Oregon game will be a fascinating tilt to watch out of the corner of our collective eyes. 

blueblueblue

September 2nd, 2014 at 2:27 PM ^

So your logic applies to Oregon - MSU, but not to UM - ND? I know we love to come up with conspiracy/rational actor theories, but if it holds for some, it should hold for all (in whch UM would be ranked, even at 25 or 24). Plus, I just dont see MSU ranked 8th playing an Oregon team ranked 4th being much different than what the rankings are this week. The simple answer is that MSU looked very good last week, and deserved to be bumped up over OSU and UCLA

Or you could be right, and an analysis of movements in rankings of two teams before they play one another would convince me otherwise (but who has the time). But right now the incongruence in the logic makes the theory unconvincing. 

Everyone Murders

September 2nd, 2014 at 2:50 PM ^

That's a bit harsh. 

I think objectively both MSU and UofM did what they were supposed to against vastly inferior components.  I don't think anyone paying attention to those games got a whole lot of data out of them.  So I would not expect either team's ranking to change much.  So what I'm saying is that when marquee matchups occur, it seems the pollsters have a tendency to push the rankings closer.  In prior years I've seen the same thing with Michigan and ND, with Michigan and MSU, and with Michigan and OSU.  And tons of other "mark your calendar" games not involving Michigan or our rivals. 

Could it be confirmation bias on my part?  It could be - but I don't think it's a conspiracy.  More of a tendency to want to build excitement on the part of the pollsters.

Everyone Murders

September 2nd, 2014 at 4:19 PM ^

I think there's a bit of apples cf. oranges here.

Michigan was rightfully unranked at the end of last year, and its OL has been a big question mark.  And while the Appy State game was somewhat encouraging, our starting LT is a true freshman.  When you throw that into the mix, I think it would be hard to justify moving Michigan into the top 25 based on a solid victory against Baby Seal U.  I've got no beef with Michigan not being ranked.  I think it would be a bit ludicrous to do so at this point.

Apples:  MSU playing Oregon is a great matchup between programs coming off strong seasons.  It pits (based on last year) terrific defense from MSU against a dynamic spread.  Oregon's QB is a legitimate preseason Heisman hopeful.*  It's a natural spot for Game Day, and is a marquee matchup.  And with the hype around that game, it seems you see the ratings "squeeze" crop up where it can plausibly be justified.

Oranges:  Michigan playing ND is interesting for different reasons.  It's the end of a historic series between the two winningnest programs in college football.  It features two of the most popular teams in college football.  So on a historical level, it might be a marquee matchup - certainly for traditionalists.  But I don't think most football fans think that the outcome of this game impacts the playoff picture or much else.  So sadly, I think it's pretty plainly a "smaller" game than MSU v. Oregon.

(For the record, I think that Devin Gardner could well be in the Heisman discussion by the end of the season.)

harperic

September 2nd, 2014 at 4:38 PM ^

Poll ineria is terrible.

Bleacher Report (may they burn in hell) actually had a possible ranking after the first week not taking into account preseason polls. Georgia and A&M are 1 and 2, and they probably should be, given what they did. Of course, Clemson and SCar may end up being total garbage and those wins relatively as meaningless as ours over App State, but I think that'd be deserved.

I just hope that the selection committee actually ignores the polls and looks at the body of work. I really dislike the momentum of the polls, because voters don't want to drop teams for winning against cupcakes, so moving up can be very tricky (unless you're in the SEC, then you just get +3 points for SEC SPEED)

morepete

September 2nd, 2014 at 1:29 PM ^

How do they hang onto a ranking? They literally could not have looked worse against A&M at home. Granted, A&M appears to be much better than anyone expected, but what exactly did voters see that made them think the Gamecocks were still one of the best 25 teams in the country?

This is why there should be no polls until week 6 at the earliest. Stupid recency and confirmation biases...

LSAClassOf2000

September 2nd, 2014 at 1:32 PM ^

Michigan snuck into the Top 30 in the Sagarin ratings this morning as well - at 30, no less. Strangely enough, Florida also made it at #17 despite having yet to play an official game, although the one or two plays they did run were quality plays. All it really means is that Jeff Sagarin's computer cannot activate SkyNet yet. 

In his Top 30, you'll also find - Michigan State (10), Ohio State (12), Wisconsin (16), Iowa (29) and our next opponent, Notre Dame, at #15. 

alum96

September 2nd, 2014 at 1:50 PM ^

For all the complaining about rankings the Big 10 currently has 4 teams in the top 20 and if you include the greater Midwest region (i.e. ND), 5 of the top 20 teams.

Also A&M had a very impressive win, I'd have them in the top 10.  Hard to blowout an average team in your conference on their home turf not to mention a potential top 25 team. 

LSU barely has an offense, not sure how they are ahead of A&M.  I guess beating Wisconsin sans a functional QB on a neutral field is a great feat.