Choose your own adventure, UM football

Submitted by buddhafrog on

I have enjoyed reading the "So you're saying there's a chance?!" articles about Michigan making the playoffs after MSU crapped the bed last Saturday. We have a chance, yo!

But I catch myself and realize I don't care that much. I just want us to beat OSU and win the B1G and go to the Rose Bowl - the same dream I had for UM in my childhood days. That would be so beautiful.

But I am curious where you stand. Choose one:

  1. 90% UM wins the B1G and goes to the Rose Bowl / 10% loses to OSU
  2. 50% UM wins the B1G and goes to the playoffs and see / 50% loses to OSU
  3. 25% UM wins everything and is playoff Champion / 75% loses to OSU

I'm taking choice #1 all day. Practicality tells me that 25% chance at something so prized should be grabbed, but I just don't care. Give me OSU and Big Ten Champs. That's my dream.

ALSO: 
For people who are no fun at parties, I will be the first to say, "Just win at Indiana, geez."

jmblue

November 9th, 2015 at 3:49 PM ^

That there are posters here who weren't alive in '97 . . . that is mind-blowing to me.

So we've sucked at football for essentially your whole fandom.  I can't even imagine.  We won the Big Ten in each of the first five years I was a fan.  We also won the national title in basketball and went to additional Final Fours, as well as some Frozen Fours in hockey, during that time.  Being a Michigan fan was so easy.

 

 

 

buddhafrog

November 9th, 2015 at 4:02 PM ^

I am sound math.

would you rather have:

1) a 90% chance to win B1G (yes that means beating OSU)

2) a 50% chance to go to the playoffs (yes, that means beating OSU and winning B1G ... but also a 50% chance of losing to OSU and not even winning the B1G)

3) a 25% chance of winning the championship (and all the above required, of course .. but 75% chance losing to OSU and not even winning the B1G)

Come on! Try to understand harder!

rob f

November 9th, 2015 at 3:50 PM ^

Jim Harbaugh drives Mork away to South Carolina and Urbz (for 'health' reasons) into another 1-year (+/-) retirement until the ND job is vacated by B. Kelly.

*but not until beating each of them. More than once!

Jack Hammer

November 9th, 2015 at 3:52 PM ^

Wouldn't you rather knock these pricks off their pedestals and watch them suffer for the next 10 years?  I want to watch Harbaugh knock off Mork, Urbz and eventually Saban and Miles.  I promise you Mork isn't looking forward to next year.  And I'm praying we kick Urby in the nutz in a few weeks.  

alum96

November 9th, 2015 at 3:39 PM ^

Confession - I used to put my fingers in various choices (different pages) of those books then skim the page to see which option had me "winning".  Sometimes I'd have like 6 fingers at once stuck in the pages all over the book.

But I ended up winning vs those books a lot.

The Mad Hatter

November 9th, 2015 at 3:39 PM ^

when I was in grade school.

And I'm with you OP.  Beating OSU and going to the Rose Bowl is completely satisfactory for year one of the Harbaugh era.

If there was a 4th option where we have a 10% chance of winning the NC this year, and next, my bet would change.

Blue and Joe

November 9th, 2015 at 3:42 PM ^

At this point in the Harbaugh Era, I'll take #1 all day. While I'm 100% confident in our coaches to put the team in a position to win, I still don't think we can compete with playoff teams. Yet.

JClay

November 9th, 2015 at 3:42 PM ^

I do not think we'd make the playoffs even if we win out and I do not seriously see us hanging with Bama or Clemson in year 1 of Harbaugh. I'd take a win over Ohio State (regardless of B10 title game outcome) and grin like an idiot with ten wins and a major bowl. That is so far exceeding any reasonable expectations going into this season.

ijohnb

November 9th, 2015 at 3:50 PM ^

to say that is to kind of say you don't want to acknowledge the chance because it is unlikely that we will win out, but I don't think at this point you can say that if we win out it is unlikely we would make the playoff.

11-2, wins over #2 OSU, #5 Iowa, #20ish Northwestern, two losses to two teams that will finish in the Top 25 at a minimum(one of them not actually a loss).  BIG champs on a 7 game winning streak who just beat the defending champion and a second undefeated team.  AND this team is named Michigan and their coach is named Harbaugh.

That team gets in my man. 

ijohnb

November 9th, 2015 at 4:10 PM ^

be pretty, but I don't think it would be all that pretty for them either.  Our defense is not just "Big Ten good" this year, it is legitimately really good.  Bama is good but Conner Cook ain't running out of that locker room .  We have one of the best defensive lines in the country and it is almost completely impossible to run the ball against us.  We have a elite corner and Peppers who just roams and destroys.  I don't think we would beat either of those teams but I don't think we would get completely rolled either.

The Mad Hatter

November 9th, 2015 at 4:31 PM ^

we'd get rolled, but I also don't think we'd win either, especially agaisnt Alabama.  Saban has his guys hitting on all cylinders right now.  They looked very impressive agasint LSU, and LSU is a good team with a great coach.

ijohnb

November 9th, 2015 at 3:44 PM ^

3, because if you are going to tell me there is a 3 out of 4 chance we are going to win the NC I am taking that.  Worst case scenario in option 3 is the Citrus Bowl where we play a Top 10ish SEC team in front of a packed house on New Years Day - that is the worst case.  Yeah, give me 3.

MGoYoop

November 9th, 2015 at 3:47 PM ^

Only because I need a Michigan/Baylor game in my life. Corey Coleman vs Jourdan Lewis. No footballs needed. Just let the lions loose and get to running.

LSAClassOf2000

November 9th, 2015 at 3:51 PM ^

If that first scenario were to be the case (and per Massey, the estimated odds of us winning out are closer to 23%, but say we at least are in a toss-up game on 11/28 - I'll take it), then I would call that an undeniable success for the first year in a Harbaugh, a year that even some here thought would be fraught with growing pains (and it has to some extent). Still, 7-2 and a possibility of winning out and a berth in a nice bowl? I can live with that, especially if it somehow turns out that this is as some had estimated - the worst year under Harbaugh.

His Dudeness

November 9th, 2015 at 3:53 PM ^

To me winning the B1G and going to the Rose Bowl is all I care about. If you do that more often than not, your team will have a solid chance of playing for the CFP every 5-10 years.

I dont have to win every year. I just want to be in the running for B1G most seasons. Play OSU tough every single year and sometimes go to Pasadena.