Michigan finishes #10 in AP
First top-10 finish in a decade.
- Clemson
- Alabama
- USC
- Washington
- Oklahoma
- 0hio State
- Penn State
- Florida State
- Wisconsin
- Michigan
- Oklahoma State
- Stanford
- LSU
- Florida
- Western Michigan
- Virginia Tech
- Colorado
- West Virginia
- USF
- Miami
- Louisville
- Tennessee
- Utah
- Auburn
- San Diego State
January 10th, 2017 at 9:21 AM ^
0hi0 State*
January 10th, 2017 at 9:24 AM ^
"Oops..."
January 10th, 2017 at 9:22 AM ^
An all too familiar feeling. underperforming when expectations are high. Really sucks seeing teams that you beat ranked ahead of you.
All in all though, it was a fun year. I firmly believe we will excede our exspecations in 2017.
January 10th, 2017 at 9:38 AM ^
Should we send someone over to check on you?
January 10th, 2017 at 9:23 AM ^
January 10th, 2017 at 9:24 AM ^
January 10th, 2017 at 9:24 AM ^
Not to hijack a thread, but is the ap out for everyone? I am running the MGoBlog HD on the iPhone 7. It's been a 24 hour thing. Really messing up my bathroom time.
January 10th, 2017 at 9:37 AM ^
Thanks for asking. Any ideas?
January 10th, 2017 at 9:49 AM ^
January 10th, 2017 at 9:26 AM ^
Finishing in the top 10 is pretty good considering we lost 3 of our last 4 games.
January 10th, 2017 at 10:09 AM ^
We lost by a sum of 5 points to teams that are a collective 28-10, though.
USC lost 52-6 to Bama, OSU got blanked by Clemson, Oklahoma lost by three touchdowns to OSU, FSU lost by 43 to Louisville, we owned Penn State 49-10, etc. We have our weaknesses but we were never exposed.
I take our three (quality) losses and stack them up against USC's three, where their opponents combined for 8 losses, and I don't see much difference.
The timing of our losses sucks, but our resume still holds up holistically, coming from a conference with four top ten teams, having a handful of blowout wins, and no blowout losses.
I still think we're a top 3-5 team, but they placed us in the appropriate tier. There's so much parity aside from Alabama and Clemson. I'll be interested in seeing the advanced stats about strength of schedule and what have you.
January 10th, 2017 at 9:35 AM ^
We weren't in the final top 10 in 2011?
EDIT: I see that we were #9 in the coaches' poll but #12 in AP.
January 10th, 2017 at 9:28 AM ^
Polls are stupid, of course, and full of recency bias (among other things), but it's still pretty galling for us to be ranked behind both Penn St. and Wisconsin. (And USC jumping all the way to #3 just because they won the Rose Bowl? A team that Alabama beat by 46?)
I guess the lesson of this year is take care of your damn business, like that game at Iowa... (or, take all your bad losses early, like USC.) Anyway, we are complaining about finishing the year ranked #10. These are First World Problems after the RichRod/Hoke years.
January 10th, 2017 at 9:30 AM ^
USC at 3 is ridiculous as others have said.
January 10th, 2017 at 9:41 AM ^
Oklahoma at five is nearly as bad. They blew out an Auburn team everybody knew had no business in the top 25 let alone a NY6 bowl and that vaults them ahead of the team they lost to earlier in the year...at home.
January 10th, 2017 at 9:55 AM ^
January 10th, 2017 at 10:28 AM ^
Yes, but Oklahoma looked strong by winning a weak Big 12 and an Auburn team that was not sure how they made it to the Sugar Bowl.
OSU looked bad but they still beat Oklahoma head to head and beat Michigan and Wisconsin. Oklahoma's only notable win was Oklahoma State.
January 10th, 2017 at 11:19 AM ^
January 10th, 2017 at 12:07 PM ^
I don't think I've ever seen them more out of whack after a season is complete. This is nuts! Should be
1. Clemson 14-1
2. Alabama 14-1
3. Washington 12-2
4. Ohio State 11-2
5. Oklahoma 11-2
6. USC 10-3
7. Penn State 11-3
8. Florida State 10-3
9. Michigan 10-3
10. Wisconsin 10-3
Everything after that, who cares, and this only bumps us up one spot but COME ON, USC 3???
January 10th, 2017 at 1:27 PM ^
USC is way to high; Michigan should be ahead of Wisconsin (same record -- go to head-to-head; it's not like Wisconsin had an impressive bowl victory).
January 10th, 2017 at 9:30 AM ^
About where I expected to finish. Good second year, and hopefully only better things in the future.
January 10th, 2017 at 9:50 AM ^
January 10th, 2017 at 9:58 AM ^
If USC is ahead of Washington then Michigan should be ahead of Penn State.
Neither team won their conference, but they crushed Washington and PSU respectively.
January 10th, 2017 at 9:56 AM ^
Read the OP and was like, "WHAT?"...completely forgot Michigan did not finish in the Top 10 last year. Kind of surprising, looking back, but I guess I was overlooking how ugly the OSU loss was.
Deserved a higher ranking this year, but as someone stated above, can't have that late-season fade. Close games or not.
January 10th, 2017 at 10:02 AM ^
You could argue for a couple of position swaps, but we're still in the top 10 but not in the top 5. Sounds about right based on our season.
We got ahead of ourselves a little bit. Progress is being made even if it is not as fast as we have started to expect.
January 10th, 2017 at 10:28 AM ^
Doesn't feel like it though. We fell off the edge of the Earth.
January 10th, 2017 at 10:53 AM ^
We won our first 9, then lost 3 of the last 4. USC lost 3 of the first 4, then ran off 9 straight. While their lofty #3 ranking seems too high, they were a force to be reckoned with down the home stretch.
January 10th, 2017 at 10:02 AM ^
Does it really matter?
January 10th, 2017 at 10:05 AM ^
Yes it does.
I still look back very fondly on Top 5 michigan teams like '85, '88, '92, '97, '99.
January 10th, 2017 at 10:13 AM ^
I find it funny that USC is #3... Not hating at all... Just proves that it is all about when you lose...
USC - Starts Season 1-3 - Outscored by total of 67 points in those 3 losses(46 pt loss to Bama)
Mich - Ends Season 1-3 - Outscored by total of 5 points in those losses
Polls will always be 'what have you done for me lately' instead of a 'body of work'...
And... I won't even get started on PSU & Wisconsin...
January 10th, 2017 at 10:12 AM ^
January 10th, 2017 at 1:43 PM ^
and Ferentz are now locked my proverbial cellar with Arizona as teams you should *always* bet to lose in Bowl Pickem systems. Its like they are thrilled beyond belief to just have gotten a free vacation to somewhere sunny with beaches and scantilly-cladded womens...and oh by the way we have to suit up for a football game 2 nights from now. Don't let the practice time cut into your beach/pool time, now....
January 10th, 2017 at 10:14 AM ^
is now spelled with a 0 instead of a O? I like it.
January 10th, 2017 at 10:15 AM ^
But I'm glad they kept Western in the Top 15.
January 10th, 2017 at 10:18 AM ^
UM could have easily been #3. After the top 2, there is a lot of parity. Not much difference between top ten and top 25 teams IMO. I still don't get the PSU argument to be ahead of UM, but oh well.
January 10th, 2017 at 10:19 AM ^
Not probably what was hoped for by players/coaches/fans, but a damn fine season nonetheless. Here's hoping we stay on this track
January 10th, 2017 at 10:25 AM ^
January 10th, 2017 at 10:28 AM ^
January 10th, 2017 at 11:26 AM ^
Except Penn State and Wisconsin both have 11 wins while Michigan only has 10...
Not to mention both are division winners, while Michigan finished 3rd. PSU is a conference champ and Wisconsin just won a NY6 bowl game.
Yeah we beat them head to head but if you try to shake off your tunnel vision and look at their entire seasons you'd be fine with them being ranked ahead of Michigan at the end of the year. If we had beaten FSU we would probably be ranked 3rd but we didn't. Those are the breaks and these post season rankings are meaningless. The only ranking that matters is the CFP poll that came out December 6th.
January 10th, 2017 at 2:01 PM ^
I don't buy that argument. You're looking at the conference argument, not the total season. If you look at the total season you'd have to say UM is the better team.
They have more wins, but they had more opportunities. How does one know UM wouldn't have won an additional game if we didn't have one? And, don't say because we didn't earn the right to an extra game because we both had the same number of losses and beat them both head-to-head. Just becasue one team happend to be in a different division and the other team lost one of their games to an out of conference opponent doesn't make them a better team.
We beat both of them, lost the same number of games, and had a more difficult schedule. Those are the only 3 numbers I need to know.
FWIW S&P and Sagarin agree UM is better.
January 10th, 2017 at 10:56 AM ^
USC at #3 - wow.
January 10th, 2017 at 2:04 PM ^
Agree, not sure how they jump UW. I know they beat them head to head, but USC had one more loss. If they are playing that argument UM should be ahead of PSU & Wiscy. Sometimes I think the rest of the world hates UM.
January 10th, 2017 at 11:00 AM ^
January 10th, 2017 at 11:02 AM ^
January 10th, 2017 at 1:50 PM ^
January 10th, 2017 at 2:08 PM ^
I hear ya, but one could easily make an argument UM should be 3, 4, or 5 this year. USC has 3 losses.
And, let's face it, we lost one game on a call that could go either way, one on a last second field goal, and another by 1 pt.
Your comment would not be my sentiment after this season, years past sure, but not this year.
January 10th, 2017 at 11:10 AM ^
Oh the final poll where everyone over values bowl game performances. Yes USC and Penn State played an epic game, but both of them got destroyed at some point this season. You're telling me USC is close to being the level of the team in front of them even though they got killed by Bama?
January 10th, 2017 at 11:16 AM ^
Who cares about a game that was played 4 months ago? If anything it proves how much we fucking underperformed down the stretch. We deserve to be ranked behind them based on our performance. Let's move on with our lives.