M Finishes #3 in Final AP Poll - highest since '97
The Final AP Top 25 for the 2021 season is released now that Georgia has won the title. Michigan finishes at 3 which is its highest finish since 1997. This is Jim Harbaugh's first top 5 finish at Michigan.
Michigan finishes the season with wins over teams ranked 6, 9, 23 in the final poll.
Top 10:
1. Georgia
2. Bama
3. Michigan
4. Cincinnati
5. Baylor
6. Ohio State
7. Oklahoma St
8. Notre Dame
9. Michigan State
10. Oklahoma
January 11th, 2022 at 7:26 AM ^
First is the worst.
Second is the best.
Third is the one with the hairy chest.
Treasure chest?
idk.
January 11th, 2022 at 8:12 AM ^
Third is the nerd with the polka dot dress... I'll leave now.
January 11th, 2022 at 11:03 AM ^
I recall it as, "Third is the turd".
Not in this case though.
January 11th, 2022 at 7:33 AM ^
One quick edit to the OP - and I'm sorry to highlight it. UM did not defeat #9 team, whose name won't be spoken
January 11th, 2022 at 7:40 AM ^
Well they kind of did..you know :)
(I would leave it unedited to freak out the MSU lurkers..)
January 11th, 2022 at 8:39 AM ^
Deep down nobody thinks Michigan beat MSU more than Sparty fans.
January 11th, 2022 at 9:56 AM ^
Correct ^ ^ ^. Walking through the Fort Myers airport the other day I saw two "gentlemen" side by side wearing crisp, brand new, green and white "Michigan is our Bichigan" T-shirts. Not that I am not obsessed with beating Ohio State and can understand the Sparty plight, but this year proved our situation with OSU is one of mutual hatred. Sparty is definitely a simple annoyance where the obsession is one-sided. It's like there is always that tick trying to bite your ankle. Or maybe like that ugly girl who had a crush on you in college and then flipped to hatred when you blew her off.
January 11th, 2022 at 10:36 AM ^
Honestly, there's all this weird craziness from State fans, and I think I figured it out: they're really upset that we don't care that much.
It bothers Michigan State fans that Ohio State is our biggest rival, and I know several who have expressed skepticism that it's really true. I think State fans are honestly shocked that Michigan fans are this happy about the season. They think we should view it as a great season with a big asterisk, that the State loss should ruin the pure joy of the season. And it doesn't, and it's clear that it doesn't. Their relative importance to Michigan has never been more clear, and it's really upsetting to many State fans.
January 11th, 2022 at 10:54 AM ^
MSU fans are idiots. At any given time they have 10 threads running on RCMB about us. Shit … my MSU slappy friends recite the ‘blue wall’ line like it’s law. Scary. They hate the fact OSU is our main rival and they are second. I still here the whole ‘you don’t respect us’ line. It’s old and boring. They win their Super Bowl and still bitch. Losers.
January 11th, 2022 at 7:47 AM ^
whoops! can't figure out how to edit --- oh well I'll get a mop for the all the sparty tears that are surely to get on the floor.
January 11th, 2022 at 7:50 AM ^
Sparty tears you say....
January 11th, 2022 at 7:57 AM ^
What an absolutely great season of college football. So many upsets, so many surprises, and our Michigan Wolverines end the season as Big10 Champs!
The Offensive Coaching was great at times. They built off their strengths and let the young, inexperienced QBs grow as the season progressed. The Defensive Coaching was spectacular, they schemed to their strengths, which winning coaches do. Special Teams Coaching was top tier and should not be forgotten.
I truly hope the University opens the door to building off this season and competing as a top tier Athletic AND Academic University.
January 11th, 2022 at 10:03 AM ^
Yes, it was great—except for the fact that, in the end, we had two SEC schools playing for the title once again.
January 11th, 2022 at 10:10 AM ^
They were by far the two best teams. Fair result.
That they are from the SEC is a structural problem in college football, to be solved by expanding the playoff (so that more recruits think they have a chance at playing in the CFP beyond just a handful of teams) and letting NIL bring bag money above board.
January 11th, 2022 at 10:33 AM ^
Yeah, I won't and didn't watch their championship, but at least they've played it on the field now, unlike that travesty that was the LSU/Alabama rematch.
They are the best 2 teams.
January 11th, 2022 at 8:02 AM ^
Great season for the good guys.
January 11th, 2022 at 8:05 AM ^
Go Blue!
January 11th, 2022 at 8:10 AM ^
If you told me back in August that in the final ranking Michigan would end up being #3, I would have wondered what planet you were living on or if you had taken a recent blow to the head.
It was a great season and one of my favorite as a Michigan fan. Go Blue!!
January 11th, 2022 at 8:36 AM ^
“You’ll beat Ohio State convincingly, go on to win the Big Ten championship, make the college football playoff, lose to the eventual national champion, and finish third in the final poll.”
Can’t imagine anyone who would’ve believed that.
January 11th, 2022 at 9:59 AM ^
I would have called the police to report a drug overdose.
January 11th, 2022 at 10:42 AM ^
“You’ll beat Ohio State convincingly, go on to win the Big Ten championship even more convincingly, make the college football playoff, lose to the eventual national champion, and finish third in the final poll.”
Edited b/c who on earth would've believed that Michigan would've beaten 10-1 Iowa by a score of 42-3? Not me.
Fun fact - this is tied for the second highest margin of victory in the BTCG. The other 39 pt margin of victory was when Wisconsin beat Nebraska by a score of 70-31 in the 2012 edition. That was a strange year. Wisconsin was actually only 4-4 (7-5 overall at the time) in the Leaders division and behind osu (8-0) and psu (6-2), but represented the division due to the other two teams having postseason bans. They ended up playing a heavily favored and ranked Nebraska (7-1, 10-2 overall).
Michigan was 6-2 in conference with losses to nebraska and osu. That was also the bowl game against SCar with the Jadaveon Clowney hit on Vincent Smith. Although UFR, that might be called for targeting today, so we've got that.
January 11th, 2022 at 1:37 PM ^
Fun fact - this is tied for the second highest margin of victory in the BTCG. The other 39 pt margin of victory was when Wisconsin beat Nebraska by a score of 70-31 in the 2012 edition. That was a strange year. Wisconsin was actually only 4-4 (7-5 overall at the time) in the Leaders division and behind osu (8-0) and psu (6-2), but represented the division due to the other two teams having postseason bans. They ended up playing a heavily favored and ranked Nebraska (7-1, 10-2 overall).
This is not true. OSU beat Wisconsin 59-0 in 2014 (the year they won the CFP)
January 11th, 2022 at 9:48 AM ^
I would have assumed they were talking about BIG10 East rankings again.
January 11th, 2022 at 10:17 AM ^
And probably would have been accepting of that result:
"Lost to OSU and PSU on the road . . . sounds about right. Progress is being slowly but surely made. Good season."
That would have been the prevailing sentiment. And it would have been legitimate given where we were.
January 11th, 2022 at 8:10 AM ^
Congrats to the Michigan players and coaches. What a wonderful season!
And congrats to Georgia for their first National Championship since 1980.
January 11th, 2022 at 8:28 AM ^
The state of Georgia's sports curse has been lifted. I dont know what they sacrificed but it worked.
January 11th, 2022 at 8:39 AM ^
Just money.
January 11th, 2022 at 8:50 AM ^
Also, integrity. And possibly long-term health with the juice.
January 11th, 2022 at 8:40 AM ^
I, too, would be interested in knowing what needed to be sacrificed. I have a few things I would be willing to part with...
January 11th, 2022 at 8:55 AM ^
It’s interesting to see how often the old saying truly comes in sports that “when it rains, it pours.”
State of Georgia has won two titles in the last few months. City of Tampa won two back to back Stanley Cups, is good enough for a three-peat, and could possibly repeat as Super Bowl champions in a month’s time. Boston won what seemed like at least one title every year for a decade and change.
It can take a city or a university years just to win one title, but a lot of times, when that first title comes, they come in bunches after that.
January 11th, 2022 at 9:08 AM ^
First the Braves, now the Bulldogs. Atlanta fans are on cloud 9.....
It sure would be great if the state of Michigan could move into a new era of dominating sports. UM is probably the closest (for now) while you have the Tigers and Wings are in the later years of their rebuilds. Pistons and Lions, meh
We were spoiled in the 90s and early to mid 2000s.
January 11th, 2022 at 10:02 AM ^
Yeah speaking as someone who lives in Atlanta, its like a collective weight has been lifted off the city's shoulders. And there's even a lot of reasons to be excited about the Hawks after they made the ECF last summer. They haven't started off very well this season so far but they have star power that can get them back to the postseason.
The Falcons are still the Falcons and are clearly not over their Super Bowl hangover from a few years back, but you can't reasonably expect all of your teams to be good at the same time.
At this point I think the city will be happy to take the results it currently has.
January 11th, 2022 at 8:21 AM ^
It’s nice to finish so high. It is nice to do it when our rivals (OSU, ND and MSU) are also in the top 10.
January 11th, 2022 at 5:49 PM ^
I would like to see MSU with zero wins. Every year.
January 11th, 2022 at 8:22 AM ^
This is the (selfish) reason why I root for the team that beats "us" in a situation such as this. Hopefully this pulls the herd of Michigan fans away from that BPONE cliff they are leaning over. Georgia's recruiting can't get much better so I am not concerned about them improving in this regard.
January 11th, 2022 at 10:29 AM ^
Bama definitely played Georgia tougher than we played them, but Georgia broke the seal there at the end and the score ended up being almost as bad as ours. I think momentum is a real thing in football. We had flashes against Georgia that could have turned the tide (no pun intended), but they didn't quite happen. Sometimes because of Georgia and sometimes because of us. I wish the seal had broken earlier against Bama, but it broke.
January 11th, 2022 at 8:22 AM ^
The Athletic ($) has #3 and 4 swapped, saying that Cincinnati's game was more competitive. Hard to disagree with that.
Definitely a great season, out of nowhere, and one of the greatest in modern Michigan history. What a ride!
January 11th, 2022 at 8:26 AM ^
More competitive against Bama...who just lost to Georgia by two touchdowns. I am fairly certain we play Bama closer than we did Georgia. What a lazy argument.
January 11th, 2022 at 8:35 AM ^
I'm not sure I buy that we play Alabama closer - Alabama is really, really good. But Georgia is finally just as good at almost every position except QB. But I don't disagree that our game was more competitive against Georgia than Cincy was against Alabama.
January 11th, 2022 at 11:43 AM ^
I definitely think we play Bama better. I think we're able to run the ball a bit on Bama and slow down their run more. Beyond Cine, we're better or even on the back end with UGA (except when Gray spaces out).
UGA having an all world defensive line and the top LB shut down both our run and our quick screens.
January 11th, 2022 at 10:57 AM ^
Our matchup was definitely tougher. I would have much rather gone against Bama, not because Georgia is clearly the better team, but because Bama has the weaker run defense. We don't know how to win unless the running game is on.
January 11th, 2022 at 8:30 AM ^
I mean after #1 does it really matter?
January 11th, 2022 at 8:34 AM ^
Nope. And after fourth its all worthless anyway.
January 11th, 2022 at 9:00 AM ^
Yes it does matter, to me and to the majority of fans I would predict.
January 11th, 2022 at 10:43 AM ^
Of course it matters. There have only been 5 different National Champions in the CFP era. Only two of them have won more than once. Only Alabama has won more than twice.
It is a tiny, tiny list that is not likely to expand very much soon.
So everybody else should just stop playing college football?
January 11th, 2022 at 8:36 AM ^
All this stuff is just opinion, but I don't see Cincinnati finishing B1G play with only one loss.
January 11th, 2022 at 9:59 AM ^
Indiana gave Cincinnati a good fight. They would've had 2-3 losses in the east
January 11th, 2022 at 8:50 AM ^
More competitive? I guess they did not watch the game. Cincinnati was never the least bit in that game, never. I do not remember but I would assume the coin flip wasn't competitive. That take is silly.
January 11th, 2022 at 9:16 AM ^
Yeah, Cincinnati was not more competitive. They did not even score a TD and they were never in a position to win. It was a leisurely game for Alabama.
That was written by somebody who did not actually watch the game, only looked at the score differential.
Also: Our big win was against a team that won a NY6 game. Theirs . . . lost.
Cincinnati had a great season, but not a better season than Michigan.
January 11th, 2022 at 8:59 AM ^
I don't buy for a minute that Cinci showed "better." Bama never felt threatened and basically played a buttoned up game, choosing to run the ball. They could have won by 40 if they had wanted to. Georgia was legit worried about us and opened up the playbook.