Michigan #4 in SP+
Bill Connelly: "Five teams started out in the Top 10 and completely looked the part in Week 1. Alabama, Georgia, Michigan, Texas A&M and Tennessee all saw their ratings rise by at least 4.5 points after dominant debut performances." Along with M at #4, OSU was #3, Wisconsin #9, MSU #20, PSU #21, Minnesota #28, Iowa #41.
The top 10:
September 6th, 2022 at 2:48 PM ^
Michigan's future opponents (out of 131 teams): Hawaii #128; UConn #122; Maryland #55; Iowa #41; Indiana #79; Penn State #21; Michigan State #20; Rutgers #74; Nebraska #48; Illinois #70; OSU #3. Usual early-season caveats apply.
September 6th, 2022 at 3:14 PM ^
Hawaii overrated here.
September 6th, 2022 at 4:21 PM ^
Curious what Colorado State's rank is now?
September 6th, 2022 at 6:26 PM ^
Colorado State is now #111.
September 6th, 2022 at 6:39 PM ^
Here is the full SP+ rankings of the teams on Michigan's schedule. After one week of SP+, OSU would be favored against Michigan by 4 points on a neutral field:
September 7th, 2022 at 12:39 AM ^
Iowa's offense at #75...mmm sure, okay.
September 6th, 2022 at 10:51 PM ^
By early season you mean the first 11 games, right? The big question is whether any of the first 11 will be top 25 SP+ when we play them.
September 6th, 2022 at 2:52 PM ^
I would have been skeptical if S&P+ didn't favor us to beat Hawaii.
September 6th, 2022 at 3:07 PM ^
#8 Tennessee's next games are:
@Pittsburgh
Akron
Florida
@LSU
Alabama
Tennessee-Martin
@Geogia
Enjoy the top 10 ranking right now Vol fans. Cause a record of 3-5 or maaaaybe 4-4 is coming soon.
September 6th, 2022 at 3:16 PM ^
2-6 seems like a distinct possibility as well, with the only wins coming against Akron and UT-M.
September 6th, 2022 at 3:17 PM ^
I think the real question is whether they will still be ranked in the Top 10 if their only loses are to Alabama and Georgia.
September 6th, 2022 at 3:24 PM ^
At least in SP+ they almost certainly would be still top 10 if their only losses on that schedule are to Alabama and Georgia.
September 6th, 2022 at 4:30 PM ^
But this ranking does not care about Ws and Ls. So they could very well stay in the top 10 even with a 4-4 stretch.
They would move up, in fact, if they perform better than expected in losses in some of these games. If they lose by single digits to Bama or UGA, their SP+ would improve, as it should! It would indicate they're really good if they can hang with elite teams.
September 6th, 2022 at 3:11 PM ^
Iowa @41LOL they shouldn’t be so high after that terrible performance
September 6th, 2022 at 3:16 PM ^
I’m going to guess iowa has the widest gap between O and D ratings. Probably 110 offense, 15 defense or something ridiculous
September 6th, 2022 at 3:24 PM ^
Gonna look like Boston College while Don Brown was there. Top 5 defense, bottom barrel offense.
I have no idea how Kirk Ferentz manages to keep Phil Parker while Kirk's doofus son eats crayons on the other side of the ball
September 6th, 2022 at 3:33 PM ^
Ferentz must have dug up some dirt on Parker while overseeing his own diversity committee.
September 8th, 2022 at 8:52 AM ^
You don’t need to guess. The post above has their offense SP+ ranked 75 and defense 7.
September 6th, 2022 at 8:19 PM ^
I'm not holding my breath that Iowa is going to stay that low all the way to week 5.
September 6th, 2022 at 3:18 PM ^
I know early season caveats apply, but it's great seeing all 3 phases as top 10 units. Go Blue!
September 6th, 2022 at 8:20 PM ^
Mike Elston might be a golden puzzle piece in the team.
September 6th, 2022 at 3:18 PM ^
Think we can get Ohio down in Columbus this year, I have no fear of that team. Alabama and Georgia look on a different level from everybody else though. Hopefully between the ACC, Pac-12 and Big 12 two teams can show enough where you can't put 2 SEC team in the playoff but I'm not going to hold my breath. The Pac-12 and ACC look TERRIBLE this year and the Big 12 doesn't look much better.
September 6th, 2022 at 3:33 PM ^
I'm generally very positive about the direction of Michigan sports, but too many years of OSU-induced BPONE has me thinking the Death Star just had a bad spark plug in that ND game. The fear is still real to me. Hopefully they prove me wrong!
September 6th, 2022 at 4:39 PM ^
They seem to always underperform in these early non-conference games (except when they beat OU that one time), a la Lloyd Carr. So yeah, in the past, they've still been fully operational against UM. But this is still a very good UM team. We have a good shot. I wouldn't say it's likely, but we have a good shot.
September 6th, 2022 at 4:42 PM ^
Hope you're right but as I mentioned on this board several times in the past that the B1G title is going to depend on whether that shitty OSU defense has improved from 2020 and 2021. It's just that simple. If they field a decent defense, they'll be a load. A repeat of 2021, however, and we'll probably also see a repeat of 2021 in the standings.
I have to admit they looked good - on defense - on Saturday but not quite sure what ND has. The ND OL and DL combination is one of the very best in the country but I really think they lack - bigtime - in the offensive skilled positions. Just trying to make an honest assessment without my maize and blue glasses on
September 7th, 2022 at 5:17 PM ^
Dude--you gave OSU all of the incentive they need to kick your ass--OSU had the 3rd youngest team in the country plus the carry over of Covid-- (and remember Mich opt out of playing OSU 2020)--OSU would have kicked your ass!! Can't wait to see you all in November--hope you are undefeated--!!
September 6th, 2022 at 3:20 PM ^
Nice to see both PSU and MSU drop a few spots as well
September 6th, 2022 at 3:37 PM ^
Good lord that gap between Alabama/UGa and everyone else. OSU is a terrifying juggernaut to us...and is further behind Georgia than UM is to the Buckeyes.
September 6th, 2022 at 3:40 PM ^
Only #4 in ST rating? BLASPHEMY...
September 6th, 2022 at 3:46 PM ^
I would also add that Wisconsin at 9 feels ripe for being Graham Mertz'ed when they play someone with a coherent plan. They've got a solid defense but running over Illinois St., a bad FCS team, isn't telling us a lot.
September 6th, 2022 at 3:56 PM ^
Wisconsin was an SP+ darling last year for much of the year. I'm not intelligent enough to explain why.
September 6th, 2022 at 4:04 PM ^
They have a really really good defense, and offensively efficient mostly by way of their running game. So SP+ likes them
At least that's how I understand it. But I'm very much not a modeler sort of person
September 6th, 2022 at 6:35 PM ^
Yeah, I listened to Connelly explain why it was the case years ago when he was on PAPN and it basically came down to they were really efficient offensively and their defense was stout, even if they didn't really blow your socks off. It's similar to how Georgia had a top-10 offense to SP+ last year because they never were behind so they always got to play a really consistent, favorable plays
September 6th, 2022 at 4:40 PM ^
Bronx, the Badgers visit Columbus on September 24th. That should be a fair indicator of where both teams are.
September 7th, 2022 at 9:10 AM ^
Yep, got that one on my "must watch list." Like you said, that will tell us a lot about both teams. That Wisky defense is really solid
September 6th, 2022 at 4:09 PM ^
As a result of Iowa football dropping to #41 in these latest SP+ rankings, the University of Iowa has made some apparent changes to try to jump-start their comatose offense:
September 6th, 2022 at 6:44 PM ^
This is a pretty good line:
"President Ferentz's first meeting with the UI faculty senate was tumultuous in response to his controversial proposal to ban the teaching of Critical Pass Theory."
September 7th, 2022 at 12:42 AM ^
This is what happens when you have Punt, Kick, and Intercept competitions for the youth.
September 7th, 2022 at 9:18 AM ^
And they didn't receive any AP top 25 votes and some of their delusional fans are POd.after they rolled FCS member S. Dakota State - 7-3 without scoring a TD.
Before the season, I considered this year's Iowa game to be a real challenge - not any more.
September 6th, 2022 at 4:33 PM ^
Does SP+ have a weighting for the “hit” factor? If so, I would have expected Nebraska to be ranked much higher.
September 6th, 2022 at 6:38 PM ^
#1 in puke factor for sure.
September 6th, 2022 at 5:18 PM ^
I mean, there are three teams worse than Hawai'i?
September 6th, 2022 at 6:18 PM ^
That's really nice, but let's wait until we play a team with a pulse.
September 6th, 2022 at 7:13 PM ^
the announcers said that MSU looked gassed in second half.
September 7th, 2022 at 12:43 AM ^
Dragging other teams into deep water is tiring, brah.
September 6th, 2022 at 8:09 PM ^
Feel good that we are #4 and didn't play our best. Alabama and Georgia might be out of reach but we have every right to go to Columbus expecting a win. norte dame probably overrated too.