Michigan Football: 3 reasons to care about Peach Bowl vs Florida

Michigan is back on the big stage

A lot of people talk about how bowl games don’t matter, but I have never bought that argument. Sure, some bowls matter more than others and sometimes, they don’t mean as much, but when you have two teams in the top 10 playing each other, that’s a big deal.

It’s an even bigger deal for Michigan football because the Wolverines haven’t played in or won a lot of these games recently. Since winning the national title in 1997 and the Rose Bowl that same season, Michigan has won just two major bowl games — the 2000 Orange Bowl and the 2011 Sugar Bowl.

So acting like winning this kind of game is routine and old hat for Michigan is foolish. It’s not and winning the Peach Bowl would represent another step forward for this program. Beyond that, since Lloyd Carr retired, this will be only the third major bowl appearance for the Wolverines. That’s three in 11 years.

So this game matters for Michigan and winning it does too, not just for this season but for the momentum it will mean going forward. Getting into these games and winning them on a regular basis is the first step to being an annual playoff contender and UM can take that step Dec. 29.