Michigan Football: Don’t worry about polls that don’t matter

There is a lot of fluctuation with Michigan football in the polls early in the season, which is a reminder to just not pay attention.

It’s been sort of funny to watch Michigan football and other Big Ten teams move up and down in the AP and Coaches polls, even when they haven’t played a snap all year.

Last week, the Wolverines dropped and this week, in the AP Poll, Michigan football moved up three spots from 23 to 20 and in the coaches poll, it moved from No. 21 to No. 19.

Despite the fact that the AP hands out its own national championship trophy, the polls are basically meaningless. The only poll that really counts is the College Football Playoff ranking and that won’t be out for weeks.

It’s hard to blame voters for all the chaos. They are having to rank teams from conferences that are playing against teams that won’t play for weeks or even until next month.

That’s not an especially easy task and that’s why I wouldn’t really worry much about where Michigan football is ranked heading into the 2020 season.

Polls will take care of themselves

The bottom line is that now, more than ever, as long as you win, the rankings will take care of themselves.

When Michigan football won its last national championship in 1997, the Wolverines started the year ranked 14th. But they battled through a tough schedule and even though they weren’t considered a contender at the start of the year, they proved they belonged.

Michigan will have that same chance this season, especially with a brutal schedule.

Say, just for argument’s sake, Michigan wins the first seven games on the schedule. Obviously, it would be ranked very high going into the Ohio State game and would control its playoff destiny.

In fact, every team in the Big Ten controls its own destiny. Even if Rutgers, by way of some miracle, won every game and the Big Ten title, the Scarlet Knights would be playoff bound.

So while the rankings are fun to look at and discuss, they are pointless, especially until more teams are competing.

I do feel safe in saying that Michigan is better than the 20th-ranked team in the country, which is about what their ranking averages out to be.

But until the Wolverines can prove it on the field, it really doesn’t matter what any of us think, including these pollsters.