Breaking down where Michigan Football lands on ESPN’s power index
After last year’s rough outing, Jim Harbaugh and the Michigan football program have doubters. We break down where they landed on ESPN’s power index and why.
To use the word doubters may be harsh enough, but the truth is that Michigan football as a whole has lost some allure over the past year or two. On Tuesday afternoon, ESPN updated its College Football power index and echoed that same thought. Harbaugh and the Wolverines got the bump all the way down into 40th.
With the 40th overall ranking, U-M is listed below the prominent names of Ohio State, Penn State, and Wisconsin; but they also got listed below Iowa, Northwestern, and Indiana. The 7th listed team in the Big Ten hurts, but that’s not all. The program was also listed below the likes of Coastal Carolina and App State. Yes, you read that right… the FPI wasn’t too kind.
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Besides ranking the programs, the Football Power Index also judges certain likelihoods of things to come. For example, in the game, the Wolverine’s a 0% chance of going undefeated or even making the playoff. The ranking’s most likely outcome for Michigan is earning at least six wins as they pitied them with a 71% chance.
Breaking down where Michigan Football lands on ESPN’s power index
Essentially, they have the Michigan football program going 6-6. Predicting an outcome to the College Football season is extremely hard, even for the FPI, so there’s always hope. However, Harbaugh’s side hasn’t exactly made it hard for the analysts to predict their outcome. Since 2015, U-M has gone 25-1 against lower opposition in the Big Ten while going 9-15 against the others.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know which of those two stats get conversed on more. Over the last five years, the program has never been listed below 16th, so this is a confidence blow. Additionally, and more importantly, the Wolverines also never exceeded an FPI prediction over that same time frame.
On a good note, the spring has had an encouraging look to it, and the new coaching staff under Harbaugh looks ready to go. Although that is still a ton of question marks surrounding both sides of the ball, there does seem to be continuity forming around the players that have stayed put. With summer camp being a long way off, anything can happen as the new season emerges.