AP Top 25 Reactions: Week 8, Michigan Moves Up on Bye Week
By Alex Hinton
Michigan football was on bye this week but still moved up two spots in the latest AP poll. Here’s more on that and the rest of the top 25.
Entering the weekend, there was not a real noteworthy matchup on the schedule. Michigan football was on a bye week along with Big Ten East rivals Ohio State and Penn State.
The “biggest” game of the day was between No. 11 Kentucky and No.1 Georgia, which ended in another dominant Georgia win. You might have expected an ordinary and mundane Saturday. However, that is usually when chaos strikes in college football.
Last year, Purdue beat Iowa in the season opener in West Lafeyette and handed the Hawkeyes one of its only two losses last season. However, few expected the Boilermakers to march into Iowa City and knock off the Hawkeyes once again.
Well, that is exactly what happened as Purdue defeated No. 2 Iowa 24-7.
The opponent was surprising, it is not surprising that Iowa lost in general. The Hawkeyes have been living off forcing turnovers all season, but very pedestrian offensively.
On Saturday, the Hawkeyes were on the wrong end of the turnover margin, ending up -3 after quarterback Spencer Petras threw four interceptions.
Michigan football jumps Big Ten teams
The Hawkeyes fell to No.11 after the loss and Michigan moved up two spots to No. 6. Michigan also leapfrogged Penn State even both programs were idle. I’ll chalk that as a market correction to Michigan football being undefeated while Penn State has one loss.
No.9 Oregon survived another close call at home against Cal on Friday. However, AP voters were not impressed as the Ducks jumped by Michigan State.
The Spartans played their worst offensive game of the season but pulled out a 20-15 win at Indiana. The Spartans win all but guarantees an undefeated battle in East Lansing next weekend, assuming Michigan handles its business against Northwestern this week.
Next. 3 things Michigan has to fix during the bye week. dark
The rest of the movement in the AP Top 25 came at the back end of the rankings. Arkansas, Arizona, BYU, Florida, and Texas fell out of the top 25 to make room for Auburn, Baylor, Pitt, UTSA, and Purdue. Now in the top 25, Purdue will look to continue its magic at home against Wisconsin.