Would Michigan get your AP vote?

Then Texas and Virginia Tech should be in the 20-25 range, because they looked butt-ass awful. That's the danger of ranking solely on performance early in the year. Wyoming looked good beating Virginia. Should they be ranked ahead of Tennessee?

 

You forgot the the biggest scare around 79 or 80 when they had Michigan beat until the game's final play when Anthony Carter scored on a hail mary. They beat Michigan in 87, but not in the big house.

 

I didn't say that an 0-1 team can't be ranked ahead of a 1-0 team, so no, Wyoming shouldn't be ranked ahead of Tennessee, which lost on the road to a ranked team. I'm saying that Michigan, with no wins and a home loss to a lightly regarded team, has absolutely nothing in terms of performance to recommend them as a top 25 team.

 

No way Michigan should be in the top 25 this week. If they are, that basically sums up everything that is wrong with the college football system. It essentially confirms the premise that wins and losses don't decide the victors in college football, but rather, school reputations and voter perceptions do.

Win against Oregon and maybe they squeak back in. But right now, they should simply be lumped in with all the other 0-1 teams that lost to unranked teams.

And to the ongoing talk that is making App State seem like a slightly toned down USC, look back one year ago. Would pretty much be the same personnel that won last year's title and took out the Wolverines this weekend. Their week 1 opponent last year? An NC State team that ended up going 3-9. An NC State team that beat App State 23-10. Trying to say App State could beat half of 1-A is a complete whiff on the significance of what happened on Saturday.

 

Hey, I'm just following your logic to its natural conclusion. If we're to judge teams based on performance even one game in, which is your standard for knocking Michigan from the top 5 to out of the poll entirely, then Wyoming has had a better first week than Tennessee. Why not?

Also, I'm sensing a bit of anti-IAA/FCS prejudice at play in general. There's no way Michigan gets kicked out of the poll if they lost to Northwestern. Dramatic drop? Sure. Out? Not bloody likely. Hell, Oklahoma only fell 4-11 after losing at home to 3-7 Oklahoma State in 2001, and that might have been the upset of the decade prior to App-Michigan.

P.S.: This is a pretty cool site; it lists all the AP polls from 1936 on, searchable by year, school and both. http://www.appollarchive.com/index.cfm

 

Because judging on performance isn't the same as judging purely on W-L record. I wouldn't rank Wyoming ahead of Tennessee, to use your example, just because Wyoming won and Tennessee lost. You look at the score, the quality of the opponent, the site of the game, etc. In Michigan's case, what have you seen them do so far that would warrant them being a top 25 team?

 

We all love App State and I-AA schools, they make for great stories. That said, there's a price to pay for being the first top 25 team to lose to a I-AA opponent, before 110,000 at home no less.

 

I saw a good team have a bad game. A good team having a bad game that was pulled out with that last-play field goal would probably still be in my top 10, and a lot of others too. If I kicked them out of the poll entirely, I'd be saying that I was stupid for ever having ranked them in the first place. Does one game turn them from a top 5 team to an also receiving votes one? I don't think so. Ranking them 20th is a compromise, hitting them for a bad loss while acknowledging that they're still a good team. This isn't the national high school poll; you should be allowed a little latitude. Even if it comes after losing to teeny tiny Appalachian State, who I think this year could beat half the teams in I-A on a good day and obviously beat a top 10 on a great day. Unless we're making the case that Michigan is the only team bad enough up there to lose to an App.

 

But everyone's soiling themselves over their losing to a I-AA OMGWTFBBQ when they're a very good I-AA and possibly one of the best teams that division has put up in a long time. People see I-AA and they think Prairie View A&M or VMI or something. I don't think App could compete in a BCS conference over the long haul, but put them in the Sun Belt, and I bet they could make a decent run at the conference title.

 

Michigan lost. The sky is falling. The end is near. Give it a break. The Wolverines will win the rest of their games and be crowned BCS champions.

 

Not a chance. Even if they did win out, they're going to have to come from so far behind in the coaches poll that unless everyone but Western Michigan and Louisiana-Monroe have at least two losses, they won't get into the top two. If they only fell to 15 or 20, they could work their way back up (Oklahoma started the season around 20 that year they won the title). Michigan's done for as far as national title hopes. Big Ten title's still possible, Rose Bowl win's still possible, but that's it.

 

Not hardly. They'll lose to Penn State and whomever they play in a bowl game.

I can think of three teams Michigan can't beat: Southern Cal, LSU and Appalachian State.