Michigan Moves Up To #11 In AP Poll

With today's announcement of the new rankings, Michigan has risen up to #11 in the AP Poll and #10 in the USA Today Coaches' Poll after its defeat of Northwestern 42-24.

Michigan has not been this high since pre-season 2007 and has steadily advanced in the rankings since Week 1. Although some of this has been due to some questionable opponents (Minnesota and Eastern Michigan) and losses from ranked teams (Texas, Florida State), this is still a significant event for the Michigan team to be ranked this high.

Michigan State (Michigan's next opponent) moved back into the rankings coming in at #23 in the AP Poll and #19 in the Coaches' Poll. Though MSU had a bye week last week, they still appear to be at least a rank-able team and should be a tough match-up for Michigan next week in East Lansing. Odds for the game have not yet been released, but it is sure to be a tight spread with both teams ranked and MSU playing at home.

Other notes from the poll:

This is the first time no Florida school has appeared in the rankings since 1982.

Ohio State still remains un ranked and received 0 votes this week

Notre Dame has not returned to the rankings, but has been increasing its vote totals (#28 in AP)

Michigan Vaults Up To #12 In The AP Poll

Earlier today, much to the shock of football fans, Michigan was reported to have jumped all the way to #11 in the coaches' poll and #12 in the AP poll. Michigan was ranked #19 last week in the USA Today poll, but after a huge 58-0 blowout victory in the Little Brown Jug game and losses by teams above Michigan in the rankings, they jumped 8 spots.

Last week I ran an article analyzing why Michigan was #19, but had a great shot to move up in the rankings (article: here). Obviously, this was proven correct when several teams sitting above Michigan in the polls including USF, Baylor, and Texas A & M lost.

Although I personally think Michigan is probably a bit overrated based on a schedule consisting of 2 MAC teams and Minnesota (1-4, 0-0), I see no reason to complain about the rankings love. For example, if Michigan were to theoretically lose 1 of the next 2 games, they would probably still remain in the rankings, which didn't happen last season when Michigan fell to Michigan State (Michigan did appear as #25 in the coaches poll, but this was after a bye week and only lasted 1 week).

Michigan has not been ranked this high in over 4 years since the season opener in 2007. Quite astonishing for Michigan's tradition, but also surprising considering the team's recent past (4-0 in 2009 and 5-0 in 2010) of late-season collapses. Regardless, it's a very exciting time to root for Michigan and Go Blue!

Michigan Ranked #19 In AP Poll, But Could Move Up

Several sites including the Detroit Free Press and ESPN have now released the new NCAA Week 5 rankings and have placed Michigan at #19. This is an improvement from last week's #23 ranking. Although some of Michigan's improvement in the rankings is due to other team's failure (West Virginia and Florida State's losses moved them behind Michigan), it is still nice to see Michigan inside the top 20.

Last season, Michigan made it up to #18 before falling to the eventual Big Ten Co-Champion Michigan State team. It is very likely that Michigan will fall at some point, but after being ranked for two consecutive weeks, the analysis of rankings is bound to start.

Michigan has a pretty winnable game this Saturday (Minnesota, 1-3), but many teams above or slightly below Michigan have a tougher task on Saturday. Here are the ranked teams above Michigan with "tough" games on Saturday:

#16 South Florida @ Pitt

#14 Texas A & M @ #18 Arkansas

Northwestern @ #24 Illinois

#15 Baylor @ Kansas State

#13 Clemson @ #11 Virginia Tech

#17 Texas @ Iowa State

Obviously, two of the six games featured two ranked teams, so at least one has to fall, but of the ranked v. non-ranked match-ups listed, 3 of the 4 teams are in the receiving votes categories:

Northwestern - #34 in coach's poll

Kansas State - #31 in AP poll and coach's poll

Iowa State - #29 in AP Poll and #30 in coach's poll

The fact that these teams received votes in the polls does not mean they are going to win any of the above games, but it does seem very likely that at least 1 or 2 of the non-ranked teams in the above match-ups can pull off the upset.

Essentially, for Michigan fans, this could be a VERY good week in the rankings. If Michigan wins, which is very likely, but we don't want to jinx anything, it is quite probable that both teams above or below Michigan will fall. Even if all the ranked teams win in the above match-ups (excluding the 2 games where ranked teams have to lose), Michigan's votes should go up as the quality of non-ranked bids go down.

Obviously rankings are hard to predict, but this could be the week that sets up the season nicely for Michigan. I don't want to speculate too much or get ahead of myself, but we could see a Michigan team that could lose a game in the coming weeks and stay ranked, which is exciting. Plus we know Michigan State or Ohio State has to lose this weekend, so it can't be too bad, right? Haha Go Blue!

Michigan Outranks Ohio State For First Time In Over 4 Years

Reports of the new college football rankings are surfacing and according to reports from the Detroit Free Press, the new AP pool has placed Michigan at #22 in the nation. Michigan State and Ohio State will be unranked.

This is an incredible development because Michigan has not been ranked higher than Ohio State since the pre-season poll from 2007. Along with this, Ohio State has at least by ranked since November 2004. This means that for over 6 full seasons the Buckeyes have at least been considered in the top 25 teams in the nation.

Though Michigan may be a tad overrated, fans can't help but get excited over this breaking news. I think it's very likely that Michigan State will reappear in the rankings, especially if they are able to beat Ohio State in Columbus, but as of now, Michigan is the highest ranked of the 3 schools at #22.

Along with this, the Coach's poll has Michigan at #21, but still leaves Ohio State unranked. With the Buckeye's horrible performance against Miami (Fl) last night, it's no surprise they dropped, but Michigan's massive upsurge was surprising.

Denard Robinson An Early Heisman Favorite

If you've been following the mass of preseason rankings and predictions, you would have seen the large amount of love the media has been giving Michigan quarterback Denard Robinson. Though he was selected Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year for 2010, he has received much scruntity from fans and select media outlets (See: Denard Robinson QB Series).

However, this year's preseason rankings have left those critics to reassess their theories. Not only has Rivals rated Denard very high on its lists, ESPN's Big Ten Blog has placed Denard at the top of many of its rating lists. Here are some of the rankings:

Denard Robinson Preseason Rankings:

#1 Most Explosive Player In College Football

#2 Big Ten Player

#20 Best College Football Player

However, Denard now appears at the top of one of the most prestigous lists in college football, the Heisman race. Though he finished 6th in last year's Heisman voting and as an All-American, he has not received much coverage as a potential winner of this year's Heisman trophy.

In Rivals' preseason Heisman ranking, Denard Robinson was picked at #4. It seems as if he would have been higher, but they questioned whether he could put up his amazing 328.6 total offensive yards per game under a new offense.

Though this lists hardly picks Heisman winners, (Cam Newton, the 2011 Heisman winner received almost no attention during preseason) it is still exciting for fans and shows that the "experts" and media can see some of Denard's great talent.

Rival's Preseason Rankings Favor Big Ten and Michigan

Though preseason rankings and predictions are often far off from the actual results, they still make for interesting reads and some great "water cooler" discussions.

In one of Rivals' most expansive preseason rankings list, the Top 100 Players Countdown, several Michigan players received some praise from the website:

Rivals' Preseason Top 100 Players:

Denard Robinson - #20

Mike Martin - #47

David Molk - #75

ESPN's Big Ten Blog has also picked several Michigan players in its Top 25 Big Ten Players. Though the full list is not out yet, Denard Robinson has not yet been listed, several have already been named.

ESPN's Top 25 Big Ten Players:

David Molk - #12

Mike Martin - #10

Another set of preseason rankings by Rivals placed Mike Martin as the #3 defensive tackle in the nation trailing only Billy Winn of Boise State and Jared Crick of Nebraska. This is a pretty significant ranking since there has been much preseason hype for players like Jerel Worthy (ranked #8) from Michigan State and John Simon of Ohio State (ranked #6).

Though Michigan would like to see more players on these lists in the coming years, it's awesome to see these types of rankings with such a young team. The Big Ten did well overall with 21 players ranked in the Top 100 overall players and 4 defensive tackles ranked in the top 15 in the nation.

Here are the full rankings:

Rivals' Top 100 Players

Rivals' Top 15 Defensive Tackles

First Preseason Rankings For 2011

The first USA Today poll for 2011 was released today and it seemed to fair well for Big Ten teams. There were 5 teams ranked in the top 25 of the poll:

Wisconsin - #10

Nebraska - #11

Ohio State - #16

Michigan State - #17

Penn State - #25

Teams also receiving votes:

Iowa - #30

Northwestern - #31

Michigan - #34

Also, Notre Dame was ranked #18 so the Big Ten and Notre Dame are clearly ranked pretty well. The SEC ended up with 8 teams and the Big 12 also had 5 teams in the Top 25 poll.

Michigan may not have a ton of love, but these polls are not always extremely accurate and often seem to be based more on last season's performance than predictions for this season. For instance, teams like Michigan State and Wisconsin received much love from USA Today, but most experts predict they will at least take a significant step back. Wisconsin lost Tolzien, who was one of the best quarterbacks in the Big Ten last season and Michigan State lost Greg Jones, who was one of their best defensive players last season, and have a much more difficult schedule than in 2010.

Michigan may not be exactly where the Maize and Blue faithful would like, but the poll seems to imply that we are going to be at least a decent team which leaves plenty of room for improvement.

For the full poll results click the following link:

USA Today