Thursday Morning Brews: Thin to win

Happy Thursday, folks. Welcome to Morning Brews. This Thursday the Brews will be a little thin, which is an unfortunate byproduct of how much time I’m spending at work these days. Nonetheless, we have a good mix of Michigan and non-Michigan content this morning.

As usual, there is a song referenced in this morning’s Brews. There is at least one clue. Clues may be words, phrases, or photographs and may reference lyrics, the artist, or the album. If you think you know this morning’s song, fire away down in the comments.

Let’s get to it:

Women’s gymnastics places third in Tuscaloosa. Last weekend the women’s gymnastics team went down to Alabama to face the Crimson Tide, Denver, and Bowling Green. After all was said and done, Michigan found itself in third place behind Denver and the No. 18 hosts. Freshman Natalie Wojcik won the vault, balance beam, and all-around events for Michigan, but the Wolverines were edged in the final results with only 0.250 separating the top three teams (Denver finished with a score of 196.275, Bama with 196.175, Michigan with 196.025, and BGSU with 189.675). The team is now 4-2-0 and will next face Michigan State on Friday.

Tate Martell likely headed to Miami. This one is only tangentially related to Michigan, but the OSU QB heir apparent until only a few weeks ago now appears to be headed to Miami. Tate Martell, the former four-star recruit, played only in garbage time for the Buckeyes this year, but is thought to be a dynamic dual-threat QB. Assuming the NCAA grants a transfer waiver, newly minted Buckeye Justin Fields will likely be the starting QB for Ryan Day’s offense next year. He, too, played only situationally last year but is thought to be a dynamic QB. In fact, he’s relatively high up on some betting boards for next year’s Heisman.

Who’s done best with their recruited talent? That’s the question this article from the SB Nation mothership seeks to answer by comparing four-year recruiting averages with year-end S&P+ rankings. The traditional thinking is that recruiting success is predictive of on-field success. Rutgers is identified as one of the biggest underachievers, with a four-year recruiting average class of No. 53 vs a year-end S&P+ rank of No. 116. Iowa is listed as a relative overachiever, with a four-year average class ranking of No. 44 and a year-end S&P+ rank of No. 22. Michigan has a four-year recruiting rank of No. 18 and a year-end S&P+ rank of No. 6, making the Wolverines modest overachievers.

Should Group of 5 schools be better represented? On the CFP Committee, that is. With a G5 school failing to crack the College Football Playoff thus far, some of us who write about sports are wondering when—if ever—it will happen. Jason Kirk over at the SB Nation mothership points out that among current members, there is a roughly 2:1 advantage in terms of who has ties to P5 schools vs G5 schools. Should that change? I’m not so sure. Personally, I don’t think a G5 school has deserved to make it into the playoff thus far, so I don’t see a strong case for the existence of anti-G5 bias on the CFP Committee. Regardless, I’m sure G5 proponents will keep their electric eye on the Committee going forward.

What do you think? Weigh in through the poll below and down in the comments.