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What a weekend it was for football in the state of Michigan. The Wolverines won, the Detroit Lions won, and optimism is at a season high just up the road in East Lansing.
Dantonio: "The beauty is we're not 2-7, we're 4-4."
— Colton Pouncy (@colton_pouncy) October 26, 2019
We’ll keep this one short and sweet today so as to revel in the Victory Monday vibes.
After Michigan’s trouncing of Notre Dame on Saturday night, the latest batch of bowl projections have been released with a handful of new destinations and matchups being put out there.
Here’s a snippet of where some of the pundits have the Wolverines heading this bowling season.
ESPN’s Kyle Bonagura: Outback Bowl (Jan. 1, Tampa, Florida) vs. Auburn
ESPN’s Mark Schlabach: Holiday Bowl (Dec. 27, San Diego, California) vs. Washington
CBS Sports’ Jerry Palm: Gator Bowl (Jan. 2, Jacksonville, Florida) vs. Mississippi State
Banner Society’s Jason Kirk: Holiday Bowl (Dec. 27, San Diego, California) vs. Arizona State
College Football News: Holiday Bowl (Dec. 27, San Diego, California) vs. Washington
The Holiday Bowl has been a popular one, as has a potential matchup with Washington, which as we have stated before would be interesting seeing as the Wolverines and Huskies open the regular season against each other in 2020. Plus, it would give fans (and media, woohoo!) a different spot other than one of the Florida bowls to check out. They say San Diego is lovely, after all.
Updated FPI released for Michigan Football
Michigan’s quest for the fourth ten win season in five years under Jim Harbaugh took a big step forward with the win over Notre Dame and sets the Wolverines up to go on a bit of a run here to end the year. Sure, the Big Ten title is all but out of the picture, but there’s still quite a bit to play for with two rivalry games left on the schedule.
ESPN released its updated Football Power Index ratings after the latest games over the weekend and the Wolverines have a pretty advantageous schedule heading into the last weekend of the year, where their odds actually slightly improved for The Game, albeit still a very low percentage.
Here’s how ESPN’s metric sees the rest of the year playing out:
at Maryland: 88.9 percent likely to win
vs. Michigan State: 79.9 percent likely to win
at Indiana: 75.4 percent likely to win
vs. Ohio State: 18 percent likely to win
The Wolverines should not have much of a problem with Maryland this week, but will look to keep building off of the last six or so quarters of football. Michigan State has nothing left but the Michigan game for any good will moving forward, but the metrics still like them. Indiana is mostly harmless but always scary, especially now that they are in pursuit of a nine-win season.
Michigan just has to keep it rolling and give itself a chance in that last game of the year. If they can’t play for anything else, the role of College Football Playoff slayer and rivalry game-winner is something they just may have to embrace moving forward.
Ask the Irish how that worked out.
Other Brews
- Holy crap there’s actually a scenario in play where Illinois can win the Big Ten West.
- Speaking of the Big Ten West, it appears that our friends at Minnesota are #ActuallyGood.
- This is scary. A fan fell from the upper deck during Iowa State’s game against Oklahoma State over the weekend.
- Michigan is up to No. 11 in Bill Connelly’s SP+ rankings after Week 9. Notre Dame tumbles all the way down to No. 25.