The Michigan Wolverines were on a bye this Saturday and didn’t see themselves move in the latest edition of ESPN’s SP+ rankings. Here’s where things stand with Michigan after Week 12:
The last time we saw the Michigan Wolverines on the field, they dropped a close game on the road to Indiana to fall to 5-5 on the year. As a result, they slid to to a season-low No. 40 ranking in Bill Connelly’s SP+ rankings on ESPN. Michigan was off this Saturday and there wasn’t a ton of activity around the Wolverines in the rankings. As such, Michigan held its spot at No. 40 in the latest edition of the SP+ rankings.
For those of you who might be new to SP+, it’s an alternative method of ranking college football teams that takes into account a team’s efficiencies on offense, defense, and special teams. Connelly describes SP+ as, “a tempo and opponent-adjusted measure of college football efficiency.”
A team’s ranking is a byproduct of its efficiencies in the three phases of the game. The efficiencies are used to spit out a rating that predicts how many points a given team would defeat (or lose to) the “average” college football team by. For example, Michigan’s rating of 6.9 means that the Wolverines should defeat the “average” college football team by 6.9 points on a neutral field.
Additionally, according to SP+, Michigan has the No. 87 offense, No. 18 defense, and No. 19 special teams nationally after Week 12.
Elsewhere in the country, Ohio State held onto its No. 1 spot after a thumping of Northwestern at Wrigley Field on Saturday. A pair of SEC squads round out the top three, as Alabama and Texas come in at No. 2 and No. 3, respectively.
In the Big Ten, three teams are ranked inside the top 10. The aforementioned Ohio State is No. 1, while Oregon (No. 5) and Penn State (No. 7) are also there following wins this weekend. Indiana just misses out, coming in at No. 11, but the Hoosiers will have a chance to prove themselves against the top-ranked Buckeyes next Saturday.
A little bit further down the rankings, Iowa (No. 17), USC (No. 21), are the only other Big Ten teams ranked ahead of Michigan.
Looking ahead to next week, Michigan will play its final home game of the season, welcoming in Northwestern. The Wildcats are 4-6 this year and are ranked No. 90 in the country by SP+. Northwestern’s rating is -5.8, which is about 13 points less than Michigan’s. As such, fans should expect about a two-touchdown victory next Saturday, but we’ll see how things pan out when the teams take the field at 3:30 p.m. Eastern on FS1.