Michigan Football rises eight spots in latest ESPN SP+ rankings

Michigan put together its best and most complete victory of the season on Saturday, defeating Northwestern by a 50-6 final score. As a result, Michigan advanced to 6-5 on the year, secured bowl eligibility, and moved up in the latest edition of ESPN and Bill Connelly’s SP+ rankings. Following the win, the Wolverines are now the No. 32 team in the country per SP+.

For those of you unfamiliar with SP+, Connelly describes it as “a tempo and opponent-adjusted measure of college football efficiency” that takes into account a team’s efficiencies on offense, defense, and special teams. These efficiencies are boiled down to one metric that can be used as an alternative method to rank college football teams.

This metric can be used to predict how many points a given team should beat (or lose to) the “average” college football team by on a neutral field. In Michigan’s case, its metric is now 8.5 after Week 13, meaning the Wolverines should defeat the “average” college football team by 8.5 points.

As for how things shake out at the top of the rankings, Ohio State now has a good grasp on the No. 1 spot. The Buckeyes’ rating of 31.4 is four points higher than the next highest team. Ole Miss comes in at No. 2 in the country despite losing its third game of the season on Saturday, while undefeated Oregon is No. 3 in the country. Texas (No. 4) and Georgia (No. 5) round out the top five.

Michigan also comes in as the seventh best team in the Big Ten according to SP+. The aforementioned Ohio State and Oregon are both top-three teams, while Penn State and Indiana come in at No. 10 and No. 11, respectively. The Iowa Hawkeyes have quietly had a solid year and come in at No. 17, while USC comes in at No. 23.

Looking ahead to “The Game” next week against Ohio State, Michigan is a sizable underdog on the betting market, 20.5 points according to FanDuel to be exact. SP+ is actually less optimistic for Michigan, giving Ohio State a 22.9-point edge. As we all know for rivalry games though, odds and records can be thrown to the side. We’ll wait and see on Saturday if Michigan can shock the college football world and pull off the upset.