Michigan is the best football program in the Big Ten next to OSU under Jim Harballer and the numbers prove it. And if you disagree with the numbers somehow, then at worst we are in a three way tie for the second best.
Austin Fox did a look at how UM compared to the rest of the league in the 7 years of Harbaugh before the 2021 season started. He compared TOTAL RECORDS. Conference and non conference games in his analysis. That info is linked here:
michigan.rivals.com
I've always tried to compare Michigan under Harbaugh to where we compare to the rest of the league. There has been a feeling that Wisconsin is much better than Michigan and Penn State is better than Michigan too. Part of that is that they have made it to Indy and a knock on Harbaugh is that he has not. That's fair. But that's not the standard you use when asking how do you rank Big 10 football PROGRAMS. NW made it to Indy last year and I would not trade our program for theirs.
I posted and asked whether the covid season records should be used when doing this analysis. And my conclusion is no. That was not a real football season. Yes, you could evaluate talent and coaches and draw conclusions. But when one team plays 9 conference games and one plays 5, you know you're dealing with a disparity. And teams with more draftable players, like Michigan, were going to face more opt outs. Yes that year is on Harbaugh and Michigan. But from an evaluative standpoint, those records don't count. Here's an example why....one of 20 reasons I could pick. Rutgers won 0 league games in 2016, in 2018, 2019, and 1 in 2015. In 2021 guess how many they've won? 0. But in the Covid season they won three league games. So in a shortened season they won more than all of 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019, combined? And now that covid is over, they are back to 0-4. The trends for teams show the anomaly of the covid year. Indiana at 6-1 was a mirage and they are back to 0-3 this year. Bottom line, the covid year records are not a part of my analysis.
FULL SCHEDULE RECORDS AND WINNING PERCENTAGE SINCE HARBAUGH STARTED
1. Ohio 66-8 Winning percentage 89.1
2. Penn St. 54-18 75.0
3. Michigan 53-18 74.6
4. Wisconsin 55-19 74.3
5. Iowa 53-20 72.6
6. MSU 46-26 63.8
7. Minn 42-28 60.0
8. NW 42-29 59.1
The other six teams, IU, Nebraska, Purdue, Maryland, Illinois, and Rutgers have losing overall records in the years since 2015.
So somebody said, "If you're going to pick and choose records then throw out the wins Michigan has against its crappy non conference opponents then too." So I did that. Granted all schools play some crappy opponents, but we played ND and UW etc. But let's look at Michigan versus the B10 in conference play only under Jim Harbaugh. The non-covid numbers moves Michigan to #2.
1. Ohio 43-4 91.4
2. Michigan 35-12 74.4
3. Wisc 35-12 74.4
4. Penn St 34-13 72.3
5. Iowa 32-16 66
6. NW 28-19 59.5
7. MSU 28-20 58.3
Michigan is 2nd in Big Ten wins and that is playing in the tougher bracket and drawing the top team in the West, Wisconsin every year since 2016. And in the five games we've played them, non-covid, we are 3-2 under Harballer.
I'll get to what this means later, but chew on this first. We are the second best program in the B10 and trending better than the others. If we don't muff a punt and JT was short, we'd be alone in second by the numbers.
Austin Fox did a look at how UM compared to the rest of the league in the 7 years of Harbaugh before the 2021 season started. He compared TOTAL RECORDS. Conference and non conference games in his analysis. That info is linked here:
Maize&BlueReview - A Look At The Big Ten Standings Since Jim Harbaugh Took Over At U-M In 2015
Michigan has posted a record of 49-22 since Jim Harbaugh took over in 2015.
michigan.rivals.com
I've always tried to compare Michigan under Harbaugh to where we compare to the rest of the league. There has been a feeling that Wisconsin is much better than Michigan and Penn State is better than Michigan too. Part of that is that they have made it to Indy and a knock on Harbaugh is that he has not. That's fair. But that's not the standard you use when asking how do you rank Big 10 football PROGRAMS. NW made it to Indy last year and I would not trade our program for theirs.
I posted and asked whether the covid season records should be used when doing this analysis. And my conclusion is no. That was not a real football season. Yes, you could evaluate talent and coaches and draw conclusions. But when one team plays 9 conference games and one plays 5, you know you're dealing with a disparity. And teams with more draftable players, like Michigan, were going to face more opt outs. Yes that year is on Harbaugh and Michigan. But from an evaluative standpoint, those records don't count. Here's an example why....one of 20 reasons I could pick. Rutgers won 0 league games in 2016, in 2018, 2019, and 1 in 2015. In 2021 guess how many they've won? 0. But in the Covid season they won three league games. So in a shortened season they won more than all of 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019, combined? And now that covid is over, they are back to 0-4. The trends for teams show the anomaly of the covid year. Indiana at 6-1 was a mirage and they are back to 0-3 this year. Bottom line, the covid year records are not a part of my analysis.
FULL SCHEDULE RECORDS AND WINNING PERCENTAGE SINCE HARBAUGH STARTED
1. Ohio 66-8 Winning percentage 89.1
2. Penn St. 54-18 75.0
3. Michigan 53-18 74.6
4. Wisconsin 55-19 74.3
5. Iowa 53-20 72.6
6. MSU 46-26 63.8
7. Minn 42-28 60.0
8. NW 42-29 59.1
The other six teams, IU, Nebraska, Purdue, Maryland, Illinois, and Rutgers have losing overall records in the years since 2015.
So somebody said, "If you're going to pick and choose records then throw out the wins Michigan has against its crappy non conference opponents then too." So I did that. Granted all schools play some crappy opponents, but we played ND and UW etc. But let's look at Michigan versus the B10 in conference play only under Jim Harbaugh. The non-covid numbers moves Michigan to #2.
1. Ohio 43-4 91.4
2. Michigan 35-12 74.4
3. Wisc 35-12 74.4
4. Penn St 34-13 72.3
5. Iowa 32-16 66
6. NW 28-19 59.5
7. MSU 28-20 58.3
Michigan is 2nd in Big Ten wins and that is playing in the tougher bracket and drawing the top team in the West, Wisconsin every year since 2016. And in the five games we've played them, non-covid, we are 3-2 under Harballer.
I'll get to what this means later, but chew on this first. We are the second best program in the B10 and trending better than the others. If we don't muff a punt and JT was short, we'd be alone in second by the numbers.
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