Michigan picked up a big win over UTEP on Saturday despite getting off to a slow start, defeating the Miners, 52-17. As expected with the win, the Wolverines moved up a few spots in ESPN and Bill Connelly’s post-Week 3 SP+ rankings.
For those of you who might be new to SP+, it’s an advanced metric that takes into account a team’s offensive, defensive and special teams efficiencies. It combines all three metrics into one uniform metric that predicts how many points a given team would defeat (or lose
to) the “average” college football team by on a neutral field. In other words, it’s a metric designed to look at how “good” teams really are at different aspects of the game rather than ranking them purely on their resumes.
After the victory over UTEP, Michigan now sits at No. 21 in the SP+ rankings, up four spots from where the Wolverines were last week. Furthermore, Michigan’s SP+ rating now sits at 15.1, up 1.3 points from last week.
Looking around at the rest of Michigan’s schedule, there are still a handful of teams ranked higher than the Wolverines at this point. Ohio State reclaimed the top spot in the rankings after drubbing Kent State, while Indiana and Oregon are also considered elite teams at No. 4 and No. 5, respectively. No. 12 Penn State is also on the rise after completing non-conference play with a big win over Buffalo on Saturday. Oklahoma, which Michigan beat in Week 2, is also ranked at No. 16 after struggling to a 14-6 win over New Mexico.
Michigan will get its Big Ten slate started next week when it welcomes the Iowa Hawkeyes. Iowa is also ranked ahead of Michigan right now as the No. 18 team in the land, largely driven by elite defense and special teams. According to SP+, the Hawkeyes would be favored by 2.2 points on a neutral field. Michigan will get the benefit of home-field advantage for the “stripe out,” so we’ll see if the Wolverines can continue their winning ways on Saturday afternoon.
