The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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14 THE WOLVERINE SEPTEMBER 2021 INSIDE MICHIGAN ATHLETICS Michigan's Top Finishes After Being Unranked In The Preseason Before this year, Michigan football had appeared in the preseason Associ- ated Press rankings all but nine times since it moved from a top 10 to a top 20 list in 1968 (it was increased to a top 25 in 1989). In those nine years, however, the Wolverines have finished the season ranked more times than not (five occurrences), showing they've exceeded low expectations in the past and lending hope to the idea they can do it again in 2021. U-M smashed expectations in 1985. Coming off a 6-6 season — the Wolverines' worst under legendary head man Bo Schembechler — Jim Harbaugh, then the team's quarterback, helped lead his squad to a 10-1-1 campaign, which included a triumph over Ohio State and a Fiesta Bowl win over Nebraska. In fact, Harbaugh has been a part of two seasons in which the Maize and Blue began unranked but finished listed among the nation's best, al- beit in a different role. In his first year as head coach in 2015, Har- baugh led a resurgence in Ann Arbor, taking the five-win team he inherited to 10 victories, in- cluding a blowout win over Flor- ida in the Citrus Bowl. Perhaps the most famous and still-talked-about season in pro- gram history in which the team didn't win the national championship is 1969, Schembechler's first on the job. The Wolverines finished with an 8-3 mark and No. 9 ranking, but made the Rose Bowl after mounting a huge upset over top-ranked Ohio State, which hadn't lost a contest in nearly two full seasons. The Maize and Blue wound up checking in at No. 12 to conclude the 2011 and 1968 seasons — with the former being head coach Brady Hoke's first year on the job and an 11-win campaign, and the latter being head man Bump Elliott's final year (U-M posted an 8-2 record) — while they finished unranked in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2014. — Clayton Sayfie Jim Harbaugh played a role in two campaigns where U-M went from unranked in the pre- season Associated Press poll to a top-20 finish — in 1985 as the team's quarterback and in 2015 as the Wolverines' first-year head coach. PHOTO BY LON HORWEDEL Season Final AP Ranking Record 1985 2nd 10-1-1 1969 9th 8-3 2015 12th 10-3 2011 12th 11-2 1968 12th 8-2 2014 Unranked 5-7 2010 Unranked 7-5 2009 Unranked 5-7 2008 Unranked 3-9 MAIZE AND BLUE NOTEBOOK MICHIGAN FOOTBALL A LEADER IN TV RATINGS The first conference realignment domino to fall was the announce- ment that Oklahoma and Texas will leave the Big 12 and join the SEC in 2025. Subsequently, other power leagues, such as the Big Ten, have en- gaged in discussions about adding schools and/or forming alliances with other conferences, with an August report from The Athletic revealing that the Big Ten, ACC and Pac-12 have con- versed about potentially forming a partnership or scheduling alliance. At the forefront of those talks, re- portedly, are television ratings. It's too early to tell exactly to what extent the three leagues would be aligned. But The Athletic's Andy Sta- ples wrote in a column examining the latest discussions: "If the plan includes a scheduling alliance to create more games in the Four Million Club for each league, then it could be a valu- able partnership for all of them. It also could benefit the viewers by giving us more interesting games to watch." The "Four Million Club" Staples re- fers to is the group of college football games that garner more than four million viewers. Michigan, of course, is a major player when it comes to television ratings, and its sky-high numbers will play a significant factor in future decisions. According to Medium.com, the Wol- verines averaged 4.18 million viewers per game from 2015-19, a number that checks in third nationally, behind Ohio State (5.19 million) and Alabama (5.09 million), the only two other schools to average more than four million viewers on a per-game basis during that time span. In addition, Michigan has been a participant in five of the 15 most-watched regular- season games in that timeframe. Michigan also slots third when it comes to games in the "Four Million Club" from 2015-19, with 26 (out of 65 contests played). Alabama (35) and Ohio State (31) are the only two pro- grams with more, and there is a steep drop off after the Wolverines — Au- burn and Notre Dame are next, and each have 17 contests that meet the threshold.