Michigan Football tumbles down ESPN’s SP+ rankings after loss to MSU.
MichiganMichigan Football got embarrassed by MSU on its home field and dropped significantly in ESPN’s SP+ rankings as a result. With the loss, the Wolverines took another drop in ESPN and Bill Connelly's SP+ rankings, this time falling seven spots to No. 36 with a rating of 10.0.
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. Looking ahead at the rest of the season, the Wolverines sit at 5-4 overall and have three games left, all against teams ranked higher than them in the SP+ rankings: Oregon, UCLA and Ohio State.
Next Saturday, Michigan will head to the West Coast to take on Oregon, which dominated Ohio State on Saturday in Columbus. It hasn't been a great season for the Ducks, but they're quietly reclaiming some momentum late in the year and sit at No. 15 in the SP+ rankings with a rating of 16.9.
KEY POINTS
- Michigan Football tumbles down ESPN’s SP+ rankings after loss to MSU.
- Michigan's 2026 football season hit rock bottom on Saturday night, with an uninspiring (as uninspiring as we've seen in years) loss to Michigan State, which came into the matchup with just a 2-6 overall record and zero wins in the Big Ten.
- In Michigan's case, its 10.0 rating predicts it would defeat the "average" college football team by 10 points on a neutral field.
- Many are projecting Michigan to lose out the rest of the way, and SP+ agrees, which would mean the season will end with a dismal 5-7 overall record.