[Husker] Michigan

[Pat Gaule]

Bob Beach wrote:

>     I am absolutely shocked Michigan dropped as far as they did.  This poll ranks them 47th after ranking them 5th the week before.  I have never ever seen a team drop over 40 places no matter who they lost to.  I am not saying Michigan shouldn't have dropped big time but even dropping 15 spots is dropping big time.  This indeed was a big time lost but dropping out of the top 25 from number five?  Wow!
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>http://www.collegefootballpoll.com/current_congrove_rankings.html
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I'm not surprised to see Michigan drop 40 places in a computer ranking.  
Regardless of the formula, computer rankings are not very accurate early 
in the season.  A few systems, such as Sagarin, get around this by 
placing some "bias" into the rankings for the first few weeks.  These 
rankings are really only designed for one thing: to be accurate at the 
end of the season.  It doesn't mean much to look at them after only a 
handful of games have been played.

This particular ranking is not included in the BCS, so it doesn't really 
mean much.  However, Michigan is ranked 40th in the Sagarin 
(http://www.usatoday.com/sports/sagarin/fbt07.htm).  I am sure this will 
change as the season progresses and more games are played.  Computer 
rankings are only as accurate as the data fed into them, and there isn't 
much data right now.  These rankings will normalize over the season.