Illinois next...

<p>After starting the season horribly, Michigan rebounded by playing a dominant but flawed game vs Notre Dame, a decent game vs PSU and mediocre games vs NU and Eastern. Finally, last week, vs Purdue, Michigan turned in its first good game of the season. The special teams still look suspect (especially onside kick coverage), but the defense dominated what was supposed to be an exposlive offense and our Offense started showing its true abilities. Hopefully, last week's game was just the begining. This week's game at Illinois is, in my opinion, one of our biggest hurdles this season. A night road game vs a team that was not expected to do much this year. </p>

<p>To win the remaining games, particularly the game next week, Michigan will need a healthy Hart. From all that I have read, Hart is ready to go. I understand his "sprain" was more like a mild cramp! I hope that is true. If that's the case, given the rebirth of Mario Manningham and the emergence of Arrington, our offense should be fine. Our Defense has been dominant for some time, so I am not worried. If Hart is healthy, I think we should cruise to a nice 9-2 record heading into our November 17 showdown.</p>

<p>we also want ohio state to remain undefeated and top 2 until we play them. If that's the case and we win the rest of the game before the showdown, we'll go to the rosebowl no matter what.
If ohio state beat us, well they'll remain undefeated, go off to the national championship, and we'll go off to rosebowl as big ten no.2 replacing them.
If we beat ohio state, we'll become big ten champion, ruin ohio state's national championship run (which will be awesome) and head off to rosebowl</p>

<p>bearcats, that isn't necessarily true anymore. The conference tie-ins aren't as set in stone in the current BCS state. If Michigan does not win out, it would be doubtful they would be ranked highly enough to get an at-large bid.</p>

<p>^ Yes, CBS Sportsline has either Hawaii or West Virginia projected into the Rose Bowl to play the Pac-10 champ...:rolleyes:</p>

<p>I went to the Illinois at Iowa game over the weekend...if that Iowa team could beat Illinois, we should be ok.</p>

<p>If OSU remains undefeated, they will be ranked #1 in the nation come November 17. In fact, they will be ranked way ahead of #2 in the polls. Even if OSU should lose to Michigan, I can still see them ranked among the top 2 in the final BCS poll, assuming they lose to Michigan by less than 7 points. </p>

<p>Michigan on the other hand has risen very slowly in the polls. We are barely ranked #25 after 5 victories, including a 38-0 rout of Notre Dame, a solid victory over then top 10 PSU and a complete domination of then top 25 Purdue. The good news is, we should rise in the ranks very quickly if we win our remaining 4 games...especially if we have a couple more convincing wins over our opposition. A 9-2 Michigan team should be ranked around #10. If we somehow manage to beat OSU, it would propel us into the top 5 and earn us an automatic spot in the Rose Bowl. </p>

<p>A loss to OSU would probably drop us out of the top 12. However, if the loss to OSU is close (like last year's loss), we would still have a shot at playing in the Rose Bowl, but it would not be automatic.</p>

<p>I am going to have to disagree with that. There is no way a 9-3 Michigan team (or any other 9-3 team) would get a non-automatic BCS birth. </p>

<p>If we win out, Rose Bowl.
If we lose, Capital One Bowl... or worse (yikes).</p>

<p>tinydantzler, ordinarily, I would agree with you. However, this is not an "ordinary" year. Other than OSU (assuming they manage to beat Michigan), none of the teams from major conference are going to finish undefeated. In fact, the way things are going, there is going to be a dirth of 1-loss teams come December 8th. So many 2-loss teams are going to make it into BCS bowls and it is not beyond the real of imagination that a 3-loss team with Michigan's cache name could get a Rose Bowl invitation should there not be a more marketable and suitable team availlable. Admittedly, it is unlikely...but not impossible. This year is the year of exceptions. Hell, if Michigan wins out in a convincing fashion, I still think we have a shot at playing in the national championship game. I really don't think many legitimate teams are going to finish with fewer than 2 losses this season.</p>