Most college football fans would agree that over the past half-century Michigan has frequently been an important player in the national conversation during the regular season, but our performance in bowl games in that time span has not matched perceptions of our national stature.

First, here's Michigan's record in bowl games prior to Schembechler's arrival in A2. The team records in parentheses are going into the bowl games, not the total season record for Michigan and our opponents after the season is completed.

1-1-1901 Rose Bowl  Michigan (10-0) vs Stanford (3-2-1)  M 49 Stanford 0

1-1-1948 Rose Bowl  #2 Michigan (9-0) vs #8 USC (7-1-1)  M 49  USC 0

1-1-1951 Rose Bowl #9 Michigan (5-3-1) vs #5 California (9-0-1)  M 14 Cal 6

1-1-1965 Rose Bowl #4 Michigan (8-1) vs #8 Oregon St (8-2)  M 34 OSU 7

It's just a handful of bowl games compared to many other schools, but you can't top being 4-0 in them. Unfortunately, things go rapidly downhill after that.

(Note: the parentheticals in italics after 7 bowl games indicate either Michigan or our opponent claimed at least part of the national championship that season.)

1-1-70  Rose Bowl #7 Michigan (8-2) vs #5 USC (9-0-1)  USC 10 M 3

1-1-72  Rose Bowl #4 Michigan (11-0) vs #16 Stanford (8-3)  Stanford 13 M 12

1-1-76  Orange Bowl #5 Michigan (8-2-1) vs #3 Oklahoma (10-1)  OK 14 M 6 (OK NC)

1-1-77  Rose Bowl #2 Michigan (10-1) vs #3 USC (10-1)  USC 14 M 6 (USC NC)

1-1-78  Rose Bowl #4 Michigan (10-1) vs #13 Washington (7-4)  UW 27 M 20

1-1-79  Rose Bowl #5 Michigan (10-1) vs #3 USC (11-1)  USC 17 M 10 (USC NC)

12-28-79 Gator Bowl #14 Michigan (8-3) vs unranked UNC (7-3-1)  UNC 17 M 15

1-1-81  Rose Bowl #5 Michigan (9-2) vs #16 Washington (9-2)  M 23 UW 6

12-31-81  Astro-Bluebonnet Bowl #16 Michigan (8-3) vs #19 UCLA (7-3-1)  M 33 UCLA 14

1-1-83  Rose Bowl #19 Michigan (8-3) vs #5 UCLA (9-1-1)  UCLA 24 M 14

1-2-84 Sugar Bowl #8 Michigan (9-2) vs #3 Auburn (10-1)  Auburn 9 M 7

12-21-84  Holiday Bowl unranked Michigan (6-5) vs #1 BYU (12-0)  BYU 24 M 17 (BYU NC)

1-1-86  Fiesta Bowl #5 Michigan (9-1-1) vs #7 Nebraska (9-2)  M 27 Neb 23

1-1-87 Rose Bowl #4 Michigan (11-1) vs #7 Arizona St (9-1-1)  ASU 22 M 15

1-2-88  Hall of Fame Bowl unranked Michigan (7-4) vs unranked Alabama (7-4)  M 28 AL 24

1-1-89 Rose Bowl #11 Michigan (8-2-1) vs #5 USC (10-1)  M 22 USC 14

1-1-90 Rose Bowl  #3 Michigan (10-1) vs #12 USC (9-1-1)  USC 17 M 10

1-1-91  Gator Bowl #12 Michigan (8-3) vs #15 Ole Miss (9-2) M 35 Ole Miss 3

1-1-92  Rose Bowl #4 Michigan (10-1) vs #2 Washington (11-0)  UW 34 M 14 (UW NC)

1-1-93  Rose Bowl #7 Michigan (8-0-3) vs #9 Washington (9-2)  M 38 UW 31

1-1-94  Hall of Fame Bowl #23 Michigan (7-4) vs unranked NC St (7-4)  M 42 NCSt 7

12-30-94  Holiday Bowl #20 Michigan (7-4) vs #10 Colo St (10-1)  M 24 CSU 14

12-28-95  Alamo Bowl #14 Michigan (9-3) vs #19 TA&M (8-3)  TAMU 22 M 20

1-1-97  Outback Bowl #15 Michigan (8-3) vs #16 Alabama (9-3)  AL 17 M 14

1-1-98  Rose Bowl  #1 Michigan (11-0) vs #8 Washington St (10-1)  M 21 WSU 16 (M NC)

1-1-99  Citrus Bowl #15 Michigan (9-3) vs #11 Arkansas (9-2)  M 45 AR 31

1-1-00  Orange Bowl #8 Michigan (9-2) vs #5 Alabama (10-2)  M 35 AL 34

1-1-01  Citrus Bowl #20 Michigan (8-3) vs #17 Auburn (9-3)  M 31 AU 28

1-1-02  Citrus Bowl  #17 Michigan (8-3) vs #8 Tennessee (10-2)  TN 45 M 17

1-1-03  Outback Bowl  #13 Michigan (9-3) vs #23 Florida (8-4)  M 38 FL 30

1-1-04  Rose Bowl  #4 Michigan (10-2) vs #1 USC (11-1)  USC 28 M 14 (USC NC)

1-1-05  Rose Bowl #13 Michigan (9-2) vs #6 Texas (10-1)  TX 38 M 37

12-28-05 Alamo Bowl  #20 Michigan (7-4) vs unranked Nebraska (7-4)  NEB 32 M 28

1-1-07  Rose Bowl  #3 Michigan (11-1) vs #8 USC (10-2)  USC 32 M 18

1-1-08  Citrus Bowl unranked Michigan (8-4) vs #9 Florida (9-3)  M 41 FL 35

1-1-11 Gator Bowl  unranked Michigan (7-5) vs #21 Mississippi St (8-3)  MSU 52 M 14

1-3-12  Sugar Bowl #13 Michigan (10-2) vs #11 VaTech (11-2)  M 23 VT 20

1-1-13  Outback Bowl  #19 Michigan (8-4) vs #11 South Carolina (10-2)  SC 33 M 28

12-28-13  Wild Wings Bowl  unranked Michigan (7-5) vs unranked Kansas St  KSU 31 M 14

1-1-16  Citrus Bowl  #14 Michigan (9-3) vs #19 Florida (10-3)  M 41 FL 7

12-30-16  Orange Bowl  #6 Michigan (10-2) vs #11 Fla St (9-3)  FSU 33 M 32

1-1-18  Outback Bowl unranked Michigan (8-4) vs unranked South Carolina (8-4)  SC 26 M 19

12-29-18  Peach Bowl  #7 Michigan (10-2) vs #10 Florida (9-3)  FL 41 M 15

1-1-20  Citrus Bowl  #14 Michigan (9-3) vs #13 Alabama (10-2)  AL 35 M 16

12-32-21 Orange Bowl  #2 Michigan (12-1) vs #3 Georgia (12-1)  GA 34 M 11

12-31-22 Fiesta Bowl  #2 Michigan 13-0) vs #3 TCU (12-1)  TCU 51 M 45

 

Record since 1-1-70: 17-29

 

Michigan's record against teams ranked 1-5 going into the bowl game: 2-11 (both victories against teams ranked #5; 6 of those losses are to eventual national champions.)

Record against teams ranked 6-10: 5-5

Record against teams ranked 11-15: 3-5

Record against teams ranked 16-20: 4-3

Record against teams ranked 21-unranked: 3-5

 

Michigan's record when ranked 1-5 going into the bowl game: 3-12

Record when Michigan is ranked 6-10: 2-4

Record when Michigan is ranked 11-15: 6-5

Record when Michigan is ranked 16-20: 3-3

Record when Michigan is ranked 21-unranked: 3-5

Our lousy bowl record since 1-1-70 is largely a function of how bad we've been against teams ranked in the top 5 going into the bowl game. Maybe that's expected, but the results certainly don't match Michigan's national reputation.

What's also notable is how bad we've done in bowl games when Michigan is ranked in the top 5 going into the game. You'd think a program good enough to be ranked in the top five going into 15 bowl games would be good enough to win more than three of them.

Another notable aspect of this is that we haven't beaten anybody who had a serious chance of being national champion with a victory over Michigan in the bowl game, nor have we pulled off a truly momentous upset. The closest we've come to the latter is the 2008 Citrus Bowl when an unranked Michigan beat #9 Florida.

Whether this record has any relevance to the upcoming game against Alabama is a different question. Given that it's been established over 6 different coaching staffs, five of whom shared some significant Michigan coaching DNA, I'm not convinced that there aren't some long-standing institutional or program attributes at work that help to explain the record.