Michigan vs Michigan State historical ranked match ups
With both teams being ranked highly in the AP poll this week, I was interested in where this game would fit it from a historical perspective. Naturally, I went to wikipedia and came up with the table below. I did some filtering based on whether or not both teams were ranked and then summed up what the combined rankings were.
Some Findings:
Saturdays game will be tied for the 5th lowest combined ranking match up, tied with the 1999 meeting. The four other match ups with a lower combined ranking occurred before 1964.
In meetings where both teams are ranked Michigan is 8-10-1. Obviously, Michigan has the overall lead in the series.
What's your favorite game from list below?
October 26th, 2021 at 5:42 PM ^
My favorite I'm sure will be the landslide winner here, 1997. Woodson and Marcus Ray doing damage in the secondary. Amazing season. My son just asked to look at all my ticket stubs from that year.
October 26th, 2021 at 6:41 PM ^
Just a heads up. Go to ebay. Seach brady ticket ucla 1996 .. profit.. If you can stand to part with tickets
October 26th, 2021 at 10:48 PM ^
Thanks!!! just spent half an hour going through my stub collection to find this:
October 26th, 2021 at 5:46 PM ^
I'll start with mine...
Going into Spartan Stadium in 2018, after all the pre-game crap, and just dominating was awesome. It was also the introduction to the Paul Bunyan touchdown pose.
October 26th, 2021 at 5:52 PM ^
Mine was sitting next to the MSU recruits at the 2003 Chris Perry game. What a beast performance he put on!
October 26th, 2021 at 5:55 PM ^
2018 looks like a good result to reproduce.
October 26th, 2021 at 5:55 PM ^
2018 looks like a good result to reproduce.
Double post! Guess the server was listening about the reproductions thing.
October 26th, 2021 at 6:04 PM ^
I can tell you that, although not on the list, 1990 was the worst game I’ve ever lived through. Fucking nightmare day.
October 26th, 2021 at 6:37 PM ^
First Michigan game I ever watched start to finish, with my dad when I was 9
October 26th, 2021 at 7:42 PM ^
This is correct. I remember shirts printed for this game that said
UofM No. 1 vs MSU No One.
and then that crap happened to 21 in the end zone on the 2pt conversion.
October 26th, 2021 at 6:08 PM ^
What’s most interesting to me is that Michigan is 7-3-1 in East Lansing and 1-7 at Michigan Stadium. Maybe portends good things for Saturday?
October 26th, 2021 at 6:24 PM ^
It’s really weird that the away team has had so much success in this rivalry when the teams are highly ranked. I guess the opposing fanbase travels well since distance isn’t as much of a factor.
October 26th, 2021 at 9:40 PM ^
Maybe the home team plays more "uptight" with the extra pressure of playing at home vs. Very capable "underdogs".
October 26th, 2021 at 6:33 PM ^
Higher ranked team on the road is 12-3 in the table above.
GO BLUE!
October 26th, 2021 at 6:34 PM ^
Barry, the real question is.... What's a ZJ?
October 26th, 2021 at 10:22 PM ^
If you have to ask..
October 26th, 2021 at 6:37 PM ^
By my quick count the higher ranked team is 13-5-1, so that's promising...
Still can't believe M was ranked ahead of MSU in 2013, everyone saw that loss coming
October 26th, 2021 at 10:13 PM ^
It irks me that M has a losing record in this metric. It does make sense that if both teams are ranked, then the expected outcome should approach 50/50, and the results are indeed nearly that. I also wonder whether M's strong reputation makes us more likely to be overrated in rankings, whereas State has to earn its recognition--maybe that could explain the rankings ahead of the 2013 matchup.
October 26th, 2021 at 6:55 PM ^
What’s with the line spacing in that table? Michigan wins get single spacing and MSU wins get double?
October 26th, 2021 at 7:23 PM ^
just showing proper respekt to avoid unnecessary shoulder chips
October 26th, 2021 at 9:27 PM ^
Correct
October 27th, 2021 at 12:05 AM ^
Respekt?
October 27th, 2021 at 8:26 AM ^
Seriously, though, it might be that wrap text is on, the "Michigan State" was too long to fit onto one row, so he widened those columns so the whole thing would fit, but never reset the heights of those cells. Excel pet peeve of mine, also.
October 26th, 2021 at 8:34 PM ^
That 2015 just sucks.
October 27th, 2021 at 7:18 AM ^
The was probably the most traumatic loss I remember watching as a fan. After that final play I was just sitting there completely stunned, expecting something to see a flag or something to be reviewed. But nope. What I had just witnessed actually happened. I’m pretty sure I turned the TV off, went upstairs and sat alone in the darkness in the back bedroom for about and hour trying to process what I had just seen.
It was bad enough constantly hearing the “WOAH HE HAS TROUBLE WITH THE SNAP” jokes and memes where I’m at. I can’t imagine how bad it would have been living in Michigan surrounded by Sparties.