Michigan Football: Showdown with SEC Team Not Ideal for Wolverines in Bowl Game

There's good news and bad news when it comes to the Michigan Wolverines and where they'll go bowling to end the college football season.

The good news, of course, is that Michigan has played well enough to garner an invitation to a good bowl game, not having to play in the relative obscurity of say, the Little Caesars Bowl on December 26.

No, Michigan is likely headed to either the Capital One Bowl or the Outback Bowl on New Year's Day.

The bad news is that both games feature a Big Ten squad going head-to-head with someone from the SEC.

The most likely scenario has the Wolverines going up against Johnny Football himself, Heisman Trophy favorite Johnny Manziel and the Texas A&M Aggies in the Capital One Bowl.

Jerry Palm of CBS Sports, along with Brad Edwards and Mark Schlabach of ESPN all project that to be Michigan's final game of the 2012 season.

Of course, that could change, and Texas A&M could be replaced with either Alabama (if they lose to Georgia in the SEC Championship Game), Georgia or even South Carolina.

Michigan simply doesn't match up well with any of the four.

Alabama's defense is on another level than the other SEC contenders to face off against the Wolverines, but both Georgia and South Carolina have big-time defenses that would pose a major problem for the Wolverines.

It wouldn't matter whether Michigan went with Devin Gardner or Denard Robinson under center against those three, there's little doubt that those teams are in a different class than Michigan right now.

Texas A&M poses the most intriguing matchup—not only because of Robinson and Manziel facing each other—but because the teams are pretty evenly matched.

Michigan has the advantage on defense, allowing only 18.8 points per game to the Aggies' 22.5 but Texas A&M has the more explosive offense, dropping 44.8 points on opposing defenses while Michigan averages 30 points per game.

This one would be a shootout that probably wouldn't be decided until late in the fourth quarter, but Manziel was able to walk into Tuscaloosa and beat Alabama, who has a superior defense to Michigan's.

Unfortunately for the Wolverines, they just aren't ready to face one of the top teams in the SEC—and that will make their bowl game a disappointing one for the program and it's supporters.