When Will Michigan Return To The AP Top 25

     Like just about anyone who finds themselves on this website I cannot wait for the arrival of another college football season.  I am not wishing away my life but rather acknowledging the joy I get from watching my teams take the field.  I have never been a baseball fan and so currently I am in a sports dead zone, only hearing whispers of the sport I enjoy so much in the air.  I am a loyal Big Ten fan, with the caveat that I also root for any team that plays that school from Indiana.  Every year I wish for the schools of the Big Ten to win all of their non-confernce games as it enhances the conference and in turn the school where my loyalties are deepest.

     I am a die hard University of Michigan Wolverine fan, while it is not so extreme to be considered at least by me a mania, I believe some of my amily and friends might have a different opinion there.  So for the better part of a year I and my fellow Michigan fans have endured taunts and the realization that like other programs there are some down years you just might want to forget.  Michigan will be back and to those that clearly looked at last year prior to the season and as it unfolded it was not as big a surprised as many made it out to be.  I am not going to point, accuse or elaborate on that which was but only state it to transition to my question of those who might read and have an opinion here.

     The lack of a playoff means the national championship is many times a beauty contest of school and coach's names and the polls are so subjective, even the ones which try to claim they are computer generated since some person with biases feeds in the formula and the data, that they are crooked rule upon which to base anything.  Regrettably however these benchmarks are what is currently available in gauging college football.  So I ask simply, when do you think Michigan will:

- Return to the AP Top 25 - a) 2009 b) 2010 c) 2-5 years from now

- Finish the year in the AP Top 25

- Be relevant in National Championship discussions at the end of the year