Michigan Football: Predicting the Wolverines' BCS Ranking

Michigan's BCS ranking is likely to be low—and at this point, what does it matter?

Ah, you say, but the people want to know, where will they fall?

Michigan currently sits at 11 in the AP poll, and considering the Wolverines' 28-14 loss to Michigan State on Saturday, that most certainly won't hold unless everything I know about football changes in the next 24 hours. So the Wolverines will drop, but by how much?

No. 12, Georgia Tech, is starting slow against Virginia, but that game seems like it will eventually fall for Tech.

The next two teams, West Virginia and Nebraska, both have a bye week and will presumably land higher than the Wolverines.

No. 15, South Carolina, just squeaked out a win against Mississippi State so there is another team that stays high.

The next four teams: Illinois, Kansas State, Arizona State and Virginia Tech should go 3-1 this week, with the one loss coming in Autzen Stadium, so the best Michigan could hope to do is fall around 20th; however, that doesn't take into account that Texas A&M, No. 21, just beat No. 20 Baylor by a large margin.

Michigan is now looking at fighting with Michigan State for a low-20s ranking—a fight that the Wolverines will most certainly lose.

Unless a number of upsets happen in the 16-19 range, look for the Wolverines to fall to 20-22 in next week's AP poll, which it then stands to reason would put the Wolverines around No. 20 in the first BCS standings—a few places behind the victorious Spartans.

With a bye week and a home game against Purdue, Michigan will have time to right the ship before entering the meet of its schedule. By that time things will look a whole lot different in the Big Ten.

Right now, Michigan is just happy to be mentioned, especially after such a disappointing loss against rival Michigan State.