ESPN's Football Power Index Projects Michigan's 2021 Win/Loss Record

ESPN.com released it's first version of its Football Power Index (FPI) rankings heading into the 2021 season. The site will later project the outcome of each and every game of the college football season, but for now it has predicted the big-picture result of every team's slate.

Below, we break down what FPI is saying about Michigan heading into the 2021 campaign.

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FPI has Michigan tabbed as the No. 40 team in the country (out of 130) with the season set to begin 137 days from now.

The Wolverines have a rating of 7.2, which correlates to the "expected point margin vs average opponent on neutral field." That means the Maize and Blue are an 'above average' team that would be favored by just over a touchdown against the most average ball club in the country. Factors that go into the ratings are said to be "returning starters, past performance, recruiting rankings and coaching tenure."

FPI projects Michigan to win 6.4 games and lose 5.7 contests, which, with rounding, comes out to a .500 record of 6-6. There are actually 29 teams that are ranked below Michigan projected by the metric to win more than 6.4 games this season, with the Wolverines' strength of schedule not doing them any favors in that regard.

FPI also gave out percentage chances of Michigan — and every team in the nation — to win all of their games, win at least six games, win their division, win their conference, make the College Football Playoff, appear in the national title game and win the national championship.

Here are the chances the metric gave the Wolverines to...

Win Out: 0.0 percent

Win 6+ Games: 71 percent

Win The Big Ten East: 2 percent

Win The Big Ten: 0.7 percent

Make The College Football Playoff: 0.0 percent

Make The National Title Game: 0.0 percent

Win The National Championship: 0.0 percent

Below is a look at Michigan's schedule and where each of its 12 opponents rank in this release of the FPI.

• Western Michigan (Sept. 4) — 77th

• Washington (Sept. 11) — 59th

• Northern Illinois (Sept. 18) — 104th

• Rutgers (Sept. 25) — 79th

• Wisconsin (Oct. 2)* — 15th

• Nebraska (Oct. 9)* — 46th

• Northwestern (Oct. 23) — 30th

• Michigan State (Oct. 30)* — 56th

• Indiana (Nov. 6) — 25th

• Penn State (Nov. 13)* — 10th

• Maryland (Nov. 20)* — 55th

• Ohio State (Nov. 27) — 5th

* True road game

***

Michigan plays five teams that check in ahead of it in the FPI, including No. 5 Ohio State, No. 10 Penn State, No. 15 Wisconsin, No. 25 Indiana and No. 30 Northwestern, making the 2021 schedule a daunting one.The good news for the Wolverines, though, is that they don't play a team ranked higher than them until week five at Wisconsin. Washington (No. 59) is set to be the toughest test in the non-conference.

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