The Tale Of The Tape: How Michigan And Illinois Match Up

The Michigan Wolverines will play in their first road game since the 35-14 loss to Wisconsin in week four as they travel to Illinois for a noon showdown Saturday.

We examine how U-M and Illinois match up based on various analytics and look at what matchups to focus on when the Wolverines and the Fighting Illini get together in Champaign.

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The Football Power Index (FPI) is a measure of team strength that is meant to be the best predictor of a team's performance going forward for the rest of the season. FPI represents how many points above or below average a team is.

Michigan: 13th ranked nationally with FPI score of 14.9

Illinois: 89th ranked nationally with FPI score of -7.0

U-M has a much better track record so far this year in both FPI and ESPN Team Efficiency scores. Offensively, the teams are ranked similarly, but U-M still has the edge. Team efficiencies are based on the point contributions of each unit to the team's scoring margin, on a per-play basis.

Michigan

Overall: 50th in team efficiency with a score of 60.0

Offense: 94th in offensive efficiency with a score of 38.9

Defense: 24th in defensive efficiency with a score of 75.5

Illinois

Overall: 99th in team efficiency with a score of 35.2

Offense: 116th in offensive efficiency with a score of 22.7

Defense: 85th in defensive efficiency with a score of 44.6

SP+ Rankings are compiled based on what Football Outsiders' Bill Connelly has deemed the Five Factors of college football: efficiency, explosiveness, field position and finishing drives; a fifth factor, turnovers, is informed marginally by sack rates, the only quality-based statistic that has a consistent relationship with turnover margins.

Here's how the two teams rank:

Michigan: 17th ranked with an SP+ score of 17.6

Illinois: 71st ranked with an SP+ score of -0.3