Michigan Wolverines football takes on the Wisconsin Badgers on Saturday night at The Big House (7:30 p.m. ET on ABC).
Here's a comparison of how the two teams stack up, when looking at several different sets of analytical metrics.
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ESPN's Football Power Index (FPI)
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. Here are the national ranks and scores for each team:
Michigan: 28th with a score of 9.9
Wisconsin: 4th with a score of 24.0
Here are the ESPN Team Efficiency Scores:
Michigan
Overall: 48th with a score of 57.3
Offense: 21st with a score of 71.3
Defense: 77th with a score of 42.8
Wisconsin
Overall: 3rd with a score of 88.5
Offense: 25th with a score of 69.8
Defense: 1st with a score of 95.0
ESPN's SP+ Rating
ESPN's SP+ rating is "a tempo- and opponent-adjusted measure of college football efficiency" created by Bill Connelly, designed to predict future games, and doesn't serve as a résumé ranking. Here's how the metric sees Michigan and Michigan State:
Michigan
Overall: 18th with a rating of 14.0
Offense: 30th with a rating of 34.0
Defense: 19th with a rating of 19.9
Wisconsin
Overall: 4th with a rating of 25.7
Offense: 12th with a rating of 38.3
Defense: 2nd with a rating of 12.6
Analysis: In Wisconsin's one game (a 45-7 win over Illinois), the Badgers were extremely efficient on offense, especially in the passing game, with redshirt freshman quarterback Graham Mertz completing 20-of-21 passes for 248 yards and five touchdowns in his first career start. Defensively, they also had their way with the Illini offense.
Michigan, on the other hand, has been disappointing the last two weeks, but they've still been efficient on offense, according to the above metrics. The Wolverines have had success offensively, but not on a consistent enough basis. For example, Michigan is 10-for-28 on third-down conversions over the last two weeks. Wisconsin's defense will be a whole new challenge this weekend.
FPI is giving Michigan just a 12.8 percent chance to beat the Badgers at home.
Michigan Offense vs. Wisconsin Defense
According to PFF, Michigan has the No. 37 offense in the country while Wisconsin's defense ranks at No. 32 after two weeks.
A note on PFF grades — a single-game grade of about 64 is considered average.
