Talk about your bad polls...

Oregon 39, Michigan 7.

A week after being upset by Appalachian State, the Michigan Wolverines were handed their most lopsided loss in 39 years as Dennis Dixon and the Ducks cruised 39-7 on Saturday.

Dixon accounted for 368 yards and a career-high four touchdowns.

Michigan (0-2) has opened a season with two straight losses at home for the first time since 1959 and has dropped four straight, dating to last season.

Unlike in the stunning loss to the second-tier Mountaineers, the Wolverines didn't even keep it close against Oregon. The 32-point setback was Michigan's worst since it lost 50-14 at Ohio State in 1968.

Has there ever been a team as grossly overrated by the preseason polls as onetime #5 Michigan? You have to wonder what it was that the voters saw in this team.

I think this is one more reason why there shouldn't be a preseason poll for football, which is a hobbyhorse of Salon's King Kaufman. Kaufman's point is that some teams that might eventually have a legitimate claim for a chance to play for the BCS championship are effectively eliminated from same by starting the season being ranked too low - they're unable to leapfrog all the teams ahead of them, even as those teams lose and they remain unbeaten. It seems to me that if the pollsters can be so wrong about the quality of a team like Michigan in 2007, they can also be wrong about (say) a Boise State from 2006. Why guess when you can see a game or two first? Get rid of the preseason poll, and this problem goes away.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on September 10, 2007 to Other sports