[BostonCard]

Because beating a dreadful UCF team by 37 at home shows... what, exactly?  I wonder if the coaches moving Michigan past us even realized Stanford was idle this past weekend.

Well, while it doesn't show us much, but it does eliminate a smidgen of uncertainty.  Before the game was played, we might reasonably expect Michigan to beat UCF by a healthy margin.  But there is a smaller but non-zero chance that they win a very tight game, and an even smaller but non-zero chance that they get upset.  These things sometimes happen.  Once the game is played, those small uncertainties are eliminated, so playing the game does show us a little bit, by eliminating the possibility that we would be asking questions about Michigan on the basis of a close win or *gasp* a loss.

But I agree, it doesn't tell us very much.

BC

[BostonCard]

Because beating a dreadful UCF team by 37 at home shows... what, exactly?  I wonder if the coaches moving Michigan past us even realized Stanford was idle this past weekend.

Well, while it doesn't show us much, but it does eliminate a smidgen of uncertainty.  Before the game was played, we might reasonably expect Michigan to beat UCF by a healthy margin.  But there is a smaller but non-zero chance that they win a very tight game, and an even smaller but non-zero chance that they get upset.  These things sometimes happen.  Once the game is played, those small uncertainties are eliminated, so playing the game does show us a little bit, by eliminating the possibility that we would be asking questions about Michigan on the basis of a close win or *gasp* a loss.

But I agree, it doesn't tell us very much.

BC