ESPN’s FPI Rankings continue to puzzle us.

Despite storming into Lincoln and defeating the Nebraska Cornhuskers, 30-27, the Michigan Wolverines have fallen two spots in the index. Michigan now has an FPI score of 18.0 and is within half a point of Penn State. The FPI has Michigan as the No. 12 team in the nation with a projected win-loss record of 8.9-3.3, a touch higher than last week’s diagnosis.

Sure, Ohio State (22.4), a surging Indiana (21.4) — which leapt 10 spots to No. 6 overall after a thorough beating of Illinois over the weekend — and a much-improved USC (20.8) are still ahead of the Wolverines as far as Big Ten teams are concerned, but this conference is far from impossible to conquer. Michigan is also a program that tends to play its best ball later in the season, when the m

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