Saturday, November 06, 2010

Highest UMich football game score

Today's nail-biter of a shootout-game ended with 132 total points. This point total makes it the highest-scoring game in Michigan history (according to this site). Quickly, reviewing, the previous games, this is how they stack up, in terms of cumulative scores:
  1. Michigan v. Illinois (2010): 132 points
  2. Michigan v. West Virginia (1904): 130 points
  3. Michigan v. Buffalo (1901): 128 points
  4. Michigan v. Michigan Agriculture (1902): 119 points
  5. Michigan v. Iowa (1902): 107 points
  6. Michigan v. Northwestern (2000): 105 points
  7. Michigan v. Kalamazoo (1904): 95 points
  8. Michigan v. Illinois (1981): 91 points
  9. Michigan v. Purdue (2008): 90 points
  10. Michigan v. Beloit (1901): 89 points
So... of the other 100+ point games in UMich football history, only one was within the past 100 years. Looking more closely at the underlying point breakdowns, it is notable that in those older games, Michigan played shut-out games, whereas the 2000 game (and today's game) were almost even. In fact, looking at the top ten most winning games in UMich history, we see that today's game wasn't that remarkable:
  1. 1904: Michigan 130 v. West Virginia 0
  2. 1901: Michigan 128 v. Buffalo 0
  3. 1902: Michigan 119 v. Michigan Agriculture 0
  4. 1902: Michigan 107 v. Iowa 0
  5. 1904: Michigan 95 v. Kalamazoo 0
  6. 1901: Michigan 89 v. Beloit 0
  7. 1902: Michigan 88 v. Albion 0
  8. 1903: Michigan 88 v. Ferris Institute 0
  9. 1902: Michigan 86 v. Ohio State 0
  10. 1939: Michigan 85 v. Chicago 0
In fact, today's game is 28th place in terms of points scored, preceded by the 68-0 game against Michigan AA in 1892 and succeeded by 66-7 game against Washington (St. Louis). However, it was the second most points scored by a Michigan offense in the past 30 years (second only to the 69-13 game against Illinois in 1986).

If today's game wasn't anywhere near the top of UMich's highest-scoring games, then it follows that it must the highest number of points allowed in any game in Michigan history. Looking at the numbers for points allowed (i.e., points scored against Michigan), we see this:
  1. 2010: Michigan 67 v. Illinois 65
  2. 1891: Michigan 12 v. Cornell 58
  3. 1889: Michigan 0 v. Cornell 56
  4. 1958: Michigan 24 v. Northwestern 55
  5. 2000: Michigan 51 v. Northwestern 54
  6. 1991: Michigan 31 v. Florida State 51
  7. 1968: Michigan 14 v. Ohio State 50
  8. 2008: Michigan 42 v. Purdue 48
  9. 2008: Michigan 17 v. Penn State 46
  10. 1883: Michigan 0 v. Yale 46
So... we win this game, with the highest point total in UMich football history, but we also win this game with the highest points allowed in UMich football history.

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