For those who don't watch Michigan football, which is frankly something I don't recommend doing if you were considering it, one of the things that you might need to understand is that the actual games they play are kind of meaningless in light of the week's worth of anticipation that occurs beforehand. In other words, their games are essentially a three and a half hour long punchline to a seven day joke.
"Ha ha Michgan is a joke," okay yes, that's true, but that's not really what I'm saying. Under Jim Harbaugh, the Michigan football program has become so ridiculously inconsistent and rudderless that whatever their effort was in the previous game plus the week's worth of anticipation based on said effort leads to the unexpected conclusion that is whatever happens in the the next game.