Bruce Feldman explains why many might lean Alabama over Michigan in Rose Bowl

College football insider Bruce Feldman spoke to various coaches about this year’s College Football Playoff matchups, which included speaking to the Big Ten’s coaches about Michigan‘s Rose Bowl matchup with Alabama.

The league’s coaches were down on the Wolverines, with many favoring the Crimson Tide in the matchup. Feldman joined the ‘The Next Round’ on Tuesday and was asked if he expected that kind of feedback from Big Ten coaches who have faced Michigan this season.

“I did not, I’ll be honest,” Feldman admitted. “I knew that some of the Big Ten coaches, especially who played Michigan, might be a little salty about their feelings on that program and certainly their head coach. But it was overwhelming. The way they talked you felt Alabama would be at least a touchdown to 10-point favorite and instead it was Michigan that was the slight favorite.”

No. 1 Michigan was one of the top-three ranked teams in the nation for the entire season, running the table with an undefeated record and looking dominant for the majority of the year. But various factors, including their not-so-dominant end to the season, could be why Big Ten coaches at large are leaning towards an Alabama win on New Year’s Day.

“But it was almost entirely across the board and I think a little of it also though was due to the way Michigan looked in the last month of the season, and maybe JJ McCarthy, we heard he was banged up a little bit,” Feldman said. “Certainly Jim Harbaugh wasn’t able to coach those, he coached the Big Ten title game but he was not there for Penn State, he was not there for Maryland or the Ohio State game and I think that part of Michigan looking very one-dimensional I think gave a lot of people pause.”

Michigan’s final three games of the regular season without Harbaugh at the helm, as he served a suspension, represented their most narrow three margins of victory of the season. And Michigan’s one dimension nature that was alluded to could be highlighted by them running the ball 32 times in a row to close out the game against Penn State.

It would be curious to see if a similar tactic could possibly work against the Crimson Tide, but Feldman also believes that the confidence in Alabama could say more about their feelings towards them in comparison to Michigan.

“And I also think they saw Alabama at their best, these guys are watching on TV and I think they’re looking going we just saw Alabama beat Georgia. I don’t know how many of them probably saw Alabama have their hands full with Auburn or even what they looked like in the first half of the year,” Feldman explained.

“Now some of the coaches I talked to for the story that went up this morning on guys who coached against Alabama, they were much more positive on what they saw in terms of a team that improved a lot. So it felt like one team was trending up and the other one might be trending down, but you know what, it’s a month from the last game.”

“Things can change.”