Michigan almost made it back to the Top-25 in this week’s first regular season Associated Press poll. The Wolverines, who beat Connecticut 30-to-10 in Saturday’s opener in Ann Arbor, received 71 votes to finish right behind 25th-ranked Stanford. Michigan was last ranked in 22nd place last season after starting out 4-and-0 before a 5-and-7 finish.

Michigan State wound up in 42nd place this week with 2 votes after its win last weekend over Western Michigan. In the U-S-A Today/ESPN coach’s poll, Michigan is 35th and M-S-U 36th.

Michigan plays Saturday at Notre Dame, where Fighting Irish coach Brian Kelly said yesterday that Wolverine’s quarterback Denard Robinson proved with his performance against Connecticut that he is a true dual threat. Notre Dame was ranked 31st this week by the A-P and was 27th in the coach’s poll. The Fighting Irish are listed as 4-point favorites over Michigan.