schedule
Nebraska was moved down. [Patrick Barron]

Updated Big Ten Schedule Released Comment Count

Seth January 12th, 2022 at 12:39 PM

Finally, the Big Ten has updated their 2022 schedules. No more message board threads asking whether the MSU game got moved back to the OSU home/road schedule. It did not, but that flip demanded a bunch of schedule rearranging to fix problems it caused, e.g. Michigan would have had to play its entire November on the road.

The new schedule for 2022:

2022
Date Opp Where
Sep 3 Colorado State Ann Arbor, MI
Sep 10 Hawaii Ann Arbor, MI
Sep 17 UConn Ann Arbor, MI
Sep 24 Maryland Ann Arbor, MI
Oct 1 at Iowa Iowa City, IA
Oct 8 at Indiana Bloomington, IN
Oct 15 Penn State Ann Arbor, MI
Oct 22 Open  
Oct 29 Michigan State Ann Arbor, MI
Nov 5 at Rutgers Piscataway, NJ
Nov 12 Nebraska Ann Arbor, MI
Nov 19 Illinois Ann Arbor, MI
Nov 26 at Ohio State Columbus, OH

And here's the whole conference:

MSU and PSU have bye weeks before facing Michigan. It's Ohio State's turn to have November Maryland. Also starting this year the East-West guaranteed games have rolled over to their second pairing, so Michigan now gets Nebraska while Ohio State is the one locked into Wisconsin for a time.

[After THE JUMP: Discussion. Also, THE JUMP will take you right to this spot now]

Other than keeping September Maryland, it’s not so bad. The Iowa, Maryland, and Ohio State games were kept in place. Everything else got moved around. Here’s a comparison:
Date 2022 Schedule Was
Sep 3 Colorado State -
Sep 10 Hawaii -
Sep 17 Connecticut -
Sep 24 Maryland -
Oct 1 at Iowa -
Oct 8 at Indiana Penn State
Oct 15 Penn State Nebraska
Oct 22 Bye Week Michigan State
Oct 29 Michigan State Illinois
Nov 5 at Rutgers Bye Week
Nov 12 Nebraska at Indiana
Nov 19 Illinois at Rutgers
Nov 26 at Ohio State -

The big boons for Michigan are two home games in November where there were none, a slightly tougher test the week before Ohio State, and a bye week in front of MSU. They still get a game at Iowa that will probably be a night game, and September Maryland, which as we all know is vastly different than November Maryland.

The non-conference slate is weak because a home and home with UCLA was canceled. They would have had UCLA at home this year and played in Pasadena in 2023. Big Ten schedules for 2023 and beyond are still being hashed out, but the mgoblue.com schedule was updated sometime in the last half hour.

Comments

smwilliams

January 12th, 2022 at 2:44 PM ^

It's hard to predict anything given some of the uncertainty around Harbaugh, but if he stays, and the offense continues to develop given their returning everyone but Haskins, Steuber, and Vastardis (and the OL might actually be better given Zinter, Keegan, and Hayes' growth plus a Rimington finalist coming in) AND the defense finds a way to make up for the loss of Hutch/Ojabo/Dax, man 11-0 heading into Columbus looks like a decent bet.

Outside of the COVID year, under Harbaugh Michigan is 59-20. Breaking it down where Michigan is .500 or worse:

1-5 vs. OSU

1-5 vs. Bowl Games

3-3 vs. MSU

2-2 in Happy Valley

1-2 in Madison

51-3 in every other game. Only other losses: 2015 at Utah, 2016 at Iowa, 2018 at Notre Dame.

I really only see at Kinnick, home vs MSU, at OSU as being potential Ls. 

9-3 floor, 12-0 ceiling. 

Joined: 08/20/2010

MGoPoints: 9917

CLord

January 12th, 2022 at 2:44 PM ^

Sep 3 Colorado State - W
Sep 10 Hawaii - W
Sep 17 Connecticut - W
Sep 24 Maryland - W
Oct 1 at Iowa - Lean W
Oct 8 at Indiana - W
Oct 15 Penn State - Lean W
Oct 29 Michigan State - Lean W
Nov 5 at Rutgers - W
Nov 12 Nebraska - W
Nov 19 Illinois - W
Nov 26 at Ohio State - Lean L

Assuming we split the 4 leans, that's 10-2, with chaos ranging it from 9-3 to 11-1.  A 12-0 expectation is never realistic. 

Trap games are Rutgers and Nebraska.  Even though Illinois is before OSU, I just can't find myself fearing them.

Nice season coming.  I fully expect the offense to be solid, but my big hope for the D is for Coach Mac to make a sophomore leap, which may be necessary to compensate for big losses on that side of the ball.

Joined: 09/11/2011

MGoPoints: -6342

Sambojangles

January 12th, 2022 at 2:46 PM ^

According to the all-conference graphic, Iowa/Nebraska is the only scheduled Friday game. So maybe the Big Ten is going away from the Friday night concept. Or it's a temporary break due to the schedule changes being late in the game. Either way, I'm happy Michigan never participated because college football is best on Saturday afternoon.

Joined: 12/15/2008

MGoPoints: 10996

Blue1972

January 12th, 2022 at 2:52 PM ^

If the BIG TEN ever wants to seriously contend for a Natty, they need to schedule weaker, non-conference opponents for later in the year. For example, Bama played New Mexico State in November, I believe just following a bye week, and Georgia played Charleston Southern in late November. This allows the SEC teams to rest their front line players and get them ready for their conference championships, etc.

Joined: 09/12/2010

MGoPoints: 4014

DonAZ

January 12th, 2022 at 2:53 PM ^

I thought by some scheduling quirk we were supposed to be in East Lansing again this year, but this shows us playing MSU in Ann Arbor.  Which is good -- OSU and MSU should alternate home/away for us.  Having both OSU and MSU away in a given year didn't seem right.

Joined: 12/05/2011

MGoPoints: 16780

Seth

January 12th, 2022 at 4:05 PM ^

This was done in 2020, and they just didn't update the schedule on mgoblue.com for 2 years...2 years of people starting board threads wondering what was up. I got so sick of it.

Michigan State got that schedule change to screw Michigan and the Big Ten approved it to screw Dave Brandon (via Bacon's book on Brandon, and I've heard the same from an MSU trustee). But MSU (via the same trustee) kind of bit themselves in the ass in the process, because they now had OSU and Michigan at home the same years, and Indiana was always on our side because they got put in the same boat, and was not happy about it.

When they restructured the 2020 season, they decided that was an opportunity to fix it without MSU being upset that Michigan got two home games, even though MSU got two home games in 2013 and 2014 when they screwed everything up in the first place. There weren't going to be any fans in the stadium in 2020 anyways, so then MSU wouldn't miss out on their home game, and Michigan would get their schedule back to normal.

The Big Ten still has entirely too many Michigan-haters running all aspects of the operation, and it continues to cause Michigan all kinds of problems. So it was lucky that we could find a way to get what we wanted and still give MSU more out of it. Anything fair, let alone good for Michigan, would be a non-starter.

Joined: 10/14/2008

MGoPoints: 149874

Fan from TTDS

January 12th, 2022 at 5:16 PM ^

Yep just like OSU.  OSU starts out with 5 home games and away games with MSU, PSU, Northwestern and Maryland.  I have to figure out which games may be night games and get my hotel rooms now.  I don't like driving 2 hours back home when games are over at 11PM.

Before this change they had OSU going to MSU and PSU back to back weeks 9/25 and 10/1.  Now we go to MSU on 10/8 and to PSU on 10/29.  :)

 

Joined: 12/05/2021

MGoPoints: 538

waittilnextyear

January 12th, 2022 at 7:01 PM ^

I prefer the seasons where expectations are low and we overperform (like last season where Michigan beat Ohio State 42-27, for example), but with this schedule it is very difficult to see fewer than 9 wins. @Iowa, vs MSU, @OSU are the only uncertain ones to me. I mean, no games are totally certain, but Kinnick Magiks, 0-2 vs Mel Tucker, and a bloodlusting OSU team seems to be toughest.

With PSU being at home, I'm thinking cake walk. Same with Nebraska--Frost WILL find a way to lose that game even if the Huskers are decent in '22. And not just best-damn-3-win-team decent, but actually decent.

I like that the bye week is before Staee, but I'd like it a lot more if they didn't also have their bye week then.

Also, nice to have a break from the Badgers. Don't mind playing them, but good to play weaker B1G West foes when we can.

Joined: 09/11/2021

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Fan from TTDS

January 12th, 2022 at 9:04 PM ^

The good thing is OSU doesn't have to play at MSU and at PSU back to back like it was in the schedule before this one came out today.  We also get a bye week before playing Iowa at home.  I would not want to go to Iowa.  We also do not play MSU or PSU before we play MI.  Buckeye fans like our new schedule now.

9/3  ND

9/10 Arkansas St.

9/17 Toledo

9/24 Wisc

10/1  Rutgers

10/8  at MSU

10/15  bye

10/22  Iowa

10/29  at PSU

11/5  at Northwestern

11/12  Indiana

11/19  at Maryland

11/26  The Game

 

Joined: 12/05/2021

MGoPoints: 538

Blue Vet

January 13th, 2022 at 7:14 AM ^

Harbinger of fall.

I know about "harbingers of spring" but I can't recall reading about harbingers of other season.

Until now. This feels like a harbinger of fall. Regardless of schedule, it's fun watching Michigan football games.

 

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MGoPoints: 72018

outsidethebox

January 13th, 2022 at 7:21 AM ^

These unbalanced divisional schedules need to go. The current East/West divide is beyond ridiculous-get rid of the divisions. The B1G should lead the way and move to a schedule that distills out who the top teams really are-have all the top teams play each other...no more embarrassing schedules like Iowa had last year. And move the Michigan vs OSU game to October. 

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