Should the UM-osu game be played on Thanksgiving weekend?
A topic that has come up on various discussions here has now been broached again due to the coming Big Ten expansion: scheduling of existing conference matchups, specifically The Game.
Looking back at prior years, it seems like every game from 2010 onwards was played on the weekend after Thanksgiving (which many consider a holiday weekend). The majority (with a few exceptions) of seasons before 2010 had The Game on the weekend just before Thanksgiving.
Obviously people here have different opinions on that - and feel free to share them.
I would like to pose a question *primarily* to any here who were Michigan students during any the years 2010 and after (although this could be true for others as well): did having The Game over the course of a holiday weekend prevent you from attending (assuming you would have otherwise)?
My suspicion is that many students from out of state (or even in-state with families not near Ann Arbor) would be less likely to attend... and more likely to sell their tickets on the secondary market (making it easier for OH & MI dwelling osu fans to attend, who are less affected by holiday travel since the vast majority of osu students are in-state). Yet - I have no data or reports to verify this... only the swaths of red in the Big House stands in recent games that seem greater now than "back in the day".
Any *useful* comments or anecdotes are appreciated... maybe someone involved in future scheduling may see them and take into consideration.
It should be the last game of the regular season with two 9 team divisions. Getting rid of divisions and playing the Michigan OSU game twice is stupid.
Agreed. I think rotating divisions is the ticket - a west coast 4, an iowa-and-rivals 4, and then duos of IL schools, IN schools, and Atlantic schools. One threesome - MI and OSU - and then Penn St as a lonesome unrivaled. In 3 seasons you play everyone, in 6 you visit every campus and play everyone thrice. M-OSU will always be in the same division and you'll never play a rematch in Indy (or Pasadena)
More details:
From 1980-2010, the game was held after Thanksgiving only 4 times.
For the vast majority of my life it was the week before Thanksgiving, which was very nice.
If we won, that is .. if not then the Thursday feast didn't taste as good.
Been a huge fan for 50 years. Started following recruiting in 1975, I am a traditionalist for the most part.
With that being said, would it be awful if the game was moved to the first Saturday of November? It's late enough in the season to still be a big deal and would avoid having to play each other in back to back weeks, potentially.
The Alabama/LSU game is always that weekend. I wouldn't mind that, we'll just have to beat 3rd base in nicer weather, kinda like we did last year...on their precious home field.
In short: yes it would be that awful.
Alabama/LSU? C'mon.
This is simple: there must be divisions, M/OSU need to be in the same one, and it needs to be the last game, fin.
They should add a 10th conference game and just have what used to be conference title game week as rivalry week.
The question isn't whether it should be the last game of the season, but whether we should play it the weekend before Thanksgiving or the weekend after. I definitely preferred it the weekend before.
But as for this...
two 9 team divisions
That would mean that we, OSU and PSU would practically never play the ex-Pac-12 schools. No way would the Big Ten (or its advertisers) be happy with that. They didn't bring in SC and Oregon to play Minnesota every year, they want them to play the big boys in the East. That's why there won't be divisions.
USC/Oregon/UCLA trio is not playing UM/OSU/PSU trio every year. So it doesn't matter if the HUGE conference is divided into divisions or not.
I consider USC-Minnesota "similar" to UM-Rutgers, an unnecessary staple of a HUGE conference.
I think of it more as a question of whether the league should be divided into conferences. Eighteen is not going to feel like a conference. We should get used to not seeing opponents for years at a time - like Purdue over the last decade, only it's entire sets of schools.
USC/Oregon/UCLA trio is not playing UM/OSU/PSU trio every year
Wait until you see the schedule before you assume that. I expect we'll play at least two of the ex-Pac teams every year (and I'm fine with that).
August 7th, 2023 at 12:53 AM ^
I hear you. My assumption was that UM or anyone else for that matter would not unnecessarily increase the strength of schedule. Of course the increased revenue could push schools towards exactly that.
I can see that happening. You are right.
I am of two minds - I often go home to Ann Arbor for thanksgiving so it's great to be there, but often times there are family responsibilities that weekend that make it difficult to properly tailgate/watch/celebrate. My dad even had the gall to get remarried the day of our 2021 win.
I do like having it be the last weekend of the regular season - adds some heft to the game, and in my opinion adds to the intensity and stakes of the game. Obviously it would be a huge game even on the first week of the season, but you can't be the implications for the playoffs and bowl games that come from it being the last game.
My dad even had the gall to get remarried the day of our 2021 win.
Please tell me he understood why you weren’t there!?
OSU's record against us since 2001 probably has a lot to do with their fan numbers since then.
But I'm sure having the Game on Thanksgiving weekend is an inconvenience from a travel standpoint for a lot of people, and while it isn't for me personally, I don't like it because it makes that weekend really busy. I'd definitely rather do it the weekend before and have Thanksgiving week off.
Of course not. It’s a tradition, and the current goal is the elimination of all tradition.
No, the tradition was to play it the weekend before, and the Big Ten would then have Thanksgiving week off.
The Game was moved to Thanksgiving weekend relatively recently.
Yea I enjoyed having it before Thanksgiving when I was a student in the '00s. I think I'd like that better than having it Thanksgiving weekend (again from a students' perspective - as an alum, doesn't really matter to me). But either way, I think it should be the last regular season game
"Traditionally" it was not Thanksgiving weekend.
It was moved to Thanksgiving in part to eliminate the rust factor in the Bowl Game but I suspect the real reason was TV money.
There were a couple of games Thanksgiving in the late 80's. I'm don't know why - There was MgBlog then; just The Wolverine and the Detroit papers.
If I recall correctly the league added more bye-weeks into the schedule around the same time, thus making the regular season a week longer.
Yes, they added the bye week because they extended the season a week later to reduce the "rust factor."
In addition, that was when they established a CCG and wanted to play it the same day as other CCGs thus wanted to play conference games the week immediately prior to the CCG.
I loved having it the weekend before thanksgiving. Back then, we’d usually win and I could gloat to my Ohio family on thanksgiving
I’ll go one step further. With all the realignment, should Thanksgiving be on Thanksgiving weekend anymore?. I mean, is Thanksgiving’s television contract really all that great? When does its Grant of Rights expire?
The Lions play on Thanksgiving so the contract is not great.
Thank you mace!
It's difficult to find much humor in watching our college football traditions get murdered in front of our eyes!
You succeeded!
As it stands now, Thanksgiving is the PAC12 of holidays. Santa has already nibbled away at November and is poised to take over the entire month. Thanksgiving should consider aligning itself with either St Patrick’s day for a drunk pilgrim month or maybe the Fourth of July. If I remember correctly, the pilgrims fled England because of restrictions on their bottle rockets.
August 6th, 2023 at 12:24 AM ^
Word on the street is that Halloween is deep in conversations with Presidents’ Day on a potential tie-up to try to survive the Christmas media rights onslaught. I heard they’ve got a deal in place with Patrick Swayze’s estate for him to model their Dead President’s Mask crossover item, although Johnny Utah, Ohio’s only likable quarterback, is looking into potential recruiting violations.
This year will be interesting to see how much scarlet is in the stadium
If you have tickets to The Game and your family is upset that you went to The Game instead of going home, get a new family. A real family will understand
Yea but my family has an ironclad buyout fee
I just don't see "the scarlet in the stadium" of which you speak .This is the last time they were in A2.
That's because Michigan fans finally decided to hang on to their own tickets that year, unlike 2009-2019.
August 5th, 2023 at 11:46 PM ^
My oldest son and I are in that picture, down on the field. It was so glorious. The whole thing. The first time I was on that field was 1997, with my brother who has since passed. My son is named after my brother.
I was on the field in 2011 too, and while it was beautiful, it didn't feel as glorious as 1997 or 2021.
There was a ton of red that left the stadium 10 or 15 minutes before that photo was taken.
I think having it thanksgiving weekend is an advantage for OSU with their school having a significantly greater percentage of instaters. I’m from MI and never went to the game in school as it was one of the few times to see all of my family together.
No , to thanksgiving weekend. Just another way to screw the students
It should be the last game of the regular conference season and should be played the Saturday after Thanksgiving or the Saturday before. Not the Friday after.
It should be played only in the daytime.
It should be a home and home series and never played at Ford Field or any other so-called neutral site.
No rematch for a conference championship. I'm not excited about a rematch in the CFP but I don't know how to get around it unless we junk the CFP (which I'd be okay with).
The Michigan Football I grew up with and I am afraid of losing was all centered on a climax of a game against Ohio State at the end of the season hopefully for a championship or for pride if we had a down season. Anything that happens after is anticlimactic.
Third Base is wrong - If the Game is held in October, what is the point of sitting in the cold in November.
Yes, Michigan - Ohio State should always be the last regular season game of the year. Period.
Let's just move Thanksgiving. Problem solved.
Edit: Damn, just saw Macenblu had the same idea before me.
Thanksgiving will only be scheduled on years we win, or slightly over half the time
losing fanbase must fast for 4 days cause there is no thanks to be given
Let's just move Thanksgiving. Problem solved.
Roosevelt did move Thanksgiving, in order to encourage more Christmas shopping.
(And for that matter, for a long time,Thanksgiving was determined by each state). So why not?
In 1989 The Game was the Saturday after Thanksgiving. I was a sophomore. I was there and it was glorious.
I’ve attended every year since 2003. Finally saw Michigan win at the Shoe after 9 attempts. The post-Thanksgiving trips to Columbus are probably over for me but I’ll be at The Game in Ann Arbor for the foreseeable future.
Hail!
The move was both practical from a season length standpoint and practical from a postseason break standpoint. People forget, but there was some justified consternation that B1G schools were idle for two extra weeks compared with their warmer-climate counterparts; whether that *actually* influenced the outcomes of, say, the 2006 postseason or not (I recall a fair amount of talk about Troy Smith getting out of shape, at least in message-board-land), speculation holds that it was a disadvantage for us to have such a long break. And I think that speculation is correct.
The reality is that with a permanent 12-game-season it's no longer feasible not to have The Game there. And The Game belongs there. There is nothing like it and there never will be, and we should hang on to every last vestige of what it college football has been in ways like this. Don't get nihilistic; with traditions everywhere crumbling, there is no reason not to buttress this one in hardened steel.
BTW I think Donovan Edwards just scored again.
August 6th, 2023 at 10:03 AM ^
Persuasive points.
That forces a lot of people to work that weekend but I suppose no one gives a shit about that.
They are going to be working that weekend regardless. Moving The Game to another Saturday means moving another game to that Saturday.
Without a doubt - Yes
I’m gonna say no.
It was the week before thanksgiving when I was a student - culminating in ‘97 season/‘98 graduation (suck it bitches). I don’t like that students have to be there over the holiday weekend or miss the game.
For a four year student, two of the games will be in Columbus. I know it's a head-scratcher, but a lot of students don't care about football anyway. So we're only talking about some students, half the time. And I can easily imagine such students deciding to spend one of the remaining years attending the game, and the other year watching on TV back at home.
While they might be out of state, traveling on Black Friday is not out of the question for a large , so Thanksgiving at home and the Big House on Saturday are definitely doable.