Michigan-ND rivalry renewal prospects "trending up" !
This is blowing up on twitter. Brian Kelly mentioned it on Rich Eisen's show.
The good Brian's take on this-
if Jim Hackett gets the ND series back on it's time to start talking statue
— mgoblog (@mgoblog) September 9, 2015September 9th, 2015 at 2:39 PM ^
what year we talking?
September 9th, 2015 at 2:49 PM ^
2018 and 2019 are years both schools have open dates.
Michigan's schedules if they do renew with ND-
2018
9/1 vs Arkansas
9/8 vs Notre Dame
9/15 vs SMU
9/22 vs Nebraska
9/29 at Northwestern
10/6 vs Maryland
10/13 vs Wisconsin
10/20 at Michigan State
10/27 Bye
11/3 vs Penn State
11/10 at Rutgers
11/17 vs Indiana
11/24 at Ohio State
12/1 B1G Championship
2019
8/31 at Arkansas
9/7 vs Army West Point
9/14 at Notre Dame
9/21 at Wisconsin
9/28 Bye
10/5 vs Iowa
10/12 at Illinois
10/19 at Penn State
10/26 vs Rutgers
11/2 at Maryland
11/9 Bye
11/16 vs Michigan State
11/23 at Indiana
11/30 vs Ohio State
12/7 B1G Championship
September 9th, 2015 at 2:53 PM ^
September 9th, 2015 at 2:54 PM ^
September 9th, 2015 at 2:55 PM ^
The playoff committee is going to love that strength of schedule.
September 9th, 2015 at 3:25 PM ^
But you have to win the games...
September 9th, 2015 at 3:27 PM ^
Harbaugh will be in year 4 by then. They're gonna win big.
September 9th, 2015 at 3:30 PM ^
While the 2018 schedule looks pretty awesome with a projected 8 home games, 2019 looks really bad with only 5 home games. Might make sense have ND start away then home, but still only gets it to 7 & 6 home games, respectively.
September 9th, 2015 at 3:53 PM ^
I assume the reasoning there is to not have all three rivalry games at home in one year (2019) and all three on the road in the other.
We can, of course, renegotiate the Arkansas contract, or one of the others.
September 9th, 2015 at 7:01 PM ^
You honestly think the playoff committee cares about strength of schedule?
September 9th, 2015 at 7:43 PM ^
September 9th, 2015 at 9:59 PM ^
September 9th, 2015 at 10:31 PM ^
well they must care about it somewhat, because FSU was 13-0 and ranked 3rd behind two 1-loss teams. Meanwhile, SOS had something to do with OSU leaping over Baylor and TCU. I think we will see how much SOS comes into question this year if Boise State goes undefeated. Also, this year should be even more interesting because I dont think any P5 school (other than maybe OSU) finishes undefeated.
September 9th, 2015 at 10:38 PM ^
September 9th, 2015 at 4:49 PM ^
Wisconsin and Nebraska?? Hooray!
September 9th, 2015 at 3:03 PM ^
Texas-Oklahoma home-and-homes, so not until 2028. Or maybe also pair them with UCLA in '23 and '24 which would make for an awesome-but-difficult non conference.
September 9th, 2015 at 3:14 PM ^
Well which one is it? Inquiring minds wanna know!
September 9th, 2015 at 3:23 PM ^
BREAKING: Michigan agrees to renew series with Notre Dame in 13 years! Don't everybody start celebrating too fast!
September 9th, 2015 at 3:20 PM ^
Even if two of them are OSU and MSU, there's no way we do that.
September 9th, 2015 at 3:23 PM ^
There's no way we go on the road to play a non-conference game the same year both rivalry games are on the road. Had the last AD not been such a gutless ass, we wouldn't have these problems.
September 9th, 2015 at 4:50 PM ^
In 2010, the year before Nebraska joined the Big Ten, Michigan had to play at Notre Dame, at Penn State and at Ohio State that year with Michigan State a home game. For the record, that was on Bill Martin's watch.
In 2011 with the Leaders and Legends Divisions in place, Michigan had Notre Dame, Nebraska and Ohio State all at home with Michigan State on the road. Back then, the Big Ten opted to balance out the conferences based on recent history (back to 1993) and had the top four teams in the two divisions (Michigan/Nebraska and Ohio State/Penn State). Michigan State wasn't in the top four at that time. This arrangement lasted until 2013 and left us with the possibility of back-to-back season ending games with Ohio State (which happily didn't happen).
Add two more schools and flip to a nine team schedule so that by 2016, the Michigan State and Ohio State games are offset on the home-away rotation with Penn State and a major program from the West (for 2016-9, that will be Wisconsin). If you look at how the Big Ten put it together, they still don't consider MSU one of the top four programs in the conference.
So when it comes to conference scheduling, which one do you prefer? And BTW, since Bacon's book doesn't talk about how the Big Ten came up with any of its scheduling decisions, can you link a source that explains how they came up with the new set up and what exactly Brandon did and did not do?
September 9th, 2015 at 3:39 PM ^
Maybe we could switch the Arkansas games? I mean there would be no date conflicts.
I'd rather have ND in even years.
September 9th, 2015 at 3:21 PM ^
No way would we ever have only five home dates, even if two are with Ohio State and Michigan State. Might be best to get a little creative here. Perhaps play the first in 2019 to give us a sixth home game and notable nonconference visitor and return to South Bend in 2022 to skip over the years with both Washington and VT on the slate.
After that first home and home, we could keep going and it would alternate correctly with our previously scheduled series with UCLA, Texas, and Oklahoma. It would be okay if the rivalry took more frequent two year breaks to accomodate scheduling different opponents (considering our approaching 9-game conference schedule and their ACC-deal), but we should never go a full four years without the Irish.
September 9th, 2015 at 3:40 PM ^
Or flip the Arkansas games to an away then home.
September 9th, 2015 at 2:40 PM ^
Meh. With a nine game conference schedule locking in Notre Dame as a regular opponent pretty much guarantees that we will never play an interesting out-of-region game again.
September 9th, 2015 at 2:43 PM ^
If we play them every three or four years, great—it would give us the opportunity to play the out-of-region games everybody wants.
If it's every damn year, I say no.
September 9th, 2015 at 2:46 PM ^
This is assuming we'll keep filling our non-conference schedule with directional/MAC schools. We don't know that will be the case under Coach Harbaugh and the next AD.
September 9th, 2015 at 2:52 PM ^
Michigan doesn't play another MAC snack until 2020 when they play Ball State.
September 9th, 2015 at 3:03 PM ^
I'd argue that they're lining up the functional equivalents of such with the Hawaii, UCF, Air Force, Army, and SMU games. Although all of these are, at least, interesting out of region opponents.
September 9th, 2015 at 3:56 PM ^
I think the future of the ND series, if it's restored, will be as a two-on, two-off kind of thing (with MSU probably playing them the other two years). I don't expect it to be played every year now that they're locked into five games a year with the ACC.
September 9th, 2015 at 2:40 PM ^
I'm not sure if I'd want ND every single year though. I kinda like having the freedom to pick other P5 opponents for our non-conference schedule once in a while.
September 9th, 2015 at 2:44 PM ^
September 9th, 2015 at 2:46 PM ^
I would like something like 2 years on, 2 years off agreed upon for two decades. Every player who stayed four years would play a road and home game against ND but we'd be able to rotate in other big opponents.
One thing we do have to give Brandon credit for is the future matchups he scheduled: Texas, Oklahoma, Florida (albeit at a neutral site), UCLA, Washington, VA Tech, Arkansas, etc.
September 9th, 2015 at 3:08 PM ^
September 9th, 2015 at 3:43 PM ^
Something like this would work (asterisks for not yet scheduled):
2019 - @Arkansas, vs ND*, vs Baby Seal*
2020 - @Washington, vs Ball State, vs Virginia Tech
2021 - vs Baby Seal*, @Virginia Tech, vs Washington
2022 - vs Baby Seal*, vs UCLA, @ND*
2023 - @UCLA, vs Baby Seal*, vs Power 5*
2024 - vs Texas, @ Power 5*, vs Baby Seal*
2025 - @ Oklahoma, vs Baby Seal*, vs ND*
2026 - vs. Baby Seal*, vs Oklahoma, @ND*
2027 - @ Texas, vs Baby Seal*, vs Power 5*
September 9th, 2015 at 2:41 PM ^
And if it takes a few years all the better. I want Michigan to be an absolute Terror when we face them again. Teach them a lesson.
September 9th, 2015 at 2:46 PM ^
EDIT: replied to wrong post
September 9th, 2015 at 2:41 PM ^
September 9th, 2015 at 2:43 PM ^
September 9th, 2015 at 2:58 PM ^
September 9th, 2015 at 2:45 PM ^
I think that would be good enough to allow every player an opportunity to play in that game. And it frees us up for more cross sectional games. It doesn't have to be a yearly thing IMO.
September 9th, 2015 at 2:50 PM ^
September 9th, 2015 at 2:47 PM ^
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September 9th, 2015 at 2:48 PM ^
Figures the Domers might be interested in reviving this now that they're no longer the door knob they were through 2011 after Hoke's 11-2 season and Michigan appearing on the illusory rise, and having handed ND multiple close losses with even worse Michigan teams.
I say we return them the favor and wait a few years for Harbaugh to hit full stride and see if in fact this wasn't more about them just being chicken shits.
September 9th, 2015 at 2:49 PM ^
totally agree, but lets get that in writing first!
September 9th, 2015 at 4:10 PM ^
Agreed.
Their bullshit spin about being Independent and selectively scheduling is lame.
September 9th, 2015 at 2:48 PM ^
I have so many good memories from this series, bring it back!
September 9th, 2015 at 2:50 PM ^
It doesn't seem likely that they'd fit into the schedule every year, or indeed even soon given that slots all the way out to the 2020s are filling up now and the OOC schedule narrows to three games beginning next season, but I would like to see that game trickle back onto the schedule at some point, at least when it can. If nothing else, it gives more meaning to the phrase "fuck Notre Dame" if indeed they are also on the schedule, like they used to be.
September 9th, 2015 at 2:51 PM ^
Fuck Notre Dame
September 9th, 2015 at 2:52 PM ^