scheduling
big ten divisions

Michigan's 2011 Conference Schedule Comment Count

Brian

m-osu-helmets
It's been announced: the division are as below. The schedule has also been released:

10/1 – Minnesota
10/8 – @ Northwestern
10/15 – @ Michigan State
10/22 – BYE
10/29 – Purdue
11/5 – @ Iowa
11/12 – @ Illinois
11/19 – Nebraska
11/26 – Ohio State

Doom partially averted.

UPDATE: 2012, by the way:

9/29 – BYE
10/6 – @ Purdue
10/13 – Illinois
10/20 – Michigan State
10/27 – @ Nebraska
11/3 – @ Minnesota
11/10 – Northwestern
11/17 – Iowa
11/24 – @ Ohio State

Looks like they're trying to make an important divisional game the second-to-last one of the season. By virtue of dodging Penn State and Wisconsin the next two years, Michigan is set up with pretty easy schedules.

UPDATE II: Sadly, "basketball will chart its own course."

Comments

BiSB

September 1st, 2010 at 7:09 PM ^

Nebraska and Ohio State back-to-back... bad.

Illinois and Purdue as delicious snacky-cakes cross-over games = yum

Michigan v. Ohio State at the end of the year = obv.

Joined: 08/15/2009

MGoPoints: 46071

megalomanick

September 1st, 2010 at 7:14 PM ^

I don't really like Nebraska going on the same home/away rotation as OSU and ND. With PSU and Wisconsin in the other division, this will lead to many years where the best home game will be against MSU. Other than that this sucks about as little as possible as far as alignments that split UM and OSU.

 

Edit: Forgot Iowa. Still not a fan of having NU on the same rotation as OSU and ND.

Joined: 07/06/2008

MGoPoints: 2423

Michigan4Life

September 1st, 2010 at 7:11 PM ^

the game at Thanksgiving.  There would not be a lot of students at the game because most of them aren't a real hardcore fan.  Kind of wish that it's a week before Thanksgiving with the Big Ten championship game after Thanksgiving so there would be 2 weeks of rest from the game.

Joined: 07/29/2010

MGoPoints: 25306

MichAeroGirl

September 1st, 2010 at 8:09 PM ^

and I don't adore the holiday weekend concept either, but I'm willing to bet we can find 110,000+ people who are willing, maybe even eager, to escape their families and dried-out leftover turkey in order to attend that game.  Students who don't go -- and I think that'll be more due to the logistics of getting back early than because of fairweather fandom -- can sell their tickets at a price that'll buy lots of beer at VC.  Just as long as they're careful not to sell to any Buckeyes attempting to infiltrate the student section.

Joined: 08/27/2010

MGoPoints: 90

van

September 1st, 2010 at 10:43 PM ^

It's also two days after Thanksgiving; most students live close enough that they can head home for the holiday and make it back for the game.

For those of us watching on tv, the more good football that weekend, the better.

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 1970

Johnnybee123

September 1st, 2010 at 7:13 PM ^

I wish Nebraska was away next year.  As it stands, in odd numbered years, we get Nebraska, ND and Ohio State at home, but in even number years, we only get Iowa and Little Brother at home.  It would've been nice to have a homefield advantag against either OSU or Nebraska every year.

Joined: 01/02/2009

MGoPoints: 335

Tater

September 1st, 2010 at 7:18 PM ^

I do wish that the conference wouldn't have continued the "tradition" of making Michigan play an extremely physical opponent the week before OSU.  Hopefully, Iowa can make OSU work as hard as Michigan will have to work against NU. 

At any rate, the Big Ten is no longer the path to least resistance to the MNC game.  Michigan would be wise to schedule all cupcakes for non-conference games until a playoff involving conference champions happens.

Joined: 08/13/2008

MGoPoints: 30584

M Fanfare

September 1st, 2010 at 7:18 PM ^

I wonder if Michigan will try to flip the ND series after the short hiatus they're taking in a few years so that one year will be Nebraska and OSU at home and MSU and ND the next. The UM-MSU series was played in Ann Arbor both in 1967 and 1968 so that the extra revenue generated by the rivalry games with OSU and MSU would be distributed evenly and not concentrated every other year. I think it was Canham's decision (he took over in 1968) but it might have been Crisler's.

Joined: 08/17/2008

MGoPoints: 4715

MillerTime

September 1st, 2010 at 7:20 PM ^

Okay, so can we agree that they did a pretty great job with what they had to work with? I'm pleased.

However, the idea that "we'll see what happens after 2012" regarding the final regular season games scares me. I feel like Delaney is giving himself wiggle-room...

But at the end of the day, it's nighttime. And we should be very happy.

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 205

Gopherine

September 1st, 2010 at 7:21 PM ^

Really interesting that the two non-protected non-divisional games are apparently on a home and home set up, so that each team hits the same conference teams two years in a row.

Joined: 08/07/2008

MGoPoints: 1654

Rashman

September 1st, 2010 at 11:41 PM ^

Those were throw-away names that BTN came up with; they weren't even floated by Delany/committee/what-have-you.  Delany even jokingly gave them a hard time for not being more creative.  Those are absolutely not the names of the divisions.

Joined: 09/05/2008

MGoPoints: 1813

Seth

September 1st, 2010 at 7:22 PM ^

Gotta love how the announcement is basically "Here are the divisions; let's talk about Michigan and Ohio State for the next hour."

By which I mean "sorry other teams in conference, I am sure you were talked about too."

Joined: 10/14/2008

MGoPoints: 149219