Michigan To Play All The Iffy Pac-12 Teams
The rumored Utah series is now official:
Utah will host Michigan in Rice-Eccles Stadium in the 2015 season opener as a part of a home-and-home series that begins with a 2014 game in Ann Arbor. Michigan will make its first Salt Lake City appearance on Sept. 3, 2015 in a rare weekday game for the Wolverines, who have never played on a Thursday. The first game of the series is scheduled for Sept. 20, 2014 in Michigan Stadium.
Michigan becomes just the second Big Ten team ever to play in Salt Lake City. The Utes knocked off Indiana 40-13 in Rice-Eccles Stadium in 2002.
"A home-and-home series with Michigan is the kind of opportunity that comes with membership in the Pac-12 Conference," said Utah Director of Athletics Dr. Chris Hill. "I greatly appreciate Coach Whittingham's willingness to add college football's winningest program to his already difficult 2014 schedule, which will also feature five Pac-12 road games."
![180px-Utah_Utes_logo.svg[1]](https://mgoblog.com/sites/mgoblog.com/files/images/c01bb7103cba_AB53/180px-Utah_Utes_logo.svg1.png "180px-Utah_Utes_logo.svg[1]"){kind=logo}
You'll note that the Wow Factor has been factor'd by playing in the Thursday night slot usually occupied by Mississippi State's latest flailing interception machine.
But wait, there's more! Michigan has released the entire 2015 nonconference schedule, which is as follows…
2015
Sept. 3 at Utah
Sept. 12 Notre Dame
Sept. 19 Oregon State
Sept. 26 UNLV
…and bits of the 2016 schedule, featuring ND, a home game against Colorado on September 17th and two TBAs likely to be punching bags. The Pac-12 agreement is tentatively scheduled to start the year after, so Michigan's eliminated ND-and-three-dwarves nonconference scheduling for the foreseeable future. That's a positive even if none of the teams incoming has much sex appeal.
But wait, there's more!
In addition, Michigan and Notre Dame will take a two-year hiatus in their long-standing rivalry during the 2018 and 2019 seasons. Both schools intend to resume the rivalry in the years following.
That may be "less," actually. We'll see if Michigan fills that slot with a quality opponent when the time comes.
Questions
Are those Oregon State and Colorado games one-offs? Or are they home and homes with return dates set for the distant future? (If one-offs: coup. If not, okay.)
If so can we expect the Oregon State and Colorado games to slot into that 2018 and 2019 ND hiatus along with the Pac-12 agreement? (If so: meh.)
When was the last time Michigan played three BCS-ish teams in a nonconference schedule, as they will in 2015? (A: 1997, when they played Baylor, Colorado, and ND. They also did so in 1996 (Colorado, BC, UCLA) and 1994 (BC, ND, Colorado).)
What is our deal with playing Utah? (Seriously.)
Well it's like... the most recent one. And it's four of the top ten teams from the end of the year.
We better end up in the top ten that year or I'm blaming you sir chunkums!
2010 featured USC, Bama, Texas, Miami, Oklahoma State, West Virginia, Florida State and Virginia Tech, among others....
2009 had Texas, Nebraska, the Oregon vs Boise State matchup, The Civil War, Miami, among others...
Teams that played on Thursday nights in 2010:
Ohio State (number 2 at time), Miami, USC, Auburn (national champs), Oklahoma State, Nebraska (number 7 at time), Oregon (number 2 at time), Va. Tech, Alabama, Texas, Texas A & M.
Again, good call.
That Texas v. A&M game doesn't really count, though, as it was on Thanksgiving.
But the larger point is dead on. And just to pile on
2009: Oregon (x2), Miami, Nebraska, Florida State, Clemson, Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech (x2), plus a 12-1 Cincinnati and a 14-0 Boise State, plus the Texas - A&M game on Thanksgiving if you want to count that.
I like it. I would much rather play the Colorados and Utahs of the world then Division 1 bottom feeders and also-rans. Looks better for schedule rankings and TV air time. Maybe away games at Pac 12 schools can help us out a little with the West Coast recruiting as well.
Utah's fans were pretty cool last time they came out here. I can't really say I'm against playing them. It was bound to happen sooner or later with the scheduling agreement.
I'm more wondering how UNLV got on the schedule. Did Brandon have a stroke and wake up thinking he's Wisconsin's AD? If we're going to pay someone to be the sacrificial lamb, at least make it a MAC school. You know buy local and all that.
I've always wanted EMU to be the fighting emus......
/coolstorybro
They tried that back in the '80s when they had to stop being the Huron.
That 2015 nonconference schedule is a vast improvement on recent scheduling practices, which is both awesome and sad.
Plus, 2014 would be the 20th anniversary of the dreaded Kordell Stewart-Michael Westbrook Hail Mary. One of the worst sports moments of my life. I was 13 and lost a $5 bet to a Sparty fan on the game. I remember crying when it happened.
The big house was so quiet after that. We were in a daze wondering if it really happened.
...for both the Hail Mary and the assault on Desmond Howard. Both losses with no time left.
Both happened.
Yup, was in high school at Pioneer at the time and sitting behind the UM bench. Actually ended up going to CU for college, but despite being a proud CU alum and a huge Buff fan, to this day I haven't been able to shake the kick-to-the-nuts feeling of that day every time I see the replay -- which they showed in the stadium almost every game of my college career.
Unfortunately, will never happen. ND has no incentive to do that. They want USC and UM at home in opposite years. Plus their MSU game is also opposite the game against UM.
With the new Pac12/B1G agreement, maybe USC, Michigan, and MSU can come together and figure out schedules that work for them and make ND listen. USC already goes to ND early in the year so they don't have to play in bad weather, I think we could probably force ND's hand here. We've got 5 years to do it too, since the hiatus isn't taking palce for a while.
ND won't go for it because then they'd have USC and Michigan on the same home-away slate, but I've been hoping for some kind of "2 out of every 3 years" arrangement where both programs share that benefit/burden.
will also mysteriously take a 2 year hiatus with ND starting 2018?
Wooohooo! No MAC cupcakes in 2015! There are good and bad sides to this...
Pray tell, what the hell is the downside?
There's less to bitch about?
Hahaha...
Is anyone else hoping for a return trip to UNLV in 2020? Vegas AND a live Michigan football game?
because I have to work and can't use a DVR.
Anyone else think the ND break might coincide with the Pac-10 schedule being an Oregon or USC or someone, so we won't be playing top Pac-10 talent and ND in those years?
Come on, you know what's coming.
Arizona v. Michigan home and home, the first two years. That will be awesome.
I would be okay with a home and home with AZ. I have family in AZ.
*facepalm* I'm so selfish...
I just don't see them feeling the need to schedule Arizona the years they drop ND. You don't want to be playing USC and ND back to back (on maybe a road/home flip flop). But I'm not sure Arizona looks more daunting than Utah or Oregon State. But maybe they're projecting team strength into the future.
You are completely missing the reason why ESPN would demand a Michigan v. Arizona matchup.
To how the scheduling relates to those two specific years without ND. They could schedule Arizona before or after. If ESPN was so hot for it, why aren't we playing them instead of Utah? I was speaking specifically about those two Irish-less years, not ever.
Hampton is PISSED. It was their turn on the "HBCU come to Ann Arbor get your shit kicked and go home $1 million richer" sweepstakes.
aren't laying in the weeds playing road games at the state MAC schools in the future.
In '88-'91, Michigan played the following non-conference schedules:
'88: ND, Miami, Wake Forest
'89: ND, UCLA, Maryland
'90: ND, UCLA, Maryland
'91: ND, Florida St., Boston College
The 1989 UCLA vs Michigan game was played in the Rose Bowl. Drove up from the base I was stationed at, one of the greatest games I ever got to see.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4XFUdP_fZM
J.D. Carlson.
Clearly he was thinking of brunettes that day.
We need to get one of those Tuesday games against a MAC team. Now that's some W O W factor!
Maybe we can schedule our opener to be the week before everyone else. Then we get done a week earlier! Nothing brings in recruits and money like a premature ending :D
I've always wanted games to start in August anyways.
I told my FSU friend a year ago that if Craig James and Mark May ever did one of our games (aka, a Thursday night game) i'd kill myself.......
Now, I know that our buddy Criag James will probably have a few years in office by then, but I still may kill myself.
Despite these points, I give it a "meh."
2015 might be my favorite nonconference schedule in a long time.
I hate the thursday thing. To me, each of our 12(hopefully 13, now) games played in the fall is a magical Saturday. You get to wake up, watch College GameDay and then, for non-noon games, spend the entire day watching (or following via phone, computer, etc.) all of the day's games as a build up to our game. Moving a game to Thursday takes away one of those Saturdays, each of which I personally treasure. Thursday games are just not the same - you are in work all day, so less ability to enjoy the build-up, have to rush home to catch the game, and the go to work tired the next day if, like me, you are too wound up to sleep after the game.
As to the rest of the schedule, I love it - each of these games are a vast improvement over the MAC snacky-cakes that we have been playing over the past few years. At least these are all nationally recognized programs.
"Iffy" is a pretty brave prediction for a one off 5 seasons from now
Link if the embed fails
Comments