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.)
Oregon has open dates in 2016 and 2017, but they're scheduled to play Texas A&M in 2018/19, so the likelihood of the Ducks playing Michigan as part of a non-conference schedule isn't likely--especially with the Pac 12 having a nine-game conference schedule.
http://www.fbschedules.com/ncaa/pac-10/oregon-ducks.php
USC has a home-and-home with Texas in 2017 and 2018, and continues to play Notre Dame on an annual basis. They aren't a likely future opponent for Michigan either.
http://www.fbschedules.com/ncaa/pac-10/usc-trojans.php
Perhaps David Brandon wil look at teams outside the Pac 12 to replace Notre Dame for those two years. Hopefully, he'll be looking at programs from the SEC (ex. Georgia), ACC (ex. Miami) that have open dates in 2018/9.
The one major problem I have with the commitment to Notre Dame is that it's highly unlikely Michigan will play one of the major Pac 12 teams in tandem with them. That's why we're more likely to see programs like Washington State or the two Arizona schools then USC or Oregon or Washington in future schedules where ND is also there as well.
The other larger problem is that by locking in a non-conference game with Notre Dame and with the Pac 12, that leaves no room to play major teams from any of the other conferences. Michigan continues to be joined to the hip with ND because of television ratings, network preferences and because the larger public sees it as a classic matchup game.
Any specific reason for the 2018-19 ND break? or are the breaks normal in traditional rivalries like such?
Regardless, at least i'll be graduated before having to miss a ND game in person.
Would love to return to UNLV for a game. How far off the strip is campus??
Wow that's disapointing. That may be literally the most unintriguing set of 3 PAC-12 matchups possible.
No top end contests. No cool away city to visit. No Rich Rod 2 electric bugaloo.
It beats MAC-cakes, but only by the slimmest margin possible.
a Michigan vs. Stanford and Michigan vs. USC series can't be too far off, right?
Come on guys, that is what really counts! We're Michigan, fergodsakes!
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