Notre Dame Resumption Official
[Eric Upchurch]
The Michigan-Notre Dame football series will resume on Sept. 1, 2018, when the Irish host the Wolverines in the season opener before a Oct. 26, 2019, date at Michigan Stadium.
As the previous post notes I'm surprised that it's at ND in 2018, from the perspective of both teams. I'd rather have ND on the schedule than Arkansas no matter which team gets a home date. Meanwhile having the ND game 2019 in the meat of the conference schedule is odd. Michigan has Penn State before that game and Maryland after.
That's odd to me as well. I can only assume he (like Manual) thinks getting them on the schedule is worth any price we'd have to pay timinng-wise.
Because other than that we got royally fucked IMO.
You don't think Brian doesn't have connections within the Michigan AD?
the green light. You have to admire his confidence. But I think it shows how much he wanted the rivalry brought back. ND either didn't care as much or did a better job hiding their desire. I think Warde will have some 'splainin to do on this one.
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I went to school at UM from 1987 to 1991. I watched 4 opening season losses in a row to ND. Back then, one loss = no natty. It still influences the way I think about the schedule.
And yes, playing all 3 rivals away is "stoopid."
Especially when the games were our first game, but not theirs. Bo complained about this.
I have been looking for an explanation from WM as to why (1) we are playing at ND the first game when they had the last game in SB, (2) he agreed to play them OTR when we have MSU and OSU on the road the same year, and (3) he agreed to put them in the middle of the Big Ten schedule when they do come to AA. Anything out there from the administration yet? Or do we just get "be happy we have the games scheduled"?
Suprised no one has mentioned this yet, but I'm guessing that Manuel did this for one simple reason: ensure seven home games every year instead of having six in one year and eight the next. The B1G schedule is already set for 2017-2019. In odd years, we only get four home conference games (of which MSU and OSU are two). In even years, we get five home conference games. If we want to have seven home games per year, we have to schedule all three non-conference games at home in odd years.
That doesn't explain why the '19 game is in October, or why we didn't wait until '19 to start up again so that we would get the first home game, or why they want to punish season ticket holders in even years, but it makes sense from a revenue and budgeting standpoint.
Seven games a year is bullshit. We had the first Arkansas game at home. Set the budget planning to put aside money for the next year. Problem solved.
"Seven home games a year" is the same dumb accounting arguments that ADs use to say that only 10 programs are in the black in any given year.
My frustration is not directed at you. I'm just annoyed by all this. Pissed it was cancelled and I got over it. Now we're doing the same dumb stuff again and I'm pissed off again. Add to that some of Manual's other AD decisions.
Warde is starting off as a total failure when it comes to football scheduling.
I'm all for playing ND again from time to time, but replacing a home game with Arkansas with a road game at ND is a total slap in the face to ticket holders.
What a joke
...has the ability to flip either the MSU game or OSU game to even out the home/away slate. Which would be better? ND & MSU at home or ND & OSU at home? I'm leaning OSU be flipped even though MSU is the scheduling that got jacked.
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Doug Karsch just said on the radio what you said. There has to be more to this story that we don't yet know about. By why would OSU or MSU agree to a flip just to accommodate our non-conference rivalry with ND? It doesn't seem the least bit plausible.
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It doesn't seem plausible. I was just seeing which people would view more pleasing to the home schedule. I'd rather have OSU be the big rival game to offset ND & MSU. Hopefully there is more to this story. Like MSU being scheduled at home for 2020.
I am as much a traditionalist as anyone but I have moved on from ND as an important game for Michigan. F ND. We should not do anything that enables their continuation as an independent. Let them join a conference and play by the same rules as everyone else.
I've been following Michigan football since 1982. I've seen a lot of Michigan-ND games.
I have to say in all honesty, I don't miss them as much as I thought I would.
There are a dozen other teams I'd rather see us play before we put ND back in the queue.
I would not do anything special to move ND to the front of the queue. I certainly would not take the hit we just did to do it.
Stupid scheduling but just win.
If they were gonna do this should've just kept Arkansas and tried to make dates work if 7 home is so damn important. This is silly. I like the rivalry, but the way this was done is dumb
NEVER should ND MSU & OSU be home or away all together
work for a couple of hours and miss all of the fun here. While I'm not as outraged as some people here I am confused by this decision. I'll hold my outrage until the other shoe drops...if that doesn't happen then I'll join in the flogging of Manuel.
Manual agreed to this. He will probably get a letter from Swarbuck on Sept 1, 2018 saying they are opting out of the final game of the contract and will end it with playing us twice at home......
Wish we had an Athletic Director that took no for an answer. 2 years in a row at MSU to start the revamped Big Ten schedule. And now the same for ND. Extremely annoying to think UM is getting the shaft again.
Get more pissed, everybody.
Notre Dame is back on the schedule. That's a good thing. They're a rival. We're Michigan and they are Notre Dame. You know: Michigan-Notre Dame? You remember Notre Dame?
The only problem here is the OSU, MSU, ND road lineup. That sucks. But as pointed out, ND has been added to balance out the now-unbalanced B1G schedule. If this were flip-flopped, in odd number years we'd have 4 B1G home games and 6 B1G road games plus ND locked in every year.
The MOST home games Michigan could have in an odd year would only be 6! Doing it this way, we now have 5 home and 5 road locked in to include ND. That leaves the flexibility to add two home games and get 7 gates every year, an impossibility if this were reversed.
If you want to be pissed that Dave Brandon let ND wiggle out last time with an extra home game, then get pissed at Dave Brandon. After that episode, there's no way either of these schools is entering into this renewal without protection from that happening again - which means we'll play ND just as many times at home as we do away from 2018 on, regardless of where it starts. It's not like we were going to wiggle a bonus home game out of it. Starting at home is an optical illusion. ND will always have that extra game from 2014. That will always be on Brandon.
Brandon didn't sign that contract. Martin did.
Yeah, but only DB would be stupid enough to enter into a contract that would allow it to happen again,for either team.
Also, if Martin had still been there, do you think Swarbrick would have pulled out?
I think Martin entered into an agreement to play ND ever year for a couple of decades, but neither UM or ND had a copy of any written contract to the extent it existed. Brandon agreed to the written contract that contained the odd 3-games-notice termination clause, which ND took advantage of.
This makes no sense. We don't ever play six B10 road games, let alone potentially have six B10 road games plus ND on the road.
The five-four B10 rotation will always leave the need for one more NC home game in the odd years. That's a;ways been known since the decision to move to 9 games was announced. No law exists, however, that says that ND has to be that home game. I'd settle for 5 B10 games, ND, SMU, and even another pay for play team all at home in 2018. * home games won't kill Michigan (that's what they have in 2016). in 2019 you'd have 4 B10 home games, plus 2 pay-for play teams. Or better yet, tell ND that the return game will be in 2020 (play every other year). Move Ball State to 2019.
ALso, if you want to be pisssed at Brandon for a contract that Bill Martin signed in 2007, go ahead. It makes as much sense as any of your other arguments,
Personally, I wish they'd have kept Arkansas and just flipped the home-and-away.
But the current arrangement leaves a lot to be pissed of at, and the anger is legitimately aimed at Warde, not boogie man Brandon.
I don't know what you're not getting about the schedule. Michigan plays 5 B1G home games and 4 road in '18. In '19, it's 4 home, 5 road.
If you're going to add ND as a perma-opponent (which they're working on doing) then it makes sense to add them as an AWAY in '18 and a HOME in '19 and every year thereafter.
That way, INCLUDING NOTRE DAME, you have 5 home, 5 away every year. If you do it the other way, you have 4 home, 6 away in odd years - and that makes it IMPOSSIBLE to get to 7 home games in odd years.
You'd have 6 road games INCLUDING NOTRE DAME. Sorry to keep caps'ing that part, but you just told me my post makes no sense because you missed the entire premise.
You can be mad about whatever you want. I'm just pointing out that if you're going to get ND back on the schedule ASAP (which Harbaugh and Manuel clearly set out to do), it makes more sense to start at ND.
The "boogey-man", Dave Brandon, was most definitely at the helm when we ate shit and agreed to play MSU back-to-back in East Lansing. That's the real problem here.
And fine. Blame Martin for Notre Dame pulling out with the extra home game if that makes you feel better. Fact is Manuel can't fix that. It's not like he can con Swarbrick into signing an agreement that gives Michigan an extra home game. Both schools will never let loose language let them get taken advantage of in that regard. What happened pregame in 2014 means absolutely nothing with regard to where we start this back up.
If you'd rather play Arkansas, fine. Get mad. I don't care about that.
But if you want to get mad about resuming this series AT Notre Dame, then you're missing the big picture. Based on the B1G schedule, it's a smarter move than starting in AA.
You're pissed at Warde Manuel. Fine. I'm not. Not even a little. I probably would've done the exact same thing.
What if they announce that 2018 MSU is in AA and 2019 MSU is in EL?
Similar to Michigan, MSU also has the other big divisional opponents (MICH, OSU) both home or both away. Perhaps they're ready to swap that back since the conference didn't do a good job balancing things. They owe us one.
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Do you really think Mork Dantoni would sign off on that? The man is a righteous prick, but double that when it comes to anything Michigan. MSU agreeing to two straight games at Michigan isn't happening...
Agreed. Even if they benefit from it, they won't agree.
Gosh, I wish we would just let ND go wallow in their specialness on their own without having to deal with their bullshit. I'm waiting (hoping) for the second shoe to drop too, because right now it seems like UM is bending over backwards to accommodate them--AGAIN! I still think the powers that be at UM think we Blue fans care about this series more than we do. We don't need them. They're not worth the headache. Bring back the Razorbacks.
Not only do we resume the series on the road, leading to OSU/MSU/ND away in the same year, but when we do play them at home in 2019, it's on October 26, the week after playing at Penn State. Which means we have a six-week stretch of @PSU/ND/MSU/OSU.
You could not have proposed a worse agreement for Michigan.
This rivalry is now hugely imbalanced vis a vis home/road splits, by the way -- when the series resumed in 1978, it was in South Bend. Then it ended in South Bend in 2014. Now it resumes again in South Bend.
Because I would think that by 2019, with all the bravado here, MSU would have been put back in "their place" by "Big Brother"???
This deal makes the Iran deal look good Wow!
Well, hopefully Ollie North isn't handling the finances on this deal! :)
I agree with most everyone here - Paying Arkansas 2mm to walk away so UM can play at ND then have a return trip in the middle of the following season is a pretty pathetic deal.
HOWEVER, all of the talk about not wanting to lose more than x number of games has to stop. Yes, Michigan will lose football games in the future. No, that should not mean the schedule comes from a place of weakness.
This team and its fanbase had better have a different attitude about its chances of winning. Not exactly cocky, but assured enough that it should be able to compete regardless of who they are playing and where.
Why had we "better have a different attitude?" What are you going to do if we don't?
We need to get people to negotiate these deals that are not all caught up in them personally.
I don't care what happened in the '80s when the AD was a football player, ND in 2016 is not worth selling out for.
Warde: It was your own coach that said "To hell with Notre Dame." What's with the infatuation with them?
Schedule aside this is fantastic. I went to Michigan during the height of the rivalry. ND tickets were more expensive and harder to get than Ohio. The games were better. This is the biggest and longest rivalry in all of football. The two all time leaders in wins. So many historic and heartbreaking games for both sides. There is no way that you want to just let it die a slow death or worse let them play Ohio State instead. Sure ND has been down but so has Michigan. They'll come back. Thank you Warde Manual for putting petty issues aside and getting the job done.
And screw Arkansas and the SEC. Let's make rivalries with the long term Blue Bloods the most prestigious. The SEC only became relevant in the last 20 years. Why give them the premier match ups.
Finally, why would anyone want to play a second rate team like Arkansas instead of Notre Dame. ND is like whole milk and Arkansas like skim. Only a candy ass pussy would want skim milk.
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