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Notre Dame Series To Resume In 2018, Per Reports Comment Count

Brian

9699005114_36441a72c5_z

The first person to reply to this post with "to hell with Notre Dame" or anything close to it will be banned. [Eric Upchurch]

The AP is now confirming that Michigan and Notre Dame will resume playing football against each other in the near future, as first reported by this dude:

Krasnoo says Michigan will eat a two million dollar buyout of "the Arkansas game", which I take to mean the entire 2018/2019 series since cancelling just the 2018 game at home seems super super unlikely.

The AP report says that the 2018 game will be played in South Bend, which would be crazy for Michigan and pretty odd for Notre Dame. Thanks to Good Ol' Dave Brandon even years going forward feature MSU/OSU on the road. Replacing a home game against an SEC team with another road game against a tough opponent doesn't make a ton of sense. Also thanks to the contract Brandon was blindsided with, ND got the final game before the series hiatus.

Meanwhile Notre Dame already has season-ticket tentpole games in 2018, when both Stanford and Florida State travel to South Bend. They've got USC at home in 2019; their second best home game is against Virginia Tech and third best is either Virginia or BC. It doesn't make sense for either program to have the series start in South Bend. We'll see, apparently soon.

Comments

UM Fan from Sydney

July 7th, 2016 at 11:14 AM ^

I'm perfectly fine playing Notre Dame, but don't feel the need to play them annually. Perhaps every other year or even two years would be better.

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Farnn

July 7th, 2016 at 11:16 AM ^

The at ND in 2018 I'm seeing some places makes absolutely zero sense.  Why give ND the first game at home and have zero good home games for Michigan in 2018?

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evenyoubrutus

July 7th, 2016 at 11:17 AM ^

The NCAA really needs to nut up and make a requirement that every team must play 11 regular season games against a Power 5 opponent if they want to be considered for the playoff. The fact that we can really only have one decent non conference game a year is really getting absurd.

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Rufus X

July 7th, 2016 at 11:23 AM ^

Warde Manual just royally screwed up the first important action on the job...  Home game in '18 should have been a precondition to even come to the table with those arrogant pricks.

 

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Ali G Bomaye

July 7th, 2016 at 11:21 AM ^

I'm excited to play a team with whom we have a legit rivalry, and I'm not sad in the least about sacrificing the Arkansas game(s).  I don't think we'd have a problem beating Arkansas, but watching a Bert Bielema team is about as fun as watching paint dry, and Arkansas is the least prestigious of our future P5 conference opponents (Washington, VT, UCLA, Oklahoma, Texas).

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ironman4579

July 7th, 2016 at 11:33 AM ^

If this is actually a road game in 2018, I'll be having some real doubts about Manuel as AD.  Bad home schedule, tough schedule overall ,and basically paying $2 million dollars to give up a home game?  Not a good look.

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msoccer10

July 7th, 2016 at 12:13 PM ^

This is exactly right. Dave Ablauf was talking about it on WTKA this morning. We go to 9 conference games and in the odd years, we have 4 home conference games. The idea is that we have to have 3 non-conference home games on odd years. This makes the schedule unbalanced from year to year but gives us 7 homes games each year.

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kehnonymous

July 7th, 2016 at 12:02 PM ^

He's one of my favorite posters, and also there's no way in hell we do ND, OSU and MSU all on the road in the same year unless there's a really good explanation for this.  Like Jim Delany kidnapped Warde Manuel's family at gunpoint

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victoriaed90

July 7th, 2016 at 12:04 PM ^

I'm very excited about Notre Dame coming back, but why are we getting shafted like this?

First game being away in a year we're already away with both OSU and MSU and when we're already giving up a home game and they got the last game? We're booting Arkansas when both ND and UM have an open date the following week? (I get that's a hard schedule, but I'd rather have a hard shedule and go with the loss(es) than play a bunch of cupcakes and pay out 2 mil).

Why is Michigan getting screwed over so much in these shedule negotiations?

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stephenrjking

July 7th, 2016 at 12:06 PM ^

I think we should wait until all facts are in. But if the road trip in 18 is true, and there's no change in the sequence of the MSU game (I still hold out hope), this looks bad. Still, wait until we know more.

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True Blue Grit

July 7th, 2016 at 12:14 PM ^

giving up a home game in 2018 to play another road game at ND?  Dumb,  Dumb.  Dumb.  I don't object to putting ND back on the schedule  Just not at this cost.  They'll probably raise the price of bottled water to an even $5 now. 

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Don

July 7th, 2016 at 12:20 PM ^

So we gave up a home game against an SEC team in exchange for a road trip to South Bend in the same year we're already going to MSU and OSU.

Unless this decision is paired with a rectification of the MSU/OSU home/away schedule imbalance, Manuel has miserably flunked his first real test as AD.

Bring back Jim Hackett.

 

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jabberwock

July 7th, 2016 at 12:20 PM ^

but every year is stupid & suffocating.

It should be an every other year thing so all players get a chance to enjoy the rivalry (& it still would be with a consistent on/off schedule) and we still get to schedule other interesting teams.

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Rabbit21

July 7th, 2016 at 1:05 PM ^

I don't like losing the Arkansas series for this, I like it even less with a $2M buyout. I hate saying this but this feels like Notre Dame saying, "jump" and Michigan asking the height ND would like them to achieve. I get its a rivalry and people wanted it back, but I didn't see it as such a huge priority to go through all of this.



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ghostofhoke

July 7th, 2016 at 1:10 PM ^

All this bitching and complaining is pretty shortsighted. The value of bringing his game back will be apparent almost immediately. Showcasing this rivalry and not lending our brand to elevate a middling SEC team is way better in the long run for us. It's one of those things where the long term gains far outweigh the upfront costs. Purchase price isn't the important factor here, the rivalry is worth way more. Fuck the SEC. And for those complaining about playing ND, MSU and OSU on the road in the same year, have you ever looked at LSU or Bama's schedules? Do you want to have the chance to be in the upper echelon every year or not? Playing one of those three games at home in a year vs all 3 on the road should not be your main concern. Just fucking win. Do you really think that playing MSU at home in a year we have to go on the road to ND and OSU is the determining factor in whether we can slip into the college football playoffs? Give me a break, this a new era, we've got real men in charge now. I'm sure Harbaugh is throwing his hat around Manuel's office right now for putting him in this position. /s.



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markusr2007

July 7th, 2016 at 1:20 PM ^

It's good. But I get the bad feeling that a home and home vs Clemson, LSU or Georgia will probably not happen. Teams Michigan has never played or not since the Kennedy administration.



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ryholly

July 7th, 2016 at 2:09 PM ^

For those of you that are season ticket holders--are you cool with 6 home game (vs. the 8 that we have been used to)?

That was the set-up with the schedule as is.  We still get Nebraska, Penn State, and Wisconsin at home in '18.  For all we know all 3 of those teams could be better then MSU at that point.

 

I'd rather have 3 tough road games (ala this year) then play 6 on the road in a year.  As we saw at Minnesota/Indiana last year, it's tough to survive them all.

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