The two programs today put out press releases with several scheduling updates. Our future schedules page lives here.

Football announced a few non-conference items for 2024-2029.

• They flipped the Texas home-and-home. The 2024 game is now in Ann Arbor, and Michigan visits Austin in 2027.
• Western Michigan will be the opener again for 2026 and 2029.
• They added UTEP as a nonconference opponent in 2026.

Basketball got their Big Ten schedule for next year.

• Home-and-homes with MSU, Illinois, Purdue, Rutgers, Ohio State, Iowa, and Nebraska
• Home only vs Indiana, Wisconsin and Minnesota
• Road only vs Maryland, Northwestern, and Penn State

[We'll discuss after THE JUMP]

HOOPS SCHEDULE REACT

It's not a perfect draw, but a more than fair one. Any season you get to skip the Trohl Center is a good one, avoiding Assembly Hall is a bonus, and a two-play versus Nebraska offsets things a bit. I have a lot of respect for what's going on in Maryland, but Northwestern and Penn State are winnable road games. A two-play versus Purdue is the hardest part of this, but I like playing Purdue.

We'll find out much later when these games are to be played, but expect the MSU series to be later as usual.

TEXAS GAMES FLIPPED

This is good, this is good. Michigan gets a *PRIME* home game in 2024, which aligns well with their current needs. The odd years already have Ohio State home games to anchor them, but even years it's usually MSU and Penn State. It also pushes back the trip to Austin to Week 2 instead of being that year's opener.

Overall we're looking at quite a different even year ticket package than the lackluster recent ones. We don't know what the Big Ten schedule will look like yet but they're highly unlikely to mess with the Ohio State and Michigan State home/road schedules. The other thing I'm going to assume is that Michigan will have USC at home in 2024. Except when Yost pulled us out of the conference for a dozen years, schools that get added to the Big Ten have always gotten Michigan on the schedule. USC gets Notre Dame at home on even years, and has LSU at home for their 2024 opener, which means both schools would likely prefer the Ann Arbor swings on even years and odd years in California.

That gives us a potential home schedule in 2024 of Texas, USC, and Michigan State, probably with a Nebraska and/or Penn State thrown in there atop of it. That's quite an improvement from last year's home slate of MSU, PSU, Nebraska, Illinois, Maryland, UConn, Hawai'i, and Colorado State.

With Texas joining the SEC a year earlier than anticipated, this series was in danger of cancelation. The SEC schedules fewer (eight versus nine) conference games than the other major conferences, but also discourages its teams from playing in major contests unless they're unlikely to lose them, and rarely allows them to travel north. It's a wise strategy in the current set up, since wins over FCS and Sun Belt teams count just the same for bowl eligibility purposes, and limit the number of losses spread between their middling programs.

WESTERN MICHIGAN, MY OLD FRIEND

It used to be if Michigan and WMU were playing it was because a World War was going on (1917 and 1943). Now it's like opening against the Broncos is some sort of tradition. Michigan contracted with them for the 2001 (Askew hurdles a fool) and 2002 seasons. Then we did it as openers for 2009 (The Denardening) and 2011 (Brandon Herron and the canceled 4th quarter), and then another opener series in 2018 (Let's argue about Rashan Gary) and 2021 (JJ to Baldwin).

THE 2024-2026 NONCONFERENCE SEASONS ARE FULL

• 2025 opens with New Mexico, travels to Oklahoma, then finishes with CMU.
• 2026 opens with WMU, then Oklahoma comes to us, and then UTEP is the snack before Big Ten season.

Note that 2024 and 2025 are years that Labor Day comes early so there are two bye weeks. [REDACTED].

UTEP?

Standard ConfUSA nonconference fare. The schools have never met. Currently UTEP is coached by a Bill Snyder acolyte, Dana Dimel, who inherited a Miners program playing at the CSU/Hawai'i level and now has them hovering around the challenge level of an Indiana or Rutgers; they were 98th last year, and 91st in 2021 to Bill Connelly's SP+, with their offense/defense splits about equal. They lost to Oklahoma 45-13 last year, and 59-3 to Texas in 2020.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR SCHEDULING NOTRE DAME?

Michigan has premier nonconference opponents lined up for 2024 (Texas), 2025 (@Oklahoma), 2026 (Oklahoma), 2027 (@Texas), and 2028 (@Washington). With USC doubtlessly playing Michigan as soon as they join the Big Ten, Ohio State locked in, and probably more Penn State than the average Big Ten team on top of it, the Wolverines don't really need another marquee matchup to put together a resume for a 12-team Playoff. The ND series is currently set to resume in 2033 (in Ann Arbor) and 2034 (in South Bend).

Best guess here is as long as USC is on the schedule they'll refrain from adding any more Irish. If the Trojans rotate off the schedule by 2029 it's possible we'll see Notre Dame and Michigan bring back the rivalry early. One of the issues with that series is Michigan's home/road needs line up with Notre Dame's, since the Irish get USC at home in odd years, meaning both teams would prefer to play host in even years. Michigan is due an extra home game right now as well. Notre Dame has gotten their way in past negotiations because Michigan fans want this series and Jack Swarbrick is the kind of person who needs to screw anyone he makes a deal with.

Ideally, the increased leverage of having both rivals in the Big Ten will change Notre Dame's negotiating position in a few years to the point they'll accept a five-game series beginning with a 2028 visit to Ann Arbor that flips the '33 and '34 locations. But that's a lot of projection into an uncertain landscape.