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2016 spring game

Spring Game Will Be April 1 and at Night Comment Count

Seth

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[photo by Bryan Fuller]

C'est Poisson d'avril pour le mêlée printemps:

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The University of Michigan football team will host its annual Spring Football Game presented by PNC Bank on the evening of Friday, April 1, from Michigan Stadium. The exact start time will be announced at a later date.

The spring game is free and open to the public.

The gates to the Big House will open one hour prior to the start of the game. Additional information will be forthcoming regarding parking, stadium entry locations, concessions and other activities for April 1.

The Wolverines will practice a total of 15 times during the spring, culminating with the first-ever spring game scrimmage in the evening. The game will be televised by the Big Ten Network.

The football team will conduct its first spring practice on Feb. 29 in Bradenton, Florida.

If dusk of it-was-still-March-yesterday sounds pretty chilly that's because it usually is, via Weather Underground:

image

It appears the idea is to get on TV in primetime. The Final Four games are Saturday so that's not a conflict. But Michigan's never come close to filling the stadium for this even on 70 degree days, and even last year's "it's actually a competition!" game was pretty boring once they'd emptied out Lloyd Carr's trick playbook.

Comments

MgoRayO3313

February 19th, 2016 at 12:02 PM ^

Love the fact it's night spring game. Mine as well. I personally have no qualms about April 1st (no kids yet) but I wish that it was pushed back a bit up here in the north so it could be even more of a family event.

Cold or not, I'll be there.



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MEZman

February 19th, 2016 at 12:04 PM ^

Steve Lorenz mentioned on Twitter that this will give the players 19 days to study for finals. WHY DON'T THEY EVER THINK OF THE CHILDREN! Oh wait nevermind.

Joined: 12/13/2008

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funkywolve

February 19th, 2016 at 12:14 PM ^

Don't a handful of recruits usually come to the spring game?  This could help in that regards some.  Game is Friday night so if the recruit comes for the game and spends the night, they have all day Saturday to check out the campus and meet with the coaches.  

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Quailman

February 19th, 2016 at 12:21 PM ^

Dear WD,

Please take a look at Seth's graph and take note that the temperature for an evening game would be nearly the same for a game at around Noon/1:00 pm. 

Joined: 08/30/2013

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Mich1993

February 19th, 2016 at 12:24 PM ^

I don't like this.  The Spring Game is a great thing to take your family to on a nice day.  Unfortunately, because it is so early to accomodate the players studying (which I endorse), I can't remember the last time the weather was nice for the Spring Game.  Having it at night isn't going to help this any.

In the trade of fan experience in the stadium vs. more people watching on TV, I would have preferred to side with the fans in the stadium.  I hope that enough people show up that it isn't embarassing to have on TV.

Fortunately, Jim Harbaugh has built up enough good will the attendance will probably be pretty good.

 

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Bigasshammm

February 19th, 2016 at 12:33 PM ^

This fn blows. Is TV exposure really more important than making yourself accessible to the fans? I'm 3 hours away and was totally coming to the spring game on a Saturday. Once again like last year my family will not be attending. We can't miss work, be forced into a hotel stay, and deal with all the weekday traffic for a free exhibition game. Sure I'll watch it on tv and then wait for the MSU and OSU trolls about how empty our stadium is going to be.

I really hope this is an April fools.

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cweerapp

February 19th, 2016 at 12:54 PM ^

Friday night lights were some of my favorite high school memories. The night game showcases to the rest of the country that Michigan, while chilly, is not an arctic wasteland in Spring, and once again shows recruits that Michigan is often the media epicenter of college football. I understand the traditionalists not being thrilled about this, but I'm confident enough Michigan fans can fill up the Big House.

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BlueInWisconsin

February 19th, 2016 at 1:16 PM ^

I'm not keen on the corporate sponsorship for the game.  Makes it sound like Brandon is still in charge.  Are there going to be ads for PNC bank inside the stadium?  A banker mascot?  Could be Arby's curly fries all over again.

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michgoblue

February 19th, 2016 at 1:25 PM ^

While I don't love the corporate sponsorships (especially the clunky Ira. J. Nikkie Harris etc. HC thing), I see this as a necessary evil, if we want to have the $$ to pay for nice things like stadium renovations, improved weight rooms and practice facilities, Harbaugh, top assistant coaches, etc.  I would certainly prefer the sponsorships - especially for a spring game - over raising student ticket prices or some of the other Brandon crap (think, Noodle!).

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