Unknown Pac-12 Opponent Probably Utah
According to Chris Balas the Pac-12 team Michigan wants to fill out its 2014 and 2015 schedules with is…
Pac-12 sources: U-M close to home/home deal w/Utah starting 2014. Thurs. night return visit to Salt Lake to open '15 CF season on table #fb
That ESPN article I linked made it clear that at this point options were limited, with Utah, Oregon State, and Colorado the most likely Pac-12 opponents. So… like, okay. It's a reasonable opponent, or at least should be reasonable in a couple years.
Still, it's a little unsatisfying. Michigan got one-off games with the Utes twice in the past decade; now they're giving them a full home and home. Yeah, they're in the Pac-12 but Colorado sucked it up to play a one-off with OSU last year. Meanwhile, non-Pac-12 nonconference options will be extremely limited starting in 2017. It would have been nice to get a series in with someone from another conference. Meh.
If it's the first game of the season, I'm OK with Thursday night. It won't mean a short turnaround from playing the Saturday before. Lots of time to work on whoever we play in the second game of the year.
Thursday night games are for ACC and Big East teams, not elite Big Ten teams like Michigan. I rather enjoy Thursday night games, but will not like it if Michigan has one, especially on the road. That's just setting us up for a very possible upset.
Yeah, I'm definitely not a fan of playing on Thursday. We don't need to kowtow to the TV networks that much.
kind of cool to be the first game of the college football season though
I said this in the other thread, but Utah is a good enough team to be scary in Utah, yet Michigan won't get any credit in the polls for beating them.
Also, Thursday night? Ugh.
At least it's a chance to get revenge for 2008.
EDIT: My disdain for Thursday night was mostly not serious. I did not communicate that well.
Agree that this is a lose-lose situation. Oh well, hopefully we'll see better Pac-12 opponents moving forward.
I would love to see us open the 2015 season on a Thursday night. I've never seen Michigan play on any day but Saturday (bowls excluded), and it would be a fresh sort of excitement. I like it.
Everything is going to be okay.
I've never seen Michigan play on any day but Saturday (bowls excluded)
Only time I remember is the Buffalo Stampede game. Moved because the Twins had a possible home playoff game scheduled for that Saturday, but (IIRC) they were eliminated by the time the game was played.
Is that U-M vs. Minnesota in 2003?
Yes. Re: John Navarre and the Transcontinental play.
...that was a Friday night game, not Thursday.
Still isn't on a Saturday.
I had read in the ESPN article yesterday that USC was a possibility, and I had concluded in my mind that that was the one that was going to happen. The others seemed to be too much of a letdown.
This would be a letdown.
I would fine with this if we didn't have to play on Thursday. Thursday football games don't feel right.
Feels like UConn. Better than a tomato can, not as good as a real marquee home-and-home.
And most people work Friday morning. At least I won't be in school if it's the first game of the season.
The fact that it would apparently be the first game of the college football season makes me feel better about it for some reason.
Yes. A midseason Thursday night game would be loser-ville. As the first game of the season kickoff for all of College Football, it may be kinda cool.
south carolina, miami (YTM), FSU, Va tech, Texas A&M, clemson are playing thursday night games this year.
Last year, wisconsin, LSU, oregon and USC played thursdays as well
i'll still watch
that Thursday is for low-level programs with sufficient cache
Other schools doing it doesn't disprove anything.
If I said "Alcohol is only for adults" and you said "No it ain't, my kids drink it all the time" you haven't really disproved my point.
Maybe my wording was difficult to follow. I don't mean Thursday night games are "reserved" for teams without cache, I mean they are "meant" for teams without cache. I get why USC and Oregon do it, so that non-West Coasters can watch their games. I get why ACC teams do it, because a lot of their games don't make it outside of the states playing in the games.
Michigan doesn't need to do that.
I'm less meh about Thursday night than I am about the opponent. I'd rather play USC on a Thursday night, than play Utah at noon on Saturday. Not even close.
You're saying people from the east coast can't watch Pac12 games on Saturdays, but they can on Thursday? Or that being on national television is a big deal to USC?
Thursday games are MEANT for people who like watching football, just like Saturday games. The downside, just like with night games on Saturdays, is that it makes it more difficult for people who actually attend the games to travel. People who watch on TV aren't the problem.
Michigan doesn't NEED to play on Thursdays, but they also don't NEED to play on Saturdays. Michigan can move it's entire schedule to Thursdays if it wants. It's not about need.
You view it as a cheap gimmick that is beneath Michigan, but, just like night games and alternative uniforms it's an archaic view. Many, if not most, see it as a fun, entertaining thing.
I'll get off your lawn now.
Cache - A collection of items of the same type stored in a hidden or inaccessible place.
Cachet - The state of being respected or admired; prestige.
Yeah, and I didn't watch any of them... because they were on Thursday night.
Than Thursday night will be for the Big 10, the Pac 10 and Michigan, teams with big time cache.
If it is us, it will be us. no?
I'll take a home-and-home with a mediocre team over back-to-back cupcakes at home. Obviously I'd prefer a USC or Oregon, but at this point it beats most of our non-conference opponents over the past couple of years. Remember that when we played Oregon, it was before they were considered a good team (argh Dennis Dixon!). Maybe Utah can be top-25 by that point (big maybe).
I also agree it might be cool to be the first game of the season-- it would make the wait from the first game until the Michigan game...nonexistent.
Brian isn't happy with scheduling? Shocked, I say.
Too bad the "away" half of the series isn't one of those strange mid- to late-season out of conference games. Alta usually opens up pretty early and the skiing would make a trip out for a Thursday game worthwhile.
...opened up the possibility of a Jazz game during that weekend to round out the trip to Salt Lake City. In any case, I look forward to making my first trip there, and expect to take a group of Michigan fans with me.
Given the limited choices, I guess this will have to do. I like Colorado better due to the history in the mid-90's (I saw all three games), but Utah will most likely be the better opponent on the field.
It was USC or bust for me and this is a bust. I thought they had openings those years?!
That is why you work extra hard earlier in the week so you can come in a little later on Friday or in your case get out early on Thursday.
California has "daily overtime." You get overtime if you work more than 8 hours in a day, instead of more than 40 hours in a week. Employers who would be happy to allow you flexibility in setting your schedule don't want to pay you OT so that you can stay up late on Thursday and have a short Friday.
It's the largest source of class action lawsuits in the state with the 5th worst lawsuit climate in the country, ahead of only Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and West Virginia.
OK, but I think his point is that most of the M alumni in CA aren't hourly employees so this is a moot point. My boss doesn't care if I work 30 hours in one day. Either do my clients.
If you were my client.
How dare you leave my native Illinois out of this? No way my man. The ATRA disagrees if you look at the last 10 years of "judicial hellholes." We have Cook County and Madison County, with St. Clair County making a strong push of late to join the fray as a plaintiff's haven. http://www.judicialhellholes.org/\
That stinks.
Also, someone is negging all of these anti-Thursday-night posts, and while I don't want to start a flame war, I do think that that person is a part of a Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.
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