April 22nd, 2009 at 12:36 AM ^
Central Michigan.
Their underachieving student body widely holds the belief they have a better football team then The University of Michigan.
Maybe that would have panned out for them last year but, I would really like to just completely embarass them good enough to last another ten years till we play them again.
roots for Michigan over Central, by the way...i'd like to comment. No rational person on this campus thinks that Central has a better football team than Michigan. Maybe people think that LAST YEAR Central had a better team, but that might not be far fetched. We (as in Michigan, not Central) were not good last year.
Playing most MAC schools is a high-risk, low-reward situation. I'd rather they pick up mid-level teams from BCS conferences. FTR, I don't think anyone believes that Central has a better football program than M. They might think they'd have beaten M last year, but that comes with good reason.
April 22nd, 2009 at 12:37 AM ^
mmm i could name dozens of cool matchups. here's a few i think sound cool: florida state, alabama, ucla, va tech...a lot of big 6 schools would make cool matchups
April 22nd, 2009 at 12:42 AM ^
I like the virginia tech
I want the Hurricanes!
swarthmore
UofM vs. a hurricane.
BUT, the hurricane's name is Hurricane Bo.
Chris Farley Super Fans style heart attack.
April 22nd, 2009 at 12:13 PM ^
Michigan 124 Hurricane Bo 13
That would make for a sweet night game huh?
As opposed to the current West Virginia?
Westsylvania Tech.
But...
ACC - Georgia Tech or Clemson
Big East - West Virginia (edit: Adding Rutgers)
SEC - Tennessee Auburn or Georgia
Pac 10 - Continue vs Oregon, but I'd gladly take Cal. We also owe USC a butt whooping or two.
Big 12 - Nebraska, Texas
I'm moving to Oregon so a home and home against any Pac-10 school would be cool. Wazzou and Washington are supposed to have pretty amazing venues, Pullman is just supposed to be a dump of a town. Oregon is Oregon, and Oregon State would all be interesting.
Personally I'd like to see us play Notre Dame every year for the next 20 years... Oh wait... nm.
It'll be nice to have another Michigan fan out here in Oregon. Where you moving to out here?
I would also like to see us schedule Oregon in 2011 or beyond. We owe them a butt-whooping. I can't take all my friends still giving me smack about the last game...not to mention the one before that.
We should play the best of the best every year.
USC, Florida, Texas, Oklahoma... take on any and all.
My brother-in-law and I talk about this a lot. He had an idea that I always agree with. We should play the best-of-the-best (once we're back to form) but we should do it as an open invitation to anyone that wants to play us, the only caveat being that it's a home-and-home series where they have to play us in November (or at least late October).
We get pissed that USC is always playing in perfect weather, we want to see how mighty the Trojans really are when they're playing in weather like Northwestern this year. Play like real men.
And since it's an open invitation, if nobody takes us up on it then nobody can blame us for not playing a harder schedule. It'd be pretty dumb to get angry at Michigan and any other top-tier school for not playing a hard schedule when we're perfectly willing to do so and have made that extremely public.
April 22nd, 2009 at 11:41 AM ^
this is interesting, but it has its problems as well. We complain that USC and such get to play where it is warm all the time and never in the cold. Michigan has a lot of experience playing in the cold, wouldn't playing USC in the cold give us an unfair advantage then? I would argue that, if you think weather makes a difference, this would be even more unfair than playing in the warmth of the west coast, as Michigan has some experience playing in warm weather but USC has little playing in the cold. I really like the idea of an 'open challenge' kind of thing. Whether or not that would be advantageous to us the in the long term I don't know, but I'm convinced it would be bad ass as hell.
of these bad weather games would help to even the playing field after the seemingly dozens of road bowls games against USC.
To be fair, they're in South Bend every other year; but to your point, they do play in mid October, and not November.
I love big conference intersectional games. USC, UCLA, Washington, or Arizona would be great. This way I can go back to some of my old haunts and see my friends in any of those cities. Unfortunately if it is USC I'm bound by obligation to my undergraduate to root against Michigan, but I'm sure you all would understand.
I don't understand, actually. A good friend of mine out here graduated from USC, but he is a big Michigan fan. He would never cheer for USC to beat Michigan, in fact he went to the last couple Rose Bowls between the 2, one of which was while he was an undergrad, and cheered for UM in both. If you're a fan, you cheer for that team. If you say "I cheer to M unless they play USC" then you're a USC fan, not a Michigan fan.
But the two are not mutually exclusive. You can be a USC fan and a Michigan fan at the same time. But you will cheer for one over the other at some point. That is simply the way of things. I have another graduate student friend here who went to OSU for his undergrad. He cheers for M football every Saturday but one. The almost universal consensus that most of my fellow graduate students have come to is that your undergraduate should trump. That's not to say it always will, but I think if you go somewhere for undergraduate that had a great football or basketball team etc. and you were invested in cheering for them during your time there it's gonna be hard to root for another team over them.
Yes, if you were invested in cheering for them while you were there. But my friend, while he was an undergrad at USC, was a Michigan fan first. There are a lot of people who go to undergrads other than M, but still consider M their team, and cheer for M when they play their undergrad team. You can be a "fan" of more than one team, but if M is your secondary team, then I have a hard time saying you're a true fan.
Not to put down your fanhood, but a true fan will cheer for his team no matter who they play.
You can call me an "untrue fan." I can respect your viewpoint, I just don't share it. I'll still root for Michigan. I'll be sitting in the student section every home game rooting for Blue. If by another stoke of luck (good or bad depends on your point of view) we play USC in the Rose Bowl or another bowl for that matter, I'll be rooting for USC. If Michigan wins, I won't be disappointed, I'll just be happy I got to see my two favorite teams on the same field again.
April 22nd, 2009 at 10:10 AM ^
Tennessee sees UM as a rivalry game. They are still whining about how "Charles Woodson stole Peyton Manning's Heisman." Also, they are still whining about UM increasing the capacity of the Big House to be bigger than than UT's stadium again. That is why the beat UM so bad when they played them in a bowl game a few years ago; UM was playing a "reward" game, while UT was playing a rivalry game.
Of course, there is the chance that Lane Kiffin will screw UT up so badly that it would be fun to play them.
April 22nd, 2009 at 10:29 AM ^
I'm pretty sure that Jason Witten ate us alive in that game. That Tennessee team had MNC talent, they beat us because they were much better than we were
April 22nd, 2009 at 10:16 AM ^
I think they should continue to do just what they are doing now. Until the system changes, the Big Ten is the path of least resistance to the title game. ND adds to strength of schedule because they are always overrated, and it is a rivalry game. At this point, UM has three rivalry games each year. When you add PSU and whoever else is hot in the Big Ten each year, the schedule has more than enough tough games.
I like the present balance between "easy" games and very tough games. I wouldn't mind seeing them do like OSU and scheduling three instate games with lesser conferences every year. CMU, WMU, and EMU sounds about right. UM got sloppy under Carr and RR was left with a terrible roster last year, but UM will take care of business most years. If they actually lose to one of those teams, it means they aren't good enough to win it all that year, anyway, and it adds intrigue to future matchups.
April 22nd, 2009 at 10:22 AM ^
I'd love to do a home and home with Cal, Texas, UF or VaTech.
April 22nd, 2009 at 10:25 AM ^
How but an ACC-Big Ten challenge? Just with good matchups for once.
I'd also like to play pretty much any BCS school with a bowl appearance in the past two or three years.
April 22nd, 2009 at 10:45 AM ^
Jowlgia or Jowlgia Tech (I live in Jowlgia...and yes Georgians pronounce it like I spelled it.)
Ahbun
Texas Tech
Oregon (I want Michigan to play them REAL BAD!!!!)
Arizona St
Clemson
April 22nd, 2009 at 11:20 AM ^
Two years ago I read that Michigan signed a home and home with Georgia. Anyone know when that starts? 2011?
April 22nd, 2009 at 11:26 AM ^
I don't think that's true. Bill Martin has been quoted many times as saying that Michigan will take Notre Dame and a bunch of cupcakes every year until the end of time. It's likely that what you saw was some sort of proposal, I don't believe that any such deal has been made
April 22nd, 2009 at 12:27 PM ^
You look to be correct as UGA has Oregon and Louisville through 2016. I remember seeing it on the ESPN ticker, must have been proposed like you said.
I really hope he didn't say that, because playing cupcakes and Notre Dame is getting really boring. PLUS we have been losing to cupcakes! If you lose to a bcs team, at least it doesn't ruin your season. Lets play some SEC teams Martin!
April 22nd, 2009 at 11:07 AM ^
I don't really care who they play, but I think it would be beneficial to play teams from recruiting hotbeds. Play teams like South Florida, Texas A&M, Pitt, Cal/Stanford, Georgia Tech, etc. The idea would be to play the 2nd or 3rd best team from the hotbeds so we have a good shot at winning but still get credit for playing a BCS school on the road. This would be a great way for recruits in the area to watch Michigan and would hopefully give us even more national exposure.
April 22nd, 2009 at 12:46 PM ^
Personally, I want us to play OU. After graduation, I came to OU for grad school. The fans here are obnoxious. For example:
http://www.strangesports.com/content/item/129476.html
http://www.al.com/alabama/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/sports/1219652…
Towards the end of the article it says they're hoping to eventually include a team from outside the south.
Maybe teams that are not from the MAC? Nope that will never happen. Powerhouse my ass, Michigan won't be a powerhouse again until we beat Ohio State a lot and we start playing decent Non-Conference opponents, Not ND, and MAC schools. How bout decent schools like Cal or maybe Pitt?
the chances of west virginia and ohio state playing are pretty slim
I could care less if UM plays EMU, Toledo, WMU, Central Mich, and any other lower tiered program. Until the BCS starts punishing teams for playing lesser talent, "I say have at 'em".
Now, in a perfect world where there is a playoff, I agree with His Dudeness, and say UM should play the best of the best every year.