If the B1G realigns, would you be open to playing The Game earlier in the season?
September 29th, 2021 at 7:47 PM ^
So maybe we will win that year. Either way the Christmas show must go on!
September 30th, 2021 at 8:28 AM ^
Unless you have some information that's not public, it's not before Thanksgiving in 2023. Thanksgiving is November 23, the 4th Thursday in November as always. The Game is Saturday 11/25, according to all the published schedules.
We do know that future schedules need to be updated for the home/road flip of the MSU and Indiana games, but I do not expect that to impact the OSU game, nor compress the season into 12 straight weeks with no open week.
September 30th, 2021 at 11:33 AM ^
Thanks for the correction. I thought Turkey Day 2023 was on the 30th. +1 to you sir.
September 30th, 2021 at 12:22 AM ^
This is my favorite response.
September 29th, 2021 at 6:57 PM ^
Meh - I think we play better football earlier in the season when healthier.
(Throwing up a little in my mouth) I think Dave Brandon actually had a point when he was considering moving the (set cross-over) game earlier if Michigan and OSU were in separate divisions.
It sure would help the season feel different at this point.
Of course I am all for tradition, but that was blown up when the game was moved to the weekend after Thanksgiving.
September 29th, 2021 at 7:00 PM ^
Yes. OSU's recruiting prowess means they'll always be in a better position than Michigan to replace injured players with talented backups. The later in the year we play, the more depth is an issue as injuries mount.
September 30th, 2021 at 8:40 AM ^
This was my exact thought as well!!
September 29th, 2021 at 7:00 PM ^
Sure. This hasn't been a rivalry in 30+ years. One team or the other, mostly the other,has dominated it. Plus let's stop pretending this isn't just minor league NFL. Bowls don't mean shit, the pageantry is all but gone that use to exist.
September 29th, 2021 at 7:03 PM ^
I would prefer to move the date around, as we do with every other conference opponent. It wouldn't surprise me if consistently ending the regular season on a down note hurts bowl preparation, recruiting, and/or program morale.
September 29th, 2021 at 7:10 PM ^
Yes. Better chance of beating them
September 29th, 2021 at 7:11 PM ^
There are disadvantages to playing them in the last week. But those disadvantages are so comically negligible compared to the actual reasons why we're getting absolutely clowned on in this rivalry.
September 29th, 2021 at 7:22 PM ^
Dillon Tatum just committed to state! :(
September 29th, 2021 at 7:32 PM ^
Maybe if we moved The Game to earlier in the season he may have waited?
September 29th, 2021 at 9:35 PM ^
This really shouldn't come as a surprise since the buzz around him since the staff shakeup was apparently that he didn't like Clinkscale from his UK days and UM may not have been recruiting as hard as before to boot.
He's a good player and a nice pick-up for MSU.
September 29th, 2021 at 7:28 PM ^
Yes, but not for the reasons you give. Priority for me would be to get it off of Thanksgiving weekend.
September 29th, 2021 at 7:29 PM ^
No! Do you think OSU fans said this during the Cooper years? Catching OSU early in the season won't help Michigan in beating OSU. It's in their DNA to beat Michigan. I could see OSU beat Michigan by 30 and then lose to Purdue the next week. Also, the B1G would just put MSU that week and we've seen how that game has gone the past few years.
I want to see both teams wear their home jerseys.
September 29th, 2021 at 8:11 PM ^
Logged in to upvote "both teams wear their home jerseys." I've been wanting to see that for a long time.
September 29th, 2021 at 7:31 PM ^
Nope.
I like the game where it is...end of season when the stakes are higher.
Eventually the pendulum will swing back
Not sure why people want to change it? Because OSU is somehow 'more vulnerable' at the beginning of the year? Why? Rosters change all the time - some years OSU might have a raw team, other years it will be Michigan with first time starters.
September 29th, 2021 at 7:34 PM ^
Please God yes. I would even be fine with not playing OSU every season.
September 29th, 2021 at 7:34 PM ^
Hell yes. IMO should have been done a long time ago and not the reason to dodge them at their best. My reasoning is past history shows you CANNOT hypothetically recover from a last game loss and still expect to make the playoffs It's fresh in the minds of the folks who decide who gets those coveted spots. We lose in the first two months and it can get somewhat put in the back ground and we still have a shot.
Just an opinion though.
September 29th, 2021 at 7:49 PM ^
Yes, I'd prefer it. OSU is obviously the better program and has been for the better part of 20 years. Having it the last game of the year removes any opportunity to have a trap game and makes upsets harder and the more talented team more likely to win. It would also leave them less time to prepare for us.
September 29th, 2021 at 7:53 PM ^
No. Absolutely not. We aren’t losing because it’s the last game of the year. We’re losing because they’re the better program.
They aren’t going to take the Game any less seriously because it’s in September. My God
September 29th, 2021 at 9:04 PM ^
So you think every year osu looks the same in game 3 as they do in game 12?
September 29th, 2021 at 9:45 PM ^
Obviously not.
That said, Michigan should also improve during the course of the year shouldn't they? Is OSU somehow not going to spend the entire fall practice prepping for Michigan then?
People arguing about the date making a difference don't make sense.
The one sensible argument is that early losses are easier to recover from than late season losses. (the before Thanksgiving argument is fair, but more for family reasons)
When Michigan was on their winning streak versus OSU, the Game wasn't moved to be earlier in the season
Michigan was better and OSU was worse. The time of year didn't make a damn difference
September 30th, 2021 at 12:12 AM ^
OSU is more talented and hence sends more early entrants to the NFL which likely means they're playing with less experience on average than Michigan (haven't crunched the data but that's my assumption).
If that's the case, their learning curves are likely steeper over the course of a season. Anecdotally, that often feels like the case too, but one could also test the metrics there. If so, you could make an argument that getting them earlier in a season is marginally more advantageous than later in the season.
For the sake of tradition, I like it being the last game. But just just saying.
September 29th, 2021 at 9:41 PM ^
I mean, they would have several weeks less film on Michigan and much less of that “extra Michigan practice time”
September 29th, 2021 at 10:52 PM ^
So would Michigan on Ohio State.
September 30th, 2021 at 12:29 AM ^
So, in other words, you prefer the "lesser" program to get their ass beat the last game before play-offs/bowl games are decided?
September 30th, 2021 at 1:31 AM ^
Jesus fucking Christ. You people are deranged
September 29th, 2021 at 8:04 PM ^
Yes. Make it the first game of the year and we might have a shot at winning some of the time.
September 29th, 2021 at 8:08 PM ^
Wasn't this same conversation had about 10 years ago, during those goofy "Legends and Leaders Division" days?
I don't know, I'm more a neutral observer to both Michigan and Ohio State ---- but I think college football is at its best when it builds to all the rivalry games in those last 1-2 weekends. U-M/OSU should stay there, IMO.
September 29th, 2021 at 9:40 PM ^
Must be nice to have your biggest rival be Pitt.
Question: I know Frames has beaten OSU at least once in the Meyer era, but do your fans call for his head every time they lose to them?
September 29th, 2021 at 9:57 PM ^
Who/what are these "Pitt" and "Frames" that you refer to?
September 29th, 2021 at 8:09 PM ^
I like it the last game of the year. I hate it because it’s Thanksgiving weekend.
September 29th, 2021 at 8:09 PM ^
I'd be open to not playing it at all.
September 29th, 2021 at 8:09 PM ^
It was made fun of years ago, but the "Eye of Sauron" conference alignment made the most sense for football parity between the two internal divisions.
September 29th, 2021 at 8:11 PM ^
I’d be happy to do it anyway, Harbaugh is 38-8 currently in September and October but is 15-14 from November through bowl season.
September 30th, 2021 at 9:12 AM ^
That is the same with most p5 schools that play directional and Mac schools first then play the meat of the schedule later on.
September 29th, 2021 at 8:12 PM ^
Yes. A very enthusiastic yes. Anything to shake up this moribund and depressing (but, yes, indispensable) rivalry
September 29th, 2021 at 8:21 PM ^
Plenty of big rivalry games happen mid season these days. Doesn’t take away anything. Just mixed things up a bit. All for it. Plus this way every season won’t end in a humiliating curbstomping.
September 29th, 2021 at 8:23 PM ^
If Michigan played OSU earlier this year, they would've had all their linebackers
September 29th, 2021 at 8:42 PM ^
I know it might be blasphemy to some but I'd be okay with never playing the game again
September 29th, 2021 at 8:43 PM ^
tHe GaMe
September 29th, 2021 at 8:45 PM ^
I don't mind playing at varying times of the season. Making it the last game of the season has lost its appeal.
September 29th, 2021 at 9:04 PM ^
Heck no! I still haven't gotten over the schedulers moving the MSU game off the B1G opening game following the '68 season, which it had been for decades, even prior to MSU's admission to the conference.
September 29th, 2021 at 9:09 PM ^
no.
They were going to change the hearings of the Edmund Fitzgerald sinking because of the Game. It was the dickhead judge that made them still do it on a saturday.
September 29th, 2021 at 9:36 PM ^
Yes 100x yes
September 29th, 2021 at 9:37 PM ^
I mean, it does give me something to be angry about while I cook the second Thanksgiving meal of that particular weekend, as Saturday is normally the day my wife's family comes over for the meal (a fair number of them are coming from Chicago, after all, and spend the actual holiday there). This is assuming I am not at the game, which is only the case if it is in Columbus generally. On those occasions, the dinner is just later, that's all.
All that said, as much as I enjoyed ending the season on a high note potentially in the past, and as much as I cannot stand ending it with a depressing loss now, I kind of like the idea of ending the season with our primary rival - we just need to eventually, you know, beat them now and again.
September 29th, 2021 at 9:48 PM ^
No. The idea just seems self-contradicting. We care so much the rivalry that we'd move up the game to supposedly have a marginally better chance of winning...but we don't care about it enough to demand that it be the finale?