New Possible Michigan Football Rivalries
If Michigan were to ever drop Notre Dame from its schedule, what teams do you think we could replace them with that would instantly create a heated rivalry (given that we play a home and home with them every year for 30-odd years)?
Off the top of my head, I think a new series with:
Mich v Southern Cal
Mich v Tennessee
Mich v West Virginia
would without a doubt re-create the OOC rivalry atmosphere with Notre Dame. Not saying any of this is likely, just fun to think about which matchups that would bring bad blood between the schools.
December 13th, 2009 at 7:49 PM ^
Why do you have to drop ND to play decent opponents?
December 13th, 2009 at 7:53 PM ^
well i said the post was just for fun, obvs michigan is not dropping ND anytime soon. howeva, michigan does seem committed to playing only one OOC road game per every other year.
December 13th, 2009 at 8:02 PM ^
howeva, michigan does seem committed to playing only one OOC road game per every other year.Wouldn't that seem like more of a hinderance than ND itself then? And lets be honest here, a 3 hour drive isn't much of an "away" game to begin with lol
December 13th, 2009 at 8:03 PM ^
It's not the distance as much as it is that we get fewer seats and less money than a normal home game. But yeah, it's far easier to travel to South Bend than L.A., Miami, whatever.
December 13th, 2009 at 7:57 PM ^
He must have forgotten Bo vs. Lou.
December 13th, 2009 at 9:32 PM ^
Kettle? It's pot. You're black.
I never thought I'd hear an ND fan talking trash about scheduling decent opponents.
December 13th, 2009 at 9:55 PM ^
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/sagarin-archive.htm
2009: 31
2008: 50
2007: 24
2006: 18
2005: 14
2004: 5
2003: 1
2002: 14
2001: 14
yeah SOS has really fallen off recently lol
December 14th, 2009 at 4:06 AM ^
I thought maybe your response was intended as sarcasm, but then I looked at the numbers. The average SOS from 2001 - 2005 was 9.6. The average SOS from 2006 - 2009 is 30.8. If you do not think that is a fall off in SOS, then it is probably because you are so desperate to win you are not seeing clearly.
December 14th, 2009 at 10:13 AM ^
That and SOS doesn't tell the whole story. My comment was about scheduling horrible teams which ND does in spades.
ND keeps its SOS reasonable by scheduling a few really good schools to offset the really bad ones, rather than scheduling many decent teams. In 2006, for example, when you had a fine SOS, Penn State, Michigan, and USC were very good (or had the potential to be) plus Georgia Tech was good, not great. ND then filled out the schedule with MSU, Purdue, Stanford, UCLA, Navy, UNC, Air Force, Army. And those were actually 8 weeks in a row.
December 13th, 2009 at 7:49 PM ^
Miami Hurricanes, they seem to be on the way back, not to mention both Michigan and Miami recruit South Florida.
December 14th, 2009 at 8:39 AM ^
will do. We need to start scheduling big time out of conference games if we want to get back in the big time. Look at OSU they schedule texas, USC, and I think they scheduled a future SEC home and home. We need to do that too, playing all these creampuff teams has done us no favors. I wouls like to see us play an SEC team, that way we can start to show that the SEC is over rated.
December 13th, 2009 at 7:59 PM ^
Drop Western/Eastern/Central, other MAC team and cannon fodder FBS/Div II and we could play all three every year.
December 13th, 2009 at 8:14 PM ^
Hawaii.
Road game.
Every year.
Problem solved.
December 13th, 2009 at 8:41 PM ^
And, bus the fans there for tailgating. As many as want to go. For free. Beachside resorts for everyone!
December 14th, 2009 at 1:17 AM ^
Might want to double-check your geography, Chief.
December 14th, 2009 at 12:18 PM ^
Clearly sarcasm is beneath you.
December 13th, 2009 at 9:42 PM ^
Was at the M-Hawaii game it 1986. Was pleasantly surprised to find that they sell beer there (as were most other M fans).
After M played there in 2000 the athletic dept. said they would not go back due to distance and cost.
To bad.
December 14th, 2009 at 12:30 AM ^
Like Hawaii, the weather is warm and they sell beer at the stadium. It would definitely help with FL recruiting. This could be done as soon as the team gets its mojo back without adding to the degree of difficulty too much. It would have to be the last game of the season, though, to make it a fun game.
December 13th, 2009 at 8:23 PM ^
We could have a fight between the best academic public universities. Then the loser can't even go home and comfort themselves by reflecting on their superior academics.
December 13th, 2009 at 9:53 PM ^
Could throw UNC in there too
December 13th, 2009 at 8:36 PM ^
I don't like playing USC. The last three times we've been to the West Coast (that I can remember), we've lost. UCLA, Washington and Oregon. There's no reason to have the expense of going all the way out with the high probability of losing. Just look at OSU.
We should try for an Eastern school. There are lots of alumni out there who would love to go to a game. The UConn game in 2013 is good, but if we're talking a long-term rivalry, I think Boston College would be the best. On the subject of the east coast, I also think playing a game a Yankee Stadium, against someone like Army would be really cool.
We should also try to do something down south, where we are doing a lot of recruiting. Playing Alabama would be special, as they are one of the most historic programs in the country. Playing someone like Florida State or Miami (YTM) would be good too. I would rather beat UF in a bowl game than during the regular season.
I wouldn't mind starting something with Texas or Oklahoma, because of their historical significance and proximity to recruiting grounds as well.
December 13th, 2009 at 9:23 PM ^
Playing Notre Dame clearly draws enough ire from above, we might as well not play with safeties ever again.
December 13th, 2009 at 8:37 PM ^
We should play the Delaware Blue Hens, winner gets to wear the winged helmet the rest of the season.
December 13th, 2009 at 8:42 PM ^
Loser has to put the stripes backwards.
December 13th, 2009 at 9:29 PM ^
Lets go the source, Princeton
December 13th, 2009 at 8:44 PM ^
Whats the point to even discuss this? We play ND until 3031.
December 13th, 2009 at 8:56 PM ^
Because Fielding Yost is still working on destroying ND from the grave
December 13th, 2009 at 8:58 PM ^
Yeah, it's a slow news week. In other news, today's the Coner's birthday!
December 13th, 2009 at 8:54 PM ^
needs to have an annual game that comes about 2 weeks after the OSU game and it should be against MIAMI; or a long-term contract (e.g. 5 years at least) with a Florida team. It's kind of like a pre-bowl bowl game, it's in great recruiting ground, there's all those snowbirds.
December 13th, 2009 at 9:33 PM ^
In the future, that would make it this past weekend, which has traditionally been reserved for Army-Navy and the lower championships. It would also be after the SEC/ACC title games, and after OSU. There should not be a regular season game after OSU
December 13th, 2009 at 11:28 PM ^
And by later, I mean December. Although that's partially because I think games played in the snow are awesome, unlike most people.
December 13th, 2009 at 9:02 PM ^
i like the Alabama idea... a lot.
It's a great idea for the big-10 in general to schedule some home and homes against SEC teams. Only way we're going to dispell the SEC-superiority thing.
butttttt, unlikely we see that in the next oh 55 years.
December 13th, 2009 at 9:56 PM ^
Stanford?
Eh...would be too embarrassing to lose
But I'd like Wake Forest or Clemson
December 13th, 2009 at 9:57 PM ^
I can't believe no one has mentioned Nebraska.
December 13th, 2009 at 9:58 PM ^
Another one: Florida.
They haven't played an out of conference road game outside of Florida since about 1992 (Memphis). Take a home and home with the Gators - that would be insane.
December 13th, 2009 at 10:00 PM ^
Yeah that is a trend I would like to see change
December 13th, 2009 at 11:30 PM ^
Florida only plays easily winnable games out-of-conference because they know that they can get a BCS/national championship bid solely through an SEC schedule. So they play absolute crap teams in non-conference play and run up the score like nobody's business.
December 14th, 2009 at 1:25 AM ^
I hate defending Florida, but their schedule is more or less the same as ours. Their annual OOC game against FSU is the equivalent of us playing Notre Dame every year. In addition to that game, this year they threw in two non-BCS games and a FCS game - the same as us playing EMU, WMU and DSU. Sure, we've played Oregon and UCLA OOC recently, but Florida occasionally throws Miami into their schedule.
The reason that Florida hasn't played a non-conference game outside their state since 1992 is because there are a crapload of good teams inside their state, not because they only schedule weaklings.
December 14th, 2009 at 12:49 PM ^
I was thinking about their annual multitude of FCS teams to start off the year, which is annoying. Stupid on my part and my conclusion was wrong.
December 13th, 2009 at 10:00 PM ^
My suggestions:
Delaware State - that went well.
Appalachian State - we owe them a big one
Delaware - They stole our look, but didn't give it an A+ effort
December 13th, 2009 at 10:20 PM ^
They have the 3rd most wins all time. I think it would be a cool match-up.
December 13th, 2009 at 10:32 PM ^
I'd love to see a home-and-home series with Texas. I remember the pre-game to the Rose Bowl a few years back -- I had so much fun tailgating with the Texas fans. Great fans, at least all of the ones that we were around.
December 13th, 2009 at 10:41 PM ^
Texas actually moved ahead of Notre Dame, and is currently at 845 to Notre Dame's 837. We have 877. God we need a good season now.
December 14th, 2009 at 12:36 AM ^
Hi Tim
December 13th, 2009 at 11:59 PM ^
I'd love to see Michigan schedule a service academy every year. One year we get them at the big house next year we play at a big stadium near each school. Army we'd playing in NYC, Navy in Baltimore or DC, and Air Force we'd play at Denver. I think this would be good for all schools involved.
December 14th, 2009 at 1:19 AM ^
The Les Miles storylines would be pretty cool (assuming he would still be coach there, which could not be the case sometime in the near future).
Also, although M hasn't won on the west coast forever, I would like to see a home and home with Washington. One of my earliest sports memories is playing them in the Rose Bowl. It seems like they will be a Pac Ten power within a season or two under Sarkisian.
December 14th, 2009 at 2:37 AM ^
I think this would turn out to be an exciting game. These two faced eachother in the 2001 Citrus Bowl and it made for a good game!
December 14th, 2009 at 5:17 AM ^
Why do we need the same high profile OOC team every year? I love the ND rivalry and would not get rid of that, but if we did I would not replace it with another one. I would do what OSU is starting to do -- have a home and home with another high profile BCS team on a two-year rotating basis (e.g., Texas, Oklahoma, Georgia, Alabama, USC, Florida, Miami, FSU). I would also get rid of one of the lame OOC schools we play every year and replace it with Army and Navy on an alternating basis. How cool would it be to play either Army or Navy every year? It would be far better than playing Toledo or Ball State (or Delaware State). And it is not like we would be adding another top 10 team that could cost us a BCS bowl or national championship. We would be no more likely to lose to Army (probably less) or Navy than we would to one of the better MAC teams.
In fact, my dream schedule would be to keep ND and replace two of the forgettable OOC games each year with (1) Army/Navy (always opening game) and (2) a rotating high profile BCS opponent:
Week 1: Army/Navy
Week 2: ND
Week 3: MAC Team
Week 4: Rotating High Profile BCS Opponent
Weeks 5-11: B10 Teams
Week 12: OSU (always a home game ... after all, it is my dream schedule)
December 14th, 2009 at 7:28 AM ^
The only college football program that, in my opinion, rivals Michigan in flat out awesomeness. Great unis, unparalleled swagger, even when not dominant (or even competitive for that matter), I say it's time for at least one home-and-home with the Canes.