Next Year's Non Conference Opponents

Submitted by gobluehtown on

Western is given as being one

 Obviously not any heavyweights...but what is there?

Two others being...Akron and Kent State???

 

Any ideas....I would like to at least see one other non-MAC. Maybe Wyoming or Utah State?

 

Any thoughts..

MGoBoard

joeyb

October 30th, 2008 at 12:19 AM ^

I agree. Next year has to be about building confidence. I don't care if they are all MAC aside from ND. Washington State is coming to mind. Stanford would be interesting too.

Joined: 10/12/2008

MGoPoints: 16845

GNM

October 30th, 2008 at 2:42 AM ^

This is going to take more than one year to rebuild.  Michigan has to be thinking getting to seven wins next year.  It would help if they could find three or four of those away from the Big Ten, because the confrence should be on the upswing nationally.

Joined: 09/15/2008

MGoPoints: 43

magonus

October 30th, 2008 at 12:26 PM ^

Someone from the Big East.  Or a cellar dweller from one of the other BCS conferences.  That would be a low-risk/high-reward proposition.  Even if said team was worse than a top level MAC or MWC team, it looks better in the eyes of the pollsters and helps in the computers because our opponent's SoS will be higher (with the exception of a Big East team for the opponent's SoS part, obviously). 

Joined: 07/05/2008

MGoPoints: 310

magonus

October 30th, 2008 at 11:43 PM ^

I don't see why it's out of the question.  With a healthy Threet, we weren'te that far off in any game except Illinois.  A few made tackles or catches and a few fewer fumbles here or there and we're sitting at 6-2 instead of 2-6.  And who do we lose?  Not anywhere near the level of replacement that was necessary for this season.  Add to that getting PSU, OSU and what should be a pretty good ND team at home and we could realisticly look at 11 or 12 wins.

Joined: 07/05/2008

MGoPoints: 310

joeyb

October 31st, 2008 at 12:22 AM ^

Just keep in mind that realistically, we could lose Iowa, PSU, Illinois, Wisconsin and OSU. All of them have tail backs and some have quarter backs that will be return for their senior years. I think we get to 8-4 at best and that is assuming that we have an easy OOC schedule. Next year needs to be about building some confidence and that won't happen if we have another losing season.

Joined: 10/12/2008

MGoPoints: 16845

ameed

October 31st, 2008 at 12:19 PM ^

Wow, read Brians latest post, the timing versus your comments is uncanny.

We have a chance to win every game, every year - that is why you play the games.  However, Michigan will not win 11 or 12 games next year.  Cinderella miracles aside, it is absolutely ludricous to consider an MNC in 2009 "realistic" and an epitome of the kind of absurd expectations a good portion of the fanbase has.

 

Joined: 07/01/2008

MGoPoints: 186

magonus

November 1st, 2008 at 11:09 AM ^

Maybe it is absurd, but I'm always optimistic about my teams' chances.  Hell, I still get psyched for the Lions each and every season, hoping that this year is "the year".  And as I pointed out, the difference between this season being good and being what we currently have is extremely thin.  With another year in Rich Rod's system for our returning players, plus a bit of luck to keep them healthy, we should be pretty good.

Joined: 07/05/2008

MGoPoints: 310

magonus

October 30th, 2008 at 4:54 PM ^

Sorry, but no.  We (or any D-IA team for that matter) should never, ever play a non-D-IA team.  First, it's a lose-lose situation.  Winning gains you nothing and losing costs you everything.  Second, I'm of the opinion that scheduling a D-IIA school should automatically disqualify you from NC consideration.  Period.  There's no excuse for it.

Joined: 07/05/2008

MGoPoints: 310

Hannibal.

October 30th, 2008 at 2:32 PM ^

Has anything been decided besides Notre Shame?

Isn't it incredibly rare to not have the schedule set a year in advance?  I can remember most years being able to look at least two or three years in the future to see our OOC opponents.

Joined: 09/09/2008

MGoPoints: 9051

gmbblue

October 30th, 2008 at 3:23 PM ^

But next year not thanks.  Getting off to a good start is going to be more key then any year in history.

I think we should use the 1 year exemption of a non FBS school that counts as a bowl game and schedule, and not the defending national champion, a traditional based team that sucks.

Then schedule western.

 and a very weak FBS school who replaces alot of pieces, maybe a Washington or Washington State?

Then the whole thing falls on a ND game at home.

I would never ever envision wanting this but next year we may be even younger and confidence will go along way.

Joined: 07/01/2008

MGoPoints: 6

MechE

October 30th, 2008 at 8:28 PM ^

The way I see it, you can schedule 4 different kinds of teams:

1. A challenging team that will earn you a lot of respect for beating (USC, Texas)

2. A safe, weak team that gets you no additional respect for beating (MAC teams)

3. An overrated team that is actually weak, but gets you a relatively good amount of respect for beating (Notre Dame)

4. An underrated team that is actually dangerous, but gets you little respect for beating (App. State, Utah)

Choice #4 is a favorite of Bill Martin, so I say he schedules some upper-tier MWC or Sun-Belt team.

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 444

littlebrownjug

October 30th, 2008 at 8:28 PM ^

What about a home and home with the Vols? It would be fun to meet a team wth such history and a similarly large stadium. Plus, we both suck right now, and it might be a chance for us to get a win against an SEC team.

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 694

GNM

October 30th, 2008 at 10:25 PM ^

The problem with scheduling BCS teams is that they typically want home and homes, even if the are, say, the Orangemen.  With a few exceptions, Martin has been unwiling to do this.  The athletic department seems to really enjoy the cash that having 7 or 8 (depending on ND) home games provides. 

What Michigan really needs to do is get into the SEC, so they can play cupcakes because their confrence is "so strong" and tolerate embaressing confrence losses because the media will chalk it up to "parity."  

Joined: 09/15/2008

MGoPoints: 43

gmbblue

October 31st, 2008 at 12:03 PM ^

Michigan will never again play 2 non conference road games in a year, so its ND and any FBS team they can get to do a home visit with no return.

Its highly likely Michigan will never play a top tier team from the PAC 10 again. 

Joined: 07/01/2008

MGoPoints: 6

RagingBean

November 3rd, 2008 at 1:06 AM ^

If next year's Michigan team couldn't be the Vandals I would be very sad in my soul, for they are unfathomably bad year in and year out. I know this because my friends and I love them in all their terrible glory.

 

I would say 'yes, please' to the Vandals.

Joined: 10/29/2008

MGoPoints: 1757

hat

November 2nd, 2008 at 1:55 PM ^

We need to redo the ND contract and put in some breaks in the series, like we had in 1995-96 and 2000-01.  Playing them every year is really limiting what we can do with the rest of the schedule, given that seven home games is apparently a financial necessity. 

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 15

thee1jersey

November 2nd, 2008 at 2:06 PM ^

we need to schedule a home/away with a pac ten, sec, big east team in 2 or 3 years.   IMO in about 2 years we will be able to compete with teams of this caliber.  It would spice it up from playing bs MAC schools, yeah i know Toledo is a MAC.  I just would like to get excited about an opponent UM plays. 

Joined: 10/02/2008

MGoPoints: 79

scottcha

November 5th, 2008 at 6:50 PM ^

Come to think of it, why not schedule App. State again?  Maybe not next year, but a few years down the road, maybe after they 6-peat as IAA National Champions or something.  They've already beaten us at home so I think it'd be seen as a more competitive choice than it did the first time and I'd love to have a shot at breaking even with them.

Watching that goddamn field goal get blocked from the first row will do that to you.

Joined: 07/05/2008

MGoPoints: 100