On Topic: "I missed the game" because....

of last year's ND game due to my girlfriend's 21st birthday.  You would think with all the bars we went to I would have seen it in bits and pieces.  You'd be wrong.

I'll be missing the Utah and Rutgers games this year due to weddings. I missed the Iowa and Delaware State games in 2009 due to them. Fall weddings are the worst.

I almost missed the North Dakota and Minnesota-Duluth Frozen Four games in 2011 when I was working/living in Sweden, until I realized that I could use my work laptop to VPN to one of our US servers to trick ESPN3 into letting me stream it.

my first home game since 2003 as my sister is getting married on Oct. 11th.  I even had a conference last year that I caught an early flight home from and got to the Illinois game 2nd quarter when I was the one person walking in as everyone else left so I could keep the streak intact.  

My brother got married the day of the 2007 Oregon game. I remember a bunch of us Michigan fans saying it wasn't any big deal that we were missing the game because Oregon was in trouble after the horror. 

I'm really happy we missed that game. 

I have missed some games due to coaching high school football. The one that I remember the most is the first App St game. It was my first year coaching and we played a team that didnt have lights, so we played on a saturday at noon. I was pissed because I didnt want to miss the Michigan game, but figured it's just App St, we'll win by at least 5 tds. Oops. It wasnt all a bad tho, as later that evening, I finally sealed the deal with a lovely lady I was seeing at the time. She was Buckeye fan and made fun of me all night, so maybe it was sympathy sex. Either way, I'll take it. 

Unfortunately, Fall weddings are very popular now.  If you're a Michigan fan and must get married this time of year, the LEAST you can do is get married during the bye week.  But they rarely do. 

I had weddings on back-to-back Saturdays during the 07 season.  Both were for friends I had known since pre-school.  I had to go.  At that time, we were 2 games removed from "the horror," we were 0-2 and Henne was out for a couple weeks with a leg injury.  Normally I'd be jacked for Notre Dame but we were in such an awful place, I was afraid to know what was going on.  As soon as the wedding was done, I walked out to the parking lot, took a deep breath and then called my dad for a score update.  He told me it was halftime and Michigan was up 31-0.  Biggest relief EVER.

The following week against Penn State, I took a tiny battery operated hand held TV with me to the church and hid it in my pocket but the game didn't actually start until the wedding was finished and there was a 2 hour wait between the wedding and reception.  We made it to the reception during the 3rd quarter with Michigan up 14-9.  We all walked into the dining hall and they started the blessing as the last minute ticked off the clock.  Everyone had their heads bowed, I had my head bowed trying to hide the little muted TV under the table cloth.   The blessing and game ended simultaneously.  Everyone said "Amen!"  I said, "Amen!" for a different reason.  But nobody else needed to know that. 

I have dealt with autumn weddings for the past five years. This year I have one, but it's on the Friday before the PSU game, so I'm clear this year. I absolutely hate it when people I know decide to get married on a football Saturday. Who does that?!?!?! Seriously. Do you want your guests resenting you for choosing your wedding date on a college football Saturday? I just don't think there is any reason or excuse for having an autumn wedding.

I missed the first half of The Game in 2006 because of a 1 hour long wedding ceremony. It was an interesting situation since the bride groom, and a majority of the guests were alums. Several times during the wedding I saw a couple of the bridesmaids surreptitiously checking their phones. Fortunately the ceremony ended in time for the second half, a TV was available, and the reception was delayed until the game was over.

10/25/14 - I am heading out to Boston and going to the Michigan @ BU hockey game.  I am also hoping for a noon start to M-MSU

Given the Watch ESPN & BTN Apps and other services (e.g. Tivo 2 Go, Slingbox), you shouldn't miss a whole game. You can at least stream parts of the game when appropriate.

Last year, I watched the Akron game via my iPhone on the BTN App during my cousin's baby shower. Not ideal, but understandable (especially with everyone staring at screens nowadays).

However, pre technology, I missed games mostly due to weddings. I was able to get out of most family functions for at least 2 hours (watch after halftime).

I've missed quite a few games lately because sometimes I do stuff like race sailboats or be out on deployment (I was somewhere between Guam and Hawaii for The Horror, which took place around 2 AM, so, yup, missed that one) or generally just go do fun stuff and live life without having a coronary over missing a football game.  Haven't seen an opening-weekend game in years because I keep flying out to Connecticut for a distance race.

Though, during college days at UVA, I only ever missed going to one home football game that I was in town for, and that was because the Ohio game was on at the same time.  Good thing too because that was 2003 and things dried up quick after that.

I have to many to count from growing up playing and coaching hockey. There was one time though that we had a game cancelled day of The Game (#1 vs #2) because the other team wasn't going to have enough players.  Fantastic to actually get to watch the game, not the result, still got to drink a lot though.

Missed The Game in 2006 (yes, that one) because my dad forced me to mow the lawn of some old guy in our church. I got paid about $100/hour though, so... yeah... still not worth it.

We left the Indiana game with the late Anthony Carter TD early, because my dad was so angry about the game. How could we play so poorly against Indiana?

As we got to the car, we heard the roar from the Stadium...

For many years, I couldn't forgive my dad, but now it's just a fun story.

 

 

I was at a wedding once where the groom was a Michigan grad and the bride was a State grad. They somehow scheduled their wedding on the day the two teams played each other, a night game in EL no less. We found a TV at the bar off to the side of the reception hall and got the staff to turn it on to the game and pretty soon like 80% of the men at the wedding were huddled up in front of it. The bride was absolutely furious no one was dancing and after asking nicely for people not to watch the game a couple of times finally came back the third time and started hysterically crying and yelling at everyone. After she left, we all kind of were quiet and looking around, not really sure what the hell just happened and feeling a little guilty at the same time. Her own dad was the one that finally broke the ice when he said, "Well, <the groom> told you it was a bad idea to pick this day, what the hell did you expect?"

My wife(fiancee at the time) scheduled our couples shower at 6.  It was hosted about 30 mins from my house.  The time of the game wasn't announced untill about a week before.  I prayed every night for 3 months that the game would be at 12... it was a 3:30 game (thanks big guy).  I left at halftime and it was a manigible 7 point game.  I had to watch us fall apart in the 4th qtr on my phone and play smiley-glad-hands with a bunch of pricks(actually pretty nice people, but everyone was a prick that night....screw those guys).  Live and learn.  I wasn't use to having to let someone know ahead of time that I am 100% unavailable on certain saturdays.  I've already given her a list of 4 or 5 saturdays that under no circumstance am I leaving the house. 

I guess it depends what you mean by "miss." In an era of my life where I attended every football game at home, I missed 2001 Illinois because they rescheduled the game due to 9/11, and I was already scheduled to be at a Tennessee-LSU game in Knoxville that day. I spent the 2007 Oregon game moving, basically on my own (my wife was pregnant). We didn't have tv coverage but it was tracking the score online. Basically every time I took a load of stuff out to the truck I would come back and Oregon would have scored again.

I do not miss Football games. Ever. I plan my schedule and work schedule around Michigan athletics.

By downstate Illinois. I don't see how you are able to go to this game at either time.

These are all games I would have watched in person or a big road game I would've watched on TV if not for damn weddings!!

• 2008 Illinois: sister got married; I got drunk and nearly kicked out of the reception hall bar for yelling at the TV

• 2010 UMASS: best friend got married in South Bend; not really upset I missed this game

• 2012 UMASS: close friends got married; not really upset I missed this game

• 2012 ND: close friend from work got married; in hindsight, not really upset I missed being able to watch this game

• 2013 ND: two of my very good friends got married on the evening of UTL2; spent the entire reception watching the game on my phone with no less than 4-5 others crowded around my table at any given time -- really, really sad I missed this one

And our tournaments were during the fall. Missed quite a few games because of it. Normally it was just the non-conference since it was first couple weeks of the semester, but going to Nationals a couple times caused the team to miss a few B1G games as well.

I missed the first half of the 2012 Nebraska game for my Aunt's wedding. Unfortunately, I now wish I missed the entire game.

My friend is getting married next weekend (App State game), I hope he reads this and postpones his weddng.

2010 Illinois - the one game of my undergraduate career that I decide to sleep through and not go to. Bad defensive game, but I sure wish I could have that one back.

2011 Purdue- missed to go to bachelor party for my brother in law. He's a UM alum too and we all watched the game on TV, and we beat up on a bad Purdue team, so I wasn't all that bummed that I missed it.

2013 CMU - missed most of the game for a friend's wedding. At least my buddy was nice enough to have the wedding in Auburn Hills so I could at least be in town before the game.

2013 Nebraska - had a case competition both that day and the day before, was running on only a few hours of sleep, and I just couldn't keep my eyes open by the time the game started. Woke up just in time to watch Abdullah score the go-ahead TD and put the game away. Glad I missed most of that one.

She wanted to get married on Michigan/Michigan State next year. After my continuous bitching, she is having it on the @ Maryland. I hate her.

Missed the 2006 game against OSU due to getting my ass kicked in our semi-final football game against Menominee, which started at the same time.