It's UConn
Stupid being correct:
UConn has reached an agreement with Michigan on a home-and-home series that will see the Huskies travel to Ann Arbor in 2010 and the Wolverines head to Rentschler Field in 2013, according to sources with knowledge of the negotiations.
Well, at least it's not a MAC school, but if Michigan was going to give up a home game I'd rather seem them play someone more interesting.
(That's Henri, The Otter of Ennui, by the way. Wave all you want: he doesn't care.)
if
"we don't want to schedule other big names because we'd have to do a home and home"
has been the excuse for the last 5 years, why did we agree to this?It is good (only the exact opposite of good) to see that losing to a 1-AA team two years ago and suffering through last year has done nothing to dampen our collective hubris.
After a series of truly blah opening games - that we lost - we now are unhappy with a reasonably good team from a BCS conference as our opener? We're too good for that? When did this happen?
And why do we think an Oklahoma or Texas or Auburn or whatever other big name team you want to insert here would even consider playing a September roadie on (relatively) short notice in Ann Arbor? Sure, it'd be cool to see it happen but it also would be cool to live in a magic world with buildings made out of chocolate and gummy bears. However, when you come back from never-never world and into this real one, it is hard to see this is anything other than a decent opponent.
We have a chance to be a good team next year. But playing a top tier team to start things off, and losing that game, would only propel us downward (which happened last year with Utah - we win that game and build some momentum and it's an entirely different season).
Finally, we are talking about opening day of the football season. You're really going to have a hard time getting pumped for the game because the opponent doesn't stimulate your sensitive parts? Come on. It could be the Flying Sturgeon of Upper Huron Tech and it still should get you pumped. If you aren't the type of fan to get fired up for game one, or any game, because of a "meh" opponent, then how do you manage to be the type of fan to read blogs and post on message boards in July?
Fade to Blue.
among a giant shit filled tunnel of shit.
not to mention, if UCONN does well this year (say wins a share of the B East title, unheard of i know) and enters the game in ranked 22 how many of these asses will laugh at sparty/osu/nd for scheduling Lou Lafeyyette or an academy?
bitch about it now before UCONN turns out to be ranked in the top 25 this year.
I like Mercury Haze.
I'm happy with any win at this point. As for significance of first game in renovated stadium? Who gives a rip!
eom.
Well done, sir.
I would have thought a return game would be somewhere other than UConn after such a big deal has been made of protecting non-conference home games. With that said, what are the odds of playing UCONN and UMASS at home in the same football season???
What a letdown. I can't even want to play an SEC team north of the mason dixon line.
thats a good point. they never play in crappy weather.
does 12 points scream reliable now? LOL
That's where us getting our "woof, woof" back comes from. I guess?
I guess so. What noises do Wolverines make?
the sound of lazers and RAWK music.
Woof! Woof!
Their stadium, which has one of the shortest Wikipedia pages I have ever seen, cost about a third of what our skyboxes cost. Hopefully they win some games this season and prove to be a good competitor next year.
But let's keep our heads on, folks. One thing is certain-- you want to WIN your stadium consecration.
Have the last two years done nothing to your sense of entitlement?
This is a fine team to play. This game is not a "gimme" by any stretch of the imagination... more to the point: THERE ARE NO GIMMES!
TOLEDO!!!
F*CKING TOLEDO!!!! It kills me. This stuff, it kills me. Get over yourselves
F*CKING TOLEDO!!!! It kills me. This stuff, it kills me. Get over yourselves
Those are the exact words I shouted in a rage upon leaving the Toledo game last year and walking back to my friend's house.
other immortal ones from Michigan games past. My personal favorite is from the Colorado/Kordell Stewart/Michael Westbrook debacle in 1994. As they lined up for the last play, we were discussing our plans for the evening following the win. After the play and the sustained silence that followed, one of my law school buddies turned to me (knowing that we were not going celebrate as planned) and said, "I was six seconds from getting laid."
That was my first Michigan game. I was nine. It was also the first time I remember swearing at Michigan Stadium
Ty Law.
Bill Martin sucks! Bill Martin sucks! Bill Martin sucks!
Please keep your posts at or near this quality.
I can't wait to watch the flames and maybe one day, the banhammer.
What was the alternative here? Cal? Pitt? Oklahoma State? None of those programs are on the upswing like UConn is, and there were no other superior programs with available scheduling.
So I have this straight, you think UConn is more on an upswing than Oklahoma State? Dude, I can't agree with you there.
New Kid on the Blog is "Michigan Student" -- the paranoid/delusional commenter who would randomly interject himself into the coaching search debate on the old halo scan verson of MGoBlog. Any one remember that guy? He would come on and insist we were all fucked, and then 3 hours later he would comment about how his "sources" within the AD's office assured him that everything was going to be fine and that Bill Marin would deliver. At no time did he in any way offer any coherent thoughts.
That shit was pretty fun. Tracking planes to Willow Run and all. Who was it that actually went out there to see who came off the plane?
I just don't get the home-home agreement. Rentschler field is natural grass and holds a whopping 40,000 fans. There's no Rawk music. I would not be surprised to see this 2013 game played at night.
But for 2010, we've got UConn, UMass, Bowling Green and at Notre Stain. Otter of Ennui indeed.
And if 50K seems like a small number to you, please check the official capacities for Cal, Oregon, Virginia.
as long as we drop "Leaders and best" from the Victors. Otherwise, the cognitive dissonance is disorienting.
My God, the arrogance, it's stunning.
At least my brother lives in Conn. I'll plan on visiting for that weekend as soon as the date is set. Though I bet tickets will be hard to come by if UConn's any good in 2013.
My Meh-ness on the game comes not from the fact that it's UConn on our schedule per se. But that it really seems that given the timetable for work on the Stadium and the willingness to use a home/home, that Bill Martin had at least three years to line up a truly "special" game with one of those perennial top 15 schools for which most of us hoped for as the opener in 2010. He didn't. We'll all survive. But still, meh.
recruiting out east might be better . . .?
yeah, right now we're getting dominated right now for the prep stars of new hampshire and vermont
I'm just happy the Team is coming out East and I can take a train instead of plane to see a game. It will be a big deal on the East Coast (NYC & Boston, at least) which is good for Michigan, folks.
Unfortunately those UCONN losers will be all giddy to have Michigan in town. It is going to be very hard to get tickets in that large high school stadium for any of us not unfortunate enough to be friends with a UCONN alum. God I really hate UCONN and their fans.
Michigan v. Miami Fla. (or similar) open up the 2010 home schedule, this actually makes a lot of sense to me, the more I think about it. I'd love to have a better name recognition opponent, have the idiots from ESPN GameDay in town, etc. But 2010, if you believe the pundits, WLA, and most other slightly sane people, will likely be the Giant Leap Forward for RR and Michigan. If scheduling UConn gives us an easier W, great (not sure that is actually going to be the case). I mean, if a team like Texas (or similar) rolled into Ann Arbor, wins, and then Michigan rolls off 11 straight victories and missing the National Championship game, everyone would be screaming for Martin's head and saying "Why the fuck did we schedule them for." I do think the 2013 return game is dumb. Seems like we could have lured UConn in without that return game. But what the fuck do I know.
Speak for yourself. There are plenty of us who would applaud Martin and RR for having the stones to go up against top-flight competition, regardless of the outcome. We are the "leaders and best," right? Or is there some other definition of that term?
I'd say the defintion would be a national championship, not winning the mythical strength of schedule. But if you want to continue living in the land of pop songs and make believe, have at it.
let's go all the way.
The SEC champion is going to get unbelievable amounts of attention due to the ESPN contract, and unless some flukey thing happens and an 8-3 team wins the championship, you can pencil them in the NC game. If OK or TX or USC go undefeated or at most have one loss, they'll be the other logical candidates. Do you really think the BCS wise men will weight a UConn victory so much that it will enable them to justify passing over the SEC or B12 champion for a Big Ten team that also played 1-AA UMass and Bowling Green?
Your post assumes you KNOW what will happen in the SEC, Big Ten, and Big 12 results wise. You don't. Looking at it from the Michigan Athletic Department perspective, scheduling UConn makes more sense theoretically than scheduling a purported "higher class" opponent. Michigan has tough games against ND, Penn State, and Ohio State in 2010. Unlike you, they don't have a crystal ball predicting exactly what will happen in the 2010 season. Can I go to Vegas with you next summer so we can bet on all the teams you know are going to win in the SEC and Big 12.
both Colorado and Notre Dame, I guess, because they were both "A" teams at the time. We would have been better off scheduling Duke instead of Colorado, because, hey, you never know, they might win the ACC.
If the BCS system was in effect in 1997, no I actually wouldn't have scheduled Colorado and Notre Dame. You like to analyze things with the benefit of hindsight. The Michigan Athletic Department has to schedule opponents in advance, without knowing the results, with an aim at winning national championships. Leaders and Best, and all that shit, as I am sure you know.
And how exactly would the BCS have prevented us from scheduling both ND and Colorado in 1997? Or ND and another similar team for 2010? Are there regulations that prevent it?
Your counting is off, btw. I referenced Leaders & Best sarcastically twice in this thread, not three times.
I'm done with this thread.
and the SEC champion was going to get a tremendous amount of media attention with or without the ESPN contract.
there is not much upside. Even if UConn is good, and we beat them, most people (as you can probably tell from the messages) will say who cares, and will be correct. Who cares? So you beat an average Big East team, great. The only upside is the unlikely scenario where we beat UConn, and they go and do really well the rest of the year (9-3 or so) and it ends up being a solid win.
Seems like we could have lured UConn in without that return game. But what the fuck do I know.UConn has home-and-homes scheduled with Notre Dame (some games in Boston/NYC, but one game in Connecticut), Tennessee, Maryland, NC State, Iowa, and Iowa State over the next eight years. http://www.nationalchamps.net/NCAA/future_schedules/connecticut_future… They don't seem to have trouble getting major programs to do home-and-homes. They might not have been interested in doing a guarantee game at Michigan, even if it is the big stadium opener.
If Michigan were to go undefeated in 2010 with victories at Notre Dame, at Penn State and at Ohio State, I suspect the chances of UM getting shut out of the BCS championship game would be pretty minimal.
I think people have to keep in mind that if UConn was the desired opponent, then Michigan was pretty much compelled to play at Rentschler Field because of the Connecticut state legislature. See the attached article:
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/football/2008-04-24-notre-dame-u…
The other thing is this--if Michigan and Connecticut agree in the contract to keep their home gate revenues, then its not a big financial hit for UM to play in Storrs in 2013.
I'll be curious to see if Martin intends to continue playing two non-conference opponents in home-and-home series in upcoming seasons. If one of them has to be Notre Dame in most seasons, what programs would the fans like to see as the second team?
You mention a really good point almost as an aside - if each side just keeps their gate revenues without a split, financially at least, this is just as good as a home-and-home with a Texas or LSU.
we'll probably play the return game on a Thursday night. That should give the stagnant, elderly fans a shit fit.
We knew a while ago (2 years?) the Big House renevation would be completed for the beginning of the 2010 season. They waited until now to find an opponent. Why didn't we look into this sooner?
Sloppy play by the AD. Maybe RichRod and/or Alums were not calling for it until recently, but that's still no excuse.
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