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.)
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.
Um, this has been in the works for awhile.
They have been looking for this opponent for a few years now. They just found the opponent today. You can look in MGo's archives, but I recall Martin was at one point in time simultaneously looking for a head coach and an opponent in 2010. That's how long this has been going on.
I swear to God, sometimes it feels like I'm talking to Sarah Palin.
If he has been working on it for a while and this is the best he can come up with, COME ON!!!
I think you and others need to be reminded that UConn is NOT the premier out of conference opponent in 2010. Notre Dame is. UConn is the second OOC opponent. So UConn isn't the "best" opponent M has (OOC), UConn is the second best. Am I going too fast for you?
Quick, who was the second best OOC opponent in 2008? 2007? 2006? And how do those opponents compare to UConn?
In 2006 it would be 4-8 Vanderbilt from the SEC, who upset 9-4 Georgia that year. UConn was also 4-8 that year, their best victory being a 2OT victory over a 6-6 Pitt team.
In 2007 it obviously would have been Oregon. I would think most would consider them a step, or two, above UConn.
In 2008 it was 13-0 Utah. Do do you think that the 2008 8-5 UConn team which waxed powerful Buffalo in the Meineke Car Care bowl was a superior team to the Utah which went on to beat mighty Nick Saban's ass in the Sugar Bowl? I certainly don't.
Retroactively ranking these teams according to their final record is not a good way to go, because you can't schedule them that way...but if you insist:
2008:
#1 Utah
#2 Notre Dame
#3 Miami Ohio
#4 Toledo
2007:
#1 Oregon
#2 Appalachian State
#3 Eastern Michigan
#4 Notre Dame
2006:
#1 Notre Dame
#2 Ball State
#3 Vanderbilt
#4 Western Michigan
Retroactively, it looks like only 2007 had a superior #2 OOC opponent when compared to UConn today. But again, I don't think it's a good idea to retroactively rank these things. M schedules based on how they think it will fit into the A-B-C-D category, because that's all they can do. And there's nothing really to suggest that UConn will be a much worse second best quality opponent than M has had in the past, IME.
In my opinion only 2007 would have had a superior OOC schedule (pre-season) compared to 2010, which begs the question "how did we get Oregon without a return?" If my memory serves me wasn't Oregon a top 25 team for consecutive years before, or no?
We played at Oregon is 2003 and lost due to shitty special teams.
And the field had a crown...
/bitterness.
WTF! Why in the world would you bring politics into this. A lot of people like Palin and she is smarter then you too.
If you check the mgoboard faq, one can clearly see politics is unwelcome here.
http://mgoblog.com/content/mgoboard-faq
she is also smarter then you, it appears.
I think people were being overly optimistic in terms of the 2010 opening day opponent. First off, you have to keep in mind that Michigan plays Notre Dame on the road during the second week of the season. In essence, you want a game against a good (beatable) opponent as a primer for playing in South Bend the next week. Connecticut fits that bill and isn't (1) a MAC team and (2) isn't a Division 1-AA team.
Secondly, you have to remember that UM plays on the road at ND, PSU and OSU during even numbered seasons. Again--it doesn't make sense to play another "major" program in those circumstances in a college football world where ten-plus wins gets you into a BCS game and going undefeated is almost the only way to get into the BCS championship game if you're in a conference without its own championship game. There's something to be said for scheduling "smart".
Now here's a fewthings I'd like to see from Bill Martin. Penn State and Purdue rotate off the Big Ten schedule in 2011 and 2012. The games against Notre Dame are on 9/10/11 in Ann Arbor and 9/22/2012 in South Bend. If he's planning on scheduling a second home-and-home non-conference game against a Top 25 to Top 50 opponent on a regular basis, then this is his opportunity to get a really good program on the schedule.
Related to that above, Martin should be talking to the conference about flipping the schedule come 2013 so that Michigan doesn't play Notre Dame, Penn State and Ohio State all at home or all away in a single season. The likely course of action is to have PSU come back in 2013 as an away game (right now, UM plays PSU in Ann Arbor on odd numbered seasons). That should balance out the better home and away opponents each season so that Michigan fans will see either Notre Dame/Ohio State or Penn State/Michigan State in Ann Arbor in any given season.
The Notre Dame series really is key to whether or not Michigan gets any other marquee/perennial Top 15 programs on the non-conference schedule. UM isn't going to play LSU and ND or Texas and ND or Florida and ND as part of the non-conference slate on any given September--its BCS suicide.
What I'd like to see is Notre Dame becoming part of a rotation of major opponents who UM plays on a regular basis--we're talking about Oklahoma, Texas, and Nebraska from the Big XII or Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, LSU and Tennessee from the SEC or Virginia Tech, Florida State or Miami-Fl from the ACC, etc.
You couple those games with a series with a home and home against a Top 25 to 50 program like Clemson or Georgia Tech or Arkansas or Boston College or Brigham Young or Colorado or Arizona State and you have an interesting, challenging and varied football schedule to present to the fans each year.
I like your logic and would love to see a rotation of top teams playing Michigan the years we don't play ND...but there is that little 15 yr commitment with them that renders your arguments moot...
Flipping Penn State's visit to the even year's with MSU is a no brainer. But getting them off our schedule is up to the B10 computers, not Bill Martin and its not gonna happen. Its a marquee matchup the B10 wants vs an M vs IU or PSU vs NW game...
Penn State is slated to come off Michigan's Big Ten schedule in 2011 and 2012 (along with Purdue). This is part of the rotation, although I share the sentiment that the conference likes the game and takes PSU off the schedule as few times as possible. In fact, I think Penn State has only come off Michigan's schedule once since 1993 for a two-year period. I'm pretty sure that's the least of any Big Ten team.
The agreement with Notre Dame actually goes through 2031, but here's a little insight--its a verbal agreement only. The two schools haven't signed a contract and its essentially as binding as both parties desire to make it. It does follow in the steps of previous agreements (both teams keep their home revenue gate, for example), but its not set on paper.
What does that mean? As I understand it, Bill Martin and the other decision makers in and around the Athletic Department like the game. It always has great television ratings, the teams share high recognition numbers, recruits like to visit when ND's in Ann Arbor, the networks like it, etc. And as I mentioned above, the agreement is amiable enough so that both schools keep their home gates.
The rest is speculation. There have been a couple of breaks in the UM-ND series over the last two decades, but that's only four years in 20 or so. I assume another break is scheduled for the future, but if/when it will happen will have to be worked out by Martin and ND AD Jack Swarbrick.
I don't think either school would have problems lining up other opponents to replace one another. But like any business deal, I suspect Michigan and Notre Dame think its in the best interests of their respective football programs.
As a fan, I'm not so happy about the arrangement though.
Your comment "I don't think either school would have problems lining up other opponents to replace one another." does not appear to reflect the reality of the situation. UM has apparently had a problem lining up even 1 quality opponent for a highly visible game, i.e. the renovated stadium "dedication"! This whole fiasco boggles my mind.
And as far as ND goes...(I hate ND and have for at least 40 years, going back to my days in Norfolk Virginia while in the Navy. Back in the days of 3 channels to choose from, and the only college football I could watch while on duty was the "Notre Dame Football Network" as the announcer called it! Never a Big Ten game...zilch...nada!) But I digress. A point I would like to make regarding the ND - UM match up is that Michigan has gone a long way towards perpetrating the awesomeness of ND by signing up for this series. If ND was forced to find some lesser program to play, some of their luster would be lost, they couldn't continue to have that "special" arrangement with the BCS, and they may eventually be exposed as the Posers that they are! (Okay, I may have oversimplified it, but, hey!) Go Buckeyes!
in the 90's, we played ND and OSU @ home one year, and MSU and PSU the next----as a season ticket holder, i enjoyed seeing at least two rivals/big-time opponents every year----there is no reason that the athletic department could not have seen this coming and set it up the same way.
UCONN isn't so bad, where do you think great quarterbacks like Dan Orlovsky honed their quarterbacking skills?
I just can't get past this. This has absolutely no atraction or draw outside of Michigan and Uconn and puts us in a 40,000 seat stadium in 2013. I just think it was a blunder because we are all going to show up in 2010 regardless of who you put as the opponent. I hate to sacrifice a home game in 2013 to someone that has no national credibility. Appalachian State just expanded their stadium to 22,000, and at least that would have had a national draw and give us sweet revenge.
Go ahead and bitch about a 50,000 seat stadium. I dare you.
I'd be really interested to see what the contract is. Perhaps Michigan was thinking of scheduling any home and home game, with plans to back out of the 2nd part and just pay the $500k penalty for backing out.
If Michigan is not going to get much out of going to UConn, it would be logical to break it off and earn 20 million for a home game.
Why can't college sports schedule cross-sports home and home series? Uconn should be privileged to play in front of 100k people for the first time in school history, and we can send our men and women basketball team to Uconn.
I think you may be on to something. It might not be just cut-them-a-check-and-goodbye, but I almost expect this will be renegotiated between now and 2003.
I wonder if the cross sports home home series with football and mens bball was not made behind closed curtains with the mens bball home home series being 08-09 and 09-10 (http://www.umhoops.com/09-10-schedule/)
season and the fball home home series being 10 and 13.
Michigan signed that long extension to that contract to play ND and doesn't really do anything for Michigan. ND has been basically irrelevant for 5+ years and they play one or two significant games other than Michigan each year. ND needs us a lot more than we need them.
Michigan should be using that week to rotate some home and homes with the SEC and the B12. You want a benchmark for how good this program is, play LSU, Oklahoma or Georgia. Those schools are relevant and would bring more TV dollars than ND. If we dropped ND, the BCS would think about dropping them because they would only have two or three games a year that count toward the BCS.
UConn? A BCS school I thought I heard? We are not amused! I hope UM won't lose to them. I don't think they will. UConn? If this were basketball I'd say, Cool! UConn? I guess it is better than a MAC school. UConn? Way too much hype about this. Get 'em Wolverines Woof Woof!?
You heard a BCS school and they gave you... a BCS school. Oh noes.
Ummm?
Many will remember/rue these comments when a lame UConn team (the retarded pawns put forth by a not-good-enough-for-M program) has M fans shitting themselves because said piss-poor team had the audacity to disrespect 100+ years of football dominance by leading 17-14 at the half.
was Appy State interesting?
Say, the same "credit" we'd have gotten for losing to Georgia or Okie State or UCLA or Missouri?
We kicked their ass. Lead by 28 at the half.
I left early.
That's the only game in the last five years or so that I somehow didn't get to watch. I was up north, and the next day I was eating in a bar and saw some replays on the tv. It quickly became apparent what had happened, I can't explain it was such a surreal feeling. I honestly thought that somehow it wasn't true, it had to be something else, a joke, or something. I went over to the owner, and asked him about it and it turns out he was at the game, he shook his head ruefully and we talked about it for a while.
Needless to say, the rest of my weekend was pretty much ruined, but I had some solace in the fact that I had tickets for next weeks game vs. Oregon... yeah...
UConn has only been in D1 for a few years, bear that in mind. I've always thought the Big East was shielded from criticism simply because they don't play anyone in the bowls. IMO, they are by far the weakest BCS conference in the country. UConn is a prototypical example. They have just enough to have some winning seasons but never enough to compete nationally or be ranked.
It should be an easy win.
It's simple. Both teams need to win in 09.That will take care of the ratings. Go Husky's Go Blue!
Whether fans on this board like it or not, Notre Dame is a fairly permanent fixture on Michigan's non-conference schedule. Past history over the last two decades shows there have been two 2-year breaks (1995/6, 2000/1) and it would be reasonable to expect the occasional break in the future.
I also think its fair to assume Michigan will never have less than seven home games on the schedule for the near future. Another assumption is that at least two games will be against teams who don't require a return game (those would typically be MAC teams) and usually one of them will be CMU, EMU or WMU.
If Bill Martin embarks on a practice of scheduling a second home-and-home series in the non-conference schedule (besides Notre Dame), what program would you elect? Assume the Notre Dame game is never the opener (it will be played in Week 2 or 3)--also assume UM would want to open up with a "beatable" opponent (set aside the Appalachian State and Utah jokes for a moment, please). Also keep in mind that Michigan has BCS championship/bowl game/conference championship goals, so you have to schedule smart. But you want the opponent to be interesting to the fans (and the networks), help recruiting, beat near UM fans can see them, etc.
I'd like to see Michigan play an opponent in that Top 25 to Top 50 range. In that respect, you're talking about Brigham Young or Clemson or Auburn or Arizona State or Boston College, etc. How would a non-conference schedule that included Notre Dame and Arkansas (along with two MAC teams) look? Or what about Notre Dame and Texas A&M as a possible combination?
It's funny you mention A&M because I sit next to an Aggie and I posed that matchup to him and he liked it - call it the battle of the has been and will be's! (let's face it, last year sucked and we're gonna be good in the future as I'm sure they will be as well.)
...I would love to have this be the U of M scheduling philosophy. I would even open it up to top tier non-BCS like Boise St. and the military academies.
I was eagerly awaiting your next horribly sarcastic and cutting comment.
FWIW, he predicts they'll have a losing season and end up sixth in the Big East. I don't think he's quite as good at predictions as he says he is, and I hope he's wrong in this case.
Interesting that Edsall is a Syracuse alum... wonder if he was offered that job, or an interview for it.
Has anyone taken a close look at the Husky graphic and the otter picture under the headline up top?
Go ahead, scroll up and take a good look I'll wait.
.
.
.
That dog is really 'jonesin for that otter.
I'm not sure if he wants to fight him or hump him but I find it most disturbing.
It's the same look Big Boutros gives me.
You guys are the most delusional fans I think I have ever seen in my life. You base how good you are on your history. Michigan is one of the worst teams in the BCS! 3-9 is a terrible record, and I could bet you Michigan would fall in the bottom tier of the Big East if they played in it (They would beat Syracuse and maybe Louisville)
If UConn doesn't win by 2 or more scores next year, I would be absolutely shocked.
Good luck, and I look forward to making the trip to Ann Arbor to watch my Huskies kick your historic dynasty's butt.
but posts like this don't make it easy. Do you honestly believe the 2010 UM team will be anything like the 2008 team? If so, then you clearly no nothing about this team. People on here need to learn more about UConn but don't bring the same ignorance to this board.
No trying to be a dick here because you're a quality poster, but when you say he doesn't "no anything," you don't look too smart yourself.
oh well, it happens
Michigan would beat West Virginia, too. I'm actually glad the shit talking has started. Before I was content just to talk the merits of scheduling. Now I just want Michigan to fucking grind UConn.
Dear Mr. (or Ms) UConn fan.
Do you remember that Rich Rodriguez West Virginia team that beat your Huskies 4 years in a row from 2004 to 2007?
You remember, the combined score was 179 to 64?
Rich Rod is currently building that team here at Michigan, but with higher ranked and most likely better players.
It may not be 100% ready by 2010, but it will probably be ready enough to embarrass you.
You just made yourself look as bad or worse than the Michigan fans you're insulting.
Michigan has one bad year and you think you are going to come in and whip us? Whatever.. I'm pissed we are playing UConn..I think it was a lot of hype for nothing. I rather play any team from SEC/Big12/Pac10 over UConn...this isn't basketball.
I hope there is more trash talking because it will be the only thing that get's me excited about this lame game.
Michigan has won so many games for so long our fans know nothing else. During my short history on Earth, Michigan in the 1970's won 105 games. This not being our golden age. That is 10 or 11 games a year for a decade. It was my teenage years, I thought that was how it always was suppose to be in football. When I moved to Wisconsin in 1993, I realized there were other fan bases. MSU gave us jabs now and then, but who the heck are these other schools? We don't gloat, our expectations are really high. Few schools have winning records against Michigan.
Consider this! As UConn you have a history and tradition of winning like a Duke, Kentucky, or UCLA. A team gets scheduled that you feel is not a top tier team in your mind you might respond like this. UConn needs to have a couple of decades of quality football to gain national respect. If your team has the most wins in college football you get spoiled. There are a hundred plus all-americans, three heisman winners, best winning percentage, etc. what would you expect. The worst BCS team? True Michigan's illustrious past is lauded, but so will their future be as well. Who the heck is UConn?
UCONN fan has a point here on bringing up the history. We live in what have you done for me lately society. Don't get me wrong I am a die hard Michigan fan, but it bothers me that we haven't beat Ohio State in the last 5 meetings and we went 3-9 last year and then Mich fans use history to cover up the recent wounds. It sounds like Yankee fans covering up their ineptitude of winning a championship in the last decade. Michigan fans, we are in a position of vulnerability, in a position of getting shit on by enemies until we win again. Pure and simple. Deal with it.
UM's history weighs it down. The school wins but is not as hungry. That is why Coach Rod will make things good. He will make UM hungry again. We have gotten spoiled and complacent.
I don't know how everyone feels about this but, Michigan has become the Q Continuum in Star Trek. We have been around a long time and don't appreciate the insignificant bugs that in the D-1 sphere. We even lose to them when we should not. I love my Blue. I hate to see it in pain, but 3-9, in a way, may be the best thing that happened to Michigan. Hopefully the giant will awaken.
Going from darkness to light, but alway Blue!
See you in 2010 in the Big House....BTW, name the place i can get M+14 vs your world shocking Huskies from the Big Least so i can retire now....I will even give you a straight up bet for double or nothing.
You might want to do a little homework on the 2010 matchup where M will have about 16-17 returning starters in year 3 of Coach Rod's juggernaut project....
Those Who Stay Will Be Champions.
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