Michigan Adds BYU, Arkansas
![WCCNMGYDTXDTDOG.20070904133929[1]](https://mgoblog.com/sites/mgoblog.com/files/images/02ec1e2feceb_C591/WCCNMGYDTXDTDOG.200709041339291.jpg "WCCNMGYDTXDTDOG.20070904133929[1]")
we're coming for you, Hogville
Release:
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The University of Michigan Athletic Department announced today (Tuesday, Nov. 6) its complete 2015 and 16 football schedules, adding contests with Brigham Young in 2015 and Hawaii, Miami (Ohio) and Ball State in 2016 to its previously-announced games.
U-M also announced a home-and-home series with Arkansas to open the 2018 and 19 seasons.
Everything save Arkansas is a one-off home game. Schedules affected:
2015
Sept. 3 at Utah
Sept. 12 Oregon State
Sept. 19 UNLV
Sept. 26 BYU
2016
Sept. 3 Hawaii
Sept. 10 Miami (Ohio)
Sept. 17 Colorado
Sept. 24 Ball State
2016 is now officially a replay of this season in terms of the attractiveness of the home schedule. Big Ten home games that year are MSU, Northwestern, Illinois, and Iowa. It's also the worst nonconference schedule since before the ND series resumed. Yuck. On the other hand, 2015 is excellent: decent nonconference games against Oregon State and BYU plus Wisconsin/Nebraska/OSU.
Arkansas as a home and home opponent… eh. Hopefully they'll add something else of interest in those years.
UPDATE: hey that guy predicting an Arkansas series was right.
November 6th, 2012 at 2:16 PM ^
Aren't we 0-1 all-time against BYU with the only game being against their 1984 National Championship team in the Holiday Bowl?
November 6th, 2012 at 2:16 PM ^
Now... how can we conspire to keep John L. Smith employed by Arkansas through 2019?
November 6th, 2012 at 2:17 PM ^
3 legitimate opponents, and even UNLV is better than something like UMass or Eastern.
2016 isn't that good, although it's possible that Colorado won't be a complete joke by then. Hawaii isn't always awful, but they're usually horrible on the road.
November 6th, 2012 at 2:52 PM ^
2016 is lame.
November 6th, 2012 at 3:07 PM ^
Cosign on the 2015 schedule. If nothing else, it's nice to have some variety in OOC opponents. While it would be nice to play one of the better MAC schools during their unexpected renaissance this year (who would have thought given how bad the MAC has been in very recent years), BYU is a real team and I still like a Colorado/bad Big East team over a Delaware State/UMass type.
On a separate note, I think Arkansas is a good choice. They already recruit from B1G country (they took a few from Illinois as I recall) and they have some good teams, but they are not Alabama/LSU-level dominant.
November 6th, 2012 at 2:20 PM ^
You're being overly critical of the 2015 schedule. The Beavers are on the rebound and BYU is a solid program. Utah is at least a PAC-12 school. UNLV reminds me of Tark chomping on a towel...which always makes me smile.
November 6th, 2012 at 2:30 PM ^
I said it was "excellent"! aaaaaaaargh
November 6th, 2012 at 3:56 PM ^
My bad. Must be a closet dyslexic. The numbers 15 and 16 are so close...yes, that's my excuse.
November 6th, 2012 at 5:01 PM ^
IF DENARD SET THE 2015 SCHEDULE YOU WOULDN"T BE SO CRITICAL!
November 6th, 2012 at 2:53 PM ^
Uhh.. Sarcasm??
November 6th, 2012 at 2:24 PM ^
...somewhat nice. Don't stray too far out of town. Some good BBQ joints near campus.
November 6th, 2012 at 2:24 PM ^
Arkansas seems like a solid opponent?
November 6th, 2012 at 3:49 PM ^
I like to think of them as the Sparty of the SEC. They always seem to start out of the gates like a rocket (5-0, 6-0) and then the bottom falls out and their fans go into hysterics. I think the past 2 years were more of an abberation due to Mallett's presence. But I will say one thing: Their fans are extremely supportive and will likely provide good TWIS entertainment if Michigan goes down there and beats them.
November 6th, 2012 at 2:25 PM ^
Are we moving to 2 bye weeks starting next year?
November 6th, 2012 at 2:27 PM ^
it's something that has to do with how the weeks fall every so many years. (number of weeks from labor day to week after thanksgiving) You'll have two bye weeks in some years.
November 6th, 2012 at 3:37 PM ^
I think you mean 2 wife days...and yes, there will be 2 in '13 and '14 but only 1 in '15 and '16. I think that can be seen as a positive...for a number of reasons!
November 6th, 2012 at 2:26 PM ^
November 6th, 2012 at 2:58 PM ^
quigley.girlfriend agrees with you.
November 6th, 2012 at 2:26 PM ^
So does Brandon have something against the state of Utah in 2015 that he wants to make every college football fan there root against Michigan?
November 6th, 2012 at 2:27 PM ^
Sept. 3 at Utah
Sept. 12 Oregon State
Sept. 19 UNLV
Sept. 26 BYU
That should provide a fairly robust strength of schedule component to our rankings. No MAC Snackycakes in that group.
November 6th, 2012 at 3:00 PM ^
How would you classify UNLV? They may not be MAC but they're MWC and 2-8 this year, they're the definition of a snackycake.
At least Utah and Oregon State are Pac-12 so those are good ones, plus BYU is a solid good independent. All in all I'm happy with the 2015 schedule. 2016 home schedule sucks though, unless Colorado gets miraculously better in a hurry.
November 6th, 2012 at 3:03 PM ^
UNLV's basically a MAC equivalent. Sagarin has them ranked 104, amidst a bunch of MAC schools (and Kentucky!) The rest are generally good teams, though unpredictable.
November 6th, 2012 at 5:18 PM ^
They've been to a bowl every year since 2005. While most of those teams were fairly marginal in terms of quality, the 2010 team went 13-1 and gave Boise St. its only loss.
November 6th, 2012 at 8:23 PM ^
I'm pretty sure you're thinking of "Nevada" (Reno) and not UNLV.
November 6th, 2012 at 2:33 PM ^
"Eh"? We finally get what you and the rest of us have been pining for - a home and home against a quality SEC team - and the reaction is "eh"? The mere fact that an SEC team was willing to leave the comfy confines of the South is worth a high-five in Dave Brandon's way, let alone it being someone other than Vanderbilt. This is GREAT NEWS. This is AWESOME with a capital AWESOME. It doesn't have to be Alabama or LSU before we can enjoy it.
November 6th, 2012 at 2:37 PM ^
I'm not sure Arkansas qualifies as a quality opponent. If they hire Bobby Petrino II, maybe. Their natural state of being is a four or five loss team.
http://www.jhowell.net/cf/scores/Arkansas.htm
As a secondary opponent, thumbs up, as ND replacement thumbs down.
November 6th, 2012 at 2:48 PM ^
Excluding this year, Notre Dame has pretty much been a 4-5 loss team for as long as I can remember. So, if being a perennial 4-5 loss team is what you're worried about, seeing Notre Dame opt out of the series shouldn't worry you.
I, for one, am not really bothered by ND opting out.
(Yes, I understand the national presence.)
November 6th, 2012 at 5:31 PM ^
we got a lot of mileage for W's over a 4 loss Notre Dame team. A lot more mileage than we'll get out of a 4 loss Arkansas team. (I am however excited about Arkansas)
November 6th, 2012 at 2:51 PM ^
Their natural state of being is a four or five loss team.
Not convinced that that actually distinguishes them from Notre Dame.
LOLDomer zingers aside, I would argue that if Arkansas isn't quality enough to replace Notre Dame, then really only about ten or so teams nationwide really are. Not even that. Alabama, LSU, UF, FSU, Texas, OU, USC, maybe Oregon but they're so new money you could easily make a 4-5 loss argument for them too. As a solid second-tier SEC team, I'm happy with the matchup. And we know how cyclical this stuff is; Alabama was a 2nd-tier SEC team in the '90s themselves.
November 7th, 2012 at 10:14 AM ^
I'll just go ahead and say that I'm disappointed. I'd rather play...ehhhhhh, 25 other division 1 teams for a few different reasons.
Is this a bad team to add to the schedule? No.
Is the a marquee that can reasonably replace Notre Dame? No.
You're right that there aren't many teams that can replace Notre Dame on the schedule, I completely agree. That's exactly why I, feel this way: If we're doing a home and home against an SEC/Big 12/ACC/Pac12 opponent, Arkansas most definitely is MEH in my book of reactions to OOC games.
If we're being nice to Arkansas, they're the Michigan State of the SEC: had some teams in the 60s, pretty much suck other times, have each had runs when decent coaches and talent come together. The same can be said for Illinois and Iowa and Maryland and Oregon State. Just because their fans are vocal nuts that have a penchant for FOIA requests and youtube videos doesn't mean their a big-time program.
I know it was late notice from ND and we had limited options; I'm not complaining we are playing Arkansas as an opponent. But it's not an exciting replacement for Notre Dame no matter how it's spun. This is a replacement on the same level as Colorado for me, except I'd much rather visit Boulder. Seriously: how do you get there?...do they have a non-Tysons/Walmart executive airport in Arkansas?
Here's a list of teams I'd rather play in a home and home off the top of my head:
Washington, Oregon, Stanford, Cal, UCLA, USC, Arizona State, Colorado, Utah (yay!), Texas, Texas A&M, TCU, Oklahoma, LSU, Alabama, Auburn, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, FSU, Miami, North Carolina, Virginia, VT, Maryland, Georgia Tech
November 6th, 2012 at 3:21 PM ^
Doesn't a win over them equal a win over SEC speed? I'd take that any day and twice on Saturday.
November 6th, 2012 at 2:38 PM ^
November 6th, 2012 at 2:43 PM ^
November 6th, 2012 at 2:59 PM ^
November 6th, 2012 at 3:01 PM ^
Shane should redshirt in 2013. This would make 2016 his RS Jr year, 2017 will be his final season.
November 6th, 2012 at 2:44 PM ^
I wish we could schedule that Arkansas game to be in early November so they could experience some Northern Aggression Winter Weather. Only because the majority of the B1G teams have to travel South for bowl games, and practically play in another away game environment. But I won't complain, this is a huge match up regardless of date it is played.
November 6th, 2012 at 4:36 PM ^
November 6th, 2012 at 2:47 PM ^
Hopefully Arkansas sucks those years and we can pad our stats by smoking a vaunted SEC team.
November 6th, 2012 at 3:05 PM ^
Ideally they would just suck against us and be really good the rest of the year.
November 6th, 2012 at 2:47 PM ^
I'm never crazy about playing SEC teams that have 30-person recruiting classes every year, but the home-and-home means they actually have to travel north of the Mason-Dixon line for once in their lives.
Colorado could be good in 2016. I know it is crazy to think about now, but this team was 10-3 in 2001, and made a bowl game in 2007. They have a history of being competent; give them 4 more years and they might actually get back to that level.
November 6th, 2012 at 2:59 PM ^
November 6th, 2012 at 6:47 PM ^
Yeah, but who are the top 100 6th graders according to Rivals? SOMEONE GET ON THIS
November 6th, 2012 at 3:03 PM ^
Colorado for September 24th. That would make the game 22 years to the day of the 1994 hail mary game. No thanks.
November 6th, 2012 at 3:06 PM ^
I more or less like the schedules.
2015, as noted, is a good ("excellent") schedule.
Regarding 2016, I think that is probably too soon (for decent opponents) to get a home and home. Things are scheduled far in advance. We know that we probably could get Boise State to come here, but my guess is Brandon would duck that game. I don't know how many good options were out there. Just out of curiosity, are Cincinnati and Pitt big enough that they wouldn't come to Michigan for a one off?
I'm happy with the Arkansas home and home . . . as a start. I do believe that we need solid Pac 10 or SEC home and home games, and that Brandon needs to really be working on this now for 2019 moving forward.
ND really shafted Michigan, imhe. And yet, they are a team I want on the schedule. Before that happens again, a future agreement needs to be fair to MIchigan. Honestly, I don't know as I'd want to put them on again (on a semi-permanent basis) unless Michigan gets one extra game.
November 6th, 2012 at 3:06 PM ^
Why do I get the feeling 2018 is just long enough for Arkansas to fire JLS, oversign like crazy, and become Alabama 2.0 just in time for us to face them? Maybe I'm just being pessimistic.
2015 looks like a fun OOC schedule. 2016... meh. Hopefully Michigan and the Big Tennnn! will have regained enough respect where OOC strength of schedule won't matter much.
November 6th, 2012 at 3:06 PM ^
I like adding the SEC opponent. Not a fan of anything else. If you subscribe to the 'non-conference games can enhance recruiting' theory (which seems to be growing in popularity), these games are not appealing. If you are looking to minimize risk of losing (which was popular in the 2000s), the schedule is nice.
As far as increasing anticipation/excitement/competition of the matchup, none of these opponents do it for me in 2012. In 2015/2016?...who knows.
November 6th, 2012 at 3:09 PM ^
Well, it's settled. Brian is never happy, ever.
/s, kinda but not really.
November 6th, 2012 at 3:17 PM ^
Better than scheduling App State again, AMIRITE???
/s
November 6th, 2012 at 3:26 PM ^
I would submit that the 2016 home schedule is exactly 33 1/3% more attractive than the 2012 home schedule.
November 6th, 2012 at 3:45 PM ^
I was right about UM scheduling UH, just off on the year- http://mgoblog.com/mgoboard/rumor-uh-play-um-aa
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