This bowl is far from “meaningless”
Every time I see someone call this bowl game meaningless it irks me.
Right now we’re 10-2 and when that bowl was announced on ESPN, all they were talking about was that last game at osu. Then they tried pushing their narratives about how “Harbaugh can’t win big games” (even though he’s beaten 3 ranked B1G teams, 2 of them top-15 and one who is currently higher than they were when he beat them).
What exactly do you think will happen if we don’t win this game? 10-3 AGAIN and all the momentum and great things done this season will be wiped out essentially. We will be right back where we were at the end of last season and going into another offseason in the bottom of bpone.
If the 38 other bowls mean nothing, then this sport really sucks.
The NIT is meaningless. The NCAA Basketball Tournament has 68 teams that renders it meaningless. Don’t get this “playoff” twisted with a sport that actually crowns a non-mythical champion. We’re talking about a NY6 bowl, not the Redbox Bowl.
I know this is a snowflake rant but I just had to say it. Go Blue ?
December 3rd, 2018 at 5:20 PM ^
I hear ya and as a chronic sufferer of BPONE, I'm with you.
In the worst case scenario, we have a South-Carolinian performance, this place melts down for a week, and it's going to be a loooong offseason and would kill my enthusiasm for next season.
All I'm saying is there is upside to this game. IF the offense opens up and Shea is efficient pushing the ball downfield, I'd be counting down the hours to the Spring Game to see offseason progress and schematic changes (assuming Pep leaves oh lord pls). IF the defense can shut down the crossing routes, I would regain some confidence because right now, it's baffling to me how it wasn't fixed after the Indiana game.
The OSU game was so demoralizing because many thought the tide of the rivalry was finally turning (or at least becoming competitive). That was proven definitively incorrect which is where we sit now. But a great bowl performance may convince me that it was just a really bad day for the coaches/team, and we'll get them in the Big House next year.
December 3rd, 2018 at 6:35 PM ^
I hear you, but I think most people's enthusiasm for next season will depend on pending coaching staff changes rather than the bowl result.
December 3rd, 2018 at 4:22 PM ^
Playing Florida again is peak BPONE.
December 3rd, 2018 at 5:00 PM ^
Peak? I would think playing Bama would bring the Mt. Everest of BPONE.
December 3rd, 2018 at 6:41 PM ^
I think playing Georgia would have been high-level BPONE too.
December 3rd, 2018 at 4:22 PM ^
I think most of the thought out arguments for why this bowl is meaningless is because the match-up of Michigan vs Florida is stale, and Florida didn't have a very impressive season.
If we were going against WVU/Washington/LSU, I don't think anybody would say the bowl game is meaningless.
It appears meaningless because we seemingly always get Florida, Florida always underachieves, we smash Florida, and the national media shrugs and says nothing because we were supposed to win anyways.
Obviously it's important to win, but as a fan it's hard to get fired up for going up against a mediocre Florida team again.
December 3rd, 2018 at 4:38 PM ^
For the record, I would be saying any of those matchups were meaningless, though much more exciting than the one we were dealt.
December 3rd, 2018 at 4:23 PM ^
The real Peach Bowl was in our hearts all along.
December 3rd, 2018 at 4:24 PM ^
In 2018 the reality is once you lose your second game everything is meaningless. The CFB season consists of who Bama and Clemson invite into their 4 team invitational. That’s where we are at. But also may I submit:
Exhibit A: Our bowl game VS Tim Tebow
Exhibit B: Our meaningful?? games Vs Rutger, And Rutger like teams?
If we play well it’s a fun way to finish the season. If we USCe it like last year we will render it meaningless for sure. Let’s hope for a well played game and a solid finish that could be our best since 1997. 20 years people.
Meaningless? I hope the players don’t read this crap.
December 3rd, 2018 at 4:36 PM ^
UM won 11 games in 2006 and 2011.
December 3rd, 2018 at 5:07 PM ^
So let's do it now. Do you really want to listen to people go on about how Jim Harbaugh couldn't manage a better seaeon record than Brady Hoke?
December 3rd, 2018 at 4:24 PM ^
It's just been a depressing string of events. Thrashed by OSU, don't get the Rose Bowl, and matched up with Florida yet again. It sucks but we'll get over it.
I'm not in the "meaningless" camp but I'm not going to lie and say I'm excited about the Peach Bowl. I do agree it's a huge game and I think that's also why I'm dreading it. If it goes poorly, this offseason is going to be awful.
December 3rd, 2018 at 4:25 PM ^
The 2019 season begins with this bowl game.
It is a MUST WIN imo. A great showing culminating in a victory can launch the program for great things in 2019.
December 3rd, 2018 at 4:26 PM ^
Sorry, in the age of the CFP, being in the CFP is #1, and beating rivals is #2. We ain't in the CFP, and we finished the year not just losing to, but getting creamed by OSU.
I will watch the bowl game and cheer for my Wolverines like I have done the last 64 years, but this bowl game is....meaningless...
December 3rd, 2018 at 4:28 PM ^
*looks at the mic laying on the floor*
December 3rd, 2018 at 4:30 PM ^
This is the correct take. This is a vacation to someplace warm for the players and I hope they enjoy it. If they win, good for them, if they lose, who cares. No one will remember 7 minutes after.
December 3rd, 2018 at 4:35 PM ^
But it isn't meaningless. I can't believe I'm doing this, but wd is spot on in his argument. It matters for the mental state of the team, it matters for recruiting, it matters because TAKES.
You can call it meaningless, but that doesn't make it true.
December 3rd, 2018 at 5:20 PM ^
Everyone who says it’s meaningless is just saying they don’t really give a shit about seniors on the team. Everyone who sits out to stay healthy but could still play is basically saying something similar. If we are going to say this game is meaningless, why don’t we make the same argument for Rutger? Let’s just pack it in and sit everyone for every game that isn’t MSU or OSU
December 3rd, 2018 at 4:36 PM ^
Wow, you're old!
December 3rd, 2018 at 6:05 PM ^
I feel better after a win than after a loss. For that reason (and many others mentioned) this game is anything but meaningless. Those who think it is should find something else "meaningful" to do during the game.
December 3rd, 2018 at 4:28 PM ^
Exit 69
Meaningless
4 miles... we’re not far WD.
December 3rd, 2018 at 4:28 PM ^
You tell em WD. Although, I’m not sure, but I don’t think momentum carries over 8 months and a full off season, but feel how you want to feel man.
December 3rd, 2018 at 4:29 PM ^
Meaningless
December 3rd, 2018 at 4:32 PM ^
Holy shit. I'm in near full agreement with a wd post. I take a little issue with your calling March Madness meaningless (ok, I take big issue with that). But the main point, yeah, I agree.
And it's a big reason that I don't like the fact that Gary is sitting out. He's still part of The Team, The Team, The Team... right? No? Dolla dolla bill yo.
December 3rd, 2018 at 4:40 PM ^
I said the NCAA Tournament renders the NIT meaningless since the NCAA is 68 teams. Can’t edit it to word it better tho.
December 3rd, 2018 at 5:36 PM ^
Ah, okay. I skimmed through that part.
December 3rd, 2018 at 4:32 PM ^
Total snowflake thread, but I 100% agree with you. Yes, we are all disappointed not to be playing in the Playoffs. Unfortunately, we are a great CFB team - top 10 to be sure, and maybe top 5 - but we are simply not on the level of Alabama, Oklahoma, OSU and Clemson right now. And that's OK. We are only 4 years removed from the debacle that was the late Hoke tenure. Takes time to build a program from the ground up into a championship team. Look how long it took Beilein. Or Brian Kelly. Or any other coach that didn't step into a loaded team (see Urban Meyer).
December 3rd, 2018 at 4:35 PM ^
I have 3 words..
Rich Rod era
December 3rd, 2018 at 4:36 PM ^
I mean, if you say so...
December 3rd, 2018 at 4:39 PM ^
Of course it isn’t completely meaningless and it’s virtually a must-win game.
0-4 against OSU and 1-3 in bowl games would be peak “Can’t win big games” territory.
December 3rd, 2018 at 4:41 PM ^
Dude the NCAA tournament is not meaningless. Comung.
December 3rd, 2018 at 4:43 PM ^
Just remember, not long ago we had a multi-year bowl drought. Peach Bowl is not what we expected a month ago, but probably better than we expected to end up 6 months ago. Perspective is always needed.
December 3rd, 2018 at 4:44 PM ^
The game has meaning for the program, the continued development of the players returning in 2019 and for recruiting the next wave of Wolverines.
It is just the least interesting and appealing match up and I live in Florida. We've played the Gators multiple times in recent years, so I really wanted to play LSU or Georgia. I do not remember the last time we played either team. A win over Georgia, for example, would have meant something to national perception and to recruits after their performance in the SEC title game. Beating a middling, inconsistent Florida team is just what we are supposed to do.
Now that we are stuck with the Gators, we need to crush them. The last couple times, the Gators had basically quit by the mid-4th quarter. Let's do that to them again.
December 3rd, 2018 at 4:46 PM ^
A win can't hurt. It will send us to next year with hope for 2019. It will also take some of the sting out of losing to osu (some). A loss would hurt a lot. End the season with a losing streak. Some recruits may think it's the same old stuff.
I still believe we have a talented team and expect us to dismantle the gators again.
Happy Holidays and fergoshsakes GO BLUE!!!
December 3rd, 2018 at 4:47 PM ^
well...I think this is due in part to the matchup and due in part to the fact that the CFP has rendered much of the overall bowl season meaningless or, to be more precise, obsolete.
If the Bowl system is to survive in this era, it needs to be fixed...I think that a Georgia v. Michigan Sugar Bowl would be very compelling, for example...or, if we want to go old school, the Sugar Bowl could have, say, made an agreement to take the UM/OSU loser...a 4loss eam is not worthy of the Sugar Bowl, they are worthy of a Peach Bowl, though...in what could still be a compelling matchup
December 3rd, 2018 at 4:48 PM ^
We have been to the bottom and I agree that this game is meaningless. To add salt to the injury we get to play a Florida team that we play all the time that many people don't care to see...
Love my team but NTY.
December 3rd, 2018 at 4:48 PM ^
What do we get if we win other than the ability to say we beat another average Florida team...
Meaningless.
I'd take one victory over Ohio State if it meant losing bowl games for the next 5 years.
December 3rd, 2018 at 4:49 PM ^
I hate harping on the same point, but the playoff system as it now exists is simply an extension of the bowl system of crowning a champion, in whatever iteration you recall it being, and until that system changes the playoffs are a beauty contest and the bowls remain marketing exhibitions. They've always been that, but fans elevated their status because there was no other way in the greatest spectacle game in collegiate sports to determine a champion.
And that's because the sport never devised a season-ending method to finalize a championship. It's simply a matter of history and the advent of the Rose Bowl.
Every other sport including lower classes of college football follows a traditional playoff structure to crown the best team instead of using a subjective voting method including a committee to decide who gets in and who doesn't. Michigan was victimized by the bowl system of championship by selective ranking in 1997.
The bowls are what they are, a chance to fill the ESPN programming void with games of limited interest. Michigan is playing Florida as a play-in viewer contest or appetizer for the playoff bowl contests on Dec. 29. Many people will skip that go to the main viewing entrees that day. And why not?
I just think until you tailor a playoff process that enables every major conference playing a conference championship to actually play them off for the national championship in whatever format is devised you're kidding yourself about a game that is essentially the best time of the sports year. The game and those who play it, deserve to earn the final grand achievement of their competition on the field instead of a committee choosing the participants.
You can always pencil Alabama and Clemson in. Then you are left deciding who the other two teams ought to be. And if the top two lose, there is always sentiment to keep them in even if or when they lose a tough one.
December 3rd, 2018 at 4:50 PM ^
Meaningless is may not be the right word.
I just feel indifferent about it.
First, let's stop pretending this is interesting. The Peach Bowl was and still is the historical armpit of college football bowl games. It used to be played on New Year's Eve. This year 29 December (a Thursday afternoon). Atlanta. Mercedes-Benz/Falcons Stadium. Dumb.
Second, if Michigan wins, nobody is going to care because this is a 9-3 Florida team and the SEC's 5th best team that finished tied with the likes of Kentucky (9-3), LSU (9-3) and aTm (8-4). Florida lost to Kentucky, Georgia and to 8-4 Missouri. They also played purported football games against teams called Charleston Southern University and Idaho University. So this is why no one will care about an 11-2 victorious Michigan team, honestly.
Third, if Michigan loses, it will just reconfirm the ongoing ESPN and negative Nancy rhetoric that Michigan can't win big road games, SEC > BIG10, Michigan is still a reconstruction project, Harbaugh "ain't got it together yet", UM should run a spread offense too!, Mullen owns Michigan, etc., etc. The same old horseshit.
It's not a game that will help tip recruiting UM outcomes one way or the other. That would have been two weeks ago. It does afford Michigan players some more practice time, which is good for next year, I suppose.
So no. It is not meaningless.
It is just boring as hell, and largely unimportant.
The Fiesta Bowl are going to regret their decision to take UCF vs. LSU. Should have taken Michigan.
December 3rd, 2018 at 5:02 PM ^
Would you rather UM decided to sit out and not even go to a bowl this year. Come on now - last UM football game for another 9 months and against a real (non-cupcake) opponent as well. Enjoy it while you can.
December 3rd, 2018 at 5:32 PM ^
Precisely.
December 3rd, 2018 at 5:45 PM ^
duplicate deleted
December 3rd, 2018 at 7:26 PM ^
Saturday afternoon. :)
December 3rd, 2018 at 4:50 PM ^
Beat Ohio
December 3rd, 2018 at 4:53 PM ^
Ya know what would "build momentum" in the off-season? HIRING A COMPETENT OC
You're calling the NCAA basketball tournament meaningless? You mean one of the most exciting post seasons in all of sports? You're clueless. Go watch some replays of the last three times we played Florida if you want to see this matchup again.
December 3rd, 2018 at 4:59 PM ^
Considering that neither Wolverine Devotee nor I ever have attended the University of Michigan*, I might have to keep posting this until people here who have far closer connections to the university than I have will understand the importance of this next Michigan Wolverines football game.
* Having paid a substantial portion of my liquid assets for one of my children to receive two degrees from one of the best universities in the world at the out-of-state-student rate might put me close to having spent as much on the University of Michigan as Wolverine Devotee has.
___________
Anonymous Michigan Wolverines Fan: Hey, what’s this lying around and complaining about playing Florida in the Peach Bowl shit?
MGoBlogger 1: What the hell are we supposed to do, you moron?
MGoBlogger 2: The season’s over, man. The Playoff Committee dropped us into the Peach Bowl in Atlanta at noon on December 29 against the Florida Gators who are out for revenge, playing close to home and they are probably gonna destroy us.
Anonymous Michigan Wolverines Fan: What? Over? Are you saying that the Michigan Wolverines football season’s over? . . . Nothing is over until the Michigan players and coaches decide it is! . . . Was it over when ISIS brought down the Alamo? Hell no!
MGoBlogger 2: ISIS?
MGoBlogger 1: Forget it, he’s rolling. . . . He still thinks that members of ISIS might've been in that caravan.
Anonymous Michigan Wolverines Fan: The season ain’t over now, ‘cause when the going gets tough . . . the tough get going! . . . Who’s with me? Let’s go! Come on! Aye, aye, aye, aye. . . . (exiting MGoBlog Board)
Anonymous Michigan Wolverines Fan (returning to the MGoBlog Board): What the fu$k happened to MGoBloggers I used to know? Where’s the spirit? Where’s the guts, huh? . . . This could be the greatest game of our lives, but you’re gonna let it be the worst.
Anonymous Michigan Wolverines Fan (imitating MGoBloggers whining): Oh, we’re afraid to even watch the game with you. We wanted a better game to play in and to play a team other than Florida.
Anonymous Michigan Wolverines Fan: Well just kiss my ass from now on! Not me! I’m not gonna take this! . . . The Playoff Committee? They’re dead! Dan Mullen? Dead! Feleipe Franks . . . ?
MGoBlogger 2: Dead!
* * *
Anonymous Michigan Wolverines Fan: Let’s watch it!
December 3rd, 2018 at 5:36 PM ^
It's okay that I didn't attend U-M. I'm probably a lot better off.
For one, I paid what little debt I had from the place I attended off already at age 23.
Two, I'm a fan of the teams and am a season ticket holder for MBB and small time donor.
It's great that U-M is an elite university but I'm a fan of the teams. That's all that's ever mattered to me in the grand scheme.
You can be a fan of whomever as long as you stay true to the colors.
December 3rd, 2018 at 6:04 PM ^
Yes, it's perfectly fine.
I have been a Minnesota Vikings fan since I was a kid, and I never even set foot in the state of Minnesota until I was 39.
It's not like teams have a hard cap on the numner of fans they are allowed.
December 3rd, 2018 at 6:29 PM ^
I agree very much that it's easy to develop a fan relationship with a team, despite having no special connection to the team, the city or the university with which it's associated.
I became a fan of Oscar Robertson when I saw him play in the Final Four of the 1959 and 1960 NCAA basketball tournaments in the days when they played a third-place consolation game. Although I didn't root for the Cincinnati Royals when they played against the team I rooted for, I always rooted for "The Big O" and for the old Royals when they played against every other NBA team. After they traded Robertson to the Bucks in 1970, I stopped rooting for the Royals, and now they're the Sacramento Kings, so justice has been served.