Michigan Football announces 4 non-conference games for 2021-2023
January 11th, 2019 at 11:10 AM ^
I'm down for this since strong out of conference can really only hurt you because of the potential to lose.
January 11th, 2019 at 11:27 AM ^
So can I put you down for the purchase of my four (4) tickets to the Colorado State game? I am going to sell them to you at my cost. We don't know yet what 2022 ticket prices will be, but we know it will be in the neighborhood of $75 per ticket for that game. (Maybe more; certainly a lot more for any good games we might have in 2022.) Then when we factor in the cost per game per seat for my seat license (estimate $700/seat in 2022), it's right around $175 per ticket. If you want to send me $700 now for that game, we can cut out the middle man and both save some money.
January 11th, 2019 at 11:35 AM ^
I'll buy mine on game day for $20. Season tickets are for rich people now.
January 11th, 2019 at 11:50 AM ^
So what Warde Manuel knows better than any of us, is that if everyone looks to buy tickets on the street for $20, and there are no more season ticket sales or PSD money, the Athletic Department crashes and burns without resources.
You're entitled to your opinion of course. It's a free country.
But I would expect that Warde Manuel would listen to me, rather than you. What are you doing for him and his budget?
January 11th, 2019 at 1:10 PM ^
Him and his budget? Almost nothing other than concession purchases a few times per year. For the school at large? I'm paying a lot more for my daughter's tuition than people are paying for season tickets.
January 11th, 2019 at 1:16 PM ^
And of course absolutely none of that money is going to athletics. That is the ill-informed argument we sometimes get when a new coaching salary is announced for umpteen million dollars, and dumbasses write comments to the Free Press about "no wonder tuition is so high; look at that coach's salary!" Following that comment is one about how are the taxpayers of the state of Michigan supposed to pay that much money to a coach at a state university fergodsakes!
Nope. Not the same. Not relevant. Not an issue.
Thank goodness.
January 11th, 2019 at 1:41 PM ^
By the way, on the subject of money...
Don't kid yourselves, that Michigan is carefully scheduling tomato cans so that they can tune up for the all-important College Football Playoff with an unblemished record.
The Athletic Department is trying to schedule the best opponents it can; not the most beatable opponents.
But the thing is "the best opponents" has a qualifier. It is, "the best opponents we can find, who will come to Ann Arbor once or twice, and who won't make us play them at their home stadium..."
It is a money thing. The Michigan Athletic Department's marching orders are to schedule 7 home games every year. They can only afford one away game (for the most part) every year, on the out of conference schedule. We can't get Georgia or LSU to come up in September, unless we agree to go down there in September of the next year. And if we go down there in some September when we also go to South Bend, etc., we may only have six home games. They are making the same calculations in Athens and Baton Rouge. Get seven home games, to draw in that money for the school, for the town, for local merchants, etc.
That, I think, is fundamentally wrong. As I say, my season ticket purchases that include tomato cans like what we are talking about are set up for me to pay unconscionable prices for games that have no value on the secondary market. True; I go to the games because September Saturdays are glorious, and Ann Arbor is beautiful, and our stadium is the best in the nation, and tailgating is fun. But the stretch is always those tomato can games that serve no purpose other than to park another home game on the schedule. It has far, far less than any of you might imagine, about strength of schedule calculations.
January 11th, 2019 at 1:08 PM ^
This is exactly why I finally gave mine up. I can just buy tickets to the 2-3 games I want to see and get just as good of seats for a fraction of the price.
January 11th, 2019 at 11:36 AM ^
I think you make a fair point regarding the value of your tickets when a cupcake is scheduled, but no one is forcing you to buy season tickets. My assumption is that you buy season tickets because you love the team and University and have decided that your tickets are worth the investment as a fanatic. I have not decided to buy season tickets and am on the same thought process as the OP where I am glad these are cupcake games because it provides us a better chance to win more games and therefore have the opportunity to make the CFP.
January 11th, 2019 at 11:37 AM ^
Would you rather lose to a powerhouse at home and then every four years beg for the HC to be fired or would you rather win B1G titles and go to the playoff. There's your difference.
January 11th, 2019 at 12:25 PM ^
This is just dumb. If you are out for your coach's head because there are a few losses to powerhouses, you are the problem not the coach.
January 11th, 2019 at 12:30 PM ^
How is losing an OOC game impact a Big Ten title? Personally, i'm annoyed that we are scheduling cupcake games. It makes it uninteresting to watch which means I'll lose interest overall. I'm certainly not going to travel to attend one of those shitty games. I prefer to travel in the early fall with my kids for good weather so there's a real chance i'll attend less. Further, people seem to forget that the BIG12 was left out of the CFP for playing a weak schedule. I think it was last year that Wisconsin was looking like they would have been left out (they lost so it didn't matter). I'm not saying we should schedule ND, Alabama and Clemson in the OOC but we have to have some real teams. you are advocating to destroy the quality of the program for a rare chance to make the CFP. I can't think of a season where losing an OOC game cost us the CFP (even theoretically before it existed).
January 11th, 2019 at 1:00 PM ^
I agree. I'd rather play real (but not elite) competition in the OOC schedule than cupcakes. At least with real competition we all look forward to the game, get a little nervous, over analyze the possible outcomes and are likely to stay engaged the whole game. With cupcakes we get none of this. I'd rather have that experience as a fan more often in the regular season at the risk of not making the CFP than to load up on cupcakes for the possibility of making the CFP which, let's be honest, might happen once a decade even with cupcakes on the schedule.
January 11th, 2019 at 1:00 PM ^
I agree. I'd rather play real (but not elite) competition in the OOC schedule than cupcakes. At least with real competition we all look forward to the game, get a little nervous, over analyze the possible outcomes and are likely to stay engaged the whole game. With cupcakes we get none of this. I'd rather have that experience as a fan more often in the regular season at the risk of not making the CFP than to load up on cupcakes for the possibility of making the CFP which, let's be honest, might happen once a decade even with cupcakes on the schedule.
January 11th, 2019 at 11:37 AM ^
Sure can. Coming off a NC...should be a lot of fun. Living here in the middle of the godforsaken state of Kansas with my young, diehard Michigan fan grandson who has never seen the Big House!
January 11th, 2019 at 11:42 AM ^
My guy not everyone can afford season tickets, and hell yeah I might go to that game, but I'm sure as shit not paying face value for it, I'm not made of money.
If you buy season tickets you do so KNOWING that there are going to be cupcakes every September, so save your whining.
EDIT: Upon further inspection, UCLA is a home game in 2022 so especially save your whining.
January 11th, 2019 at 11:45 AM ^
Don't get season tickets if you're going to complain about cupcakes. It's been this way since the turn of the century. Every other year, you'll have a big name nonconference opponent, the other years you won't. 2007 is the only year I can think of when we had 2 P5 level nonconference home games (Oregon & ND). The issue bigger than nonconference scheduling is having MSU and OSU away in the same year and home the same year. Luckily we had PSU, Wisconsin and Nebraska on this year's home schedule but it won't be that way every year.
January 11th, 2019 at 12:08 PM ^
I can't let your comment pass without at least expressing strong agreement with your point about the OSU/MSU scheduling rotation. Every chance I get, I repeat the question as to how that ever occurred, and why it persists. I have asked it a lot, and I have never gotten a good answer. Certainly not from the Michigan Athletic Department.
Also, as an aside... Do you remember 2007? I presume that you do; you brought it up. We started with a "cupcake." Appalachian State. Followed it with a loss that I thought was even more embarrassing, the humiliation by Oregon. We then had Notre Dame, and turned that season around with a 38-0 demonstration of that team's true talent. A quality opponent gave us the chance for redemption.
I understand that lots of fantasy league-types of fans don't want "redemption," they want W's. For me, the ideal would be playing as many of the traditional Big Ten conference teams as possible, and just a couple of great programs on a home-and-home basis. I'd rather have no game, than a Colorado State Game or a Northern Illinois game. I'd be fine, with a slate of just six home games. I actually don't like games on Labor Day Weekend at all, and I don't like bye weeks. I'd be appalled at having a game on Thanksgiving weekend but for the fact that it is now the annual OSU weekend, and I travel to that game in any event.
January 11th, 2019 at 1:13 PM ^
Not sure what the confusion is on the OSU-MSU scheduling. Sure we play both at home or on the road in the same year but MSU has the same deal where they play us and OSU on the road and at home in the same year. OSU has the same thing with MSU-PSU. And PSU has the same with OSU-MSU.
Something tells me that over the next few years if MSU falls back to its historical levels of performance we'll be happy to have OSU and PSU split each year as those are likely to be the marquee East division games in our schedule (I know, maybe I'm getting ahead of myself with MSU but they do seem to be trending downwards).
January 11th, 2019 at 1:27 PM ^
The "confusion" on the OSU/MSU scheduling is why the fuck, after decades of a rotation of our getting MSU at home in even-numbered years and OSU at home in odd-numbered years, was that flipped?
For virtually every season ticket holder I know, that flip was one of the most offensive changes in this young century. We regarded one or the other as the premier game on the home schedule, with Notre Dame games being additional (but erratically-scheduled) premier games. Look at ticket resale prices if you don't believe me.
Your point about MSU being in the same position doesn't make me feel any better; it makes me feel suspicious that the reason it was done in the first place was an agreement between UM and MSU wherein they would take turns raising prices every other year, in years where they had the two big conference rivals at home.
I don't care how you might want to re-shuffle the Big Ten Conference football schedule; I see no reason why Michigan's annual game with MSU had to flip.
January 11th, 2019 at 1:13 PM ^
Not sure what the confusion is on the OSU-MSU scheduling. Sure we play both at home or on the road in the same year but MSU has the same deal where they play us and OSU on the road and at home in the same year. OSU has the same thing with MSU-PSU. And PSU has the same with UM-MSU.
Something tells me that over the next few years if MSU falls back to its historical levels of performance we'll be happy to have OSU and PSU split each year as those are likely to be the marquee East division games in our schedule (I know, maybe I'm getting ahead of myself with MSU but they do seem to be trending downwards).
January 11th, 2019 at 1:40 PM ^
I do remember 2007. That Notre Dame team was one that finished 3-9. It was not a quality opponent. Yeah, we kicked their ass but we should have even as a only slightly above average team ourselves. Wins against PSU and Florida did far more to "redeem" us than the ND game.
Your conference schedule is what will redeem you. I'm all for playing as many traditional conference opponents as possible. It's my dream (and a massive pipe dream at that) to reduce the size of the conference and play a true round robin schedule like they did in the 70s. Far more appealing than playing Rutgers and Maryland while only getting one or two of Iowa, Purdue, N'W, Wisconsin and Illinois every year.
January 11th, 2019 at 2:00 PM ^
I share that dream of yours!
We added Maryland and Rutgers to the Conference, basically for cable tv revenue. More revenue sounds great, until you realize that we'd end up playing Rutgers every year, while the Little Brown Jug and our historic series with Minnesota goes on a shelf.
Cable tv gave Michigan much more exposure. Now every member of the MGoBoard can stay home and watch the game for free on a 50" HDTV. And to pay for that, we have to let cable programmers decide when the games will be played. We might not know a game time until 14, 10 or even 6 days before a game. We get games scheduled at Noon, 3:30/4:00 or even 8:00. For the tv viewers, that's all fine. Doesn't matter. But for fans traveling to the game, making plane and hotel reservations, organizing their weekend and travel plans, it sucks. Before cable tv, we played games at 1:30. Which was perfect. Get out to Ann Arbor, have a tailgate lunch, watch the game, drive home while it is still light out, and then watch an interesting PAC-8 game (or LSU) in the evening.
We keep doing these innocent-sounding things in the name of more revenue for the program, and almost always, they end up hurting the people who are doing most of the paying for the program. Certainly the individuals who are personally paying the dearest for the games.
January 11th, 2019 at 12:11 PM ^
Ah yes, season ticket holders should be expected to receive face value or better in the secondary market for all games on the schedule. I forgot that rule was in the bylaws.
January 11th, 2019 at 3:38 PM ^
Reasonably though, if a season ticket holder sold all of the games on the schedule, they should at least break even, right?
January 11th, 2019 at 2:20 PM ^
Exactly what I keep telling people. If Michigan wants me to keep buying season tickets, they need to bring in exciting non-conference match-ups. I get zero excitement out of seeing these crap games. I don't mind one each year as a warm up game, but two is stupid.
I'm sick of the whining about our schedule. Our schedule hasn't kept us out of the playoff yet. In fact, two years ago, our schedule was the reason we were still in the discussion even after two losses. I know it wasn't realistic at that point, but they were still discussing us as an option because of our schedule. Our win over Colorado was the gift that kept on giving all year.
Also, two years ago, OSU wouldn't have been in the playoff without a win at Oklahoma. Tangible evidence that schedule matters. OSU didn't make the playoff this year because their non-conference schedule was terrible. Yes their loss was brutal, but if they would have had a decent non-conference win, it would have separated them from OK.
If Warde is going to continue increasing prices something needs to be done to justify it and scheduling these games doesn't justify me paying these prices.
January 11th, 2019 at 12:21 PM ^
This is a pathetic opinion. Games are meant to be interesting, not a waste of time, money and effort.
January 11th, 2019 at 11:10 AM ^
So, in football bodybag games good and in basketball, bodybag games bad?
January 11th, 2019 at 11:11 AM ^
It is abundently clear that easiest possible SoS is the path to the playoffs in the Big Ten, SEC, or ACC.
January 11th, 2019 at 11:15 AM ^
Now if we could just put a non-conference cupcake in November, we got an ACC/SEC schedule. It's brilliant!
January 11th, 2019 at 11:16 AM ^
Only if it is a FCS school right before OSU.
January 11th, 2019 at 11:19 AM ^
TBH, I wouldn't mind playing a directional Michigan school the week before OSU. I don't want to play PSU or MSU the week before OSU, not even team CHAOS.
January 11th, 2019 at 11:36 AM ^
Especially not Indiana. They run us into the ground every damn year.
Seriously, schedule Eastern before OSU. I'll go to that game. Promise.
January 11th, 2019 at 12:35 PM ^
EMU beat Purdue this (past) year.
January 11th, 2019 at 12:00 PM ^
I mean, isn't that what Rutgers is for?
January 11th, 2019 at 11:15 AM ^
Ahhh. The path of least resistance always stiffens the spine. I’d much rather game the system then actually play anybody of substance. I mean nobody on here ever bitches about a team getting into the playoffs when they have had a weak schedule.
January 11th, 2019 at 11:17 AM ^
Who cares? Just get in and give yourself a chance.
Much rather get that goose egg removed for our playoff appearances than be high and mighty that we schedule tougher while playing in the Peach Bowl again
January 11th, 2019 at 11:20 AM ^
We played in the Peach Bowl because we got blown out. Even if we went into OSU undefeated, a 20+ point loss is going to send us tumbling down the rankings.
January 11th, 2019 at 11:37 AM ^
January 11th, 2019 at 11:41 AM ^
When does UCF play OSU, MSU, and PSU in one regular season, with probable games against Iowa, Wisconsin, NW, or Nebraska?
January 11th, 2019 at 11:50 AM ^
January 11th, 2019 at 12:35 PM ^
You sound salty. Have a snickers or something.
January 11th, 2019 at 1:59 PM ^
And only because it’s Michigan, by the time UM gets to these games the OOC schedule will matter come playoff time.
January 11th, 2019 at 11:12 AM ^
Nailed it.
January 11th, 2019 at 11:10 AM ^
I hope it's at NIU. I love DeKalb, Illinois.
January 11th, 2019 at 11:11 AM ^
All home games. Michigan will never play at a MAC school.
That's sparty's gig.
January 11th, 2019 at 11:47 AM ^
Michigan and Nebraska are the only B1G schools to never play at a MAC school.
Even OSU did it - in 2009, they played Toledo in Cleveland. It was, per the contracts and in terms of who sold the tickets and kept the money, a Toledo home game.
Perhaps I have a minority opinion, but I thought it was cool that MSU played one game at each of CMU and WMU, gave them a 2-for-1 or 3-for-1 (I forget which) deal.