Anyone else planning on riding off into the sunset after this season?

I’m with you. I’ve been trying to take it easier since 2016. Each year doing better. 

My daughter has been at UM for the last three years. Amazing run!

I used to feel like M football owed me something for all the time and love I put into it. 

I am owed nothing. We are good. I am at peace!

I'm thinking about it. I quit Basketball prior to the season -- it was bad enough during the Beilein years, when he would take 3 stars turn them into 5 stars during a deep NCAA run, then they would leave after 2 years. Now, after one half decent performance and a crappy season, they "go pro." Meanwhile the FBI catches teams on tape. THE FBI! And the NCAA does nothing. Kids have every right to do what is best for them, but so do I and not sure I can emotionally invest myself in a team of mercenaries or those who will be gone next year.

I see Football heading in the same direction. The NFL doesn't call for 3 years, but when rival teams can shop right from your roster with no punishment, it will be tough to get invested. I'll watch next season, but I don't anticipate a run like we just had. 

I have similar thoughts. Outside of the Pistons winning in the early 2000's when I was too young to truly appreciate it, I've never had my team win a national championship. It's almost as if my sports fandom was fueled by the dream to win it all. 

Now that it happened, especially in the storybook way that it did, I don't feel the angst I typically do this time of year. I've experienced the pinnacle as a fan, and as amazing as it feels, it isn't worth ruining every fall. I don't see myself going into a dark pit after a loss, because most of that darkness was the feeling that my teams just don't have what it takes to reach that level. I just wanted to witness it once in my life and that possibility seemed to be slipping away.

I'll always be a fan and I know when the season comes around I'll be back in the swing excited for every game, but football can't hurt me anymore. Of course I want to see them win every game they play, but if they don't, I will always have 2023 to look back on. 

I guess the way I look at it: we had a peak experience. Three years of an amazing build with a fairytale Hollywood ending. The fanbase incredibly united throughout. This whole thing will never repeat.

So now: just enjoy whatever it is. Don't become like the fanbases that think that anything less than winning it all means it's a failure. Support the team. Be a good fan. Enjoy the wins, don't fret the losses.

And when the old season comes around, remember, it'll be Michigan. Michigan.

I used to live that way too. And the losses still sting but not for long. I was live or die before my undergrad in A2 and for years later. My first year of season tickets was 2008 (after a few years of those "packs" where you got the whole season but in different locations each game). RichRod and Hoke helped me not take it too seriously...as did raising my son as a fan. I needed to be a good example.

He's a bigger fan than me now and after he stayed true in the dark times I love this for him.

Btw I'm only 30 miles north of Nashville in KY. Small world. Go Blue!

The only thing that will effect my interest this offseason is if it becomes open portal season & a large bulk of starters transfer. Right now the climate is great for continuing fandom - a national championship defense, continuing offensive coaching philosophy of innovative smashmouth football, and a strong pipeline of players in the program developed under Harbaugh & Herbert. Time will tell if that maintains, but don't let this offseason hearsay dampen things. Tune out for a few months and enjoy the ride later.

I never thought this message board would be so depressing to read after a national championship.  I feel like I need anti-depression meds after reading these threads.

The good news is college football is fundamentally different so you can detach, more like an NFL fan would. Like yeah browns fans want them to beat the steelers...but they could play three times a year so who gives a crap if they lose one. We will lose something after this last year, but we will also gain the fact you can have some satisfaction without having to go 15-0. 

There is a path for Michigan to go 10-2 and 9-3 some years and make the playoff. That doesn't mean it will be easy, but it's not the same game. 

I guess what I'm saying is I will always be super invested but the game is changing so that you should no be shattered over a loss. 

And we just won the MFNCG! That will carry me through at least next year.

I decided to take that approach after the 2020 season.  I would watch 2021, but be more casual and not get so into every little outcome during the game.  Then 2021 started out positive.  Beating Wisc on the road and I got pulled in a little more. Then the fun game at Nebraska at night.  Pulled me in more.  Then OSU and I was right were I left off.

I'm still going to try not to live and die by every game, but I know that if UM beasts Texas in game two I will be sitting on the edge of my seat.

Okay, so I posted a similar sentiment on Gordon's diary a couple weeks back, vowing to step away and spend my time more constructively since Harbaugh's departure seemed like a natural line of demarcation.

I get where you're coming from. I've been a Michigan fan since I could walk and talk. I joined the blog when Jim was hired. I'm in the midst of a years long midlife crisis that has only been intermittently assuaged by the exploits of our favorite championship winning football team. I was ready to move on with so many things in my life. So many.

But then I read Jordan Acker's front page post, and it made me realize that part of my middle aged despair is borne out of not feeling connected to much of anything anymore, with Michigan sports and this little community of ours being notable exceptions. So I realized, "why would I voluntarily give up one of the few things left in life that make me feel much of anything?" I didn't have any good answers, so here I am, posting again.

Anyway, my point is this: the college football we grew up loving has been gone for awhile. It's never coming back, and its successor is largely unrecognizable to a lot of us. I'm glad Harbaugh was able to go out on top. I think he deserved it for all his hard work here. And I'm still going to be rooting for the team every Saturday for the rest of my life. But it's never going to be the same (and I'd be shocked if Michigan ever again finds its way back to the mountaintop). And I'm okay with that, as long as I can share the experience with all of you.

I graduated in 2006, at the then peak of my fandom

the rich rod and hoke eras slowly whittled at away at my enjoyment to the point that I only watched a few games in 2014. Jim Harbaugh was what re-invigorated my fandom. The past decade has been an incredible ride—but I imagine it will be pretty easy to revert my 2014 levels of fandom  if we go back to fighting for .500

I’m not ashamed to say I will probably be a pretty fairweather  fan going forward.  I’m 40, with a wife and kids who don’t watch Michigan football.  Life is too short to give up Saturdays to watch a mediocre college football team 

I told myself that if we could win it all, I would take a step back and not care about the details. Ironically, its made me care more. There is a path for us to win, and it was proven. And it seems like they are hell bent on not following it, which is making me insane. You'd think that would be a reason to step back, but all it did was make me hungrier to stay at the top.

Expectations will do that to you. 

4 years ago, we would have been happy with 10 wins. Or a win over OSU. 

Pretty sure we weren't even thinking about playoffs, let alone winning.

2 years ago, we were so happy just to make the playoff. Last year we were DISAPPOINTED at a 13-1 season where we lost in the semi-final.

Now.. the thought of falling back to the pack is depressing. With the west coast teams joining in, the pack just got bigger than OSU, PSU... oregon looks loaded and coached well. Washington is good. USC will probably figure it out. UCLA is not a pushover.

I just need a national championship every 30 years to keep me going.  So far in my life I am 45 and I've seen 2.  So, I'm gonna stick around for some more!

Also, the religion of football pays off as often as any other religion... so why not go all in?

I think I'm giving up on college football entirely. I can't seem to be able to watch only one team (in any sport) and when I watch sports it strains my relationship with my wife.

Had to give up NFL because I was watching football all Sat and Sun and the wife said pick one. I picked college football because I enjoy it more and haven't watched more than one NFL game a season in several years now. 

Watched my Cubs win the 2016 WS and then my daughter was born that November. Haven't watched a baseball game since.

Now Michigan has won the NC and my daughter is 7 and my son is 3. I find myself watching college football all days of the week and all day Sat... and it's just too much. I love college football and just don't think watching M games only is going to sate the urge. Think I'm just gonna go out with a bang like I did with baseball. 

It'll give me a lot more time to take the kiddos hiking and skiing. That's something I'd prefer they'd learn from me rather than my obsession with CFB.

I definitely feel like I've "completed" my fandom. I briefly lived in MI when I was a kid then moved to TX and hated it and vowed to move back and that made me love all (state of) Michigan sports and I chose M to follow because it was (and is) the premier flagship of the state. Plus I liked blue.

Powerhouse program with rich history and then I arrived as a student in 2008. Blah. I definitely let games ruin my day or week after a loss and was an asshole to rival fans but once I graduated and had to be in the real world plus only a Sugar Bowl win from the "poops gold" era Hoke really puts a damper on any sports arrogance. I just wanted Michigan to win again and be on top. I wanted to see it in my cognizant lifetime. Now that its done after the Rich Rod years, the post Sugar Bowl Hoke years, the OSU heartbreaks and woulda-coulda-shoulda moments, it felt cathartic to finally see the team win a championship. 2021 will forever be the most special season in my lifetime since it marked a true change in the direction of the program. At least for another 2 years and hope Sherrone Moore keeps the trains running.

I'm still going to watch when I can and cheer on when they win and hope they don't lose but it won't dictate my life anymore. I've been peeling away that part of my life anyway. I love Michigan and all my memories and friends from my time on campus but there are so many more important things in life than sports. I love how sports can bring people together but I don't want to let it bring me down just because they may lose or whatever. Sports can be a beautiful thing but it shouldn't be the only thing.

I don't believe anyone regarding this. There were a couple of prominent posters who said, "If we win...that's it! I'm going out on top and leaving this obsession with Michigan football behind."

Then a couple days after (and in the weeks since) they are on here complaining about Warde, wondering who our DC will be, etc.

Best wishes to anyone who decides to move on, but I have my doubts, especially to anyone who is focused on "not liking the direction of college football" etc. That tends to work as well as all the folks who said they were boycotting the NFL a few years ago, and NFL ratings are higher than ever.

I totally get that. I’m still a fan, but I’m not going to let something that I have no influence/control over consume too much of my life. The powers that be will do their job and I’ll watch and support, but I will not let it ruin my weekend if they aren’t doing well. 

I would like the team to remain competitive.  Getting blown out all the time isn't fun.  Seeing the same teams win all the time isn't fun.  Buying talent like OSU just to beat Michigan isn't fun 

So yes, I'm becoming less and less a fan of cfb.

How can you be a fan and not a fanatic? isn’t it the same thing?

I have made various attempts to reduce the importance of teenagers doing the sports in my life. But given the alternatives of focusing more on work or news/politics, I'm content with my obsession. 

Had 2 season football tickets since 1979, never missed a home game, went to many away games. had to give them up 2 years ago, wife got sick. I lived and died Michigan sports. Now 76, still watch, but the extreme passion is gone. wife would always know when we lost, I was distraught. The new era of college sports has taken the luster off. When we won natty's in basketball, football, softball, hockey and gymnastics I was geeked and couldn't sleep. Glad they won this year, but the fire is gone.

I felt this way when Petitti had his cowardly Friday afternoon in the sun moment. That one way or another, 55 years of caring so much about fall Saturdays would come to close.

I was delighted when Moore rose to the challenge at State College and the team kept upping its game in the face of considerable adversity.

It was everything a fan could have hoped for. Not only "who has it better than us," but "how do you top this?"

You can't.

I think I'll be just fine in September when the Saturdays start passing again. I'll still be paying attention, but I won't let a loss upset me.

Already, when the men's basketball team pulls the rug out from beneath themselves, I find myself unaffected. Fire Juwan? If you like. Seems obvious it has to happen, but if it doesn't, I'm not going to get upset about it.

The game has changed. The playoffs will expand, the courts will obsess about Washington State and Oregon State and their need for a cut, and whether Dartmouth players can demand a share of Dartmouth's extraordinary television revenue. Change is often good, but also often uncomfortable.

Seems like an ideal time to reduce my personal investment. I'll always care, but not like I did.

100% I'm like this. Winning the championship in a sense freed me from college football. I'm confident this will stick because when my nfl team won the superbowl I haven't been as engaged since. I'll watch but purely to see those great colors run around on the field. 

Coincidentally in the last 3 years my views have morphed from obsessive to still extremely passionate, but understanding this ultimately is just a game. I'll still be pissed off for a day after a loss and will still be overjoyed for every win. It was the best four game stretch of travel that I've ever had in my life, but l'll pick up where I left off. I was at fandom endurance in 2008 and felt the 15-year extreme lull. I've experienced the absolute worst and the absolute best. Ride or die

The OP went the long way to say he is a fairweather fan....

I'm in my late 30's and have been obsessed with Michigan football since I was 10. Nothing would make me lose interest/obsession to be honest.

Have you ever considered pirating? 

The RichRod years cured me of living and dying by wins and losses, and I'm better off for it.  Losses no longer crush my weekends and I'm not avoided for it lol.  That said, this season was a storybook ending and fitting for a ride into that golden, championship-tinged sunset.    

I'll remain a Michigan fan. Winning the national championship was—and is—great on so many levels. But I'll be there rooting for other sports and other seasons..

What I might do though is step back a bit from MGoBlog.

That would be hard for me I adore this site. I revel in daily jaunts through its very rare combination of sports savvy, terrific humor, and strong writing, not to mention significant contributions in the comments. Even those I disagree with make me rethink. 

However, the anger directed at Manuel, at Howard, and at Harbaugh has been verging on toxic. Anger even seems to be seeping into those who usually take calmer views. If not waving pitchforks yet, the level-headed are at least raising them.

Normally, I wouldn't post this. Why invite opprobrium? But I decided to go ahead because MGoBlog feels like a community, and I do feel a part of it. 

Go, Blue.