Semi-OT: Alabama Will Play 'Anybody' in 2015 - Michigan?

Submitted by boliver46 on

Alabama apparently has a slot open for a HOME Football game in 2015.  I know our last experience with Alabama in JerryWorld left a LOT to be desired.  HOWEVA - most people feel like 2015 is lining up to be a special year for UM Football.  DEPTH, TALENT, and EXPERIENCE will be in abundance for that team.

Questions:

(1) Would Alabama TRULY play 'Anybody'?  The Alabama AD SAYS so:

“Right now we’d take anybody,” Battle said, via CBSSports.com. “We’ve called everybody we know.”

(2) Would Michigan be open to the idea of replacing a creampuff (e.g. UNLV @ Home) OR a (non-creampuff) Road-Game (@ Utah) with the Crimson Tide?  Or would the loss of Home revenue or goodwill with Utah be too much to stomach?

and

(3) Would the MGoBlog community feel this would be a good idea?

I like the idea of playing top competition every year - but beat-downs make them less fun.  With an experienced roster in 2015 - I'd like another shot at those f*@&!*@ers.

Alabama Story: Link

Michigan Schedule: Link

Thoughts?

***Nuss vs. Kifin Offensive Fireworks would be fun to watch as well!***

danimal1968

May 29th, 2014 at 3:56 PM ^

Are playing in Green Bay in 2016.  I guess they were each willing to play a neutral site game in a location where the other was likely to have a big advantage but not willing to just play a home and home.

boliver46

May 29th, 2014 at 4:13 PM ^

get that. What is the appeal of dropping 8,000 - 21,000 seats by moving to these 'neutral sites'?

Camp Randall: 80,321

Lambeau Field: 72,928

Tiger Stadium: 92,542

NRG Stadium: 71,500

LSU at Camp Randall would be INSANE.  Saw Wisky play SDSU there and it was amazing.

bluebyyou

May 29th, 2014 at 3:16 PM ^

A couple of years ago Bama did a home and away with Penn State. 

I'm not sure what river would serve as the dividing line, but State College is definitely not in the south.

sadeto

May 29th, 2014 at 1:51 PM ^

First of all, there's no way we give up the revenue associated with a home game, Mr. Brandon has made it clear we need seven home games and that's that. Second, rescheduling for next year is almost impossible, we'd have to write Utah a big check, making it not really feasible, and then they'd have to scramble and would probably wind up with an FCS opponent. Not going to happen. Woud love to see it, though. 

boliver46

May 29th, 2014 at 1:53 PM ^

the revenue would be hard to pass up - which is why the idea of moving the Utes to 2016 seems more attractive - but maybe costly.

Just spitballing.  Would love to see Saban North of the Mason-Dixon line again (assumes home-and-home).

michchi85

May 29th, 2014 at 1:51 PM ^

And by "play anyone" they really mean "play a really crappy opponent that we can pay."  They have zero desire to schedule even a decent program.

I Like Burgers

May 29th, 2014 at 1:52 PM ^

I like the idea of playing top competition every year as much as anyone, but Alabama again?  Hell no man.  Provided the staff makes it through 2014 in a happy state, 2015 needs to be a return to glory type year, and starting off with Alabama isn't the way to make that happen.

And at Utah isn't exactly a creampuff game.

boliver46

May 29th, 2014 at 1:54 PM ^

my verbiage might have been slightly off.  I don't consider a Pac-10 Utah a creampuff.  My bad.  UNLV was considered my creampuff game - and then I said OR Utah.  Maybe need a comma or something in there to break it up.

ThadMattasagoblin

May 29th, 2014 at 1:55 PM ^

They did play at PSU once, but we don't have an open date. The only way that we could play a 13th game is if it was at Hawaii. I also don't think that we should schedule them until we know for sure that Michigan is back.

boliver46

May 29th, 2014 at 1:57 PM ^

the way schedules get planned out YEARS in advance, it's kinda hard to know if Michigan is "back" or will be in a future year.  I'm basing my (albeit relatively uninformed) hope that we are back based on the assertions from this board and other places that UM will be "loaded" in 2015.

We do have a BYE week as well.  Maybe that's an idea?

LSAClassOf2000

May 29th, 2014 at 2:00 PM ^

Just as a general note, Nick Saban talked at length after the cancellation of the MSU series about how his vision was to have the "Power 5" conferences play each other in increasing frequency. What he seems to fail to realize, however, is that more than likely this will mean a lot of *gulp* real road games for Alabama that aren't in the southeastern United States necessarily. He expressed some concern about the lack of willingness by State, for example, to play a neutral site game. If he thought OOC scheduling was a little tough now, wait until a lot of power conference schools share State's sentiment.

GoBLUinTX

May 29th, 2014 at 2:05 PM ^

Paying off Utah to renege on our date in Salt Lake City and then hopefully have Alabama play in Ann Arbor to open the 2016 season.  Of course that would mean paying off either Hawaii, Colorado, or UCF, not to play in the Big House.  That's an awful lot of payoffs, maybe get 'Bama to do one of them.

That would really make 2016 a much better home slate given MSU and OSU are away games.

boliver46

May 29th, 2014 at 2:08 PM ^

if you would actually have to "pay them off".  You may be able to incentivize them in other ways - shift to 2016, and we'll give you another home game in 2019.  Or shift to 2016, and we'll PAY you to come to AA for an OOC game.  I think you can be creative and not have to "pay off" some of these teams.

And I agree, that would certainly make 2016 look better at home!

funkywolve

May 29th, 2014 at 4:44 PM ^

are in the Pac-12 so I doubt they would be interested in adding Utah to the schedule if they aren't scheduled to play them during conference play.

Are UCF and UConn going to be in one of the 5 power conferences in 2016?  Those 5 conferences are Pac-12, Big 12, Big Ten, ACC and SEC, right?

Mr Miggle

May 29th, 2014 at 5:04 PM ^

That have to find a school that has an open date on the same weekend. Most of those names do not. Then they have to find someone to agree to play a road game in Utah. I think you are woefully underestimating the challenge for Utah to reschedule a game next season. It's not just a game, either. It's their marquee OOC game, probably for quite a few years.

As I said above, Alabama is busy when we're to play Utah anyway.