Michigan Football will be Pelini Free for 4 Years
Some good news and some bad news for us who are becoming Bo Pelini fans. Do Due to the super secret Big 10 scheduling algorithm it appears Nebraska is not on our schedule for the next 4 years. (Just noticed this) So the only way to face the Pelini's will be in the Big 10 championship game.
That's a bummer because the programs are on a similar level right now, they have a great fan base, it's 2 good brands, and a high quality football game most of the time. The main positive is it makes it easier to root for the Fighting Pelini's since nothing they do can hurt us - and they can help us by beating heated rivals such as Rutgers and Maryland.
We also only see 1 year of Ferentz in the next 4 years, but he is not quite as fun of a dude.
Hold me Brown Bear.
August 12th, 2014 at 11:13 AM ^
August 12th, 2014 at 11:15 AM ^
for the most part are pretty good fans as well. Interacting with them is usually a good experience because they seem to honor their history the same way Michigan does. All except that 1997 nonsense. #scottfrostisawhiner
August 12th, 2014 at 11:16 AM ^
Unless things start to pick up in Lincoln, not seeing Pelini in the next four years means we may never see him again.
August 12th, 2014 at 11:19 AM ^
Et tu, Wolverine 73?
Please... this discovery already made my Tuesday difficult. No need to pile on by talking about a college football landscape that is Pelini free.
August 12th, 2014 at 11:42 AM ^
I'm going to miss playing Nebraska, and opportunities to mock the cat man, too.
Irregular play against teams like Nebraska is a serious downside of recent Big 10 Expansion. Along with doubling up on away games with rivals. (On the plus side of the ledger, we get to play Rutgers and Maryland with regularity!)
August 12th, 2014 at 12:24 PM ^
Well technically Nebraska is B1G expansion.
August 12th, 2014 at 1:53 PM ^
Touche'.
By "recent Big 10 expansion" I intended Maryland (2014) and Rutgers (2014). I did not intend Nebraska (2011--a fairly recent addition), or Penn State (1990), etc.
Perhaps "extremely recent Big 10 expansion," or "this year's expansion" would have been closer to the mark.
August 12th, 2014 at 9:53 PM ^
So if there are no protected crossovers, we should play west division teams in 3/7ths of seasons.
August 12th, 2014 at 11:21 AM ^
I always thought UW fans were always the most fun fans to come to the big house. The competition was big enough, but without all the pure hatred rhetoric of the rivalry games. Also going to Camp Randal is always a blast
August 12th, 2014 at 11:27 AM ^
umm.....Lincoln is in Nebraska not Wisconsin.
August 12th, 2014 at 11:34 AM ^
You've never been to the the jewel of Wood County, Wisconsin? Then I bet you don't know that the town will pick up all stray dogs but only sick or "very wild appearing" cats.
http://www.townoflincolnwc.com/dogs/
August 12th, 2014 at 11:44 AM ^
August 12th, 2014 at 12:00 PM ^
+1 informative.
August 12th, 2014 at 2:23 PM ^
It's easy to mix up dead Presidents.
August 12th, 2014 at 11:24 AM ^
We'll certainly be seeing them in at least a couple Big 10 championship games in the next 4 years, though...eh?
:-)
August 12th, 2014 at 11:27 AM ^
We'll see them in the B1GCG in the next 4 years..
August 12th, 2014 at 11:29 AM ^
I'm still not used to thinking of Nebraska as a Big Ten team. The fact that Michigan won't see them for four years because Maryland and Rutgers are in the conference is almost too weird to accept.
August 12th, 2014 at 11:32 AM ^
they'll have 16 more losses.
August 12th, 2014 at 11:44 AM ^
but how many more will we have?
August 12th, 2014 at 11:33 AM ^
You're not in the same conference with a team if you recruit kids that will get their degree and yet never play that team. The Lions play AFC teams more often than that. AL teams play NL teams more often than that. The B1G is not a conference, it's a loose association agreement between two separate conferences.
August 12th, 2014 at 12:06 PM ^
So...sort of like the Aricles of Confederation?
Who will lead Shay's Rebellion?
August 12th, 2014 at 1:40 PM ^
Class of 2007 MSU Cross Country runner Stephan Shay?
August 12th, 2014 at 5:16 PM ^
Led by Daniel Shays.
BOOM Trivia'd.
August 12th, 2014 at 5:50 PM ^
Trivia'd? I feel like I've been APUSHed around!
August 12th, 2014 at 12:09 PM ^
I'd add the caveat that this is generally a football problem. Basketball and other sports will be fine just due to the amount of games.
I would agree that Big Ten football is basically two separate conferences though
August 12th, 2014 at 12:41 PM ^
Just like the fact that everyone from Hoke's first class (and some of the 2012 kids too), are never going to play Wisconsin.
Yay Expansion......
August 12th, 2014 at 11:36 AM ^
August 12th, 2014 at 11:52 AM ^
Another minor note, I believe that in 2016, Northwestern and Minnesota vanish temporarily and we pick up Illinois and Purdue for a couple years, so there's that as well. One of these days, I am going to try to build the scheduling algorithm, but then I think my efforts would be discovered and we'd get stuck playing Rutgers nine times one season as a punishment.
August 12th, 2014 at 12:03 PM ^
They'll be around for at least 2016-2019. Illinois joins in 2016 but then drops off again until 2019. Purdue joins in 2017 and then drops off again until an unknown date.
And the 2016 non-conference schedule is terrible.
|
|
|
|
|
|
http://www.mgoblue.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/081809aab.html
August 12th, 2014 at 12:13 PM ^
looks like MSU will actually have to come play us at the Big House.
Still bitter.
August 12th, 2014 at 12:25 PM ^
Erik it depends. UCF is not a big name but they were a VERy good team last year. O'Leary has done great things with them recently. They were 12-1 last year and beat Baylor in the BCS bowl.
They beat UConn 62-17 to put it in perspective. They beat Louisville in Louisville. They beat Akron 38-7. They beat Penn State in happy valley. Their only loss was to South Carolina by 3 or else it would have been an interesting situation for the NC game.
Obviously we don't know what they will be in 2 years but based on last year they were a top 10 team in the nation.
August 12th, 2014 at 12:28 PM ^
I reflexively thought of them as a poor team, but you're right. They've won a BCS game more recently than...certain teams we could think of.
August 12th, 2014 at 12:32 PM ^
They are way better than Arkansas right now. I'd say the years with Arkansas on it are the worst non conf games unless that situation is turned around down there.
With the 9 game conf schedule you basically are going to have 1 baby seal, 1 mid tier (BYUish) and 1 premier team to replace ND. So right now I'd actually put Arkansas as the mid tier in those years, meaning we lack a premier team. Now does Brandon take a chance Arkansas reamins crap and not schedule a better team for those years or not. Or does he do the 1 off things like we are doing with UF those years. I don't see him giving up home revenue that often so if Arkansas in current condition is our "premier" non conf game for those 2 years that's not good.
Right now Arkansas is a faster version of Purdue.
August 12th, 2014 at 1:26 PM ^
UCF had Bortles last season, chances are we see a regression from them.
August 12th, 2014 at 11:57 AM ^
I wish it was sooner. Lincoln is only about 4 hours from me.
August 12th, 2014 at 11:59 AM ^
August 12th, 2014 at 2:48 PM ^
August 12th, 2014 at 12:03 PM ^
Due* to the super secret (...)
August 12th, 2014 at 12:27 PM ^
Fixed. thx
August 12th, 2014 at 12:08 PM ^
What's with all pessimism? We're going to play Nebraska this season, on December 6th, in Indianapolis.
Tell Pelini to bring the jacket.
August 12th, 2014 at 5:38 PM ^
but that should be implied by now.
August 12th, 2014 at 12:23 PM ^
August 12th, 2014 at 2:22 PM ^
This is really unfortunate. I just looked this up a couple of weeks ago because I just moved to Omaha. Sad I won't be able to catch a Nebraska Michigan game in Lincoln while I'm out here. I think I'm going to the Nebraska Miami game now on September 20th to see my first game in memorial stadium. I'll still be wearing my maize and blue proudly that Saturday though!