I have been a die hard fan for the better part of 30 years but given what has transpired over the past few years I wouldn't judge anyone for looking away at a time like this. 

For me though, I just can't do it. I still have to plan my Saturday's around watching the game, i just can't help myself. One thing I will say is I share the sentiment of many others who have become emotionally detached at this point. I watch the games because I can't bring myself not to watch them, but I go in expecting poor results so when that happens, I'm not disappointed. 

It used to be that when UM lost I would be in a funk for days, probably until they won their next game which as you can imagine, when it was a bowl game that funk lasted a long time. Now I just shut the tv off and go about my business. I can tell if this whole thing has been therapuetic or soul crushing at this point. Maybe this is the way most fans usually feel, but it's never been my experience where UM is concerned. I hope one day it will come back!

It's Michigan, so I'll be watching...and probably be sad afterwords for having done so.

Because it's only 12 games a year.

And because a bad day watching Michigan football is still better than a good day at work.

You're in the fraternity.  You have to go.

The Zen of Brady Hoke in the moment.

Out of the Loop even when his players are Loopy

This 2014 team either flat-lines, goes south, or inflects upwards.

If there's a point where it inflects upwards, I'd like to see it. 

I would love to see them against Rutgers and think, "Ah ... they're getting it."

Waiting for that moment is getting harder and harder ... but it's not yet impossible for me.

On the surface it's for the same reason I watch the Lions and EMU: I love football and these are the teams I am passionate about.However, Michigan is extra especial to me. It's more than just football. It's me, my Dad(who raised me by himself), and 3 1/2 hours of father-son bonding. As we age these moments grow ever more precious to me. I'll never give up these moments for they are irreplaceable.

I didn't attend Michigan, but Michigan has been MY team for as long as I can remember. The blue endzone lettering of the early 80's, vague collections the 1985 Maryland game(first game) Harbaugh drawing a penalty on Wisconsin's crowd for excessive noise(remember that rule?), Tripp Welborne tearing his knee up in the Metrodome,  Wheatley running rampant vs UW a year after Emtmann's Demolition Man performance,Musberger screaming "They went for it alll...he got it!!" , Keith Jackson mellifluous voice excitedly putting the exclamation point on Desmond's season   "HELLLOOOO, HEISMAN", Kordell's Hail Mary in 94' and  Michigan's  Redemption three years later...Michigan football for good and bad was for so long memorable. 

That it has fallen so far is a disgrace, but I don't give up on them. Not when I have seen much worse in Ford Field and Rynearson. If I can still watch two lesser teams continue to stumble about I can watch Michigan struggle to reclaim it's former status.

As painful as this season has been nothing is comparable in sports to watching your Alma Mater get pounded into the ground week after week after week. Michigan fans who have no other allegiances are fortunate. Their pain is restricted to one team's failings. Mine are threefold.

With so little discussion of the actual game last week, was it mentioned anywhere that Cole was at RT on that Gardner TD? 

I will watch this Saturday, as much out of morbid curiosity as anything else.

I have tickets for the Penn State game, and haven't made my mind up.  If Brandon's gone by then, I'll almost certainly go.  If he's still around, I'll probably stay away.

I still work up some sympathy for Hoke.  I don't like what happened with Morris at all but from what I can tell that was as likely to be an honest mistake more than malice or even recklessness.  I've done dumb things myself, been distracted, failed to notice things I should have seen.  And it can't be easy working for Brandon.  If they keep him I won't mind.  In fact, part of me would prefer that Hoke at least be allowed to finish out the year, if only to stick a thumb in the AD's eye.

Ah, Dave. Aside from putting in the lights, I can't think of an important thing that Brandon has done with this football program that was worth doing. The man's philosophy -- "If it ain't broke, break it" is the height of foolishness -- change for the sake of change is no better than stubborn clinging to the "Michigan Man past.  All of that was tolerable until now, when he revealed himself to be a deceptive jackass.  The man has to go as far as I'm concerned, the sooner the better.

I love the team, even when they're struggling.  I was there for that Minnesota game that BiSB mentioned and had a great time.  I'm sorry they're stuck in the middle of all this.  I can't wait to cheer for them again.

Sigh...I may not watch this week. I haven't missed watching a game since 2011, when we were going through massive changes at work and I had to come in several weekends. My last time not at least monitoring the game online was probably in 2006, my last deployment with the Army. I think I'm stuck with ArtPrize this weekend, unfortunately. My girlfriend knows I don't like going to ArtPrize and normally I could use a Michigan game as a reason for her to grudgingly drop her request that I go and take her younger sister instead, but too many Saturdays these last two autumns she's seen me pissed off, drunk, and saying I'm done for the season. I have come back the next week every time, but I think I've backed myself into a corner with all that talk, now that she has something she actually wants me to be doing with her at that time. I guess basically I'm saying that it's just not worth the argument and her saying, "Fine, I'll go with my sister/friend/coworker," because I know that, like BiSB said, I'll just feel bad at the end that I could have been doing something else instead of watching the double-digit shit-show loss that I'm sure is coming.

FIrst, because there is no level of apathy that can completely rip away my inner passion and deep care for my alma mater.

Second, because of all sports, one of the biggest reason I watch college football is for the drama. Literally anything can happen on any given Saturday. How else do you explain the Ohio State game last year? Now, do I expect them to beat Rutgers? Probably not. Which is truly sad. But I still hold out a faint hope that maybe, just maybe, the offense can get it's shit together and give me a reason to cheer. It's completely irrational. My brain is telling me it's not going to happen. But... 

...college football is weird sometimes. Right when you think you've got things figured out, you get thrown a curveball. Michigan started 2007 with The Horror and The Hangover, and ended up by beating Urbz with Heisman-trophy winner Tebow  at Florida (in between their two national championships). Something that Ohio State couldn't do. So, you just never really know, even when you know (you know?)

1.  Accelerate is a good album, much better than any other album after Automatic for the People.  It's a different sound, so not all R.E.M. fans may like it, but on its own merits, it's solid.

2.  I'm going to the Rutgers game, partly because it's a 4-hour drive, much easier to get to than to Ann Arbor for me.

3.  I'm forcing myself to walk through this glass barefoot because when it turns -- and I believe/I must believe that it will turn -- my happiness and my hate will be all the more extreme.  

How is it that I (and many others) can look at the game on Saturday and ask, "Oh, shit. We're going to play RUTGERS? AT Rutgers. That's not a guaranteed win. If anything, the odds say we'll probably lose..."?

I don't ever remember feeling this way about Michigan Football. I haven't been a fan as long as some of you, but I remember watching on a black & white TV in mid '70s when my mom would watch with me. At no time did I ever think there was so little likelihood of a win. Not only is the belief that the odds would be in our favor long gone, I look at the Hokestone Kops on the sidelines and I wonder whether my favorite team - the only one I genuinely care about in all of sports - will win another game all season.

This sucks.

I used to love watching Michigan whenever I could, but it wasn't possible for a while, so I'd be sure to follow on the radio or game recaps the next day.  Then I could record games, so I did.  Then they started getting more dreary to watch and my wife isn't a football fan, so they started getting shunted to off-hours.  Then concussions became a thing, and my son came along, and now this is where I'm at:

- Weekends are for family.

- Off-hours are for non-family things that make me happy.

- Getting grumpy and mopey about Michigan football isn't good for me and isn't fair to my family.

Watching Michigan games isn't in the first set and is rapidly falling out of the second, and when it impacts family time that's not a line I'm willing to cross any more.

So, yes, I'll be happy when they win and sad when they lose, but I don't obsess over it any more.

But I have to admit that while reading this (after about another 30 minutes of getting torqued up surfing the discussion boards) I started tearing up at thinking about how upset I am right now and the prospect of not having Michigan football part of my fall.

I will watch because I have to - was born and raised in Ann Arbor, am a proud as hell alum, and taught at UM for a few years back in the 90s - I simply can't tear myself away. But knowing what I'm facing this weekend and this season and the additional emotional contortions I'm likely to go through...ugh...this is taking a serious toll. 

My strategy for now for making it through is 1) focus on rooting for the individual players to do their thing, like Ace said; 2) focus on Meeeechigan the school, the community, and the idea; 3) reminding myself that all things will pass, including the Brandon era.

Go Blue...

I come from a family of Michigan grads.  My dad, his siblings, my two brothers, myself, plus a host of other family members.  Some of my clearest, earliest memories of life are at Michigan Stadium.  I was at the Michigan vs. Alabama debacle in Dallas, and after that game, and more importantly my reaction to it, I decided that I wouldn't get too emotionally invested in the outcome of games anymore. 

That being said, I'm dedicated and loyal to only a few things; my family, my country.  One of those things is the University of Michigan.  I work Saturday afternoons and evenings, so I won't be able to watch the game, but I will listen to it on the radio, and than download a torrent or take it off mgovideo and watch it knowing the outcome.  I don't care who the AD is or who the coach is.  I'm loyal to the maize and blue and the winged helmut.  To walk away when it gets tough and come back when it's easy would be spineless.

I will always watch because it's Michigan, and I will look forward to every game.

I might not watch the entirety of another game this year. I left my living room to go play hockey during the Utah game. I left to go running during the Minnesota game. It's more enjoyable to not watch than to watch. There's no reason to think they're going to build on anything this year and bowl eligibility is a dream. Michigan hockey starts Saturday though. Go blue.

Can't imagine not watching.  Even if it's the most frustrating thing I ever do.

I watch to cheer for guys like Frank Clark and Devin Gardner.

If they lose, I will be sad because I want them to go to the Rose Bowl so that Clark's mom can come to a game in person.

I will not be sad out of some misguided sense of "as a paying customer (don't we hate DB for thinking like that?) I am owed victories by the program"

I recommend my way of thinking to anyone who can escape their entitled histrionics for long enough to try it out.

Feels good man.

Helll yeah I watch, I'd go every week if I could. Three years ago I met a seventeen year old kid that was a Pittsburgh Pirates fan, diehard at that.  At that point in his life time the Pirate's never had a winning record. Michigan has given me enough good memories to keep me coming back. 

Particularly if that is the stretch of time during which one became a fan - like me. 

The question isn't whether this coach's record is better or worse than that coach's record over their entire tenure. The question was whether the results on the field the past seven seasons is going to make you stop being a fan or taking interest in the games.  57-63 was by all measures a worse stretch of results than the past seven years, and the program's trajectory gave no clue whatsoever that Bump would turn things around in '64 and then build the foundatons for '68 and beyond. 

That isn't an argument for or against whether Brady should be retained.  It is simply an argument that the past 7 seasons are no reason to stop being a fan. Michigan fans with memories two and three times as long as as most of the posters on this board have seen far worse, and stayed fans.