Bacon tidbit that is not in Endzone

Submitted by M Gulo Gulo on

 This morning on WLBY, 1290 AM Bacon gave a tidbit about the reason we played msu away two years in a row. "Dave was not the most popular AD in the B1G (shocker), They told him you can ether play twice there or will move one of them to Detroit." I was hoping he would elaborate more but alas he did not. It still doesn't make sense to me why we had to (other than the fact it was a way the B1G could smite DB) (divisonal realignments my ass) but at the end of the day I side with Bacon on his opinion that college game should be played on college campuses not racetracks or NFL stadiums. So happy we get em home this year. Even if the schedule is stupidly loaded every other year now...but thats a topic for another thread.

 

Go Blue!

M go Bru

August 26th, 2015 at 12:33 PM ^

MSU now has OSU and UM both home and away on alternating years just like us. This sucks for both schools. I think MSU did it in order to get 2 home games in a row to help them win a BIG title now. 

Going forward it doesn't make sense. Bad for both schools.

I cannot see how we will ever get it corrected.

By allowing this to happen, Dave Brandon was an idiot.

 

MI Expat NY

August 26th, 2015 at 2:12 PM ^

I'm not sure it really is easy, at least until after the 2017 season.  Swapping home and away sites with MSU would necessitate switching another home/road matchup for each school, and unless you chose a school that is playing MSU at home and Michigan on the road in 2016, the effect would cascade through the league.  This could be done with a number of inter-division schools, but that would necesitate that team traveling to Michigan or MSU two straight years with no added benefit for them (only possible exception could be Indiana who could get two straight visits out of us and split OSU and us into different home seasons, which would probably benefit their bottom line).  The easier solution is to swap a western division team who fits the bill.  This works in 2016 with Illinois being the third team.  In 2017 it doesn't work.  Minnesota is the only west division team both schools play, but Minnesota's home/away split doesn't work.  

I'd guess in 2018 it could be changed again, but would that mean screwing up some home/road splits for west division teams?  I think it probably would but I'm not going to take the time to figure it out.

All told, it seems to me that unless someone, namely Indiana, does us a solid, the current home/road splits are permanent barring any conference realignment in the future.  

Mr Miggle

August 26th, 2015 at 4:01 PM ^

That would unbalance the home/away schedules within both divisions. It would necessitate using just one more team, PSU, Maryland or Indiana. They would get two straight road games at MSU and two straight home games against us. Of course this wouldn't be done in an odd numbered year like 2017, since we'd already be hosting MSU.

MI Expat NY

August 26th, 2015 at 4:26 PM ^

It's a bit confusing.  But I don't see how a team being in the Western division changes anything as long as there is a mutual opponent who can swap home and road games against Michigan and MSU.  

My example from 2016:

Current Schedules

Michigan: Wis. PSU, Illinois, Maryland, IU, @Rut, @MSU, @Iowa, @OSU

MSU: Wis. NW, UM, Rut, OSU, @IU, @Maryland, @Illinois, @PSU

Illinois: Purdue, Minn., MSU, Iowa, @Neb, @Rut, @UM, @Wis., @NW

Schedules with Change:

Michigan: Wis. PSU, MSU, Maryland, IU, @Rut, @Illinois, @Iowa, @OSU

MSU: Wis. NW, Illinois, Rut, OSU, @IU, @Maryland, @UM, @PSU

Illinois: Purdue, Minn., Michigan, Iowa, @Neb, @Rut, @MSU, @Wis., @NW

By changing the location of three games, the Michigan-MSU series gets back in line, while all East Div. teams still have five home games and Illinois still has four home games.  But like I said, there isn't a neat solution in the cross-over matchups to make it work in 2017, which would have to change if you changed the 2016 game.

Mr Miggle

August 26th, 2015 at 1:03 PM ^

if one got moved to Detroit. There was absolutely no reason we had to play at MSU twice in a row. All they needed to do was switch Maryland's home and away schedule.

I don't know how to say this without appearing to defend Brandon, but the Big Ten has a history of screwing us. There was the infamous Rose Bowl vote, that went contrary to the former rule. There was giving Penn State a bye the week before our game their first four years. I'd bet there was plenty more never made public. I doubt this last thing happens to any other school, no matter how unpopular their AD may have been,

jbibiza

August 26th, 2015 at 10:22 AM ^

Hackett has been doing everything right, so I hope he tackles this mess as well. Pretty simple really: we play Sparty two years a row at home (like they did with us before) and we are back in a schedule rotation that makes sense. 

I know this affects other teams' schedules, I am sure it can be worked out.

Remember when people on this board were talking about the DB 'pimp hand'... turned out to be a very 'limp hand'.

funkywolve

August 26th, 2015 at 10:32 AM ^

the UM home game that got moved to Detroit, for one year that would probably be okay for the long run because it would have left MSU and OSU as home games in different years.  Now, you're looking at somewhat lopsided schedules where the odd years have both rivalry games at home and the even years where the rivalry games are on the road.  In the even years, one has to hope for some combination of:  PSU being good, 1 or 2 of the crossover opponents being good or a top notch non-conference opponent coming to AA.

snarling wolverine

August 26th, 2015 at 11:31 AM ^

I think the issue is that MSU needs to have four conference home games, so if they play here twice in a row someone else has to give one up to make up for it, or else they'll have five road games and three home games.

However, this might be solvable when the league goes to nine conference games, so some will be playing five and some four at home.

Mr. Owl

August 26th, 2015 at 3:47 PM ^

But, if Michigan got two home games in a row vs Sparty wouldn't that be disrespectful to them?

I fully expect some "disrespect" comment to come from EL when they lose both road games in a season, like it was intended to put them at a disadvantage.

Why on earth would Brandon choose to go to EL two years in a row instead of a "neutral" Detroit game?

Above and Beyond

August 26th, 2015 at 10:25 AM ^

It goes both ways. The schedule is stupidly loaded every other year but "unstupidly" favorable every other year. I'd prefer to have OSU on the road and MSU at home and vice versa the following year, but the schedule sets up nice when both are in Ann Arbor. There are ups and downs for both formats.

Everyone Murders

August 26th, 2015 at 10:35 AM ^

One year, we'd host OSU, and the next we'd host both MSU and Notre Dame.  That was perfectly balanced in the sense that the home schedule always looked good.  (While neither the Notre Dame nor MSU games had the cachet of The Game, they were both games against secondary rivals and made for a great home slate.)

Now, we're alternating "holy shite, that's a great schedule!" years with ones that may resemble last year's dog food of a schedule.  So I disagree - IMO it's decidedly suboptimal in the long run to have OSU and MSU on the same home/away cycle.

charblue.

August 26th, 2015 at 12:08 PM ^

fucked this up longterm by agreeing to this format, which I agree.

I mean this whole scheduling snafu results after he apparently was willing to move the Ohio State matchup to some undesignated date on the schedule, must as the MSU game is now scheduled with no date set each year. 

And so if this guy, this alleged master negotiator, was supposedly doing missionary work for the conference by proposing a change in the conference's most sacred rvialry so that it might create a divisional championship game between the schools instead, he apparently got soaked in the wash when The Game change went nowhere. Instead, he got his head handed to him by the conference. 

And here's the thing, nobody has ever fully investigated that scheduling turnaround and how it has impacted Michigan's home schedule longterm. I would suggest it's a story worth pursuing. Clearly, it wasn't a case of a simple vote to balance scheduling. Something else was at play. And Bacon's book apparently has hinted at it without the full story becoming public -- yet.