Michigan-Notre Dame to resume in 2018!
This is excellent news in my opinion. And so soon! As noted below, this will require a schedule adjustment for Michigan -- seemingly Arkansas will be cut -- in 2018. The tweet:
Source: #Michigan and #NotreDame to announce their football rivalry series will resume play in 2018. Announcement expected tomorrow.
— Jay Sarkar (@WLNSJaySarkar) July 7, 2016
That's exactly why Brandon was a joke - more concerned with making a buck than actually fielding a winning team.
The stadium was fucking half empty in 2014 and he planned on keeping Hoke - he stated as such.
game against ND is not in Ann Arbor Im going to be pissed...AND cant they just move the Ark game to another year? why have to pay 2 Million?
Agree with a lot of people on here. Expected them to be back and was looking forward to it, but not necessarily so soon. I like the break and scheduling variety. Ward needs to look at our future schedule and figure out a way to fit Notre Dame in off and on with a priority on having them visit the Big House on years when our home schedule lacks (either due to OSU/MSU away, years with only 4 B1G home games, a lack of a headline home non conference opponent, or all 3) or else I will consider this to be somewhat of a failure in negotiating the return of this rivalry. There is no need to rush it and be hasty with our solid P5 agreements that are lined up, take a financial hit by cancelling, or screw up our yearly home ticket packages any further to overly accommodate the Fig Things. Take your time and do it right and on terms that make sense for us.
I also have a feeling this becomes Ward's answer to the night game complaints...which great. Now we get to only ever play Notre Dame at night at the Big House....
To everyone saying younger people don't realize how great this rivalry is because we don'tremember the 90's when both teams were top 10, remember Michigan was playing a non conference schedule full of Power programs like Florida State, Colorado, etc in addition to ND at that time. ND and tin cans every year is NOT appealing every single year. The same people who don't care to see ND back yearly also only ever got to see Michigan play Oregon and Alabama at a neutral site over the past 20 years pretty much besides the Irish, and going back to that is not very appealing. Consider that.
"The same people who don't care to see ND back yearly also only ever got to see Michigan play Oregon and Alabama at a neutral site over the past 20 years pretty much besides the Irish. Consider that."
I want the Irish back, but if shit went down the way Brandon claims it did, I think they would be happy to give a little to get us back on the schedule, like our choice of where the first game will be played. Like I said, the loser never got hurt that much in the polls before because the games were normally very tight, exciting games. The only thing I didn't like about the scheduling then is what I'd like about it now, being played early.
At that time, I thought the winner wasn't getting as much out of it in weeks 1 through 3 as they would have around week 7 with both teams undefeated. I thought IN or a cellar dweller wouldn't mind moving our conference game up as a way of achieving this.
As to the above, I don't understand what you mean by only ever seeing them on a neutral site. With Bama, of course, this was true because it was always in the bowl game until Brandon did Dallas. However, I can't recall MI ever playing ORE or ND at any place other than MI Stadium, Autzen and ND stadiums, respectively.
[double post]
Sorry if that was confusing. What I was comparing was:
(a) people who miss the glory days of playing ND every year in the 80s and 90s who say younger people don't 'get' how magical that was, and
(b) 'younger' people who enjoy the variety.
The difference I was pointing out was that in the 80s and 90s, Michigan was able to schedule Notre Dame along with other huge programs all in the same year. That was not the case from the late 90's /early 2000's-now. So, 'younger' people may be hesitant to get stuck with the Irish too often because in our time history tells us that we won't get to venture elsewhere. The only examples of exciting matchups in the last 20-ish years I recall we got besides the Irish were the Oregon series and the neutral Alabama game.
My real point is, we all like playing ND, but please tread carefully and not let them dominate or control our scheduling.
Notre Dame likes to play us for the national exposure, but they also make it a huge priority to get to the the west coast, south, and east coast every year. IMO, so should we as often as possible with other home/away agreements and not too much ND.
That does clarify it a great deal. Had really never thought about ia few of the things you mentioned. . Agree, we have to take full advantage of our scheduling options. I know we have to pay for a lot of overhead with our early ooc scheduling, but we can raise the caliber level there and actually should in certain situations where it's obvious our conference home schedule is not going to give the fans anything even close to an equitable trade-off.
No, we can't let them control our scheduling. And for keeping our butts pretty much in the midwest we have been pretty damn good recruiting on a national scale. Yes, the population of TX has increased greatly in the past 15 years but we stood little to gain by playing Bama there when, even if Brady were the coach he thought he was, he would have been four years too early. Especially true now that Houston and Tech have joined the others. , it's much wiser to do something with the Florida or CA schools. That was clear on NSD last season and with the domination of FL in last year's bowl game, that state will stay hot for us.
Thank you for taking the time to clear that up. I think far too many people overlook the importance of scheduling. Our ooc scheduling with Carr scared the hell out of me, for as good as he was in Nov and the bowl games, and I'm simply being honest, he liked to sleep in.
Jim is going to be smart enough to know which games are a good deal for us and which are not. I am hoping the A.D. is just wise enough to listen to him. Again, thanks
USC and Navy are locks for NDs schedule every year. Just permanently write that down. If they have to play ACC 5 games every season that's already 7 games locked up every year before the schedule is even looked at There's a bit, but not a lot, of wiggle room for ND football.
Agreed on the every other year sentiment. I'd hate to lose the Arkansas series for ND.
Notre Dame almost ALWAYS has an alternate game in California when USC visits South Bend. It's been Stanford for awhile, but if it wasn't them, they'd almost definitely fill them in with Cal, UCLA, etc. I think they're going to Texas this year too, right? Their scheduling is done very, very precisely to maintain their coast to coast presence. They fit us in when it benefits them, which keeps us exclusively in the B1G footprint. I just hope we can keep scheduling ucla, texas, oklahoma, washington, etc frequently in addition to the Irish.
Given his history, I think the exact opposite of everything Brandon said was true -the guy was a liar many times over.
I remember someone posting a picture of him at a fan day on the field. The fan asked, Are you Dave Brandon, and he said no.
to dicontent in the space of two tweets. I hate cancelling Arkansas, as it seems like a great way to a real live reenactment of 1970s football. Additionally, we are either going to have five home games one year or play three major rivals on the road the next. This seems like something that should have waited until 2022 or something.
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Also, don't cancel the Arkansas series please, Manuel.
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All for getting ND back on the schedule but why do they need to drop the Razorbacks? Both ND and Michigan have open dates the second Saturday in Sept. of 2018 and 2019.
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MSU owes us a home game. The rotation got screwed up in 2014 and is now complicating our scheduling in non-conference. I was looking forward to going to Arkansas. They are only an hour and a half from Branson. I was planning a cool trip package. Also, as Bo would say, the hell with Notre Dame.
Hopefully Brian Kelly will be gone by then. I hate seeing that guy on any sideline.
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but every fucking year?!
every other year would be perfect.
It would allow all players to experince at least one Michigan/ND match-up (some both including home).
It would also allow other marquee teams to be scheduled as well.
and fuck our conference schedule, we didn't even play ND last year & we've still played them 5 out of the last 6 years. We haven't played Wisconsin since 2010!!!
They're the ones the fucked up our scheduling when they realigned the conferences.
Also, I don't understand why we have to play all of the teams in the east every fucking year (looking at you Rutgers and Maryland). Mix it up a bit. Maybe get rid of the divisions entirely and just put the two teams with the best records in the title game.
Is there a reason this cannot hop into the open slot(s) in 2018 and 2019 and not bump Arkansas? It would leave us with a tough non-conference, but that'd be awesome!
Link: 2018 Schedule, 2019 Schedule
I'm on the fence here. On one side, I love the ND series - the games are always exciting, are a national draw, and are significant throughout CFB. On the other side, I don't want to see the Arkansas series, or any other home/away series with a P5 team, get cancelled for them. I would be happy to give them a home game in 2018 to avoid playing them, MSU, and OSU all on the road in the same year. But I don't necessarily want them on the schedule every year, either. The series was on and off throughout the 80's, and it can be again. I think that keeps it fresh and drives up interest.
I'll wait to see what the actual plan is before I fall one way, or the other. But I hope Manual gets something good out of this. If not, regaining fan trust will be a steep, uphill climb for him. Even if Harbaugh is behind him pushing all the way...
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I'm feeling pretty good about this. The decisions that have come out of the Michigan AD's office the last 18 months have been pretty stellar so I'm not too worried.
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given the choice between paying $2M to play notre dame, or arkansas? yeah, i'll take notre dame by far.
truly.
FWIW we only have 11 games scheduled for 2017. I dont know why everyone is assuming we will cut the Arkansas series. For one, its the first game of the year in 2018. Traditionally the ND game was always the 2nd or 3rd game of the season for us. Lets see how it plays out before people start getting their panties in a bunch about the schedule. I for one am glad the games back on. There arent enough quality opponents in the Big Ten right now so adding another quality game to the schedule just makes for more excitement and national respect.
and Ward do. They lived through the great years of that rivalry. They lived through the period where that game was a national focus in every aspect of the media. If both teams look strong going into the season, the ND game will get massive coverage and the whole "resumption of one of football's oldest rivalries" will be non-stop. Far more coverage than MIchigan playing a 2nd-3rd tier SEC team.
Since only beating tOSU gives me more pleasure than pounding the crap out of ND, I'm pleased to see the series resume (2 on - 2 off works fine for me).
Will the 2018 game be at home? If it is, at least that will fix the odd/even years having such opposing quality in the home schedules.
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It's absolutely true: Michigan fans can't be happy unless they're unhappy.
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No fan of NL since they're the ones who chose to end series for the greater good of NL. Return of HARBAUGH,M moar attractive and the fact M's tv ratings have blown up...now they want to resume series.
They need to play and beat good teams
May be an exciting game
To play and watch but not helpful to michigan's playoff chances
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and we should be peaking in '17 '18 and '19 ! Yahoo