sum1valiant

March 29th, 2018 at 5:06 PM ^

Coupled with the regular season starting: Wisconsin, PSU, MSU back-to-back-to-back, this makes total sense. With the previous schedule, we had Washington, VA Tech, and then Wisc/PSU/MSU in five of the first six weeks. That's a recipe to drop a game that maybe we wouldn't have otherwise.

BornInA2

March 29th, 2018 at 5:33 PM ^

Not if we win. I get sick of games against thin-walled tin cans leading to trouncings by the Ohio States of the world.

The season was more fun when the goal was to win the Big 10. The non-con games weren't seen as must-win then, they were seen as opportunited to put "steel in our spine".

TrueBlue2003

March 29th, 2018 at 6:21 PM ^

the product of college football this past season but instead they rewarded Alabama and their cake non-conference schedule (and Washington the year before) and pretty much told all teams wanting to go to the playoff, they should just schedule non-conference bady bag games.

It's a damn shame.

That's why I like the NCAA BBall committee rewarding teams for playing tough schedules.  They basically say, we don't even care if you lose tough games, we only care how many of them you win.

The CFP committee uses the "eye test" and just sends Alabama because they had the most talent even though they definitely didn't earn it on the field. 

aiglick

March 29th, 2018 at 6:31 PM ^

The way to improve the product is to make football a bit more like basketball and expand the playoffs slightly. Eight teams would be more than enough, would not add too many more games to the schedule and would IMO better determine a champion.

I admit a big difference between basketball and football is injuries potentially impacting the games but if you make it five power conference champions, one Group of Five representative and two at large representatives everybody wins. You get one chance to get in by winning your conference and another by scheduling tough OOC games.

Esterhaus

March 29th, 2018 at 6:32 PM ^

Ticket prices must increase to cover.

Also, teldar has 33 different vice presidents each earning over 200 thousand dollars a year. Now, I have spent the last two months analyzing what all these guys do, and I still can't figure it out.

We're gonna have to something about this, teldar.

/s Gordon

mdoc

March 29th, 2018 at 4:12 PM ^

I live 2 hours from Blacksburg and my buddy is a huge Tech football fan. We were planning on going to that game when M came this way. Tech is good but not THAT good. Would've been nice little SOS bump, for whatever that's worth. Bummer.

Swazi

March 29th, 2018 at 4:12 PM ^

Eh, that year we open at Washington, and also play at MSU and at OSU along with Wisconsin and Penn State.



Losing VT isn’t gonna hurt SoS at all

SAMgO

March 29th, 2018 at 4:13 PM ^

I'd like to say I'm even torn on this but I'm really not - happy we're going with the easier schedule. You just cannot easily overcome a gauntlet in the modern CFB Playoff landscape, which could unfortunately kill this upcoming season. Having UW and VT in the same noncon is a bad move.

J.

March 30th, 2018 at 2:19 AM ^

I've been to a Michigan @ Washington game.  Michigan fans had maybe 10% of the seats, max.  I finally found a ticket about 3 minutes before kickoff -- nobody had any extras.  (This wa pre-StubHub, but still).

In early September, the weather will be good and the stadium will be full of UW fans.  Now, as UW fans, they'll be basically uneducated about any sporting event east of the Cascades, and they'll dramatically overvalue UW -- even more so than most fanbases do -- but they'll show up.

As an aside -- Husky Stadium is a beautiful venue.  However, bring your jacket.  Michigan played at UW Labor Day weekend, 2001.   For years, I had a 2001 MLB All-Star Game jacket that I bought during a game the night before the Michigan game.  I hadn't brought a jacket, because it never occurred to me that I might need it... Friday night, I was frantically searching the Safeco Field shops looking for a jacket without a Mariners logo.  It was probably 45 degrees and there was a strong wind coming off of the Puget Sound.  And then... well, I won't get into the Michigan game.  Suffice it to say that the highlight of the weekend was getting to see Cal Ripken Jr. in his last series in Seattle.  (The most memorable part of the weekend was the teen Japanese girls shrieking "I-chi-roooooo!!!!!" constantly, at the top of their lungs, every time the Mariners were on defense -- and Ichiro stoically ignoring them.  It wasn't exactly a highlight, but it was definitely memorable... :)

Indy Pete - Go Blue

March 29th, 2018 at 4:15 PM ^

Our schedule strength is not going to be the thing keeping us out of the playoff for the foreseeable future given the state of OSU, PSU, and the B1G in general. Win the big ones, and we will be fine.

jman077

March 29th, 2018 at 4:24 PM ^

I think this is fine. We’re playing one P5 non-conference game a year, and every one is against a team that will be either a fun road trip or bring a decent crowd to Ann Arbor. The most significant factor in making the playoffs is winning the Big Ten. Do that without losing 2 games and you’re in the playoffs.

MaizeNBlueInDC

March 29th, 2018 at 4:27 PM ^

My inlaws are all Tech alumni (ironically my wife is UVa) so I was looking forward to going to Blackburg to see us play and introduce them to the Big House.  Bummed that excuse is now gone!

wildbackdunesman

March 29th, 2018 at 4:30 PM ^

I am assuming that we booked Washington and VaTech well in advance of catching wind that we'd move to a 9 game conference reschedule. Otherwise what a waste of money to pay off VaTech to cancel the game.

MH20

March 29th, 2018 at 4:30 PM ^

So that leaves two non-conference games yet to be scheduled for 2021. With only four B1G home games those will clearly be home contests. My guess is one will be from the MAC and the other from the AAC/C-USA/Sun Belt.

Human Torpedo

March 29th, 2018 at 4:51 PM ^

Not that VT is terrible, but Washington is a playoff-caliber program now under Peterson and we need that as a reliable big game on resume, especially if we win