Michigan Vs Notre Dame in 131 days

Submitted by BlueMarrow on

Pardon my questions. I'm sure this came up when it was announced, but I don't remember seeing it in this forum. I did the googly thing and did not find my answer either. I also tried the blog search to no avail.

Can someone inform me as to why Michigan agreed to resume the series AT SB after what has previously transpired?

I'm assuming either the new agreement has provisions where Michigan will get the final, or even final TWO home games this time, if the series goes on hiatus again (Which I hope never happens).

Otherwise, I can understand it if this deal was made to restart the series as an away, only if that was what Michigan needed for some reason....

Their fans want it back just as much as we do.

Thanks in advance. Go Blue! Beat the Irish!

grumbler

April 23rd, 2018 at 6:21 AM ^

Michigan needed the home game in 2019 and ND would only do a home and away series, naturally.  2019-2020 wouldn't work, so it was 2018-2019 or nothing.

Maybe if they resume the series in 2023 or so, Michigan will get the home game first.

OwenGoBlue

April 23rd, 2018 at 7:06 AM ^

If Michigan cancelling the VT series means they want to stick to one major non-conference game per season, then we won’t see ND again until 2028 barring other cancellations.

Not all bad though. As much as I want to play/beat ND I’m also looking forward to road games in Seattle, LA and Austin.

LSAClassOf2000

April 23rd, 2018 at 8:05 AM ^

I still cannot fathom why this was such an emergency or even a priority for Michigan that Notre Dame be reintroduced to the schedule. I would have been fine with this being a filler game when both teams could make it work, which probably wouldn't have been that often (and I would be OK with that), but the department made this a "must do" and I still don't get it. 

I've raised this question before, and I've asked people I know who might know themselves, but I still cannot wrap my mind around this one. 

1VaBlue1

April 23rd, 2018 at 8:15 AM ^

I'm with you on this.  Michigan even cancelled Arkansas to get ND back and, I believe, moved another game to a different week.  All the while, ND had an open date and refused to move one of thier directional games so we could either keep Arkansas or not move the one (I forget which).

In all, regarding this 'negotiation', I was not impressed one bit with Warde.

WolverineHistorian

April 23rd, 2018 at 8:42 AM ^

It became an emergency/priority because Harbaugh really wanted us to play them and 2018 & 2019 ended up being the only chances we would get to play them for at least another decade.  I think Warde Manuel was all about keeping Harbaugh happy.  And that's fine.  I get it.

Unfortunately, in doing so, Notre Dame got the better end of this deal and we had to sacrifice much more in order to play a rival who pulled a dick move on us to end the series in the first place.  I kind of think we would have been better off just playing the home & home with Arkansas. 

Fuck Notre Dame forever. 

yossarians tree

April 24th, 2018 at 11:41 AM ^

Fuck Notre Dame and all that, but Dave Brandon did give them all the ammunition to pull that move. The bigger outrage with the schedule changes was when Molest U got two straight home games against us and we are on this on/on, off/off with them and OSU. That needs to be fucking rectified, especially since all the teams in the B1G East got screwed by being placed into a far tougher division. I hate the fucking unbalanced schedule.

Perkis-Size Me

April 23rd, 2018 at 12:05 PM ^

Couldn't agree more. Did I want ND back on the schedule at some point? Sure. But when both teams had an opening over two years and could make it work. Not at the expense of cancelling the Arkansas series. 

I get it. It's all about money, and you're going to get more TV revenue and viewership playing ND vs. playing Arkansas. But it was a really unique opportunity to go play a team we may have never played, in a region of the country that Michigan really needs to keep making recruiting inroads in. And who knows what Chad Morris could turn that team into over the next year or two. Would've been a great series. 

I honestly wouldn't be as upset about the ND series if it wasn't so blatantly obvious that Michigan bent over backwards to get them back on the schedule, and on their terms. We are one of the few programs in America where we don't need to play ND to "make" our schedule. It'd always be the second-most important game, at best, in any given year. 

4th phase

April 23rd, 2018 at 6:30 PM ^

I would prefer all B1G teams boycott scheduling ND as punishment for not joining the conference. Michigan doesn't need them to get national exposure. They scheduled 1-2 B1G teams per year for the next 10 years and 5 ACC teams per year till 2037. If the B1G boycotts them then all of the sudden they will be forced into the ACC playing 6-7 conference games a year.

Pepto Bismol

April 23rd, 2018 at 9:29 AM ^

Michigan had 7 home games and 4 away games already scheduled for 2018.

Michigan had 6 home games and 5 away games already scheduled for 2019.

If you were going to add a home-and-home with anybody, where should the home game go?

After bamboozling Dave Brandon, there's no way ND was going to sign some idiot contract that gave Michigan an extra home game. We were playing one at ND regardless, so it really doesn't matter if that game is first or second. Maybe they didn't need to rush into it, but Harbaugh is obviously fond of tradition and he wanted to play ND. The Arkansas buyout cost me $0 personally, so I don't give a rat's ass about the cancelling on the Razorbacks.

In fact, there is nothing about the resumption of this series that bothers me one way or the other. We play Notre Dame. I'll probably go. I hope we win.

In reply to by Pepto Bismol

ijohnb

April 23rd, 2018 at 9:44 AM ^

a while I was tiring of the ND game, but now that it is has been gone for a few years I want it back.  Too much tradition between the two schools not to play it.  It is almost always a very exciting game with lots of emotion and great finishes.  I don't care about the resumption of the series at their place.  Home or away, whatever.  Beat the Irish. 

In reply to by ijohnb

Pepto Bismol

April 23rd, 2018 at 10:18 AM ^

Meanwhile, Arkansas finished 2017 with a 4-8 record. S&P+ has them as the 91st best football team in FBS last year. They rank right behind such football powerhouses as Tulane, Syracuse and Florida International. They are breaking in a new coach.

There are people here who actually put it in print and posted that they preferred to stick with Arkansas over Notre Dame. I cannot help those people. I just hope they read this and as that ball is kicked off in prime time on September 1st, they remind themselves, "Boy, I really wish we were playing a nooner on the Deuce in friggin' Fayetteville right now."

In reply to by Pepto Bismol

ijohnb

April 23rd, 2018 at 10:52 AM ^

"The Duece."  Beth Mowins and Andre Ware on the call.  92 degrees with 100% humidity at game time.  A perfect day for a random tilt against an SEC rebuild.

Eng1980

April 23rd, 2018 at 7:13 PM ^

I like playing Notre Dame but we did have a contract with Arkansas and I was looking forward to something different.  I am not a fan of exercising buyout clauses for something as trivial as finding a better opponent.  It feels like a move that is beneath us.

In reply to by Pepto Bismol

Kevin13

April 24th, 2018 at 1:49 PM ^

is a home game no matter when you play it. It generates a ton of money for your program and you should schedule as many as you can. 2018 we already have road games at MSU and OSU, you don't add another road game against an extremely tough opponent.

Also ND doesn't give a damn about how many home games we have, we aren't in the same conference and it's not like it's giving us an advantage over them to have an extra home game.

It was BS scheduling after they flipped us the finger and dropped out of the series. Then we go back to them like some scorned girl friend asking if we can have them back and they say sure, but you have to come to us first, which we do. What is to prevent them from doing the same thing after we play them and saying you know what we aren't coming to AA next year?

Hell with ND and don't play them unless they come to us and ask for a series and are willing to come to Ann Arbor when it works best for us.... Tired of us running to them for games. They even flipped our whole conference the middle finger.

markp

April 23rd, 2018 at 11:31 AM ^

With MSU, WMU, and EMU each hosting their openers on Friday 8/31, and CMU and Michigan both away for game 1, there won't be any Saturday football in the state until week 2 when Michigan hosts WMU and CMU hosts Kansas.

DMack

April 23rd, 2018 at 1:23 PM ^

OK I get it. You're saying that ND punked out of their last game against Michigan, when it would have been in Ann Arbor and since they "punked out", the series should have resumed with us getting that game back in Ann Arbor or it should have at least been a 3 game series with two games in A.A. 

I get it, but of course, we have to look at things in the context of their timing:

First. ND was on a high as they had been cheating and had enjoyed some success so they were "reading their own press clippings". ND and Michigan have always been seen as "Midwest Ivy League" so they compete for the same type of players. ND saw this as an opportunity to take a shit on us, while closing the door on a falling dynasty and their biggest threat. ND got dat azz tapped against Bama that year. (I'm reminded of the story of Icarus) 

Second, we were in the middle of our struggles with winning games and finding the right guy to lead this team, so Michigan's entire football program lacked an identity and no one seemed to know which direction the program was headed. Not Brady Hoke, not Dave Brandon, so we were struggling with management and allowed this ugly frog to stand us up on prom night.

Third, when we did get our guy (Harbaugh) he quickly asserted himself over the entire football program and left little room about who was running the show. It wasn' t as much that we got swindled, but putting them back on the schedule (at any cost) puts us in a position to rub their noses in it because they tried to snub us into mediocrity, even though they really hadn't had enough success against us, to honestly believe they could do that to us to begin. 

Finally, its personal. I can't wait to see the #1 defense in American shut their asses out at home and put the CFB world on notice that Michigan, the winningest program of all time is back!!!  So as much as I want Ohio State, Harb and everybody else who bleeds blue knows that it's only fitting that we serve them punks up first, "As we ride on our enemies".     

Wolfman

April 23rd, 2018 at 6:19 PM ^

saying, "Since when does beating ND signify that MI football is back?" on national t.v. Those vested personally in this rivalry never want to leave a doubt as to which is the top program. Now as the not the brightest ND fan said to me in the bar, "This makes us look like chicken shits."  To which I replied, "But, you are chicken shits and we'll have the opportunity to prove that on the field in the not-too-distant future." Bang, here we go. 

MHWolverine

April 24th, 2018 at 12:32 PM ^

I just want to stomp those golden domes into the turf for some sweet revenge! I would love it if we blow them off the field! I honestly think they will, it all comes together for team 139!!

Go Blue!!!

Kevin13

April 24th, 2018 at 1:36 PM ^

I'm guessing you want the series back and a fair amount of people probably do, but myself and many others say to hell with ND.  I can do without the series and wish we wouldn't have dropped Arkansas to play them.

The series is back because we went back to them asking if we could play them again and got bent over, again by them, and have to start the series at ND with a very tough schedule as it already is.