PSU, Syracuse to Do Battle at Meadowlands
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=5343808
UofM should be doing this. How about Army at the Meadowlands? Or SMU/TCU/Rice/Houston at JerryWorld? Or Boise State at the Rose Bowl? It would be interesting, make a great road trip, help with recruiting and give UofM alumni who cannot make it back to A2 very often a chance to see the team live.
Technically, it's a home-away series, but the opponent agrees to the neutral site for PR reasons and because the venue is much larger (since it is their home game, they get to keep the gate which is a huge incentive). It helps both teams and we get them back at the Big House on a return game.
"Hey, Mr. Brandon, wait up! I have an idea I would like to run by you."
I'm not sure pounding a team like SMU at JerryWorld would do much for recruiting. If Michigan is really concerned about branching into a place like Texas with regularity (meaning both top 5-star talent and several recruits a class) then the best way to achieve that via a game is to do a home-and-home with Texas a few years out and hope we manage to hit them in the mouth in Austin when local high schoolers will be sure to be watching.
Realistically that'd be tough, but if we somehow beat Texas at Texas that means we'd probably also beat Notre Dame that year which makes for one hell of a nice out of conference resume.
The primary goal would be to play a game in Texas, where the game will be on TV locally and tens of thousands of Texas football fans would have a chance to actually see UofM play live. Maybe you pick TCU instead of SMU, but you do not want to pick a perceived "lesser" tier team and then lose to them. TCU is a risk because they have been playing at such a high level lately, but once UofM gets back to its traditional form I could certainly see playing them instead of SMU.
Also, I doubt you will never get TX to give you a neutral site game. That would be like TX coming to play us and asking us to play at Ford Field. It would never happen. You need to pick a team who will get a PR boost from playing UofM and which probably has a relatively small stadium (compared to the neutral site). That is how I came up with my list of SMU/TCU/Rice/Houston, though you could throw Baylor on that list and possibly even TTU and A&M.
I know the article was about a neutral site game, but my comment was not. My point was that neutral site games against lesser Texas schools (even D1 schools) will probably not do much. I'm not sure the average high-profile highschool football recruit cares if Michigan romps SMU or even TCU (despite how well they've been playing lately). I was advocating for a home-and-home with Texas, meaning at the Big House and at Texas's actual stadium.
Doing a home and away with TX would be fine and, you are right, would be more effective than a neutral site at JerryWorld against SMU. It is not as easy to pull off, though, and even if you do, you have ND and TX as two of your non-conference games for two years. That could make for one heck of a tough schedule for the two-year period. You would have OSU, MSU plus at least two of PSU, WI, IA, NE plus TX and ND. And then you have to hope that the none of the other B10 teams you are going to play (e.g., IL) are having a particularly strong year. We could easily end up playing 5-6 top 25 teams each year for two years, and several of those easily could be top 5-10 teams.
Moved.
I've often thought that Michigan or other big schools should be more willing to play home and homes with smaller schools, but with some stipulations.
A: We don't HAVE to come there, so we want half of the gate, to offset some of the lost revenue from playing at home.
B: If your stadium can't seat at least 40K, we find a neutral site nearby your school.
C: You will make room for the MMB, a contingent of students, and anyone else we choose to bring along.
I am assuming we will be playing FBS not FCS teams, so we will not have the same leverage we would if we were playing someone like Delaware State or UMass.
Also, don't forget someone has to pay to rent the neutral site. For simplicity, I was assuming that the other team keeps the full gate net of the rental cost of the neutral site. However, if the economics are strong enough, UofM probably can insist on a percentage of the gate. Of course, part of the calculation will be how much larger the neutral site stadium is than the opponent's home stadium and whether you can sell it out. I also expect the opponent will want to make some sort of premium to induce them to move the game from their true home venue in the first place.
Note: FWIW, your idea might work with, say, a game against Army at the Meadowlands.