me

August 27th, 2010 at 11:14 AM ^

I welcome the opportunity to play more interesting out of conference games and then come back and play ND again.  As he said  "One of the things we may decide to do is take a hiatus for a couple years and give both teams a chance to play somebody else on a home and home basis."  I think that is in fact a brilliant plan.  Play ND like 3 out of every 5 years or so.

RightKindaGuy

August 27th, 2010 at 3:28 PM ^

as a ND fan, i see nothing wrong with taking a break from you guys for a few years. hopefully after five or so years the series will be back on! and if not, well that is fine too. 

MGauxBleu

August 27th, 2010 at 11:15 AM ^

Dear Troll,

First, all the AD talk around the game is part of the larger conference brass posturing. Second, the ND series has been more prevelant as of late than it has been historically. Third, this break has been coming for a while. The "gentleman's agreement" was not playing every year until the end of time.

the_white_tiger

August 27th, 2010 at 11:16 AM ^

Actually, this might not be such a bad idea, especially with the new 9th conference game. It would murder any remote chance of us playing other marquee non-conference opponents if we keep ND on.

victors2000

August 27th, 2010 at 11:17 AM ^

with all this conference restructuring. I enjoy having ND on the schedule, but if we get another Marquee matchup in their place, that will be fine with me. It might even be more exciting.

bluebyyou

August 27th, 2010 at 11:20 AM ^

The only negative is that we might lose Irish who has taught me a few things about ND tradition I did not know, like why ND plays Navy.  Neat story if you have not heard it.

section44

August 27th, 2010 at 11:26 AM ^

dont know that there were also 2 year breaks in 83 and 84, 95 and 96, and 00 and 01.

 

UM played UCLA three times, Washington three times, Washington State, Boston College, Colorado, Miami of Florida, and Virginia during those other breaks.

This has happened before for good reason and with good results.

tdeshetler

August 27th, 2010 at 11:34 AM ^

Why would ND have any interest in joining the B10 when they already play all of the teams?  If they have no intrest in joining the B10, I say cut them off all together.

Don

August 27th, 2010 at 11:34 AM ^

then I'm 100% in favor of a break in the ND rivalry on a periodic basis. Personally, I wish it were a 3 years on, 2 years off schedule.

If all they do is insert a D1AA tomato can or even a MAC team in place of ND, then that would suck.

maizenbluenc

August 27th, 2010 at 12:08 PM ^

I'd actually like to see you guys continue to schedule Oklahoma as a premier NC matchup like we do ND. I agree with the posters who say a break now and then for other major D1A matchups (like Bama at Jerry World),  but I think Michigan should keep ND in the rotation, and Nebraska should likewise keep Oklahoma.

bacon1431

August 27th, 2010 at 3:36 PM ^

Well the Big 12 really messed up by not making protected cross division rivalries. Oklahoma and Nebraska aren't guaranteed a matchup revery year like they would do with OSU-UM. So not only were Nebraska and Oklahoma not playing for the conference championship nearly every year, they weren't playing every year. As much as I hate a OSU-UM split, at least they'd guarantee an unual matchup.

canzior

August 27th, 2010 at 11:44 AM ^

I like the rivalry but its getting old and uninteresting.  I'd love more variety, more of the bigger schools, SEC and Pac-10 specifically.

And this might be a way to get them into the Big 10 if they decide to continue expanding.

phork

August 27th, 2010 at 12:01 PM ^

This wasn't meant as a troll, but it appears that anyone that comes here who is not a UM fan, but likes to read and talk about football is a troll.

I don't really care if they took 2 year breaks in the 80s, in fact I don't care that they took 2 longer breaks from 1909 to 1942 and from there to 1978.  I enjoy this matchup year in and year out because a lot of my family and friends are UM fans.  I am sorry that you feel that this story was irrelevant enough to negbang me into the minus hundreds.  I guess thats what make UM fans just under OSU fans as far as arrogance is concerned.

Have a great day gentlemen!

WolverineHistorian

August 27th, 2010 at 12:14 PM ^

You wrote two sentences.  And the first one involved you asking about the "clown" that we hired.  You're not a troll because you're not a UM fan.  You're a troll because you asked a jackass type question.

And a ND fan accusing another school's fans of having arrogance?  Oh, the irony.  That's like a 500 pound man accusing a 200 pound man of being fat. 

maizenbluenc

August 27th, 2010 at 12:18 PM ^

Looking over your previous posts, several are troll-like or snarky at the least.

Irish is a good example of a "respected" (if that's possible) enemy poster. Sure Irish gets neg banged on occasion, but Irish's posts do include insight and links from a ND point of view that add to the value of the conversation. Not a Blue Fan is another example (and Not a Blue Fan is from the evil empire, so maybe not as accepted as Irish).

If you truly want to be an accepted member from the outside, I suggest following their examples. Also, it takes a little layign low on the smack talk so we get to know you, before you can jab in a good natured way here and there. (You'll still get negged, but we'll know you're talking smack, not trolling.)

dieseljr32

August 27th, 2010 at 12:46 PM ^

If you aren't a troll then why did you state, "what kind of clown did you guys hire?" 

It seems to me you were trying to stir the pot and create some commotion with the fans here.  If you read the other posts, you will notice MGoBlog is pro-Dave Brandon and pro-RR.  It's good to have your own opinion but the way you interjected it was wrong. 

Steve in PA

August 27th, 2010 at 1:20 PM ^

F**k Notre Dame!

The B10 schedule is the only thing that has kept them on the map and made them not Navy since Lou left there.  They want to be independent, then let them and when they are playing the same bowl games that are usually reserved for teams that are barely D1-A they will realize that they should have taken the chance to join the B10 when it was offered in the 90's.

 

F**k Notre Dame!

HailGoBlue86

August 27th, 2010 at 1:25 PM ^

I really like this move, it will alow us to schedule some big time non-conference opponents for a couple seasons then after the break is over we can go back to beating Notre Dame some more. Scheduling big time opponents and winning those games will do so much for recruiting.

cutter

August 27th, 2010 at 1:44 PM ^

If this hiatus does happen, Notre Dame probably won't be returning back to Michgan's schedule until 2017.  The reason for that is ND recently signed an agreement for four games with Texas, including two on the first September Saturday in the years 2015/16 (the games schedule against Michigan were on the second Saturday of September).  That means UM will probably be looking for new home-and-home opponents for 2013 through 2016. 

I actually suspect David Brandon already has the ND replacements lined up, but nothing will be formally announced until the mid-September announcement by the Big Ten concerning the divisional alignments, schedule,  etc.

Notre Dame still faces something of a scheduling problem for the latter two months of the season.  As more conferences adopt nine-game conference schedules and conference championship games, the pool  of available or likely late season oppoents is likely to start shrinking.  Will team from the new PAC 12 (which already has nine-confernce games) want to play ND in October or November outside traditional rival  USC?  If BYU stays in the Mountain West and that confernce goes to twelve teams, a conference playoff,  etc,, what happens to possible MWC teams playing ND?  By 2015, the Big Ten is planning on going to nine-conference games--that's one less open date for B10 teams to play ND.  Although Notre Dame rarely plays SEC or ACC teams, if they go to a nine-game conference schedule, the options get less (although Miami-FL is one current exception to that rule).  The only port in the storm Notre Dame has among BCS confernces is the Big East. 

I'm happy to see this happen--Notre Dame has been on Michigan's schedule on an almost annual basis since 1978.  I'd like to see more variety in the major non-conference opponents that UM plays and I applaude David Brandon for taking that step.

The game agasint Alabama in Cowboys Stadium is rumored for 1 September 2012.  Michigan is scheduled to play Notre Dame on 22 September.  That could well be the last UM-ND regular season game for at least five years. 

Bosch

August 27th, 2010 at 2:41 PM ^

As discussed here.

Notice the comment of one particulary intuitive member (ahem, myself):

I know that Michigan and Notre Dame are scheduled to play every year until 2031 but it has been confirmed that nothing was actually signed.  I have to wonder if, with the Big Ten changes, that 20 year agreement might get altered.

HaiL2ThEVict0r5

August 28th, 2010 at 1:46 AM ^

In my opinion I do not think any Big Ten team should play Notre Dame until they join a conference. They play a week schedule year in and year out, then they get rewarded for it in a bowl game. I thing they should be excluded from BCS bowls until they play some real teams other than Michigan and USC. They have been a sorry excuse of a football team since 1990 and will continue to be until they play in a conference. The BIg Ten alone has 4 teams better than ND will play all year long and that goes for a majority of the BCS conferences. Also with USC being in the trouble they are going to be in they wont be a major team for ND to play year in and year out. They play WMU, Navy, Tulsa, Utah and Army in consecutive weeks during the season. Thats almost 2 whole non conferences schedules for any team out there on there regular schedule. Thats what they play every year and its a sad sight. Why should any team get rewarded with a bowl game with that weak schedule. I personally hope we end our series with ND as soon as possible. 

phork

August 28th, 2010 at 12:15 PM ^

You excluded Pittsburgh and Texas for some reason.  Not to mention this Utah team that beat you guys 2 years ago.  Sorry we don't schedule the directional Michigan schools either.  We are trying to get Delaware St on our schedule though, once we lose you guys.

Don't fool yourself, your schedule is nothing to write home about.

HaiL2ThEVict0r5

August 29th, 2010 at 1:51 AM ^

Like I said consecutive weeks they play them game, so to would not include Pitt and they do not start playing Texas until 2015. So you go ahead and keep reach for things that make no valid point. Also they 2008 Utah team that beat us by by 2 went on to a BSC bowl where they run Alabama out of the stadium. This years Utah team will be lucky to finish in the top 35 and if the do its because they play in a week conference. So any other brain busters for me to solve. O and by the way hows your grandma's basement working out for ya...