2014 Big Ten Schedule Released, Reveals Michigan's Worst Home Slate Ever
Quite possibly M's second-best home opponent in 2014. No, not Wake Forest.
The Big Ten released the 2014 football conference schedule this afternoon, providing our first glance at how the conference slate looks when Rutgers and Maryland are added to the mix. The .pdf with every team's conference schedule can be found here, or you can just click the picture below to embiggen:
To make things a little simpler, here's a (chart?) chart of each team's crossover games:
| Crossover Games | |
|---|---|
| Indiana | at Iowa, Purdue |
| Maryland | Iowa, at Wisconsin |
| Michigan | Minnesota, at Northwestern |
| Michigan State | Nebraska, at Purdue |
| Ohio State | Illinois, at Minnesota |
| Penn State | Northwestern, at Illinois |
| Rutgers | at Nebraska, Wisconsin |
| Illinois | at Ohio State, Penn State |
| Iowa | Indiana, at Maryland |
| Minnesota | at Michigan, Ohio State |
| Nebraska | at Michigan State, Rutgers |
| Northwestern | at Penn State, Michigan |
| Purdue | Michigan State, at Indiana |
| Wisconsin | Maryland, at Rutgers |
Fans of the Little Brown Jug will be happy to see Minnesota as one of Michigan's crossovers; an ever-improving Northwestern squad should be a tough test. Ohio State, meanwhile, gets to feast on the conference's two worst programs—unless you want to make the case for Iowa, which... go right ahead, actually—and woe be upon the Gophers for drawing the Big Two.
MICHIGAN'S SCHEDULE
Home games in ALL CAPS:
| Date | Opponent |
|---|---|
| Aug. 30 | APPALACHIAN STATE |
| Sept. 6 | at Notre Dame |
| Sept. 13 | MIAMI (OH) |
| Sept. 20 | UTAH |
| Sept. 27 | MINNESOTA |
| Oct. 4 | at Rutgers |
| Oct. 11 | PENN STATE |
| Oct. 18 | BYE |
| Oct. 25 | at Michigan State |
| Nov. 1 | INDIANA |
| Nov. 8 | at Northwestern |
| Nov. 15 | BYE |
| Nov. 22 | MARYLAND |
| Nov. 29 | at Ohio State |
Yeah, the home schedule suuuuuuucks. This is in part because...
THINGS OF NOTE
- The Michigan State series has flipped, so the Wolverines now travel to East Lansing in both 2013 and 2014. Michigan playing in East Lansing in back-to-back years is unprecedented, and the last time they faced both MSU and OSU on the road was in 1966.
- With the Notre Dame game in South Bend in 2014, that leaves Penn State—a team with 65 scholarship players—as the marquee home game. Utah isn't very good anymore, so the next-best game at the Big House is probably... Maryland? Ugh.
- In related news, it's very possible that Michigan will face their four toughest opponents on the road. That is less than ideal, though at least it sets up for 2015 to have a favorable schedule—especially sans Notre Dame—just as Hoke's juggernaut-laden recruiting classes really begin to take hold.
- It really can't be stressed enough how much Minnesota got screwed. Also getting unusually difficult crossover games: Illinois (at OSU, PSU) and Northwestern (at PSU, Michigan). The Illini will probably be bad no matter what, but that's an especially tough break for the Wildcats, which have a legitimate chance to contend in the West.
The biggest takeaways for me are the home schedule, which is the worst in the history of ever, and the unfortunate year-to-year imbalance created by playing MSU on the road for the second straight year. These are related, obviously—since the late '60s, Michigan fans could look forward to a home game against either MSU or OSU every year. Now there's a serious vested interest in Penn State's program somehow remaining strong through the sanctions, if only for the hopes of one interesting home game in even-numbered years.
All in all, things could be far worse for Michigan—the crossover games are reasonable, at least, and odd-numbered years are now set up for some great home slates and generous schedules overall. I can't help but look at that home schedule and feel deeply disappointed, however. Tougher non-conference scheduling can't kick in soon enough.
As far as Michigan's home slate being awful in 2014, I have a potential solution. Brandon could cancel the Notre Dame game (which is away) and schedule a home-and-home with either LSU or Texas A&M. They have no big names on their 2014 OOC schedules, and we desperately need a good home game to reward our season ticket holders. Sounds like a win-win to me. We could then return to either of them in 2017, which would work out with everyone's schedules. Other less exciting teams we might be able to bring in are Texas Tech, Mississippi State, and Vanderbilt.
Notes: We have never played LSU(!) and we've only played A&M three times--the last was a loss in the 1995 Alamo Bowl. The LSU game would also have the Les Miles storyline.
Pay them whatever buyout there is and schedule a good team at home.
BUT, they will call us chicken...and I really don't give a shit.
I previously have advocated Brandon pulling the same move on them before this year's game because of the bush league stunt they pulled last year. Pay them whatever penalty there is for cancelling the game. I'm sure a marquee home game would make up for it.
itll be nice to see maryland in the big house #unpopularopinions
Not really. It's already happened 3 times (the last being 1990). They've never come within 20 points of us.
How are you going to tell me that I won't enjoy watching my two favorite teams play against each other?
and did you not see that i said that i have an unpopular opinion or were you already going to wikipedia to see the last time maryland played michigan
I'm not telling you that you can't enjoy the game (or, in your parlence, "How can you tell me that I will enjoy the game!?!?!?!), nor do I care what you do or don't like. I can tell you that this isn't a new happening and, having been at the last game against Maryland, can also tell you that no one cares about watching Maryland (except for maybe you, the families of the players and a portion of the state of Maryland). #DontHaveToWikipediaIfYouWereOldEnoughToBeThereInPerson #ThickenYeSkin #NeedATissue?
How can you say with certainty who will and will not like to see is play Maryland? First of all, there are a lot of student at Michigan from the Maryland/DC area, so I bet they'll like it. And I think it will be cool to see a new conference team coming to our stadium. Will it be as exciting as OSU or MSU? No, but it's about as exciting as half the other Big Ten teams, with the novelty of being new.
How do you know it wasn't a big list? Just because the most vocal people on MGoBlog didn't like it? But even so, you can be less than thrilled we added a particular team to the league but still be excited for the game against them.
You just seem to be speaking for a lot of people you shouldn't be speaking for.
Bottom line, dude, it's Maryland. I like Maryland. I enjoy busting crabs with mallets;,catching an O's game, watching the ponies at Laurel Park. I get it. They just aren't a football program that's generally of interest. No more interesting than IU or Illinois. It's a team; nothing more. Tickets will resale for less than face value. The market will tell you that I'm speaking for a large majority.
Take one look at Wisconsin's schedule. You will accomplish the rare feat of simultaneously laughing and crying.
They miss Michigan, michigan state, ohio state, and Penn State, and get Maryland and Rutgers from the East. The only reasonably tough team is Nebraska. Yeesh, that's just silly.
I suggest you wait to see what Gary Andersen can do before condemming them. I think Andersen is a superior coach to Bielema.
We'll see, but they don't have the makings for success. New coaching staff, subpar recruiting, and so on. Yes, they've won three straight Big Ten titles, but last year hardly counts (they were 7-5 (4-4) going into the Big Ten title game) and although the two years previous totally count, they had big time production out of guys who came out of the woodwork, and that's just not sustainable.
Wisconsin has shown that they aren't willing to pay for a coach, and those programs very rarely have success for too long. I think most of their seasons will be a lot like last year for them, minus the lucking into the conference title game.
They've been the third most successful program in the conference since Alvarez took over, far outpacing Penn State (and they have more conference championships since Alvarez won his first in 1993 than Michigan).
Now, maybe the Anderson hire leads to a downward trend, but it's silly to pretend that Wisconsin's success is some kind of short term anomoly. It's been 20 years.
They haven't been elite, but they've been consistently good. And they're likely going to remain that way given their schedule and division, and a good coaching hire.
The real question is how Penn State continues to be considered this elite program. Counting the championships vacated after the Sandusky thing, they're tied with Northwestern for conference titles since joining the Big 10, and they're going to be at best the fourth best team in the East for the next decade with the scholarship limits.
Why is this? I thought they weighted the crossover i.e. the Michigans Ohio States and Penn states would play the Nebraskas, Wisconsins and (gulp) Iowa. How did Wisconsin avoid that?
Texas is to blame for this shitty realignment.
Fuck Texas.
I still can't believe that dope signed us up to play App. St. again.
Your rare lose-lose-ohmygoddon'tfuckinglose situations.
was truly an EPIC fail. It is amazing how Brandon can have his pulse right on so many things and then be so misguided on others. The lead up to the 2014 season will consist of a continous looped replay of the blocked field goal to end the game. I mean if we lose, we suck, if we win by anything close to a narrow margin, we suck. If we win big, not only are we the dickhead who beat up on the little guy, but we still suck for losing to them in the first place. Any way it is sliced we suck.
Brandon signed on for that highly anticipated rematch.
But I'm glad we're playing them. Screw public perception: I want to kick their asses. Badly.
iously? If you think that winning that game has any relevance with regard to 2007 you are truly mistaken.
I also want to kick their asses badly, if for no other reason that not doing so would be a disaster. I would not have scheduled the rematch. In fact the fact that it is a "rematch" highlights why it was such a bad idea to schedule them the first time.
"I still can't believe that dope signed us up to play App. St. again."
I dunno, at his point it may be the biggest home game of the year.
Penn State weekend is fall break ...
Wow, the only one in the old days was called Thanksgiving.
get a break for everything now. You got fall, Thanksgiving, Christmas, mid-winter, spring. Just waiting on the "late winter, not quite spring" break.
they get orange slices during the breaks.
And trophies.
Are we sure the 2015 schedule sets up nicely? They didn't release that one, so are they planning on not just flipping the home/aways from the 2014? I can honestly say I wouldn't be surprised to see us then have to play Neb and Wisc on the road in 2015, because, hey why wouldn't that happen to us?
I REALLY want Michigan to come here to Madison at some point while I'm in grad school! Is it too much to ask that they hit a 5 year window for me?
At least Stefon Diggs will play one game in the Big House.
How is this worth my $1,600? (Two seats + PSD)
Pretty much makes the odd years a $3,200 season, since evens is not worth a damn.
My thoughts exactly. What am I paying for. Time to look at the stub hub vs. season tix analysis again.
I realized years ago that it was better to pay 200 or even 300 a game for the couple good games a year than it was to buy season tickets... how many other people will come to the same conclusion in the coming years?
jdon
Just laughably bad.
And, of course, ticket prices and seat license fees will go up again, too. In order to see this.
I'm a townie, so I can at least look forward to less congestion on game days.
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