Michigan All Time Most Common Opponents / Scheduling Question
Definitely a rabbit hole here, but the talk about how infrequently Michigan has played Purdue recently got me looking at all time series between Michigan and other teams and eventually to the list of the most common opponents Michigan has played.
Ohio State - 117
Michigan State - 114
Minnesota - 104
Illinois - 96
Northwestern - 76
Indiana - 71
Wisconsin - 70
Iowa - 63
Purdue - 59
Unsurprisingly, Michigan's top 9 all time opponents are the "old" Big Ten. Despite MSU not joining the Big Ten until 1950, Michigan and MSU have played every year since 1907, except for '43 and '44 during WWII.
A couple of random thoughts that were interesting, to me at least.
- I feel like MSU should definitely be a protected rival in the new scheduling system. I would not throw out this long of a streak on pettiness.
- Anyone have any idea how scheduling in the B1G used to work? Despite Michigan and Purdue both joining the Big Ten in 1896, they only played twice between 1900 and 1944.
- Between 1900 and 1958, Michigan played Indiana 25 times. 23 of those were in Ann Arbor.
- The above two bullets are probably just described by Michigan being a big dog and not doing anything they didn't want to do. Maybe Seth / Craig / Dooley or some of the other historians have more insight.
Anyway, just some stuff I found interesting.
October 25th, 2022 at 12:27 PM ^
Thanks for putting this together. The second and third bullets are some interesting facts that I didn't know about.
I definitely agree about keeping MSU as a protected rivalry. I want UM to play and beat them as many times as possible in the coming years. They had their stretch during our dark days, so now it's our turn to put things back to normal.
October 25th, 2022 at 12:45 PM ^
I would really like to learn more about this. I mean I don't want to do the research, but instead have Seth tell me of a podcast.
October 25th, 2022 at 1:02 PM ^
Should have asked during the bye week -- Seth was jumping into the threads and posting article-length replies the whole time!
October 25th, 2022 at 12:49 PM ^
Sad that we rarely play our Gopher bros now.
October 25th, 2022 at 1:03 PM ^
Agreed, I hate this model where we play the same team from the opposite division 6 years in a row. If we’re going to do that, make it MN more times than not. I guess it’s a moot point since we’ll be switching things up once USC and UCLA come over
November 28th, 2022 at 7:15 PM ^
We have quite the back and forth in Hockey still.
October 25th, 2022 at 12:52 PM ^
i always thought that the protected rivalries for Michigan should be AN ohio state, MSU and Minnesota and this is one major reason why. historically, we play them a lot.
October 25th, 2022 at 1:12 PM ^
Minnesota has their own rivalries out west. Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin and Nebraska are perfect for each other. None of those teams are competitive outside that group and probably never will be. Best of both worlds for them. Competitive rivals with achievable goals.
I miss Minnesota and the Jug, but sometimes you just have to move on.
October 25th, 2022 at 4:40 PM ^
We should always keep East Dakota on the schedule, how will they ever see the jug again unless we show it to them on the sidelines?
October 25th, 2022 at 12:56 PM ^
- Anyone have any idea how scheduling in the B1G used to work? Despite Michigan and Purdue both joining the Big Ten in 1896, they only played twice between 1900 and 1944.
- Between 1900 and 1958, Michigan played Indiana 25 times. 23 of those were in Ann Arbor.
Not an official historian, but prior to the coming of MSU and TV revenues to the Conference, game Scheduling was left to the individual schools. In practice, this meant that the "big dogs" with the biggest stadiums (Michigan, Minny, Illinois, OSU, and for a while, Chicago) and the ability to fill them, were able to dictate to the little guys whom, when, and where they played. This was because gate revenues $$$ were paramount!
In particular, Michigan (Yost, Crisler, and Ralph Aigler, University Rep to the Conference) also weaponized Scheduling as a punishment to schools they thought were cheaters. Purdue and Iowa were frequent offenders, and so were either forced to play in Ann Arbor for many years straight, or kept off the schedule entirely.
Prior to 1959, Indiana had a very small stadium (25K) so they had to play in Ann Arbor a lot.
The Michigan triumvirate also wanted "little brother" to be the season opener for us and played in mid-September, and generally in Ann Arbor, which led to much consternation in EL.
Re future scheduling, I agree we should have three Protecteds (Minny, MSU, and OSU), drop Divisions, drop the CCG, and play 10 Conference games.
October 25th, 2022 at 1:28 PM ^
Yep - this is the answer.
Prior to the 1960 or so, even conference schools had a good deal of latitude in setting their conference schedules. This was ESPECIALLY so in the SEC. If schools didn’t like each other and didn’t want to play, or if one school was willing to host a school but didn’t want to visit, they simply didn’t do it! One notable example is Bobby Dodd flat out refusing to play games in Mississippi (although he would gladly host them in Atlanta if they wanted to come!) back when GT was still in the SEC.
Conference schedules eventually became standardized, but even into the late 1980s you’d see stuff like Hawaii in the WAC only playing 2 conference road games (and 6 at home) because they simply refused to travel to some of the more out-of-the-way WAC locales.
October 25th, 2022 at 5:05 PM ^
"This was ESPECIALLY so in the SEC. If schools didn’t like each other and didn’t want to play, or if one school was willing to host a school but didn’t want to visit, they simply didn’t do it!"
According to wikipedia, the so-called "Iron Bowl" between Alabama and Auburn wasn't played from 1907 to 1948 because of disputes "due to issues related to player per diems and officiating."
I wonder if "player per diems" is just another term for under the table payments...
October 25th, 2022 at 2:18 PM ^
Having divisions prevents us from playing anybody in our own division twice. I'm not a fan of the divisions, but isn't that worth keeping them?
October 25th, 2022 at 1:01 PM ^
While we're throwing out names on the list, let me round it out by adding the rest of the teams that Michigan has played >15 times:
- Notre Dame - 44
- Case - 27
- Chicago - 26
- Penn State - 25
- Pennsylvania - 21
- Cornell - 18
- Navy - 18
- Albion - 17
Fun facts:
- When Michigan last played Case in 1923 (before it merged with neighboring college Western Reserve) their mascot was the Scientists
- Of the teams Michigan has played >15 times, Michigan has a winning record against all except Cornell (6 wins, 12 losses).
- The teams that Michigan has played the most with a 100% wining record is EMU (10) [EDIT: record vs. Case 26-0-1]
- Michigan first played Penn State in 1993; the next most recent of these series began in 1925 (Navy) and 1900 (Iowa, Indiana)
October 25th, 2022 at 1:08 PM ^
Anybody up for a 7-year contract with Cornell? They can't be that much worse than Hawai'i...
October 25th, 2022 at 1:11 PM ^
Princeton, just for the helmets
October 25th, 2022 at 2:23 PM ^
On that note, here's a list of current P5 schools we have a losing record against. Let's fill our non-conference schedule with these teams instead of UConn so we grab a winning record again.
0-1:
Miss State
Arizona State
Kansas State
Oklahoma
Tennessee
Texas
1-2:
UNC
FSU
Georgia (just keep winning and we'll see this year)
1-3:
Utah (ugh...)
South Carolina (double ugh)
2-3:
Alabama (we'll get more shots if we keep making the playoff)
4-6:
USC (we're coming for them come 2024)
So fill up the schedule with Miss State, ASU, KSU, UNC, FSU, etc. and then keep making the playoffs and we'll probably see the others soon enough.
October 25th, 2022 at 3:12 PM ^
We have home-and-homes scheduled with Texas and Oklahoma over the next several years.
October 25th, 2022 at 4:24 PM ^
In 2019, we went from having a losing record against Army to 3-3, then lost to Alabama in the bowl game to bring back down the number of teams we have a losing record to.
October 25th, 2022 at 4:45 PM ^
I think we should just crush the Albion Brittons for old times sake. Bama does it with Austin Peay
October 25th, 2022 at 7:36 PM ^
Michigan has not lost to Case - there is one tie but no losses in those 27 games.
October 25th, 2022 at 9:08 PM ^
Whoops! Put in ties as 1/2 wins in the ol' spreadsheet. I'll be more precise in my wording.
October 25th, 2022 at 1:15 PM ^
That Michigan's most-played opponents are the "old" Big 10 is no surprise, but it immediately makes one wonder - who's next on the list after Purdue?
...
It won't surprise anyone to know that next (#10) is Notre Dame, whom Michigan has faced 44 times. #12 is Penn State, with 26 match-ups (all since Penn State joined the B11GTen), tied with UChicago (an original conference member). I was not, however, expecting that #11 would be Case Institute of Technology. Michigan has faced Case 27 times (holding a 26-0-1 record). Evidently the two played every single year between 1897 and 1924, and then never again thereafter.
The only other teams Michigan has faced 20+ times are Penn and Navy. Interestingly, we have played future conference mate UCLA more times (13 games against) than current conference mates Maryland and Nebraska (11 times each), and USC more times (10) than Rutgers (8). On this basis, possible future conference mates Washington (13) and Stanford (11) also seem like natural fits.
October 25th, 2022 at 1:29 PM ^
I would rather have USC as a protected rivalry than MSU. Big Ten will be a national conference and winning a "state championship" has the same middling value as beating other middling teams in the conference.
October 25th, 2022 at 1:35 PM ^
I don't think we'll need to worry about that, as I'm guessing the Conference will continue its' policy of favoring Winners vs Winners match-ups in scheduling. They want to see us playing USC and UCLA a lot, no rivalry protection needed.
October 25th, 2022 at 1:44 PM ^
I'd be interested in seeing Michigan's top modern non-conference opponents. ND and the MAC neighbors (EMU, CMU, WMU) would be at or near the top, of course, but I'm curious about who'd come after that.
Edit: Added "modern" in reaction to WolverBean's comment above that we played Case a bunch of times before the wheel was invented. Also surprised to see the MAC triad not near the top.
October 25th, 2022 at 3:53 PM ^
Since you asked...
I have defined the Modern Era as being since 1983. This encompasses 40 years of playing seasons, and includes every season since Jim Harbaugh enrolled at Michigan.
By my count Michigan has played 131 non-conference games during this span. Teams we have played more than twice during that span are:
Notre Dame - 28
Western Michigan - 6
Washington - 6
Eastern Michigan - 5
Miami (not that Miami) - 5
UCLA - 4
Boston College - 4
Colorado - 4
Hawaii - 4
Central Michigan - 3
Washington State - 3
UConn - 3
Houston - 3
Maryland (as a non-con) - 3
As you guessed, Western and Eastern are near the top (and obviously Notre Dame has been most-played by far). But apparently Miami is tied for second-most popular MAC opponent. The Pac 10/12 and MAC are the most-played conferences overall. Our only non-conference SEC match-ups during this span were JerryWorld games against Alabama (2012) and Florida (2017) and a one-off against Vandy in 2006.