Michigan a possible candidate for Chick Fil-A Kickoff

I live in Atlanta, and would for sure go to this game. Would love to see someone like Texas, but the Chick-fil-a kickoff tries to pull a local team.  Michigan-UGA, Michigan-Clemson, Michigan-Miami and Michigan-Florida are all GREAT matchups!

I kinda like it. Actually, what I'd really like to see, especially with the bcs going away and the bowls outside of the playoff mattering even less than they did before, push 3 or 4 of them to the beginning of the season and play some of these marquee matchups as a CFB "season kickoff" series. Atlanta, Indianapolis, Glendale; maybe even some some bigger markets like NY, LA, Chicago and Dallas. Tough part is, true neutral site matchups usually mean empty seats.

 

 

"Chick-Fil-A also spoke with Ohio State, which Stokan says seems tied to the home-and-home model."

 

Sigh...

Just because I am a loser here are the marquee teams and who they have on their schedules in non conference 2015 forward - p.s. my view of marquee is not 12-1, just "top 20ish brand colleges"

ACC
Clemson: Georgia, South Carolina FSU: Florida forever Miami: Nebraska, and a 1 off with Notre Dame, open in 2017-18 (MSU in 2020-2021)

Big 12
Oklahoma: Tenn, OSU, LSU, Nebraska (old school rematch) Texas: ND for 4 years effectively replacing UM, USC

Pac 12
Oregon: MSU, Texas A&M, OSU (no major in 2017 though, and 2016 is only Virginia) Stanford: ND forever, and 2 separate home and homes with Northwestern, Virginia USC: ND forever, Texas for 2 years

SEC
Texas A&M: Oregon in 2018-19, nobody in 2015-2017 so that 2015 date is open Tennessee: Oklahoma, Nebraska, schedule opens in 2018 - wouldn't mind seeing home and home with UM esp if Tenn gets back to old form LSU: 2015 schedule a joke, very Wisconsin-ish. Ironically Wisconsin in 16, 2017 a joke again, than Oklahoma back to back Georgia: Ga Tech forever but no one else Auburn: This is the other team that plays no one - they don't even have any non conf scheduled in 2016 per the site I am looking at Bama: West VA (once), Wiscy (once), MSU home and home
So all in all, Texas A&M, LSU and Georgia if they care to play a 2nd out of conference team of any weight look logical. Auburn too. What I like is we are getting back to some nice home and home series across conferences which are very lacking in the BCS era - I counted about 4 premier games like that this year in the schedule and by that I am including Nebraska-UCLA type games.

Just give me a Roses Kick Off Classic in Pasadena and let us play LSU there.

That would be fun.

Some of you guys are such pussies.  How dare we face good teams.

Texas A&M has no major opponents on its published future schedules with the exception of Oregon in 2018/19.  See http://www.fbschedules.com/ncaa/sec/texas-am-aggies.php

While ATM hasn't been a major power in awhile, their move to the SEC plus the publicity (good and bad) surrounding Manziel has raised their profile.  I don't know how well Aggie fans would travel to Atlanta, but they do fit the criteria of having one team in the Chick-Fil-A Bowl from the ACC or SEC.

I would even consider them a possibility for a home-and-home series.  Michigan needs a major non-conference opponent for 2017 (Cincinnati is the only non-conference game scheduled to date) and there could be a return date for 2022 (Arkansas and Virginia Tech have home and homes with Michigan from 2018 thru 2021).

Texas A&M's home stadium (Kyle Field) is going to be expanded and remodelled with completion due in 2014.  The field's capacity will be 102,500 for the 2015 season, so it's certainly a big enough venue for a major non-conference game.  Plus it's in a major reecruiting area, so that can't hurt when it comes to getting UM down in Texas.  See http://kylefield.com/

The largest hurdle I see will be the willingness of the parties to pull this off (this assumes Texas A&M is even available).  The SEC looks like it will eventually go to a nine-game conference schedule, so you have to factor in how hard that will affect ATM's thinking regarding their non-conference schedule.  If they keep the series with Oregon, then that would be a positive sign that they're willing to play at least one high end non-conference opponent per year.

In 2017, Michigan has five conference road games (at Purdue, at Indiana, at Penn State, at Maryland, at Wisconsin) and four home B1G games (Michgian State, Rutgers,  Minnesota, Ohio State).  See http://www.mgoblue.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/081809aab.html.  Cincinnati would be the fifth home game, leaving two scheduling spots open.

Given the pattern of home non-conference games (five in even numbered seasons, four in odd numbered years) and the timing of the Arkansas and Virginia Tech games (playing these teams in Ann Arbor in even numbered years), it looks like UM might have alternating years of eight and six home games starting in 2018.  If UM were to keep that setup in place, then a home-and-home series with ATM has the Wolverines on the road in 2017 and at home in 2022 (provided that is the future date).

If there is no home-and-home series, but a one time meeting at the Chick-Fil-A Bowl in 2017 (the earliest open date), then UM would probably have seven home games (5 B1G plus two non-conference), four road games in conference play and the neutral site matchup to open the season.

Finally, of course, there's the question about the formation of Division 4 and how that might effect scheduing.  For example, if a decision is made that D4 team can only play one another, then Michigan (and every other D4 program) would effectively be looking at only playing six home games per year.    The three non-conference games would all be home-and-home setups and they would have to be coordinated with the nine-game conference schedule to ensure there are six home games annually.

If D4 teams are allowed to play non-D4 programs, then the non-conference series could stay what it now pretty much will be with just one home-and-home matchup per season.  The other possibility would be two home-and-home non-conference games with D4 opponents and one non-D4 opponent to round out the schedule.  

 

 

 

 

 

I would hope that an institution such as Michigan would have the integrity to turn down something sponsored by CFA.

as a matchup with one of the ACC or SEC schools. Curiously, Georgia never travels in the non-conference. It has made one western trip in like 30 years, that was to play Arizona State a few years back. 

The SEC schools may claim college football dominance but they never leave their region to play anyone. And Alabama is the only school that I recall in recent memory outside Vanderbilt to play the Big Ten up north. But these matchups are few and far between except in bowl games, which again, are always played in warm weather areas, mostly in the ACC and SEC's backyard. 

Back in the day, it wasn't uncommon for Michigan to play three major non-conference games a year. Then it got dropped to two over the past 20 years, and now you have one major and possibly a second smaller major game, in preseason. Of course, last year was an anomally for Michigan with a return to that oldtime schedule. And because of the results, you understand why schools are mostly reluctant to play these big non-conference games, especially playing in such a physical conference. 

Ohio, for years now, has tried to play as many home games as possible and book one major non-conference opponent for national attention and ranking purposes, usually the second or third week of the season. 

In the SEC, the league frontloads both conference and non-conference major matchups so the damage in rankings do to early losses is minimized. But Georgia catches no break this year in playing three major programs in the first month. The only good news on that front, is that the Bulldogs don't really have to travel in playing that schedule.