Michigan Stadium to host HS football for the first time ever
Michigan Stadium will host 7 HS football games from August 25-27.
It's being called Battle of the Big House.
Warning: Freep link.
Games-
- Brighton vs Detroit East English Village
- Walled Lake Western vs Farmington
- Kalamazoo Central vs St. Joseph
- Clarkston vs Lapeer
- Novi Detroit Catholic Central vs Sterling Heights Stevenson
- East Kentwood vs Farmington Hills Harrison
- Pioneer vs Muskegon
Pioneer-Muskegon will be a good one
Yup. I'd like to see K Central v St Joe too
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No you don't, trust me. KC is HORRIBLE and so is their coach. St Joe has their number and really isn't that fun to watch, not a lot of explosive athletes in St. Joe other than CMH. KC really is horrible, like flip them with what Benton Harbor used to be.
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why is SJ in that other than maybe for recruiting? Those are some big time programs.
If by "good" you mean Pioneer will get curb stomped.
I'm afraid that game is going to be really ugly.
how dare them!!!! joking of course. sounds like a great idea and a lot of fun for everyone involved
Really cool idea, kids will remember the experience for life. Plus, it doesn't cost Michigan much and it leads to a lot of goodwill among local highschools and communities. This would have been impossible under Brandon since he would have tried to squeeze as much money as possible to rent the Big House.
And TomVH says more games are likely to come.
When EL was "awarded" the MHSAA basketball finals and semis, it made it a lot easier for Sparty to recruit instate and more difficult for Michigan. When it used to be fair, Sparty got the semis and Michigan got the finals. Great players got to play in both venues.
Michigan needs to host a tournament like that for basketball at Crisler. Since it is their place, they could cherry-pick schools with top recruits.I don't know if it would help, but it can't hurt.
The MLive article I just read on the topic said the 14 schools are coming together to foot the $60k usage fee being charged by UM to use The Big House. $10 per ticket to get in should cover that cost and then some, as I have to imagine that the 7 games combined will bring in way more than 6000 people.
I don't follow Michigan HS Football as much anymore, but if things are anything like they were 10 or so years ago CC - Stevenson will be a good one.
The MHSAA should also rotate the Boys Basketball Finals between MSU facility and Crisler. Izzo gets an unfair recruiting advantage with all the kids playing in the semi and finals.
The boys bball championships used to be at Crisler. That changed when Breslin was built - it was newer and far more shiny than Crisler at the time. Back in the 80's Cazzi's House was on the low end of Big Ten facilities and in bad need of renovation. That came well after the Championship games were moved to Breslin, though.
Then The Palace hosted for four years, Breslin hosted its first semi's and finals weekend in 1994. Breslin hosted some of the semi-final games but not the finals for the first couple years it was open.
The MHSAA home office was on Trowbridge Rd about two blocks away, it moved the finals to EL (mostly) for convenience and its central location. The MHSAA offices are still only a couple miles further North in EL.
In the NCAA football video games, the championship game is in the Big House so there's that
as anyone but the Breslin is the perfect location for the MHSAA finals being centrally located in the state and can handle those rare games that everyone wants to see. I'd much rather have them in EL than AA.
The only thing I wish would happen is a separate floor without the Spartan logos for the MHSAA.
The MHSAA conducts none of their state Championships in Ann Arbor, which makes one wonder about that question.
You aren't going to get something you don't pursue.
Lansing/MSU hosts a bunch of MHSAA Championships beyond basketball (baseball, softball, girls soccer). Does seem like a concerted effort on their part. The Lansing chamber of commerce would support it: it fills hotel rooms.
Harbaugh! Bring in Paramus and IMG for a game and then we're talking.
There's a Paramus Catholic High School
And there's a Paramus High School
Same northern New Jersey town. but when it comes to high school football, there's a very big difference.
But Paramus High School produced Stacey Dash, so there's that...
And some other notable alumni of Paramus High School include:
- Mark Fields, President and CEO of the Ford Motor Company
- Dean Friedman of the 1977 one-hit wonder "Ariel"
- Matt Ghaffari, 1996 Olympic silver-medalist in Greco-Roman wrestling
- Jamie Gold, winner of the 2006 World Series of Poker Main Event
- John Robertson, Villanova quarterback who won the 2014 Walter Payton Award
- Steven H. Temares, CEO of Bed Bath & Beyond
- Elaine Zayak, the 1982 World figure skating champion
Great for recruiting instate talent!
This is a pretty cool idea and these actually are some pretty good matchups. I can only imagine how those kids will feel getting to play one of their games on Michigan Stadium's field - they'll remember that one for a long time, win or lose, I would think. As someone mentioned, this seems like it will build some great goodwill with in-state programs, which would be an added bonus.
I wonder if they'll open these to the general public - I actually haven't seen a high school game since I was in high school.
They almost have to be open to the public, as every game the schools play otherwise is. I'd be stunned if they weren't...
And yeah, fantastic idea!
I'd assume they'll definitely be open to the general public ... Probably be like any HS game, if you buy a ticket you can go in. I wonder if they'll sell them as a package or individually tho. I could see the host HS's trying to profit off an all weekend package
says that tickets to get in will be $10, so it will be open to the general public.
Just a small correction, Farmington Hills isn't a high school. There's North Farmington, Farmington and Harrison in the Farmington/Farmington Hills area. WLW is playing Farmington.
No recruits at these programs. Why not bring Cass or King in?
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Not everything is about recruiting this year's team
plays for St. Joseph.
Aww burn.
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We do have some for one.
Two, the Big Day Prep Classic at Wayne State already features those schools. They already signed the agreement to play there.
Maybe next year.
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Muskegon has a junior OL we are recruiting. He had a post on here when he visited.
Antwan Reed, 6-7 286 lb OT
I'm not saying those teams wouldn't bring in a lot of fans, but they wouldn't have as big of a following as many, many other schools. We don't want to have this event flop when the seats are extremely empty.
This opinion is based on observing the finals at Ford Field. Typically, the schools that are the sole representative of their town / community bring the most fans. Smaller schools can have a big following because of the tight knit community.
nobody is becoming a millionaire off of this event. Reads like Clarkston HS and Lapeer HS are hosting the event, so the monetary risk is on them, not U-M.
But U-M and Ann Arbor should like this --- the out-of-region schools means some folk spending incremental $ on campus/in town.
The games won't be on ESPN either: nobody is going to say "look at all those empty seats, that reflects poorly on <<fill in the blank>>."
Seems like a good event for U-M to get behind: over time, it will likely draw the bigger names away from Wayne State's opening week event.
Attendance doesn't mean shit, especially if it's for championship games. Do you honestly think Ford Field is going to cancel their contract with the MHSAA because "not enough people showed up"?
I guess I'm just wondering how many people you need to come out to the Big House for it not to look empty for HS football? It's going to look scarce any way you slice it. I say let the kids play and don't worry about how many people are in attendance.
I love this idea. What a great experience for the teams. Hoping to take my son to a game or two.
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Being the last one to doubt the Freep or someone with 8 trillion MGoPoints, I have a coworker who says he played a HS football game at M Stadium. From IL - Chicago area - and says it's why he's a MICHIGAN fan
Not sure why he'd lie about that. Would have been late-80s/90 time
Perhaps his was an 'exhibition game' or all-star or some recruiting thing. I will have to ask him.
I know I saw two State HS titles won by TC at Silverdome. Lol.
I feel like this happened before, too. But... I dunno. If it isn't in the "Non-Michigan Events at Michigan Stadium" SuperGuide... Who are we to doubt?
Why don't you read the article. They say it's the first time ever. Not me.
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I did read the article and is why I replied. Given the Freep's history and lack of integrity, I would not be surprised if they were wrong
Nice hedging language by the author as well ..."what are believed to be the first high school football games to be played at Michigan Stadium."
[lazy journalism]
And as I speculated, perhaps the factual distinction that should be made is if whether no HS games have ever been played at M Stadium vs ...this being the first 'event' with so many games ...first regular season games pitting MI high schools against one another.
There is absolutely no reason for my friend to lie about having played a HS game there. Clearly not in front of 100,000 or even a few thousand but he said he played a game there.
I wasn't replying to you but rather to Bando's smartass remark.
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Reached out to my buddy and he clarified that his team scrimmaged another squad and practiced there and the team/families got to tour the stadium and players use the weights, etc ...so not a real game.
The first time Ann Arbor Pioneer and Ann Arbor Huron played against each other they played in Michigan Stadium. It was in 1970 and Pioneer won 25-0. I was there and it was spectacular.
Excellent work, there.
Figured something like that had been the case..
But I do remember it being front page Ann Arbor News. As I recall Huron High had only been around for a year or two. That might have been their inaugaral football season, if not game.
seems like a cool idea.
Chris Ash just announced High Point Solutions Stadium will host 8 midget league football games.
Looking forward to Friday Night Tykes: Striping the Birthplace.