Your feelings on neutral site games?
Michigan unfortunately plays another neutral site game at Jerryworld in 2017 against Florida to open the season. My guess is McElwain will be on the hot seat by then.
With all this talk of Texas' out of touch, tone-deaf AD aka Dave Brandon 2.0 trying to play a game in Mexico City and Dubai(!), what are your thoughts on neutral site games?
ND has whored themselves out to various NFL venues across the country part of their "Shamrock Series" in which they wear horrendous looking uniformz.
Lest we forget about Tennessee and Virginia Tech playing in the Redneck Bowl in 2016 at Bristol Motor Speedway.
what are you thoughts on neutral site games? i think they're a load of shit and should be banned forever. this includes neutral site playoff games sans championship game.
DISCUSS
I'm in favor of annual neutral site games such as Florida - Georgia and Texas - Oklahoma.
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
No neutral sites!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Keep the home games as nothing is better that UM in AA!!!!!!!!!!!!
As long as we schedule a good team/big name like we have(bama/UF). I'd rather play Arkansas for a home and home than a team like NC State/Ole Miss in the Super Dome or something. I also think playing in Jerry World is great exposure for the team win or lose because it will be the ESPN/ABC primetime game of the night.
I'd like to see us play in Los Angeles in the new stadium they are building out there against some West Coast team in the future i.e. UCLA, USC or Oregon.
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
Just as important, though, is ensuring it's played in a location that has enough appeal to make you want to travel there. While also being somewhere that's, like, not the same as before (Fail Dave Brandon).
My initial thought when the game was announced was that if they're trying to schedule Florida, have it in Nashville. Fun/unique city, same distance from Ann Arbor as it is Gainesville, reasonable drive, and not Jerry World...again.
Best stadium to play in.
We have one of the best stadiums in the country and the weather is perfect at the beginning of the year. In addition, it takes a guaranteed home game away from the season ticket holder and revenue from the local economy. Speaking of revenue, the university doesn't even profit much from the game. The only real beneifits are national exposure and recruiting.
the neutral site game is for the CFB Playoffs or the NC game, I'm all against them.
So a couple of points I keep seeing popping up in replies.
- You'd rather a home and home. Frankly I think we all know that it isn't going to happen, atleast with top tier teams. Florida and Alabama are not coming north because they know Winter is Coming.
- Its a cash grab. Sure it is. Guess what? So is ALL of college football
You guys generally have 7 home games a year. Why not take one and break out of your regional mindset? Bring your product elsewhere. Usually those games are primetime, usually get good attendance. Plus you are also using the brand to recruit outside of your natural foot print.
Comparing rosters and where kids originate between ND and MI, I see a lot more of MI, OH, PA on your roster than I do on NDs. A little more exposure never hurt anyone.
Obviously I am what some would call a traditionalist.
Michigan also supports 27 varsity sports with 2 revenue generating teams. Michigan runs an AD in the black. The AD also reimburses the colleges for aid-in-kind. How many other institutions of higher learning in the nation can say they do all of that?
So that extra home game is a big deal.
But I would rather have FLA in JerryWorld rather than App State in A2.
Err.. I meant outside the BIG footprint. OSU and MSU and PSU really don't count.
ND is in California atleast once a year, east coast, midwest and ACC footprint. You? MI MI MI MI MI MI MI, OSU, MINN, IOWA, MSU, ILL.
I don't care what you guys do, but if you can't see a benefit of playing outside the footprint then you probably don't see the value in ND with the ACC over the BIG.
I don't really strong feelings about it one way or the other.
The idea of the JerryWorld game was good. The results not so much. If it would only be done once every 5-10 years, against a noteworthy opponent at a noteworthy venue, it could have some benefits. Someone mentioned San Diego earlier, for me, that's a great benefit as I love that area!
Hahahaha! He said Redneck Bowl.
Classic!
With that said, I still hope we beat the hell out of Florida and move up to 3-0 against the Gators. It will be the first time we play them OUTSIDE of Florida and it would be nice to not have the ratio be 70/30 of their fans over ours in the stands.
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
This game is good for Michigan all the way around.
National exposure; every bar in America will have this game on at least one TV.
Scheduling your nonconference games are dificult as teams are scheduling out what seems like 10 years in advance. Most of the time a home and home is not possible. The hole that came about with ND taking us off their schedule didn't help. With the way strength of schedule plays out now you have to schedule elite teams. You have to find a decent opponent and although a home and home would be nice, it just doesn't work. So these neutral sites reep the benefits.
So we all hate(d):
Army Navy
Texas Oklahoma
Georgia Florida
Auburn Alabama used to play at Legion Field for the longest time
Kansas Missouri
Grambling Southern
Texas A&M Arkansas
Colorado Colorado State
are reportedly meeting in Ireland to start the 2016 season. In this particular case, I say boo, because I won't get an excuse to go to Boston in the fall for a very long time now.
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
As a rule, I pretty much prefer home-and-home series for Michigan when it comes to playing major opponents. That said, the only way UM was going to play Alabama was at a neutral site since those are the only types of venues the Tide plays their major non-conference opponents each year. This year, for example, they open the season in Dallas against Wisconsin, but their other non-conference opponents are Middle Tennessee, Louisiana-Monroe and Charleston Southern (yep, that is not a joke) the week before the season ending game at Auburn.
Florida also doesn't usually play any major non-conference opponents outside of their annual season ending game with Florida State. You'll see Miami creep on the schedule every once in awhile, but most of UF's OOC games are against some pretty bleh teams (2015, for example, has New Mexico State, East Carolina and in the week before FSU, the Gators play Florida Atlantic). So opening the 2017 season with Florida--even in Dallas--is definitely something outside the norm for the Gators.
We'll see what Jim Hackett opts to do going forward. The Big Ten will go to nine conference game starting in 2016, so that means there are only three OOC games per year to schedule from that season going forward. 2017 is set with Florida, Cincinnati and Air Force. But what happens after that?
Brandon did a couple of things with the non-conference schedule that I think are pretty positive. The first is that he tried to get a fairly major opponent for the opening season game on the slate. Michigan opens with Arkansas in 2018 and 2019. It also looks like UM will have season openers at Washington (2020), at UCLA (2023), Texas (2024) and at Texas (2027).
The other thing he did that was interesting is to schedule two Power 5 teams in a couple of home-and-home games in 2020 and 2021, i.e., Virginia Tech and Washington (Ball State is currently on the 2020 schedule as well, FWIW). It will be interesting to see if Hackett (with Harbaugh's approval) goes the same route. He may not be able to do it in 2018/9 because of the short time frame, but will he add a second Power 5 team on the schedules from 2023 onward?
Another thing I thought was pretty good was to steer Michigan away from playing MAC teams every year (with the exception of Ball State, which might go away now that Brady Hoke is no longer the HC). I think he took a step up by putting Mountain West and American Athletic teams on the schedule instead (Air Force, Cincinnati, SMU, Hawaii, Central Florida, UNLV). Again, it will be interesting to see what Jim Hackett plans to do going forward (especially since there are open non-conference scheduling slots in 2018 and 2019).
While this isn't exactly related to the issue, I'm coming around to the thought that perhaps the Big Ten should go to a ten-game conference schedule (perhaps as early as 2020). The conference did something similar in the early 1980s, but at that time there were only ten members and eleven regular season games, so the B1G had a nine-game conference schedule and only two non-conference games.
A ten game conference schedule means five home/five away for conference games with only two non-conference games. I realize the loss of a non-conference game would hurt the ticket revenue, but I imagine that money might be made up to some degree by the television revenue. If having quality opponents helps attendance figures though, perhaps it does make sense to have that tenth conference game. And hell, with 42 bowl games, teams don't exactly have to schedule down too much to get into the post season (where we might begin to see some five win teams at some remote bowl site).
In 2016, for example, Michigan plays Hawaii, Colorado and Central Florida. Notre Dame would have been a road game that year if the Big Ten was still at eight conference games, but for reasons we all know, ND is no longer on the schedule. The Big Ten West teams not on UM's schedule are Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, and Purdue. I'd certaintly entertain the thought of swapping out Hawaii or UCF for one of thse four B1G West teams that UM isn't playing that season.
I'd love to see Michigan play two Power Five teams in the non-conference schedule in home-and-home series plus that 10-game conference schedule. It would mean only six home games per year, but the age of non-conference tomato cans (ex. Delaware State) would be pretty much over.
As a rule, I pretty much prefer home-and-home series for Michigan when it comes to playing major opponents. That said, the only way UM was going to play Alabama was at a neutral site since those are the only types of venues the Tide plays their major non-conference opponents each year. This year, for example, they open the season in Dallas against Wisconsin, but their other non-conference opponents are Middle Tennessee, Louisiana-Monroe and Charleston Southern (yep, that is not a joke) the week before the season ending game at Auburn.
Florida also doesn't usually play any major non-conference opponents outside of their annual season ending game with Florida State. You'll see Miami creep on the schedule every once in awhile, but most of UF's OOC games are against some pretty bleh teams (2015, for example, has New Mexico State, East Carolina and in the week before FSU, the Gators play Florida Atlantic). So opening the 2017 season with Florida--even in Dallas--is definitely something outside the norm for the Gators.
We'll see what Jim Hackett opts to do going forward. The Big Ten will go to nine conference game starting in 2016, so that means there are only three OOC games per year to schedule from that season going forward. 2017 is set with Florida, Cincinnati and Air Force. But what happens after that?
Brandon did a couple of things with the non-conference schedule that I think are pretty positive. The first is that he tried to get a fairly major opponent for the opening season game on the slate. Michigan opens with Arkansas in 2018 and 2019. It also looks like UM will have season openers at Washington (2020), at UCLA (2023), Texas (2024) and at Texas (2027).
The other thing he did that was interesting is to schedule two Power 5 teams in a couple of home-and-home games in 2020 and 2021, i.e., Virginia Tech and Washington (Ball State is currently on the 2020 schedule as well, FWIW). It will be interesting to see if Hackett (with Harbaugh's approval) goes the same route. He may not be able to do it in 2018/9 because of the short time frame, but will he add a second Power 5 team on the schedules from 2023 onward?
Another thing I thought was pretty good was to steer Michigan away from playing MAC teams every year (with the exception of Ball State, which might go away now that Brady Hoke is no longer the HC). I think he took a step up by putting Mountain West and American Athletic teams on the schedule instead (Air Force, Cincinnati, SMU, Hawaii, Central Florida, UNLV). Again, it will be interesting to see what Jim Hackett plans to do going forward (especially since there are open non-conference scheduling slots in 2018 and 2019).
While this isn't exactly related to the issue, I'm coming around to the thought that perhaps the Big Ten should go to a ten-game conference schedule (perhaps as early as 2020). The conference did something similar in the early 1980s, but at that time there were only ten members and eleven regular season games, so the B1G had a nine-game conference schedule and only two non-conference games.
A ten game conference schedule means five home/five away for conference games with only two non-conference games. I realize the loss of a non-conference game would hurt the ticket revenue, but I imagine that money might be made up to some degree by the television revenue. If having quality opponents helps attendance figures though, perhaps it does make sense to have that tenth conference game. And hell, with 42 bowl games, teams don't exactly have to schedule down too much to get into the post season (where we might begin to see some five win teams at some remote bowl site).
In 2016, for example, Michigan plays Hawaii, Colorado and Central Florida. Notre Dame would have been a road game that year if the Big Ten was still at eight conference games, but for reasons we all know, ND is no longer on the schedule. The Big Ten West teams not on UM's schedule are Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, and Purdue. I'd certaintly entertain the thought of swapping out Hawaii or UCF for one of thse four B1G West teams that UM isn't playing that season.
I'd love to see Michigan play two Power Five teams in the non-conference schedule in home-and-home series plus that 10-game conference schedule. It would mean only six home games per year, but the age of non-conference tomato cans (ex. Delaware State) would be pretty much over.