Harbaugh: Discussions being had on return of yearly Michigan-ND game

How about UNC or Duke? Parlay the basketball rivalries to the gridiron plus exposure to the fertile recruiting in the Carolinas.  Also, credit for a P5 win in what are reasonably winnable games. Also, play YTM in the Orange Bowl and resurrect the short but entertaining rivalry from the 80s against Jimmy Johnson.

Fvck no!!!

Not sure why people don’t understand that the old model doesn’t work in playoff era. Years past, you could schedule tough OOC games and still attain all team goals by winning B10 and going to Rose Bowl. No more. Now it’s about getting to CFB Playoff. So if you schedule more 50/50 games you geometrically reduce the probability of attaining that goal.  Each game should be a graduated step to the year-end climax with OSU. Yes, we need to schedule P5 teams but we should take care to schedule 60/40, 70/30 type teams.

Pay attention to what our peers do. WIS, PSU, MSU and OSU do not play near as difficult OOC schedules. It doesn’t cost them at all. Much better to crush the Pitts, Buffalos and Idaho’s of the world than lose. They get it. Warde Manual doesn’t. 

I work with a few ND fans. Every time I hear “Go Irish” I want to vomit out loud. It sounds like a wet elder queef. 

OK, here's a REALLY unpopular opinion (I'll have to tighten my sphincter for this one)...

I would rather have a regular, marquee rivalry game like ND on the schedule every year, than schedule all OOC cupcakes to try to make the CFP but then be disappointed when we lose a conference game and not make it.  At least in this scenario we would have another big game to look forward to.

Oh, boy... be gentle...

And btw, Michigan should cancel the Texas and Oklahoma games immediately. Too late to cancel Washington. 

Your “exciting matchups” are my “unnecessarily difficult non-conference games.” No reason to play them when the ultimate goal is to make the playoff.

Nah. Fuck Notre Dame.  After the letter BS with Brandon in South Bend in 2012, Notre Dame can go fuck themselves.

I wish we would never play them again.  They don't deserve to play any great competition until they are forced to join a conference.  They don't deserve special treatment.

No thank you.

I’m tired of B1G teams catering to Notre Dame. They aren’t going to join the B1G....it’s time to move on. I would much rather see home and home series with a variety of other schools, like they have set up with UCLA, Washington, Texas, Oklahoma. I was looking forward to finally seeing an SEC school besides Vandy come north (oh well). 

If we cancel another game in the 2020s to schedule fucking ND again I will lose it. 

Fuck Notre Dame. Never schedule them again.

Forget the impact on the CFP chances for a minute - we're a long way from that with the B10 East the way it is. 

Playing easy games in the OOC lets you work on things, keeps your starters rested, and get your backups needed PT - if you are good enough, that is. Besides, fuck ND for dictating terms to us. Warde is an idiot for letting them have two home games in a row and then scheduling next week's game at this point in the season, after their bye week. Utter stupidity.

we don't have to have the hardest schedule in the country just because. Let's make it easier on ourselves.

Michigan vs Washington, Texas, and Oklahoma would be exciting

If were going to handicap ourselves by scheduling tough OOC games at least make them exciting matchups. 

We already have enough rivalries as it is with Ohio State and Michigan State. Tell me another fucking P5 program that plays 3 legitimate rivalry games like Michigan tries to do? Nobody because its fucking dumb

I hate the ND matchup

As a card carrying SEC hater I was genuinely pissed when we cancelled the Arkansas games for the ND series.  Especially with one of the ND games landing in the middle of the conference season.  Total stupidity. IMHO

Isn't Virginia Tech also 5-2 this year?

It's fine. I mean, we're not making the playoffs anyway, so why not schedule more classic rivalry games.

Honestly...who cares?

Harbaugh has insisted on all-white away unis and Notre Dame every year.

The least he could do it give us a Big Ten Championship in return.

I am so sick of the B1G kissing Notre Dame's ass.  Throw them out of the conference for hockey, do not play them in ANY sport, period. (is that redundant?)

Why the fuck does the ACC let them play conference basketball ?  Until they man up and join any conference for ALL sports let them stand on an island.  They treat every conference like a whore ... just throw them some money and do what they say.  I cannot believe no one has the guts to stand up to these pompous asses !!!

Go Blue!

I like the Texas '24 and ;27 matchups. I would rather see each of these P5 opponents on a similar three year interval (maybe including ND. That would mean more variety of opponents for the players and fans.

Fuck ND. Harbaugh is too sentimental. Washington, Texas, AND Oklahoma would be more fun than ND. 

Bleh. Why? With 9 game conference schedules we only get 1 big OOC match up. I am bored of Notre Dame games.

I am going to be so mad if we cancel Texas or OU for more Notre Dame games.

Stop paying schools to *not* play us in football.

You know what else might be good for college football?  Michigan vs. Texas.  Michigan vs. Georgia.  Michigan vs. Alabama.  Michigan vs. Stanford.  Michigan vs. UCLA.

I'd love to see home and homes with all those teams.  Setting up an annual game with Notre Dame is giving them the same kind honorary conference membership that they get with their deal with the ACC.  I really don't understand why we would seek to help them keep their competitive profile high when we routinely compete for the same recruits.

This series was good for Michigan back in the 70's and 80's.  I don't think it's good for us now.

Would it be more appropriate as:

Harbaugh: Discusses being had on return of yearly Michigan-ND game

In the early 90s, this series was good from a tradition perspective.  Then ND started adding cupcakes during an early game so they could shake the rust off, and broke the spirit of this being the first game of the year for both teams.  Since then, ND has seemingly gone out of its way to spit on the series and treat M like a hangers-on ND's coat tails.  ND has spurned the B1G with it's bullshit holier-than-thou (used deliberately) independence lie before effectively taking its wishy washy deal with the ACC.  

When M beats green, the national viewers shrug because we're supposed to win, and when M doesn't beat green, the world gasps as though miracles have happened.  ND feels very similar, without even the benefit of a league win.  M has very little to gain by this series.  I understand why Harbaugh likes it from a tradition standpoint, and, if ND were to respect the rivalry AS a rivalry, and give it proper respect as the two winningest programs in college football colliding each year, then by all means, let's have at it.  But - since ND has shown not a single whiff of interest in respecting this game as anything but an add-on to their schedule, and given ND's treatment of the B1G in general, the entire league should boycott them until they as a program put on some big boy pants and act like respectful adults.  

It sucks that teams like Michigan load up on a non conference schedule and have almost no shot to go undefeated while the SEC and ACC play for the most part cupcakes in non conference. I think Army had more to do with Michigan's malaise at Wisconsin as anything. I will go out on a limb and say there is probably only one team in America that MIGHT go through Michigan's schedule undefeated this year and that would be Alabama. As long as there is only a 4 team playoff Michigan will likely never see it due to strength of schedule and unwillingness to play nefarious recruiting games. While I am on a rant, Clemson would lose at least 2 games this year with Michigan's schedule. Ohio State has played who exactly? The best team they have played to date is MSU at home.  They will get a Wisconsin team who just lost to Illinois at home and Penn State at home.  The one thing that will bring such joy, is the look on the OSU fans and players faces after their playoff dreams are smashed in Michigan stadium....Go Blue!

Michigan/Notre Dame is a thing that's good for college football, it should continue to happen, and I don't care about Michigan giving up money to cancel games against Arkansas, a school nobody gives a shit about. One of the 019839723978 sins of Dave Brandon is the fact he lost the ND series because he thought a potential scheduling deal with the Pac 12 was better. 

I'd rather watch Michigan play and beat Notre Dame than watch Washington or UCLA or Texas or any of that. 

No thanks

If you think the ND series is special you are likely over 50 years of age and/or have some Irish catholic reference. Its those types who still think that associating ourselves with ND mystique somehow elevates Michigan.

ND moved itself into the old man ghetto years ago. Every year thousands of dudes who think ND is special die and are replaced by dudes who think nothing of it. Their network deal is like something out of the 80s, to younger people NBC is just one of like 100 names on a list. Its so easy to forget ND exists during CFB season...just don’t watch NBC which isnt all that difficult. They cut themselves out of all the narratives because they think they are big enough to be their own narrative. Less true every year. 

ND’s move to play 75% of an ACC schedule plus cherry picked games is clever in terms of ensuring a feasible path to the CFP, but it also means theres not much on the schedule to draw attention. It makes them even more invisible. 
 

Michigan can use marquee games, sure, the occasional big series vs a powerhouse is helpful, but the idea that it needs to be ND is silly. Youd do better just by perpetually rotating through the upper half of the SEC. Thats the narratIve you want to insert yourself into.

Drop down to 8 conference games.

I'm sorry but losing one of Illinois, Iowa, or Wisconsin from the schedule doesn't really bother me all that much.

And dropping to 8 games you would have a home and home series with each team in the west every 7 years.  Is that ideal?  No, but if you want to play more often go schedule non-conference games...