MSU to play home and home with West Virginia and Bama
RAMMER JAMMER YELLA HAMMER, GIVE 'EM HELL ALABAMA!
As for WVU, they probably wont be that great.
Nick Satan and the Crimson Lied will crush them (Mr. Burns laugh.)
Hey at least they aren't scheduling UMass....
Nicely done lil brutha.
West Virgina in 14-15 will not be the same West Virgina that RR ran. They will be just another middle of the road Big East team.
And for Alabama ... Right now this game looks huge but in 16-17 Saban will be gone somewhere and Alabama will probably fall back to the middle of the SEC.
Yes they are both better than UMASS or Delaware St, but this is not as huge as MSU or the mediamight try and make it.
I somewhat agree with you on WVU but Alabama has a pretty strong tradition to suggest that they'll be a good team post-Saban.
And actually when they play WVU, they take a break from ND, so it is only in 2016-2017 that they play ND & Bama.
April 28th, 2009 at 12:39 AM ^
that wvu will be middle of the road big east and that saban will be long gone by then, but bama will probably be second tier sec which will be tough for second tier msu
April 27th, 2009 at 10:20 PM ^
is eight years away...we cant even accurately predict where our own team will be in 2009. Lets not try to predict where alabama will be eight years from now. Most of the players on that team are currently in junior high.
See, Bill Martin, it IS possible to play both Notre Dame and another name program in the same season.
Of course, who knows if Saban will still be at Bama by that time. Then again, I can't see another NFL team giving him a shot so there's not exactly anywhere for him to go.
Of course it's possible. Is it a good idea? If MSU isn't that good during those seasons, it might be the loss that keeps them out of a bowl game. Or at least drops them down a bowl game. That loses money for the school. Is it worth it?
See, Bill Martin, it IS possible to play both Notre Dame and another name program in the same season.
It's a lot more possible when you have only about 15 varsity sports teams and when your school subsidizes tuition for out-of-state athletes, as MSU does. Their AD's operating budget is considerably smaller than ours (and most of their sports teams suck, anyway), so they don't need to bring in as much revenue.
We have 25 varsity sports teams (and what's more, a general expectation to be good in all of them) and our school refuses to subsidize tuition for non-resident athletes. Neither of those two are going to change any time soon. We are not going to drop any sports teams, nor are we (in a time of skyrocketing tuition costs) going to suddenly ask the school to foot the bill for athletes' tuition. These are the constraints that Martin operates under. Basically, if football doesn't bring in a shitload of money, we're fucked (and all the moreso when we have to pay off a $220M stadium renovation). Hence the need for a ton of home games. Visiting ND every other year is already a significant financial sacrifice; we probably can't afford another.
... is why is it that Michigan seems to be scrambling in last-minute fashion in recent years to get teams on its schedule, hence the late addition of Delaware State. Can Bill Martin not get off the can and get a deal or two done like this for us? I don't know, of course, that he's NOT trying to... it's just curious to me that just a couple months ago he was finalizing the schedule for THIS FALL.
Anyone?
Because the only contracts you can normally get signed well in advance are those that call for home-and-home arrangements. We've already got one of those with ND, and it probably isn't feasible financially to schedule a second (see above). So we have to fill out the schedule with teams willing to come in without a return trip.
Better national exposure and for recruits that want to play top programs, they'll have a leg up on Michigan.
Which means in turn that if UM scheduled Oklahoma and Louisville in '14 and '15 and a Sparty said it's no big deal, you'd agree with him. After all, they might be lousy then, too.
damn, lucky Spartys. I'm sure Michigan will excite their fan base with such opponents as Lawrence Tech and St. Mary's all girls college in South Bend.
st marys has never lost a football game (as my friend from st marys always points out)
April 27th, 2009 at 10:26 PM ^
I have thought for a long time that MD was a good coach and in all honesty the reason they have had the success is all because of MD. That being said I really don't see him staying in E. Lansing that much longer. I will not make any predictions on where he will go but I see him going to a bigger program. One that is easier to sell to recruits, the same thing that RR did when he left WVU.
If he does really well and wants the OSU job, I could see that happening? I also believe he played at South Carolina and although the competition is greater, I could see him going to his Alma Mater. It all depends on how MSU does in the next few years. If they are respectable and go to a random New Year's Day bowl every couple of years, then he leaves at a good offer. If they become one of the top 3 in the Big Ten (11), then he may stay and continue to build a program like Izzo.