Regardless of the 2023 season outcome, Michigan needs to leave the Big Ten
Since the allegations sprung up in late October, the Big Ten and its members have acted in worse faith than I could’ve ever imagined. The actions of the commissioner, giving into mob rule is ridiculous.
If they want to set this precedent, have at it. Michigan in February 2024 should announce they are leaving the conference, to join whatever conference (SEC, ACC w/e) with Notre Dame.
Yes. This means ending the OSU rivalry and the MSU shit fest. That conference can go televise Iowa vs. Northwestern with their new television deal.
have fun trying to join the next super conference Alan Haller, you’ll be left in the dust.
November 11th, 2023 at 11:02 AM ^
When do the B1G payouts happen from the TV contracts to the schools? 1 big payout or partial payouts over the course of the year? When is the best time of the year to leave the B1G if that is the chosen path?
November 11th, 2023 at 11:05 AM ^
We’re already gone. Just a question of how quickly can get out and to which conference. Could potentially do a year or 2 as independent and then decide to stick with that or hear what other conferences are offering.
The B1G has crossed the rubicon here. As my Connected buddy told me last night, convos are already happening- even some of the most random ones imaginable, like Texas AD talking to UM about SEC.
November 11th, 2023 at 11:08 AM ^
Im all for the SEC. We want scorched earth? Go to the SEC…
November 11th, 2023 at 11:28 AM ^
Couldn’t agree more. ACC is a dying conference, Clemson and FSU are planning their escapes as we speak. Go to the conference with the best athletics that doesn’t intentionally sabotage their own. Go to the SEC. Michigan will be an elite academic school no matter where they go. Might as well go to the conference with the best football.
November 11th, 2023 at 11:39 AM ^
I just dont think they are going to get any respect in the SEC either. Id hope for the ACC with ND or something and revitalize that conference. Maybe it isnt practical but in my ideal scenario it'd be that over the SEC. I just think M would get treated like shit in the SEC too.
November 11th, 2023 at 11:22 AM ^
October/November road trips to Austin, Athens, Tuscaloosa, Baton Rouge or East Lansing, Columbus, BFE Pennsylvania, and West Lafayette…
That is not a difficult choice
Burn it all down
November 11th, 2023 at 11:07 AM ^
I took the talks about leaving the B1G as venting and general hyperbole amongst us fans. After the past few days, I'm all for it. The entire conference is against us. We upset the balance and took the crown, and we're being punished for it. Fuck that. If Michigan manages to win it all this year, overcoming what's been done to them, it will be the biggest showing of heart in the history of this sport.
This is my favorite thing in the world. I've waited my entire life for a team like this. The only "stealing" happening is our own conference trying to steal this generational team's glory. Our own conference. Unfuckingbelievable. We have no allies. No help is on the way. I guess from this point, we show the world what happens when a wolverine is backed into a corner with no other option than to fight back.
Bet. Fuck this conference. Take it all. Forcefully. Win with cruelty.
November 11th, 2023 at 9:25 PM ^
We’ll said!
November 11th, 2023 at 11:07 AM ^
Take OSU, PSU and ND to the ACC. That leaves the BIG with jack shit.
November 11th, 2023 at 11:12 AM ^
Fuck OSU. Let them rot.
November 11th, 2023 at 11:39 AM ^
My thoughts were to fuck THE BIG more. GuessbI didn't read the room correctly.
November 11th, 2023 at 11:16 AM ^
So Ohio started all this and you want Ohio to come with?! That’s crazy.
November 11th, 2023 at 11:22 AM ^
OSU can rot in hell
November 11th, 2023 at 11:25 AM ^
The only time I want to play Ohio State is in the playoffs. 45 years old and I can’t believe I’m saying that but it is true. Fuck that “rivalry”
November 11th, 2023 at 11:25 AM ^
PSU and ND we can live with but OSU can go F itself.
November 11th, 2023 at 11:07 AM ^
The simplest answer for a new conference that doesn’t involve UM doing much leg work, convincing other teams, and what ifs is the SEC. Sure they hated M and Harbaugh when M wasn’t a part of the conference, but the SEC protects their own, especially if they are a big revenue generator.
November 11th, 2023 at 11:10 AM ^
A massive S-E-C chant during the OSU game would be glorious
November 11th, 2023 at 11:12 AM ^
Why ? You wanna be fourth fiddle to Bama, Georgia, LSU ! No thanks
November 11th, 2023 at 11:13 AM ^
You want to be second fiddle to an OSU that actively sabotages Michigan with the compliance of everyone else?
November 11th, 2023 at 11:15 AM ^
I’ve said independent for a week so know what you’re talking about
November 11th, 2023 at 11:21 AM ^
So I'm supposed to remember the full and detailed positions of everyone on the board going back a week, even if I haven't come across their posts at all?
Fine, let me check recent post history. Yours goes back to the 7th.
*ctrl-f "independent"*
The only instance that comes up is this post.
November 11th, 2023 at 11:25 AM ^
Where we ultimately end up isn’t the point. The SEC chant thundering threw the largest stadium in the land during college footballs most watch game would be herd the loudest
November 11th, 2023 at 11:11 AM ^
The obviousness of what's happened here cannot be understated. What is also now, moreso than ever before, even more obvious is the 2016 officiating. This is more clear now than ever before.
November 11th, 2023 at 11:56 AM ^
Completely agree....looking back does make it much more apparent that there has been a common and united anti-Michigan tone, posture, sentiment, whatever.....for a long while.
Compare the conference and team, coach, AD reactions to cheeseburgers and this nothing burger of an "infraction" of an arcane, outdated rule, to that for something like a violent 10:1 assault in a tunnel following a game (zero outrage, lots of "meh"), decades of OSU paying players, all manner of shit toast officiating and the coup de grace.....proof that every team that is self-righteous, outraged and "save the children" about Michigan sign gathering has been colluding to do so against us......crickets.
What they are doing now is the type of reaction I expected after the tunnel assault.....
How can they not be making any statements as to whether they're going to follow up on collusion or unsportsmanlike behavior from multiple schools sharing information and signs about a single School in a concerted effort to take them down? Like it never happened?
An anti-michigan bias has always been there and now with Harbaugh it's highly personal and turned into an overt vendetta.
November 11th, 2023 at 11:11 AM ^
They have to leave… do you think this shit is going to stop ?? Think about it !!!
November 11th, 2023 at 11:12 AM ^
Who are you and what have you done with the real Toby Flenderson?
November 11th, 2023 at 11:13 AM ^
It’s been a nice run but it’s time for a divorce.
Would love for Michigan to be able to change conferences but not tell anyone until the year they do. After the 2024 football season Michigan announces that they are leaving in 2025 and hockey is in the CCHA
November 11th, 2023 at 11:15 AM ^
Can revenue sharing only occur if the NCAA approves? If not, what's to stop Michigan from going independent or forming a new conference - the first conference with revenue sharing? We could kill two birds with one stone, leave this circus of a conference and accelerate the demise of the NCAA.
November 11th, 2023 at 11:17 AM ^
I have no problem getting rid of the OSU "rivalry" at this point and have been long for ending the MSU one.
Both have now taken it off the field woth crybaby (and worse) antics and with the 12-team playoff the Game was always going to lose value.
Time to leave.
Talk to Texas, ND, USC, Okl, and any of the other powers that want to join together away from the NCAA and make a true super conference without any leeches.
November 11th, 2023 at 11:19 AM ^
We don’t need the hairless nuts they need us !!!
November 11th, 2023 at 11:18 AM ^
"The Game" loses its shine and isn't really a thing starting next year anyway given we could play OSU 3 times in a season. Who cares. Leave the BigTen.
November 11th, 2023 at 11:20 AM ^
I was against this for weeks. Thinking $$ too big to lose.
But now I see the pettiness of timing, and realize nearly every member institution is against their cash cow.
WE ARE THE CASH COW.
No one is turning on the dial for Purdue Illinois or hell UCLA Indiana in football.
MSU loses the only reason it exists once we go. As does OSU. Fuck them both. Go make that MSU PSU fake rivalry. Go make the OSU Oregon into a "thing" with all the pomp and tradition of nothing.
There are 2 brands in this country that are national - ND and UM. That's it. Fuck the Big 10.
November 11th, 2023 at 11:22 AM ^
Exactly. If we have to be in any conference I would rather align with one composed of either the best football programs or top flight academic schools.
November 11th, 2023 at 11:20 AM ^
Here here
November 11th, 2023 at 11:20 AM ^
Independence means you stand above the riff raff and are a truly national program and not a regional one. Credit where credit is due, Notre Dame understood that early and up until recently was the only truly national program. Michigan became one post-1997 after the national title, Woodson’s Heisman, Brady’s legendary NFL career, and Michigan’s academic reputation reached new heights. I think that we hung in with the Big Ten so long because of the connection to the Rose Bowl. Now that connection is no longer iron clad there is much less reason to be tethered to a conference because of one rivalry. I like the Big Ten and would prefer to stay under different terms but in its current governance and revenue structure it is past it’s sell-by date for football. Maybe other sports should remain with the Big Ten.
November 11th, 2023 at 11:22 AM ^
Honestly, I think I would stop watching Michigan sports if Michigan stayed in the conference. It's beyond absurd.
November 11th, 2023 at 11:25 AM ^
Over the years, I've learned the extent to which other schools have felt UM has rubbed their noses in the "Leaders and Best" far too often (biggest stadium, most wins, top academic school, yada, yada, yada). This enmity goes back to the Fielding Yost days for some schools. We are a victim of our success, but also of our arrogance (2nd only to ND, in my opinion). Hence, the piling on by the other conference schools is not surprising to me. That and the Buckeyes' disbelief that UM could whip them so soundly two years in a row without something being amiss.
The issue in front of us is all about payback to Michigan and its figurehead (Harbaugh). As noted by several quotes from rival coaches, the act of sign-stealing has little to no effect on the game. Nonetheless, breaking a rule to steal signs gives the angry mob a platform to vent their decades-long anger onto this issue.
I wish we had never hired Mr. Stalions, but that's water over the dam. We broke a rule, and should accept a reasonable penalty (but not the petty one in front of us now).
But before we think of leaving the conference, we need to understand that we might not be welcome everywhere. Further, the academic side of UM may decide the easier solution is to go the route of the University of Chicago - drop the football program! We need to decide if the devil we know is likely to be better than the devil we don't know.
November 11th, 2023 at 12:06 PM ^
Except the combination of academics and athletics is what makes Michigan truly unique, I don't think there's another school in the country that has that combination outside of Notre Dame.
No one is ever going to even consider or remotely go down the path of eliminating athletics.......ever.
Right now the ACC is staring at trying to remain relevant in an era of consolidation and I'm very sure they would welcome us for the time being. If they were to lose either of their top two teams they would all but disappear, adding a team like Michigan would be huge and because they don't do equal payout they likely would pay through the nose to get Michigan. Right now the revenue story isn't nearly as pretty as the big ten, but they also get a lot more valuable with michigan, I don't know how much Stanford and Cal can or would add to that. On the outside chance you could bring USC UCLA Washington and or Oregon for a better payday that would certainly change things as well, but I don't know what the appetite is for those schools to take a better deal. That type of shift would certainly put the ACC way back on the map. They are actually a better academic fit than the Big 10.
November 11th, 2023 at 11:30 AM ^
Beat ohio three in a row for win #1000 and leave those Karens with that.
November 11th, 2023 at 11:32 AM ^
Correction. Beating Ohio would be win 1001.
November 11th, 2023 at 11:34 AM ^
If we win today, #1000 is next week against Maryland
November 11th, 2023 at 11:37 AM ^
As others have noted, it’s not just the conference admin who have acted in bad faith. It’s the other schools who joined with OSU, both in and off the field, that has led Michigan to this point. To me, there is not now, nor will there ever be again, any confidence that UM will be treated fairly, in football and any other sport, by both the conference and its member schools. Tradition won’t have gone out the window if Michigan decides to leave the b1g. It was already on the windowsill looking looking to jump and the past 2-3 weeks pushed it out. Especially with yesterday’s disgusting stunt pulled by the conference admin.
OSU can go be whatever it wants to, but Michigan should never again place any value on a “rivalry” with a school that has acted in such a whiny, disrespectful, and dishonest way towards UM.
November 11th, 2023 at 3:47 PM ^
I would not shed a tear. No sentimentality anymore.