Should the UM-osu game be played on Thanksgiving weekend?
A topic that has come up on various discussions here has now been broached again due to the coming Big Ten expansion: scheduling of existing conference matchups, specifically The Game.
Looking back at prior years, it seems like every game from 2010 onwards was played on the weekend after Thanksgiving (which many consider a holiday weekend). The majority (with a few exceptions) of seasons before 2010 had The Game on the weekend just before Thanksgiving.
Obviously people here have different opinions on that - and feel free to share them.
I would like to pose a question *primarily* to any here who were Michigan students during any the years 2010 and after (although this could be true for others as well): did having The Game over the course of a holiday weekend prevent you from attending (assuming you would have otherwise)?
My suspicion is that many students from out of state (or even in-state with families not near Ann Arbor) would be less likely to attend... and more likely to sell their tickets on the secondary market (making it easier for OH & MI dwelling osu fans to attend, who are less affected by holiday travel since the vast majority of osu students are in-state). Yet - I have no data or reports to verify this... only the swaths of red in the Big House stands in recent games that seem greater now than "back in the day".
Any *useful* comments or anecdotes are appreciated... maybe someone involved in future scheduling may see them and take into consideration.
...and what about the students who can't afford to go home for Thanksgiving?
Especially if they hope to make it home for Christmas.
The Game is a pretty nice consolation for not being able to make it home for turkey in what would otherwise be long, lonely, boring weekend.
I went to The Game in 2017, I live in southwest Ohio but lived in southwest Florida for a bit. If you’re close to family, missing a function shouldn’t have an effect to an opportunity such as that IMO. I may be the minority, let me know, but if I lived in say Cali and got tickets, I’d be flying out Thursday night or Friday morning early with no remorse and say “I’ll catch ya at Christmas, will FaceTime and stop by on my way back if I can’t make it on Thanksgiving”.
The Game on Thanksgiving has been a staple of my schedule, I live just outside Chicago in Indiana and my Mom & Dad live just east of East Lansing, so it’s between 3-4 hours to get to their house. Having the long weekend makes it almost automatic to get my wife to agree to drive home to visit family and watch the Game with my brothers, uncle, dad and grandpa. I would rend my garments if it were moved if only because it would infringe on my ability to make sure I watch UM-OSU with family
Isn't it going back to before Thanksgiving when the expanded playoff starts in 2024?
Well, when we'd lose I hated it because it really ruined the vibe putting the Christmas tree and decorations up. But now that we're winning again, I think it's great!
In Soviet Russia, tree decorates you!
If you are a student for four years, it’s two games two years apart. Despite living in the MidAtlantic, we just drove out Wednesday and did 2019 and 2021 Thanksgiving in Ann Arbor. Rented homes on one of the lakes 20-30 minutes outside of town and just picked up prepared dinner. A couple of my son’s roommates’ families did the same. They were both great holiday weekends. Although one a bit better than the other.
One question though. Student tickets were something like $180 for the season. Can a student sell a ticket to a non student? I thought you needed a student ID for entry.
- You buy a student ticket and them get a non- student validation( no mcard needed).Say student tickets are $30 (1/6 of $180) bowling green tix are $75 - you pay $45 to bring up to the correct value. For osu the it’s maybe $175 so upcharge is $145.
August 6th, 2023 at 12:01 AM ^
If you are a student for four years, it’s two games two years apart.
Well yeah, but it's OSU. It kind of sucks if that is the one game you can't make it to.
August 5th, 2023 at 11:01 PM ^
I was a student 2013-2017. OSU tickets were cheaper than MSU/ND tickets as well as other premier/ranked opponents because there was such an influx of tickets being sold due to most of the out of state students staying at home for the game and a decent amount of in state kids not wanting to make the trek from Metro Detroit or Grand Rapids. Part of it could’ve been a belief that we didn’t have a chance to win so maybe we’ll see if that changes in 2023 now that fans will go into a OSU home game optimistic for the first time since 2011.
Simple solution - always play "The Game" the week before Thanksgiving and schedule the bye week for M and OSU on Thanksgiving weekend (could use that time to prepare for the B1G Championship Game)....
I don’t like it over thanksgiving weekend. We are often visiting family out of town, and I don’t get to get crazy while watching the game.
Though I would prefer The Game be played prior to Thanksgiving, as it was years ago - the games in A2 the Saturday after Thanksgiving are a family affair for us. It gets pretty busy around the house on Thanksgiving night - to ensure we’re ready to go (driving to A2 after picking up our children’s friends) bright and early.
So, our Thanksgiving feast doesn’t go as late into the evening on Thursday as other family celebrations.
I prefer the weekend before Thanksgiving. There's enough else going on over Thanksgiving.
August 6th, 2023 at 11:57 AM ^
Saturday after Thanksgiving is literally the worst possible weekend for the Game for me, since Thanksgiving is by far the most reliable holiday for spending with my siblings and their families.
After years of awkward torquing of schedules to get myself in front of a TV to watch the game on that Saturday, two years ago I gave up. In 2021 I watched a streaming broadcast on my phone while we drove home to DC from Philadelphia (with a simulcast radio broadcast so my cousin, who was driving, could also listen (nevermind the 2-3 second lag between audio and video). Last year I heard only snippets of the radio broadcast as we drove through the mountains in Jamaica from the north coast back to Kingston. For some reason, despite the degraded viewing/listening experience, I enjoyed those games a lot more than any of the others in recent memory.
Apart from my own selfish reasons, though, I think the difficulty imposed on current university students is the most important reason to keep the most important game of the season away from the holiday calendar. The ongoing drift of college sports away from college (super-conferences, piped-in music replacing marching bands, rule changes to accommodate TV ads, etc) just makes me sad. If I were a student today I'm not sure I'd go to many games.
August 6th, 2023 at 12:24 PM ^
MOVE IT!
Half the students leave that weekend. And since Michigan's student body is national, that makes a huge difference in how many attend The Game. I'd guess close to half of them sell their tickets online -- and most of those tickets are bought by Ohioans. If the game were played any other weekend during the school year, 99 percent of Michigan student ticket-holders would attend.
By contrast, the vast majority of OSU students and fans are from Ohio. So they don't go anywhere. This applies to both games and life. Which explains why Ohio is a provincial wasteland.
August 6th, 2023 at 12:49 PM ^
While I enjoy it in November of late, I think it should be the first game of the season.
Its already big now, but have it during week 0 when its just a few mid-major games and not much else.
This allows the game to be the most watched event possible - as everyone and their mom would want to watch, since it would be the first real pro or college football game since the previous year's Super Bowl.
It would dominate the sports news cycle.
Hell, it could become a tradition as the first game just as much as it has been as the last game in time.
And finally, it would allow the loser ample time (11-12 more games) to recover from a loss and be in the playoff picture.
That's what the Notre Dame game used to be.
But I would not want that for Michigan - Ohio State.
Ugh. I think it would be shadow of it's former self - and we'd need more shadows, as the game would likely be played in 90-plus degree heat and humidity, with both teams raw and mistake-prone. (While the results might be more random, I would imagine they would generally reward the more 5-star laden team, which more off than not would not be Michigan). A large part of the intensity of the rivalry is the building to it all year.
The Game already does all those things you believe it would do by moving it. Except for the playoff games, it was the most-watched game last year and the year before.
August 6th, 2023 at 12:55 PM ^
I preferred the week before
I work on campus with umich students. About 90% of these clients are from out of state. The majority of these out of state students — always to my surprise — opt to skip the Ohio game due to the conflict with the thanksgiving holiday. So to answer your question, yes, having The Game on Thanksgiving weekend reduces your OOS student attendance by a large margin.
Attn: UM Ath Dept. ☝️
I see this as the least of concerns.
Those seats won't go empty. (Assuming that the said OOS student has season tickets) the seat will be filled by someone more passionate about more desperate to be at the game - whether that be another student without season tickets, or an alumni or fan. Said OOS season ticket holder pockets some extra cash to help pay for the rest of the season ticket package or the outrageous OOS tuition. I see it as a win-win.
I'd suspect that any OOS who had any interest in attending a football game to begin with would try to attend at least one Ohio State game in their time at Michigan - either by staying in town or coming back early. The other years they'd go back home or do whatever else they'd do anyway.
Back when Michigan played before Thanksgiving, we didn't like it for two reasons:
1) In the pure polls-based system back then (no playoff), it made Michigan out-of-site-out-of-mind while most other teams played an additional week after Thanksgiving to get the pollster's attention.
2) It was too much time off between the weekend before Thanksgiving and New Year's Day. The first half of our New Year's Day bowl game often had the feel of the first game of the season while we re-acclimated to the intensity and pace of the game.
Those 2 reasons are much less relevant now.
I liked it before thanksgiving
I like it when it’s played after Thanksgiving.
I’m such a Michigan homer and playing Ohio State means so much that in the (unlikely) event that we lose, the hangover lasts for several weeks and makes Thanksgiving dinner tastes like ass. I love Thanksgiving, it’s my favorite holiday.
Pretty sure The Game was before Thanksgiving when the regular season was only 10 or 11 games, or when there was no mid-season bye week.
With a 12 game regular season starting Labor Day weekend) and a bye week in the middle of the schedule, there is no way Thanksgiving weekend is going to be "off" - way too many eyeballs for TV networks to ignore.
And if you replace the OSU game with...say Rutgers or Indiana, how many students are going to hurry back for that? You'll have a lot empty seats for the last game - Senior Day - which is not a good look.
Tradition wise - it should always be the last game. However, for the sake of trying to avoid a rematch for the title game and the possibility that a team could rest guys with a CG berth locked up, I could see moving it to the 10th game of the year. Late enough to still have high stakes, back to back games are avoided and last two weeks could be playoff like if either team has to run the table. I'm guessing with recent and assumed future realignment activity, a rematch becomes less likely as the pool keeps getting deeper.
OR just make it a general rule to avoid rematches in the post-season: (would rather see a "showcase" week but) the conference championship should be the team with the best regular season record versus the next-placed team they have not yet faced/beaten.
I don’t like that it’s the same day as high school state championships
Two nine team divisions sounds right.