UCLA Series No Longer Scheduled
October 25th, 2019 at 2:37 PM ^
ND already has OSU in those years for home and home. Unless they cancel—which I doubt they will.
Also if we have play 3 of 4 on the road at ND, then Warde and Harbaugh both need to go.
October 25th, 2019 at 3:04 PM ^
Though I loathe ND, they aren’t afraid of scheduling better teams. Especially when they can offset the road OSU game with a home game with UM.
October 25th, 2019 at 4:28 PM ^
ND has ZERO wins over the current top 25 this year. We are the last ranked team on their schedule. Remind me again of how they are scheduling better teams than us playing WISC, Iowa, PSU, OSU ?
October 25th, 2019 at 7:10 PM ^
USC, and Stanford are usually ranked, ND plays them every year. The crappy ACC teams they play is mostly out of their control. Yeah, BG and New Mexico are dogs, but it’s a crapshoot as to how BC, Va Tech, Virginia, Louisville and Navy are. I doubt anyone would have seen all of those teams to be garbage this year.
October 25th, 2019 at 2:17 PM ^
Dang. Would rather play the likely-not-good power 5 in UCLA.
October 25th, 2019 at 2:20 PM ^
2022 is going to consist of road games at:
ND
Iowa
MSU
OSU
October 25th, 2019 at 2:25 PM ^
ND plays @OSU in 2022 so I doubt they would pick us up. They play OSU at home then in 2023
October 25th, 2019 at 2:27 PM ^
True, plus they play Clemson those years too.
October 25th, 2019 at 2:53 PM ^
That means nothing. They played Georgia this year, which is the same level as OSU.
October 25th, 2019 at 2:39 PM ^
Based on what? Your speculation?
October 25th, 2019 at 2:54 PM ^
Don't forget RUTGERS!
October 25th, 2019 at 2:20 PM ^
Ask and you shall receive although UCLA has looked like poo so would have probably been two wins.
whatever.
October 25th, 2019 at 2:22 PM ^
Completely stupid.
October 25th, 2019 at 2:22 PM ^
Sweet. Two games I will watch about 4 minutes of vs being excited to watch a game vs a decent opponent. I hate this. At least the teams playoff chances will increase by 1/3 of a percent!
October 25th, 2019 at 3:04 PM ^
100% with your last two sentences (although I will watch every minute of every game because I can't help myself). In case anyone hasn't noticed, Michigan isn't exactly beating down the door to the playoff. I'll take interesting games during the season with a 3% chance of making the playoff vs shitty games during the season and a 5% chance of making the playoff.
October 25th, 2019 at 3:17 PM ^
The best part is some of the same people saying this are the same ones that bitch after every game saying UM is never going to beat OSU or win the Big 10. I like watching good football games. I enjoyed watching the PSU game even with a loss a thousand times more than the Army game or any of the other shitty non con teams they have to pay to come to AA.
October 25th, 2019 at 2:26 PM ^
If we could drop the pointless series with Washington for the next two years too, that would be great.
October 25th, 2019 at 2:27 PM ^
People do realize that Michigan still has an open date in 2022 and 2023, right?
We all know where this is headed. They're going to add Notre Dame. An absolutely idiotic decision that will screw Michigan for two more seasons.
October 25th, 2019 at 2:30 PM ^
I like watching UM play ND.
October 25th, 2019 at 2:33 PM ^
That's fine. Adding difficult teams to your schedule is one of the easiest ways to screw your Playoff chances entering a season, too. Your win-loss record is also the clear metric used for bowl game selection as well. It likely won't matter this year, but imagine if playing Notre Dame cost Michigan a trip to the Rose Bowl or the CFP. The risk isn't worth the reward.
October 25th, 2019 at 2:39 PM ^
This is dumb. If UM can’t beat ND, they don’t deserve to go to the playoffs. This doesn’t increase the chances, it screws over fans.
October 25th, 2019 at 2:52 PM ^
Real rivalries don’t take years off. Michigan and ND have more history NOT playing each other than they do. It should be kept that way.
They’re Michigan wannabes who last won a national title when all the games still weren’t televised. Let them go play with their FWBs on the East coast.
October 25th, 2019 at 3:02 PM ^
Fair points, but from 1978 through 2014 we played them each year except for about 5 times. For everybody here reading this blog that is probably the person's whole life or like in my case, most of my adult life.
It's a rivalry (games played wise) for anybody breathing now except for somebody younger than 5.
October 25th, 2019 at 3:09 PM ^
I give zero shits about ND. We’ve got enough on our plate to deal with in conference.
Im one of those people who grew up watching us beat them. I was at 38-0 II.
Once they quit and dropped off the schedule most of my hatred for them was moved to penn state since they’re in our division.
October 25th, 2019 at 3:09 PM ^
Agree and who gives a shit if a bunch of TV suits determine the game to be a “rivalry”. That’s the dumbest argument I’ve heard for not playing them.
October 25th, 2019 at 2:59 PM ^
Makes no sense.
A B1G champ with only 1 loss to Notre Dame is getting in the CFP unless there are 4 undefeated teams which is highly unlikely.
It's actually a great chance to test the team early with plenty of chances to make up for an L.
October 25th, 2019 at 3:08 PM ^
Oh yes, and after an early Notre Dame loss, dickheads here can call for Harbaugh's removal.
October 25th, 2019 at 3:23 PM ^
We've had five years of the College Football Playoff. People can disagree with this, but actions speak louder than words and we've seen what the committee values. These the factors they look at and in this order:
- Power Five/Notre Dame status.
- Number of losses.
- Nature of losses.
- Nature of wins.
- Eye test/everything else.
We know Michigan fits the first factor automatically, so the number one factor to making the Playoff for the Wolverines is losing as few games as possible. We can debate after that, but the evidence is overwhelming at this point. They don't care about who you play and where. They care about how many times you lose. You don't even get to be in the Playoff discussion unless you finish with two losses or less. It doesn't matter if you played the most brutal schedule out there. If you lose three or more games, you're toast.
From my perspective, the AD should be doing everything in its power to increase the chances Michigan is in that discussion at season's end. We don't even get to debate the nature of losses or wins, unless Michigan can first get to two or fewer losses. Just look at Minnesota. The Gophers could realistically enter the final week of the regular season with Playoff hopes, even if they drop a game before then. In large part because they've played nobody.
Scheduling Notre Dame over a generic team undeniably increases the chances that Michigan loses another game. Take this scenario for instance. Let's just look at this year. Say Michigan had pulled off the comeback last week and enters this weekend with one loss. Let's say they lose to Notre Dame, win out, and then miss the Playoff with an 11-2 overall record. If Michigan had played (and beaten) CMU instead of Notre Dame, they'd make the Playoff. That's a clear self-inflicted wound.
Moreover, I agree with you. If Michigan loses to Notre Dame in non-con play and then wins out, Michigan probably makes the Playoff. However, if Michigan plays (and beats) CMU instead of Notre Dame and wins out, the result is virtually guaranteed to be the same. You lose out on the "fun" of playing Notre Dame, but your Playoff chances are certainly better.
October 25th, 2019 at 3:49 PM ^
This take is absolutely wrong unless you have the philosophy that all non playoff seasons are a failure, and 3-5 consecutive failures need to result in all coaches being fired.
October 25th, 2019 at 4:07 PM ^
No, the number factor is being a P5 conference champ, by far.
Until we're one of those that also gets left out of the playoffs, worrying about whether our non-conf SoS was too easy or two difficult is totally insane.
Play fun games. Not doing that to increase our chances of making the playoffs from 0.5% to 0.6% (theoretically) is not making decisions on the margin which is what we should be doing.
October 25th, 2019 at 4:38 PM ^
Um... just in 2016 OSU made the playoffs over PSU, despite PSU being the B1G Championship that year
October 25th, 2019 at 2:37 PM ^
I have the same concern it this would be a very stupid move by Michigan. I'm sure there will an announcement right before kickoff.
Michigan always has to do things the hard way.
October 25th, 2019 at 2:43 PM ^
Take a look at ND’s OOC schedule those years.
October 25th, 2019 at 2:55 PM ^
Yup, and it fits exactly with Michigan's schedule.
October 25th, 2019 at 2:29 PM ^
Fuck this shit. They didn’t replace UCLA for those games. They trying to put notre dame on the schedule both 22 and 23. Fucking bullshit
October 25th, 2019 at 2:29 PM ^
This is good. Now do the Washington series.
October 25th, 2019 at 2:30 PM ^
Screw that. I am looking forward to those games.
October 25th, 2019 at 3:59 PM ^
As am I. I'd actually like to visit the Washington stadium sometime for a home night game. Pictures look pretty amazing.
October 25th, 2019 at 2:30 PM ^
I really liked the idea of playing Arkansas, VT, and UCLA, and they killed all that stuff.
But, Rutgers every year.
Fuck what the college football landscape has become.
October 25th, 2019 at 2:39 PM ^
UCLA, maybe at best, but Arkansas and VT? Those games do nothing to elevate the M program/brand.
October 25th, 2019 at 3:06 PM ^
Winning in the conference and the postseason is the only thing left to do to elevate our brand.
October 25th, 2019 at 5:56 PM ^
Dave, is that you? I don't care about elevating the brand, I want to see interesting P5 matchups. I think we should play Notre Dame like two out of three years, but I don't want a steady parade of B1G/ND/MAC every damn year. Nor, for that matter, East Carolina.
October 25th, 2019 at 4:00 PM ^
Can we kick Rutgers out and tell Mizzou we'll take them in after all? I mean Mizzou isn't a power house but they're a heck of a lot better than Rutgers.
October 25th, 2019 at 7:51 PM ^
Umm you know your beloved Mizzou is on probation and not even bowl eligible this year and you want to bring THAT team into the conference huh.
October 25th, 2019 at 2:32 PM ^
Interesting, as we were just talking about this the other day, Notre Dame Home and Home announcement coming? Hope not!
October 25th, 2019 at 2:34 PM ^
Now do the same thing with Washington, Texas, and Oklahoma.
October 25th, 2019 at 3:18 PM ^
I kinda want to go to that Washington game next year though...
October 25th, 2019 at 7:10 PM ^
Me too, and I believe I am going. Friends went to UW...tailgating on a boy, sign me up
October 25th, 2019 at 2:36 PM ^
Honestly, given as big of a dumpster fire as UCLA is right now, is it possible they wanted out of the series, too.
This sucks I much prefer interesting non-conference match-ups rather than let's beat up indistinguishable baby seal match-up #3. That's what Rutgers is for.
Sad day and if this is being done to lube up the schedule so we can bend over for Notre Dame Yet-a-goddamn-gain. Count me out.