UM inside sources say Washington and Ark State definitely off the schedule, remainder will be regional
Very interesting article by Michael Spath over at SI. He's evidently been in touch with some inside sources at UM. It sounds like while football is expected to happen at UM, the schedule will not proceed as currently planned, and there are potentially significant changes across the Big Ten.
The whole article is worth the read, as he got input from both the athletic and faculty perspectives, but here's his summary of his key takeaways:
I expect Michigan to play football this fall.
• I expect that U-M will play fewer than the 12 games on its schedule and that the trip to Washington and the Arkansas State game will be either canceled outright or replaced by Mid-American Conference opponents.
• I expect Michigan to play at least one home-and-home and potentially two or more with other Big Ten teams, most likely Michigan State, Indiana and Ohio State. I expect Notre Dame to be a very real possibility as a fill-in game because of the location and access via buses.
• I expect that if Michigan holds in-person classes student-athletes will be required to attend them just like normal students, however, I do believe that there will be specific student-athlete dorms on campus, with all the fall sports teams (including upperclassmen) to live in the dorms.
• I expect at least one Big Ten program not to play football this fall and as many as four or five. I think there is a chance for a four-team Big Ten championship bout to be played in December with the teams staying put in one city/hotel all two weeks.
• I expect the other fall sports, field hockey, golf, soccer and cross country to play but have entirely regional schedules with no flights whatsoever. I'm not sure about volleyball.
• I don't expect fans to be in attendance at any sporting event that is not football.
Note: I am posting this from mobile and hoping the formatting isn't awful. If it is, I apologise in advance.
Great post! From one cell poster to another, you killed it.
Terrific summary. Thanks.
Woo-hoo! 9-1, baby!
LOL at playing Ohio State twice. I would be open to it if was definitely the first game of the season.
With UM breaking in a new oline and a new QB, the first game might be the worst time to play OSU.
Anytime is the worst time to play OSU....
Agreed! What if we end up playing them 3 times (that is if we make it to the championship)?
If it were guaranteed to lose the first two but win the third and take the conference title? I’d still take it.
Seeing this comment and the 22 net upvotes makes me really sad! We use to play them .500, but the recent lopsided and consistent string of losses has turned much of this fanbase into accepting our 2nd class status in the B1G. FUCK!
And you are just realizing this? This makes me sad.
Well they used to be quite a bit worse as a program. They’re on another level, we’re on the same level we’ve always been.
We really don't have a choice other than “accepting it.” Nothing we do as fans can change it. Being mad about it and bitching and moaning won’t all of a sudden change it. It pretty much is what it is. So we either accept it or become miserable humans. Because it ain’t gonna change.
Michigan doesn’t have the ability to do what would have to be done to create a level playing field. Nor do we have the chops to break the necessary rules to do so either. The fact of the matter is, in this era of college football, Michigan IS a 2nd class program. And there’s really nothing we can do about it due to our built in disadvantages and our pride in doing things the right way.
Win 9 or 10 games a year, graduate players, no scandals. That's what the admin wants and that's what they are getting.
We are NOT on the same level even when ignoring THEEEEE ohio game.
Harbaugh has not won a single road game against a good opponent in his 5 years other than the 1st bowl game. We do not beat a good ped state, Wiscy, or MSU team on the road when they are reasonably good.
The playoff has redefined 1st class programs. Alabama, Clemson, Oklahoma and Ohio State are the only 1st class programs. Nobody else has more than 1 appearance since the playoff started. Those programs have monopolized recruiting. After beating OSU, the next best thing that can happen to M football is an expansion to 8 teams in the playoff.
I'm not sure how much if any of Hintz's post I agree with, but we definitely are not "same level we've always been"!!!
EVERY starting QB in the 90s went on to at minimum a fair NFL career (multiple starts for Elvis, Henson & Dreisbach), some to distinguished accomplishments (Griese won the passer title in '99), to careers lasting a decade+ (T. Collins) to the FUCKING GOAT ?!!!
So Michigan is not same as it ever was! Since Henson bolted the only Michigan QB to start a game in the NFL is Henne, who has had a lesser career than Todd Collins (got a ring tho!)
I disagree!
The time to play osu is at 11am in W. Lafayette, where they roll in thinking they're playing Purdue, but Michigan shows up instead.
And they don't know it until warmups! Hell, maybe even til kickoff!
Element of surprise has won many of the greatest victories in history!
Yeah but to be honest OSU has a track record of starting off looking not so great. We have been getting keeled in game 12 so why not try to not die in game 1? ?♂️
I'm going to be honest, I actually am kind of looking forward to a weird odd ball schedule where we can pummel MSU twice in one year and then get hopefully not pummeled by OSU twice. Maybe most would disagree, but I hope this all works out. And I'm totally fine with Michigan and other sports playing this season. But I'm also not the ones playing. I won't be surprised if quite a few players sit out this season, although most of these guys have a career to play for so who knows.
When did they start off not looking good other than VTech? They haven't lost more than 1 or 2 games in decades hold 2011.
I don’t put much faith in anything Spath says. I find a lot of this hard to believe. If anything we will cut down on OOC games and add a BIG team not already on the schedule rather then playing teams twice. Not really sure how being on buses for a couple of hours is safer then being on a plane for an hour or so. I don’t see us adding ND either. Figure a 10 game conference schedule and that’s all.
Unfortunately, my wife and I cancelled our long planned trip to Washington around the game. We were going to several national parks, Seattle, and Victoria BC. Oh well. It will happen in a future year.
Ouch. Great attitude. Get it in a future year. It sounds like you planned a great trip.
Glacier is pretty much shut down with no chance of the eastern side beyond Logan's pass opening up for the season. Badlands is open along with a few things around Rushmore. Wind cave is closed. Not a bad idea to have cancelled.
Went to Glacier for the first time last summer. Amazing. One of the most beautiful places in the US by far.
My wife and I had a trip to Glacier planned for August, followed by the game in Washington. We cancelled all of our reservations last week.
Very disappointing--we had been targeting this vacation for about 3 years, from the day they announced the Washington game. We will get to Glacier next year, but it won't be the same (for me at least) without the football game in Seattle at the end.
It would have been our fourth National Park + Michigan Football vacation (2013 - Grand Canyon + BWW Bowl; 2015 - Yellowstone + Grand Teton + at Utah; 2016 - Everglades + Orange Bowl). Given our track record with the football games, maybe it's for the best.
https://destinationbainbridge.com/what-to-do-on-bainbridge-island/
Carve out a day and night to take the ferry to Bainbridge Island. Super cool.
Except for the damn seagulls... when my wife and I went there it was horrible. I watched a seagull steal a man’s sandwich while he was in the process of putting it in his mouth.
Mine. Mine. Mine.
My Sophomore year in college we go to Ft Myers for spring break. We make plans to meet up with a group of Senior girls one of whom was extraordinarily hot and I had a crush on since my freshman year.
So we meet up at the beach and said our hellos and I strategically put my beach chair right next to hers. Everything was perfect. I pop open a cold beer and seagull decides to drop a monster white shit squarely on my chest. Ten people with jaws dropped staring at me
I just said it seems hot already I think I’m going to go for a swim. Sad to say the week never worked out like I had hoped. Can’t win em all.
Are you Pony Conquerer?
/s
Your story reads like something he would post.
Ouch...Hey now I had my share of success as well.
Yep, I had the Seattle/Washington trip in the books for over 5 years. Was going to fly in from Detroit with my best friend and his wife and spend a week there (her sister and husband live outside Seattle)... was going to do the same.
Oh darn. I'm so disappointed to not have to play at Washington.....
/s
I live in Seattle and there are a ton of fellow Michigan alumni here. I have a feeling we could have done our part to make it a friendly atmosphere for Michigan. Sucks. I moved out here 5 years ago and had this date circled the entire time.
It would not matter if Washington became friendly confines M always and forever struggles on the west coast.
I’ve been in Seattle for 18 years and was planning to fly out family and buy as many tickets as humanly possible to support the team. I’ve been giddy for this game since the day it was scheduled. My nephew is even now in the UM marching band and it was going to be epic. Thanks a lot, covid.
Yeah that sucks Jack
Beating a PAC 12 team on the road would have been great for Harbaugh’s reputation. Michigan was is the better team and had great odds to beat them. I don’t know why you wouldn’t want that.
Please let the big ten team we play multiple times be msu lol
Just play that game twelve times.
Seems like a good time for Warde to speak with the new head of the conference about fixing the schedule with Sparty not being in sync with an ohio state university for home/away games.
I would NOT count on Ma nuel..His prescense has been underwhelming
This is a terrible idea, people must stop talking about it. MSU is done. We'll beat them by 3 touchdowns minimum for the next, say, 7 years?
Tucker is doomed:
- bad recruiting for the last several years of Dantonio
- his first team has no experience and no QB; almost all of their good players graduated/left
- they were mediocre the last several years with their best coach ever and an experienced roster
- no one has any idea who Tucker is, so his recruiting - the thing he's supposed to be good at - is a non-entity at this point
- who the hell wants to go to Sparty and lose to Michigan, OSU, and PSU every year?
- any player in-state who doesn't want to go to Michigan is hardly even giving them a look
- if there's football this year, the guy is going to have like 5 minutes to introduce himself to the team, install a new offense, install a new defense, learn the fight song, then run out of the locker room and play the first game
- they're changing the one thing they could rely on for years, the quarters defensive scheme... they're losing the one thing that reliably gave them an advantage
- They have a brutal schedule this year, for them. Not for a good team, but for them. Northwestern, Miami, and BYU will beat them. That's 1-3 to start
- Then they have @Iowa, Michigan, OSU, @Indiana, Minnesota, @PSU. That's 6 losses in a row. 1-9.
- Then Maryland and Rutgers, but at that point who gives a fuck
- How do you think recruiting is going to go after their team goes 3-9?
- MSU fans will abandon the team with zealotry, with a lot of "we suck ass bro" and turning to the basketball team
- A shit roster, two shit recruiting classes, a 3-9 season, Michigan/OSU/PSU embarrassing you on the field, fans completely sick of you by the end of year 2. He can't recover from that. He'll get 4 seasons and be out. If he makes it to a bowl in one of those years somehow, he'll get 5.
- Next coach needs at least 2 years to dig out of it
It's all over people. You won't even be that interested in the games. I know a bunch of you will say "after all those years of Dantonio I'll never take it for granted blah blah", but you will. Probably already have. Invite your Sparty friend to a game in AA, or buy his seats in EL when he says he doesn't want the Michigan game - "but we'll see you in Breslin har har har!" It'll be a good time, a fun afternoon. You'll get a butt clench or two in the next 7 years, that's about it.
PSU is the team that needs to be opposite OSU, and they are. Schedule is fine as it is.
Here's what Brandon thought when he didn't fight the schedule: "This is Michigan", we'll beat MSU back into the box, so it won't matter if OSU is in the same year as MSU. It was false bravado on his part because he and Hoke couldn't get it done. But Harbaugh has, and it's going to last a long time.
I agree 100%. PSU is a way bigger threat. Leave the schedule as is.
I hope this turns out better than your assertions that OSU was going to lose at least three games last season and that Fields was going to hold them back.
I do too.
By the way I'm not embarrassed by those posts in any way. I did my research, I made a call, I wrote about it and will gladly admit that I was wrong. How Kirby Smart let a QB like that off his team for Jake Fromm is a great mystery of life, I didn't know that Ryan Day was probably the best play caller in college football, and that Schiano really did completely limit OSU's defensive talent with an overly complex scheme (I trusted that Urban Meyer - one of the best college coaches of all time - wouldn't allow that to happen). I learned. Maybe like Brian learned after he wrote "Rows of Teeth". Do you expect that everyone will be correct in every analytic they do?
What post did you put yourself out there for?
You're off-base, Bodo:
"...Michigan/OSU/PSU embarrassing you on the field..."
What? You think losses to Minnesoota, Indiana, Miami, NW, and a crappy BYU wouldn't be embarrassing? LOL!!! Your post losses credibility!
(If you're the guy that needs this: '/s'; then this /s is for you...)
Week 1 should absolutely be EMU. They are scheduled to play at Kentucky. Get a team literally in your backyard for Week 1 and analyze how it goes.
Week 3 may be worth a game vs ND or just throw a bye in before the B1G season.
The obvious guess for which B1G team sits out the season is Northwestern. I can’t see any of the public universities shutting down absent a major incidence of cases.
I think CMU has an opening week 1.
Assuming we play ND in 2020, it should be at Michigan Stadium as compensation for ND ending and re-starting the series in South Bend.