Which schools demise (other than OSU) could propel Michigan football forward?

Everyone

All 3 of those schools could get the death penalty, and I still am not sure that would equal the benefit of an OSU demise

University of Chicago. 

The entire premise of this question is total cringe.  The idea that Michigan needs some other school to fail, in order for their program to get better, is just not a conversation that I'm interesting in having.  Get better, beat your rivals, win the B1G.  The end.

If wisconsin sucked that would have sure been nice the last two years. That's also probably the most likely opponent in Indy.

Rutgers

The University of Phoenix...it's obvious

It is a bitter pill to swallow thinking that UM's ceiling is tied to anyone's demise, but we're at that point with OSU. UM should be a power based solely on it's own abilities and results. Downturns in programs that recruit similarly and play UM regularly likely give everyone around them a bump. There is no one other than OSU that is worth talking about. Every other benefit is fairly general and could apply to a few programs and would benefit many others. Focus on what can be controlled is my preference.

Notre Dame/PSU/MSU are the main ones. Schools we most frequently compete directly with for recruits (ND/PSU) and schools who hate us and can spoil our trajectory (MSU)

Notre Dame is our primary competitor for top recruits in the upper Midwest who are academically-inclined.

Penn State is our primary competitor in the B1G East for both recruits and standings, other than the school that shall not be named.

I think those are the only two options. Michigan State plays us tough but is irrelevant from a recruiting perspective. Wisconsin isn't even in our division and doesn't recruit the same players.

Lannister 

Penn State and Notre Dame are the two schools Michigan recruits directly against most often, so it’s those two with a bullet imo 

Slippery Rock.  No reason at all but I decided to think outside of the box

It’s hard to exclude OSU when OSU is really the only answer.

Sure, Penn State, Wisconsin, ND, and MSU are all acceptable replacement answers, but OSU has a much larger impact on Michigan than all of the other schools combined.

A poor OSU allows Michigan to go into Ohio and poach many more high-end recruits and also allows Michigan to win the matchup much more often. These two factors alone equate to probably a half-dozen or more big ten titles since 2005, and Michigan being a perennial CFP team.

In addition, just having a slightly closer to average OSU team (9-3 - 10-2) that is nearly on equal footing with Michigan probably results in enough wins in the series that Michigan isn’t associated with “those losers cant beat their rival” by everyone/media. That would be a huge mental barrier being removed from the minds of fans, players, and recruits. 

None of these schools demise benefits michigan unfortunately. Everyone of these programs have gone through some serious rebuilds but it didn’t seem to have any effect on us. If we want to get to the top we need to take it ourselves not wait until everyone else around us stink. Alabama didn’t wait until lsu and Florida stunk. They rose up and snatched the SEC themselves by defeating both teams on and off the field. Ohio state rose to the top by building their program with an elite coaching staff and not settling for average. They could have kept an “Ohio state man” but they went after the golden goose and got Meyer. We need to do the same. We need a coach who is the best possible candidate regardless of his ties to the program. In 2014 that candidate was Jim Harbaugh without a doubt. Today he is not. Keeping him right now is just prolonging the inevitable. I can be patient but if harbaugh doesn’t succeed the longer he stays here the more damaging it will be to the program. I really hope I’m wrong. I will be the first to admit it if I am. We need an elite coach. We do not have that at the moment.

OSU, Notre Dame, Penn State

Hogwarts. That school just hasn't been the same without Dumbledore. Thanks a lot, Snape (spoiler alert).

Illinois. It's always been Illinois. They're our chief rival in all things. Michigan will not see success without the fall of the great Illini.

Michigan doesn't need someone to fail to ensure their success on the football field. Michigan needs a team environment instead of an individual success type team environment. Our new defensive coordinator has already mentioned this and that it has to occur. This is a big difference between programs like Wisky, OSU, Alabama, and so on. They have great players but those great players want to WIN as a team. Look at Alabama when they played in the bowl game against Michigan. How many of their superstars sat that game out? They wanted to beat Michigan and build on the next season and it led to a National Championship. Yes, it is true that many of the schools cheat to get players but Michigan has a hell of a lot to sell a kid on and Michigan had excellent recruiting classes during Harbaugh's tenure. No excuses from Ann Arbor. If Notre Dame can make the playoffs and even play for a National Championship then there is NO reason that Michigan cannot do the same. Notre Dame's success under Kelly stops all of the whining cheaters arguments on this board. Harbaugh's leadership style has been Michigan's problem. Ridiculous coaching hires and keeping on coaches who are stubborn and lazy coupled with their failure to develop players is keeping Michigan from the top slots. Michigan needs to learn how to win and quit relying on the past glories instead of hoping someone fails to help them. Beat Ohio State on the field instead of hoping they become weak. If Purdue can whip their ass in one game then so can Michigan. Ohio State does have SOME better players but the are coached and prepared 1000% better than Michigan has ever been. They expect to win. Michigan shows up when they want to and that is COACHING. Let's hope that changes this year

OSU, ND, PSU, Stanford, USC, Clemson, MSU.  

If AL, GA, Ole Miss, TN and the rest of the SEC couldn't pay players that would be helpful too.

But I agree with others that you need to be better than the opponents rather than hoping that they crumble.

I agree with the playoff field expansion being the key. Until it’s expanded we can expect Bama, Clemson, OSU, and a fourth from a group of others.

Elite high school players want to play with other elite players and they want to win championships. If you go to Alabama, Clemson, or OSU you’re practically guaranteed to compete for titles.- Expand the field and add a little competitive balance at the top. Instead of 3 or 4 teams with a shot at the title, you could have up to 10, maybe 12 teams competing.

PSU since going there is almost an automatic L and they like to recruit the Detroit area. If we could run the table with a close loss to OSU, that almost guarantees some consideration for a CFP spot. At least that's how it goes in the SEC.

This requires a lot of thought with not much upside for sarcastic or funny commentary.

Can we move on?

Alabama:

• Dee Hart
• Deshawn Hand
• Alex Leatherwood
• Najee Harris

And probably others I'm forgetting.

None of them.  It's all on how we handle our own damn business.  We have substantially out-recruited all those programs since Harbaugh's arrival.  The only reason we're on par with them is that we can't get out of our own way.

If OSU has an underperforming decade, that would drag them down to the PSU, MSU, Wisc level, and it would come down to, again, handling our own damn business.  If OSU stays where they are at, we have only a "puncher's chance" of upsetting them in a year when (hopefully) we took care of business against the rest of the B1G.

Our fate, dear Brutus, is not in our stars but in ourselves.

No, it's all about OSU falling off the table in order for Michigan to benefit. We'd get more recruits out of Ohio as well as other regions. We'd beat OSU 9 out of 10 years and greatly improve our chances to win B1G titles and go to the playoffs. Our guys can beat PSU, ND & Wisc about every other year as it stands nowadays.

Sorry, but nothing really matters unless OSU Football were to collapse. This is not a pipe dream but as a matter of fact to this hypothetical.

OSU is directly the cause of Michigan not playing for conference championships.  Being in the same division as OSU means we can't go to the BIG Championship without beating them.  Fun fact....Paul Chryst has been at Wisconsin for the exact same length of time as Harbaugh has been at Michigan.  They both have an 0-5 record vs OSU, but Paul Chryst is considered successful, because of BIG Championship game appearances.  That's simply because OSU isn't in their division.  Harbaugh and Michigan don't get that luxury.  They certainly don't get OSU overlooking them.  OSU always brings their A game, against Michigan.

It's mathematically impossible for Michigan to lose to OSU and go to the BIG Championship, without OSU losing to 2 other BIG teams.  This version of the OSU program isn't losing two games (Non Michigan) in the BIG.

The perfect example is the 2018 team (which gets overlooked, for some reason, when people talk about Harbaugh’s tenure).  They were undefeated in the BIG, going into the OSU game.  They lost to OSU, and OSU went on to play in the BIG Championship game.

Unlike when Bo, Gary, or Lloyd were here....they can't share BIG Championships simply because they have the same record.  That way of determining conference championships is LOOOOONG gone.  The only way is for Michigan to beat the OSU juggernaut.

So.....OSU "coming back down to Earth" would be #1 in the Michigan Success formula.