Who will replace UCLA in 2022, 2023?
When it was announced that we we were dropping UCLA from the football schedule in 2022 and 2023, most assumed an announcement was coming about a renewal with Notre Dame. An announcement did come, but the ND series will renew in 14 years! Which begs the question: who fills in the gap? In looking at future schedules for other programs, the most intriguing options with open dates and available games slots in those years are Florida State, LSU and Stanford. I'd be happy with any of those as potential opponents. I doubt LSU would play us, but would Harbaugh want to play either FSU or Stanford given his connections with the coaches at each school (assuming FSU doesn't fire Taggart)? Any insider info about who we'll play?
October 28th, 2019 at 12:46 PM ^
What is the advantage of scheduling a top 10 OOC game? If a loss in that game is what ends up keeping us out of a playoff, no one is going to hand out a trophy for having the balls to schedule a tough OOC schedule.
October 28th, 2019 at 1:14 PM ^
Because it makes the sport better? Because it makes the fan experience better?
Because maybe Michigan will get a boost from beating Notre Dame that wouldn't have come from beating East Carolina. Hell, if Michigan had beaten East Carolina 45-14, the board would be in an uproar about how poorly they played.
And, if all you care about is making the playoff: Michigan's last undefeated Big Ten season was... 1997. Prior to that, it was the 9-0-3 (!) 1992 season. The last year that Michigan was uniquely hurt by their out of conference schedule was probably 1991, where they went 10-1 in the regular season, but fell to #1 FSU 51-31 in the Big House. If they'd played a cupcake, to go 11-0, they win Washington's half of the national championship that year. The other half went to Miami, who played nobody except FSU.
So, unless you'd like to bank on a once-every-30-years event, getting a marquee non-conference victory or two, or three, could be what sets Michigan apart from other potential playoff teams.
October 28th, 2019 at 7:28 PM ^
Agreed, Justin. I think that trophy belongs to aTm at the moment (had to do it). What, uh, what's their ranking again?
October 28th, 2019 at 12:30 PM ^
When we are up and running with a definition of who we are and what we do I agree. BUT!!! We don't so scheduling difficult opponents I am not on board with.
This is not a losers mentality... it is a win NOW! mentality which UM needs before uppity people start calling for resignations which lead into a never ending cesspool of mediocrity.
October 28th, 2019 at 1:03 PM ^
Win against cream puffs so we can get exposed against OSU and/or other elite teams in November, December, and January? I say play the toughest schedule possible. If we're truly a title contender, let's prove it. If we beat a quality opponent, then lose 1 in B1G play, the odds of getting into the CFP are higher than if we played EMU or Akron. This is especially true if the B1G is weak in a given year.
October 28th, 2019 at 3:32 PM ^
Let's be clear here as well, Michigan plays Ohio State, Penn State, and Michigan State every season. That alone, most years, is a lot of quality opponents to have on your plate. Figure that of your 3 cross-divisional opponents, at least one of them will be good on the level of Iowa or Wisconsin and you don't need to beef up your OOC schedule all that much to impress the rankings.
October 28th, 2019 at 11:37 AM ^
Fill the open spots with nobodies, schedule is already difficult enough and the playoff committee doesn't give a crap about strength of schedule currently. The only thing that could change that is if they expanded the playoff to conference champions and two wildcards, because then teams might have incentive to schedule tougher if strength of schedule was used for the wildcards.
October 28th, 2019 at 11:57 AM ^
As long as it's not a service academy, I don't care much. It's probably going to be a Group of 5 team though with the conference opener the following week.
October 28th, 2019 at 12:08 PM ^
How the hell is anyone on this site supposed to know the answer?
October 28th, 2019 at 12:11 PM ^
LSU has been known to travel (they did play Wisconsin at Lambeau...which would be the equivalent of playing Michigan at Ford Field...and I would be game for that)
October 28th, 2019 at 12:24 PM ^
I think Lambeau has more seats than their home stadium, so it makes good financial sense. We'd lose over 40,000 seats by moving to Ford Field. Ford Field's capacity is in the mid 60,000-range.
I would love it, but it would seem to make sense to play at FF if it was a directional Michigan school.
October 28th, 2019 at 12:27 PM ^
Wisconsin's stadium holds about the same as Lambeau (although Lambeau has more club seating). Holding the games at NFL stadiums was just the deal they made - the LSU half was played in Houston's NFL stadium.
October 29th, 2019 at 7:05 AM ^
I'd be game for playing LSU, but let's play them in Ann Arbor and then do a game in Baton Rouge. How great would that be? I'd love to take a road trip to Louisiana to see Michigan play the Tigers.
This trend of playing "home" OOC games at NFL sites....I don't get it.
October 28th, 2019 at 12:29 PM ^
I still wouldn't be surprised to see it be Notre Dame. Especially if it would be the international game Harbaugh was talking about.
Michigan vs. Notre Dame in Ireland (or even London) would be a game for the ages.
October 28th, 2019 at 12:36 PM ^
ND has OSU and Clemson those years.
October 28th, 2019 at 1:04 PM ^
So ND can only play two top 25 teams all year? I don't understand this logic. When Michigan schedules games, they don't say, "we got Wisconsin, PSU and OSU those years, we can't add another potential top ten team."
If Michigan had that logic, we'd never play Washington, Texas, or Oklahoma.
October 28th, 2019 at 1:15 PM ^
Sadly, it would surprise nobody if Michigan bailed on Texas and Oklahoma; I think Washington's just locked in due to the fact that the series starts next year.
October 28th, 2019 at 5:31 PM ^
Those are two of the three best programs in the country. They also play Stanford, SC, UNC, BC, etc.
I don’t understand how you can’t grasp why ND wouldn’t schedule another series with UM in that time period.
October 28th, 2019 at 12:46 PM ^
My guess is the international game talked about with a service academy in 2022 and a home game (definite as they need 7) in 2023 with an American conference team (Cincinnati, Memphis, Houston, etc...).
October 28th, 2019 at 12:49 PM ^
Arkansas
October 28th, 2019 at 1:05 PM ^
This.
And then we'll cancel in two years and add Notre Dame.
History repeats itself.
/s
October 28th, 2019 at 1:47 PM ^
So you're saying you want the toughest team available?
How about Michigan plays one of the easy teams that Alabama or Clemson plays, so Michigan gets an easy win too?