The Big Ten has announced times for the first three weeks of its teams’ seasons, and an additional one. Michigan’s games are as follows:

September 5 v. Western Michigan. 3:30, ABC.
September 12 v. Notre Dame. 3:30, ABC.
September 19 v. Eastern Michigan. 12, BTN.
October 31 @ Illinois 3:30 (2:30 local) ABC.

On top of that, we already know that the Iowa game will be played under the lights in Kinnick on ABC or ESPN.

Somewhat surprising that the Western game made it onto ABC, but I guess the network executives are expecting a pretty good game. The Notre Dame and Eastern times/channels are no-brainers.

I believe BTN rule is that each team must appear on the network 3 time during the season, with at least one of the appearances being a conference game. That leaves two games remaining in Michigan’s schedule that will be headed for BTN. I wouldn’t be shocked if the Indiana game, already announced to be played at noon, ends up there, especially if the Hoosiers are as bad as everyone (including me) predicts, and Michigan struggles to start the year.

That leaves (at least) one more game to be sent to the Big Ten Network, and Delaware State is a no-brainer for that one. If Purdue is as terrible as it appears they will be, the contest against the Boilermakers is likely to be sent there as well. Still, in a year that Michigan is expected to go through some growing pains, having 3 games already announced to be on ABC, another one (Iowa) likely, and Ohio State a mortal lock to be on netowrk is a pretty good accomplishment.

Posted under Football, Media

I sure hope so. Michigan should invite the Boise State Broncos to Ann Arbor on September 4th, 2010 to open the newly renovated Big House.

This comes somewhat out of left field, and isn’t even a rumor at this point, so much as it’s a suggestion, and from the most unlikely of sources. Idaho Statesman columnist Brian Murphy posted a recent news item – if you can call it that – about Boise State’s future non-conference schedules. A commenter suggested they travel to Michigan Stadium for the opener in 2010, and this thing has taken of like wildfire.

Of course, that comment wasn’t the source of everyone’s idea – Boise State athletic director Gene Bleymaier said Boise would start thinking about guarantee games to fill its OOC schedule and pad the pocketbooks. ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg picked up on it, along with Brian at MGoBlog. Seeing as how the Michigan athletic department has no problem with paying out guarantee money to get more home games in each season, and they’re still raking in the cash, it’s a match made in heaven: They get their home game without having to promise a return visit, and fans get a living, brething opponent that is respected on a national scale.

Brian’s post lists a number of other teams with openings in their schedule on September 4th, and Boise seems like the best realistic possibility.

Posted under Football

Hey, ESPN is talking about the same thing this week. I guess that’s as good a time as any to publish this post that’s been sitting in the drafts for a while.

The internet age in sports has led to, among other things, lots of whining and hand-wringing by fans who otherwise wouldn’t have had an outlet to express their feelings. Among college football fans in particular, there are a couple topics that seem to really hit home: 1) The BCS, and 2) The downward trend in scheduling among high-major conference teams. So, since the offseason is time to cure all the world’s ills, what should be done to rectify item #2?

• The NCAA, via its rule changes over the years, is implicit in the consistent scheduling of 1-AA teams. In 1978, the NCAA’s Division 1 separated into 1-A and 1-AA subdivisions, in order to have 2 more level playing fields. The thought was that 1-AA schools were not able to compete on the same level as 1-A schools. So, why can teams from the two subdivision play each other? I have no idea. Take it away. Better yet, allow teams to play 1-AA schools, but don’t count wins against lower-division teams towards bowl eligibility or BCS standings. If Texas Tech can’t count its 2 games against FCS opponents last year towards the BCS standings, they don’t stand a chance against either Oklahoma or Texas in the computers. Better yet, they have an incentive to schedule teams with (slightly more of) a pulse. If Sun Belt teams can’t bolster their bowl hopes against 1-aa tomato cans, the chain reaction will follow that they won’t sign themselves up to be sacrificed to teams with BCS aspirations nearly as often, because they won’t be able to trade off a sure loss for a sure win.
• Michigan has sold out its entire stadium for what seems like forever, and will continue to do so forever into the future, barring more 2008-esque years (knock on wood). However, other BCS-conference schools do not sell out their stadiums for every game. Why don’t they schedule big-name opponents in order to draw more fans, and by extension, more money? The short answer is that they’re not getting all the money. Revenue sharing deals within conferences are a way to enhance NFL-like parity (ugh, don’t even get me started on that), and level the playing field somewhat within a conference. However, they also provide a disincentive to schedule good opponents. Indiana scheduled Murray State in 2008, which drew 30,123 fans in their stadium, which has a capacity of 49,255. So, why don’t they schedule, say, Oklahoma and fill those other 19k+ seats? Because they only get an eleventh of the money from those extra fans, and they’re willing to sacrifice most of that money for a potential win towards bowl eligbility. They’ll still get their 1/11th of Michigan’s money, and 1/11th of Penn State and Ohio State’s (those three all fell in the top 4 in attendance last year). The same goes for TV money. ESPN is undoubtedly willing to pay schools big money to play compelling games, but why bother when nobody else is doing it, and you get less than 10% of the money?
• Speaking of ESPN, they (along with other media outlets) could certainly hold a lot of power in this situation. On top of paying the big bucks for out-of-conference matchups on TV, they also have the ability to direct the conversations in college football. Does Florida make the 2006 championship game if they don’t have the CBS announcers spouting them as “teh greatest team of EVAR” each week after Michigan falls to Ohio State? ESPN perpetuates the mostly meaningless memes that the SEC and Big 12 are head-and-shoulders better than the rest of the conferences. This rhetoric actually affects those who vote in the AP and Harris polls, if only because they don’t have the time to watch every game, and simply believe what they hear talking heads say. If ESPN were to make it taboo to play a weak schedule, and talk down on teams that schedule 1-AA opponents, there could be actual penalties on the table for those who do choose lower-division opponents. Add in the fact that this would lead to more marquee out-of-conference games, and more money for ESPN and ABC’s primetime broadcasts, and you have a win-win situation for the media.
• I’m not the biggest advocate in the world for a playoff (though I do favor a limited one), but it certainly would remove excuses for teams to schedule cupcakes non-conference schedules. If one loss knocks you out of the national title discussion, coaches and athletic directors are going to do whatever it takes to ensure they finish their season without a loss (which didn’t help Auburn in 2004, of course). If that means scheduling The Citadel, Western Carolina, and the like, then so be it. Of course, if a single loss wasn’t a crippling blow to a national title run, that wouldn’t be necessary. If computers took into greater a team’s account strength of schedule, it would help as well. That could hurt teams that try to schedule tough and end up with Notre Dame 2007 on their schedule, but them’s the ropes: only 1 team can win a national title each year.

What else could be done by the various powers-that-be (NCAA, conferences, media, etc.) to help encourage good out-of-conference scheduling?

Posted under Football

Not sure I’ve ever tried executing one of these, so let’s give it a try. Potential talking points:

• MCLA final v. Chapman may be the game of the year.
• Kelvin Grady on the football field (omg does he have a scholarship?)
• Dann O’Neill leaves the Michigan football team
• Basketball to play Kansas, Utah, UConn, BC this year
• Homecoming game v. Indiana scheduled for noon
• Anything else posted about (or not) this week

Let’s get it on.

Posted under Basketball, Football

Yeah, I’m in Ohio (yes, this is unfortunate, and no, I don’t think they have such things as “driver education programs” here), so I might be a little behind on breaking news, what with internet uncertainty and such.

I encourage you to check out any of the plethora of other great Michigan blogs until I return on Sunday-ish. I’ll still be posting in the meantime, perhaps not so much with timeliness.

By the way, softball prevailed over Alabama 6-1 in the first round of the WCWS. They’ll take on the winner of Arizona and Florida at 9PM Eastern tomorrow on ESPN.

Posted under Football, Other Sports

The Free Press reports today (via the Boston Herald) that the University of Massachusetts will likely be slated for the 2010 season opener in Michigan Stadium, the first game after the completion of the renovation project. Since the game is more than an entire season away, a full-on Googlestalk might be a bit much, but here’s some baseline information on the Minutemen:

The UMass Minutemen play in the Colonial Athletic Association, and have competed in various other conferences (which were apparently other incarnations of the same conference, in effect) in football. They have some degree of success over the years, having captured a National Title in 1998, and losing to Appalachian State in the 2006 Championship Game. Last year, they went 7-5, and lost to both 1-A teams on their schedule, Kansas State and Texas Tech. In 2009, they again play a road game at Kansas State.

Mark Snyder also points out annoyingly, and with horrible sentence structure at the end of his article that playing FCS teams is a pattern for Michigan, as they have played 3 of them since Division I split up. This is stupid, because it’s far less of a pattern than, say, almost every other school in America (save certain outliers like Southern Cal), who play a I-AA opponent every single year, and especially those like Texas Tech and Kansas State, who play multiple in a single year (I swear I wrote this paragraph before looking up UMass’s 2008 schedule. Funny how sometimes Actual Facts back up Perceptions in a ridiculously coincidental and awesome way). Gee, I wonder why newspapers are failing so spectacularly? Hmm… Nothing against Snyder, because he’s typically one of the better UM beatwriters, but Jesus Christ is that assertion stupid. In fact, looking back on it, the whole article is written very, very poorly. A wag of the finger to you, Mr. Snyder!

Posted under Football

…of course, it’s for a road game. This is actually fairly old news, but when the Wolverines travel to Iowa City on October 10th, they wont take the field until nighttime, according to Kirk Ferentz at his press conference last week:

Ferentz said Iowa will be playing three night games during Big Ten play: at Penn State (Sept. 26), vs. Michigan (Oct. 10) and at Michigan State (Oct. 24). 

Members of a certain subset of Michigan fans are undoubtedly saying “How come they’ll play 3, and we aren’t even willing to play a home night game once!” Stay calm, fans (and stop with the idiotic petitioning), it will happen sooner or later, and you’re wasting your breath for now, as the earliest Michigan will play a home night game is when the stadium renovation is complete for the 2010 season.

Posted under Football

If teams didn’t play 1-AA schools, here are some intriguing matchups (or not-so-intriguing, but certainly better than Alcorn State) that could have been. I only matched teams that played on the same day, so with some restructuring (pairing a Thursday 1-AA game with a Saturday 1-AA game), the schedule could have been even better. Also, the matchups I picked were mostly aribtrary, though often I tried to get the #1 v. #2 out of the teams from different conferences, and worked my way down.

August 28
Iowa State-Ball State
Central Michigan-UConn
Eastern Michigan-Georgia Tech
Miami (FL)-Cincinnati

August 30
LSU-Oklahoma
Ohio State-BYU
Penn State-Texas Tech
Iowa-Central Florida
Georgia-West Virginia
Air Force-Boise State
Navy-Maryland
Marshall-Duke
UNC-Arkansas
South Florida-Arizona State
Houston-San Jose State
Nevada-San Diego State

September 6
Illinois-UVa
Purdue-Colorado
Army-Florida State
Virginia Tech-Mississippi State
Louisville-Colorado State
Clemson-Missouri
Kentucky-Indiana (Why the hell didn’t they play this year?)
NC State-Baylor
Arkansas State
TCU-Kansas State
SMU-Hawaii
Western Kentucky
Idaho

*Idaho and Western Kentucky were left out because they played presumed rivals Idaho State and Eastern Kentucky, respectively.

September 13
Northwestern-Wyoming
Minnesota-Ole Miss
Oklahoma State-Florida State
Kent State-Troy
Miami (OH)

September 20
Northern Illinois-UAB
Syracuse-Memphis
Texas Tech-Washington State
Kansas-South Carolina
Western Kentucky-Western Michigan
Louisiana Tech

September 27
Boston College-Utah
Rutgers-Tulsa
Ohio

October 4
New Mexico State

October 11
Georgia Tech

November 8
Auburn

November 22
Florida-Wisconsin

What should the NCAA do to encourage (or force) better matchups? Allow 1-A teams to play against lower-division squads, but not count it toward bowl eligibility.

Posted under Misc.

Though Lloyd Carr was always in favor of a bye week during the season, he also found it important that players be able to spend Thanksgiving with their families.

He is going to be 1 for 2 next year.

The Big Ten will allow for teams to play after Thanksgiving in 2008, which will provide them the opportunity to have a bye week during the season. Michigan’s 2008 season will already have a bye week on Sept. 20 without having to extend past Thanksgiving.

Posted under Misc.

With both Wisconsin and Michigan State doing some flailing, it was up in the air which game next week would fall to the Big Ten Network.

Michigan/Michigan State has been selected by ABC, and OSU/Wisconsin will fall to BTN. This means Michigan’s final three games of the season will be on network television.

Posted under Misc.