I Will Buy a Ticket to the Georgia-Michigan Game with My Social Security Check

by T Kyle King on Jul 30, 2007 7:08 PM EDT in Football Comment 3 comments

Dang the luck!

It has been brought to my attention through a diary by Sean Yuille of Michigan Sports Center and Pride of Detroit fame (and mentioned, as well, in a reader comment) that Michigan and Notre Dame have agreed to a 20-year contract extension, thus perpetuating the series without interruption from now through 2031.

Although Sean isn't any more thrilled about this than I am, at least Sean has the benefit of being a few years younger than I am. The newly-renewed deal between the Maize and Blue and the Fighting Irish will expire after the football season during which I will celebrate my 63rd birthday.

The fact that Michigan athletic director Bill Martin cited the Notre Dame series as a major reason for declining to entertain Damon Evans's overtures, coupled with the general tendency of Big Ten teams to eschew regular-season matchups with S.E.C. opponents, pretty much torpedoes any chance of a home-and-home series between the Bulldogs and the Wolverines anytime soon.

I'm tentatively inclined to begin fighting the good fight once more when the time comes to start making out the 2032 slate, but, by that time, a legitimate question may have arisen. Will we still need them, will we want to beat them, when I'm 64?

For more reaction, please see Maize 'n' Brew, MGoBlog, and Rakes of Mallow.

Go 'Dawgs!

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Michigan's "big" OOC rivals?

I took a cursory glance at UM's schedules the past few years, and it seems that ND is their only "big" annual rival; i.e. the only always-there out-of-conference game.

If that is the case, it seems a pretty poor excuse for being unable to schedule a big-time program like Georgia. In the 11-game days, it might have made sense, but not now. UGA doesn't let the annual GT rivalry prevent the Dawgs from playing one other big-time OOC game per year.

by Jeff on Jul 30, 2007 8:26 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I agree . . .

. . . and Georgia isn't the only one.

Georgia Tech manages to play both Georgia and Notre Dame in the same season. Florida State is playing both Florida and Alabama. Washington will face Boise State and Ohio State on back-to-back Saturdays. Nebraska squares off against the defending A.C.C. champion Demon Deacons and the defending Pac-10 champion Trojans. Oregon has scheduled Michigan and Fresno State.

I know Wolverine fans want another big non-conference game every year---this year, it's the Ducks---but, when it comes to out-of-conference scheduling, Big Ten teams tend to look to the West, Midwest, and Northeast, rather than to the Southwest and Southeast.

Hopefully, the recent Ohio State-Texas series (which vaulted the Buckeyes into the driver's seat for the national title when they beat the Longhorns and which propelled O.S.U. to the B.C.S. even when Jim Tressel's squad registered a "quality loss") will embolden Bill Martin, but I'm not holding my breath.

by T Kyle King on Jul 30, 2007 8:43 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Biggest Problem...

...is the fact that Bill Martin wants Michigan to play as many home games as possible each season. So to do a home and home with anybody like Georgia now-a-days would mean one less home game. The return for a home and home series would be played the year that the ND game is home, but regardless, I unfortunately don't see Michigan passing up that one extra home game.

I know it sounds stupid, and believe me, I think it is, but that's the way Martin sees things. He's been all about the $$$. Rightfully so since he took the athletic department out of debt and now is turning out record profits, but still, losing one home game shouldn't mean anything if it is played on a grand scale like a Michigan/Georgia match-up would be.

Hopefully we'll see him go after a big game every now and then even with ND still on the schedule. I don't see how anybody can have a 20-year extension since so many things could change by then. Oh well, guess we'll just have to keep pushing The Movement even more than before.

by Sean Yuille on Jul 31, 2007 12:25 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs