Mailbag question: Our schedule looks bad now

Posted at 12:00pm — 9/29/2010

Mailbag question: Our schedule looks bad now

GBMWolverine,

When the season started it looked like Michigan had a decent schedule with possible top 25 teams in UConn and Notre Dame, which was getting some hype having Coach Kelly. UMass I will pass on, and Bowling Green is usually one of the better teams in the MAC Conference.

How does our schedule rank with other teams right now and how prepared has the schedule made Michigan to be ready in the Big Ten?

Will this team fall apart like it did last year in the Big Ten or will this team be a contender?

We are 4-0 just like last year so where do we go from here?

Thanks guys and keep up the good work on the site and message board.

Ken F.

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Thanks for the question.

The entire Big Ten has loaded up with less than stellar non-conference opponents this season. In most cases even the one big game teams anticipated did not really turn out to be big games: Notre Dame and Michigan, Ohio State and Miami, Penn State and Alabama (in reverse, especially with a true freshman quarterback), Michigan State and Notre Dame. Some of these games were very exciting but none will be viewed as being games of far reaching significance.

We expect this trend to continue and remember scheduling is difficult.

Teams need six wins to become bowl eligible and three or more wins in non-conference games provide a good start to achieving this goal. The real problem started when the NCAA allowed teams to start counting “wins” against lesser division teams as a win for going to a bowl game.

So to get there a university can schedule FCS teams (formerly Division 2) and usually get an easy win and a big payday for having another home game.

Playing Big Ten teams on the road makes for a huge payday for MAC and other lesser conferences.

If making the schedule for Michigan were under our control (fat chance), the staff would schedule one quality/very good opponent during non-conference play.

Notre Dame usually fills this spot. We believe it is important to test your team and find out where the team stands. Finish the schedule with three opponents similar to UMass or BGSU.

The Big Ten is reporting that in 2015 they will go to a nine game schedule, it is about time and frankly we really wish the conference would have went to a ten game schedule. That way teams will have an even amount of home vs. away games, along with having less “cupcake” teams on the schedule, where fans have to pay roughly the same amount for a ticket as seeing Ohio State, Michigan State, Notre Dame and soon Nebraska in The Big House.

You are right that Michigan’s non-conference schedule doesn’t look that good now compared to before the season.

UConn was being mentioned as a contender for the Big East title, or is that the Big Least Conference, and a top 25 team. Many people were saying Coach Kelly would have no problems in South Bend and the Irish would win 8-9 games this year. Most of the time Bowling Green is a decent MAC school, but when you have your starting quarterback, who is young already out, and then count on another young quarterback, such a circumstance just doesn’t usually work out well at the MAC level.

Also, the Big Ten doesn’t look that tough throughout the conference, with teams like Purdue, who has lost to Notre Dame and Toledo, Illinois, who lost to Missouri, along with Minnesota who lost to South Dakota and Northern Illinois this year already enduring tough losses. So the bottom of the Big Ten is again bad, the middle is decent and you still only have Ohio State right now as the clear leader with a bunch of semi-good teams who can be good one week and terrible the next hoping to contend.

Written by GBMWolverine Staff

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