Michigan Football can make statement in primetime against Minnesota

We finally know when Michigan football will play Minnesota and the Wolverines will play on ABC in primetime.

For weeks, we have known that Michigan football would play Minnesota in the first game of its season on Oct. 24. But now, we know the kickoff time.

It was announced by the Michigan football twitter account that the Wolverines would indeed be playing in primetime on Saturday night against the Gophers. The game will be broadcast on ABC.

The matchup will feature two top-25 teams, since both Michigan (19th) and Minnesota (24th) are ranked in the AP poll and it makes you wonder if College Gameday will wind up on location.

https://twitter.com/UMichFootball/status/1315676415820525570

In terms of the game being at night, I don’t necessarily love playing night games on the road, but without fans being present, it’s going to be a lot different.

The nice thing is that Michigan will get to be center stage for its first game of the season and while they have are ranked 19th in the AP poll, it can make a statement against one of the favorites in the Big Ten West.

It will also give us our first glimpse at new starting quarterback Joe Milton.

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On the down side, Michigan football fans will now have to wait all day for the first game of the season, instead of getting to see an early kickoff, which are my personal favorites.

Either way, the spotlight will be squarely on the Wolverines, which will mean one of two things is going to happen.

The first is that Michigan football wins the game and starts getting a bunch of hype after beating a ranked team on the road, something U-M has only done once since 2006.

Second, Michigan loses and Milton could struggle. If that happens, the same old things we hear about Jim Harbaugh needing to go and the Wolverines being overrated will appear. The sky will be falling.

This game is also critical for Michigan’s Big Ten title hopes. The Wolverines can only afford to lose once before Ohio State if they want that last game to be for a shot at Indy. So a loss at Minnesota means having to run the table in the next six.