Weak schedule narrative will continue for Michigan Football in 2023

Even though it’s annoying and not that different from other major programs, Michigan football will be criticized for its 2023 schedule once again.

If Michigan football fans were sick of the narrative that the Wolverines didn’t play a difficult schedule this season, get ready for it to continue in 2023.

The Wolverines’ full 2023 schedule was announced on Wednesday as the Big Ten finally figured out what to do for next season.

Essentially, the league decided to play one more season with the current scheduling format and then figure out a new structure for the 2024 season when UCLA and USC join.

For Michigan football, the schedule is once again pretty manageable. There are seven home games and five road games. Penn State and Michigan State are the most difficult of those road games, but the others won’t be easy either at Maryland, at Nebraska, and at Minnesota.

Still, the Wolverines miss playing Wisconsin or Illinois and get Purdue at home, which is much different than playing the Boilermakers on the road.

However, the thing that is going to draw people’s attention and criticism is the non-conference schedule, which is silly because we already knew what that was going to be.

Michigan’s schedule narrative will continue

I’m just preparing you because people like Paul Finebaum and RJ Young will use it as a way to criticize Michigan football next season, even though we have seen zero downside in 2022.

The Wolverines will have power-5 non-conference opponents on the schedule again with Texas in 2024, so this narrative will die soon enough.

At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter anyway. Michigan football and its fans care most about winning the Big Ten. As long as the Wolverines do that with just one loss, it’s going to have a really good chance of making the playoff.

Michigan scheduled Washington for 2021 and it was supposed to be a top-25 matchup. Then, the Huskies lost to Montana. Their coach eventually got fired and it wasn’t even a win that folks brought up when Michigan football made the playoff last season.

UNLV, East Carolina, and Bowling Green aren’t college football heavyweights but Michigan is far from alone in how it handles non-conference scheduling.

The Big Ten schedule is tough enough and again, if the Wolverines beat Penn State, Michigan State, and Ohio State, nothing else is going to matter.

So don’t worry about the narrative. If Michigan football keeps winning, it won’t matter.